“Are you Lucus?”
He considered me for a moment, amusement in his gaze. “I was known as Lucus once,” he acknowledged with a graceful nod of his head, “But I am so much more, now.”
His voice was as perfect as the rest of him, a deep, rich baritone that rolled across my senses, drawing me in. His beauty was hypnotizing, and I found it hard to look away, unexplainably concerned that if I did I might lose his focus.
“You are Belial’s Chosen,” I said, echoing London’s words from earlier. “You are the Prophet.”
Lucus looked pleased, and he nodded again. “Correct. I knew, Ms. North, that you would not disappoint.”
“How do you know my name?”
He laughed then, his hand passing slowly over London’s dyed hair, like someone might pet a cat napping on their knee. “A better question would be what don’t I know, it would be much easier to define.”
It wasn’t much of an answer at all, but it didn’t seem to matter what he said, really, so long as he kept looking at me. I could feel the pull, the draw towards him even though my body remained motionless on the ground. Maria’s ritual protected me from the void and kept the chanting from taking my mind, but there was nothing that could have prepared me for the powerful, captivating hold of his presence.
Lucus indicated the floor at his bare feet with a lazy sweep of his hand. “Join me, Avery.” It was a suggestion more than a command, but I could feel the need within me to obey him. I nodded, struggling to push myself up from the ground to crawl across the rugs, willing in that moment to do anything to be closer to him.
Fight.
The word rose from somewhere deep within me, a rasped whisper that caught my breath. “Carter,” I whispered, trying desperately to grasp ahold of the faint presence, but it was gone. The message, however, was not. I wouldn’t let him down. I would fight. I gritted my teeth, pushing up into a sit without moving closer. “No,” I surprised myself at the force behind my words. “Tell me where Alex is.”
A flash of annoyance crossed Lucus’s face. Something told me he wasn’t used to being denied. Footsteps sounded behind me and I prepared myself to be forced back to the ground, but he raised a finger again and the steps paused, then retreated.
“Alejandro is being taught the value of obedience,” he answered, somehow managing to make the terrifying statement sound soothing.
I shivered with the chill that ran through me, my attention sliding to London. There was something different about her, an emptiness that hadn’t been there before, despite her usual vacant expression. “London,” I said urgently, my voice rising, “London, don’t let him do this to you. You have to fight.”
Lucus boomed a laugh, his hand closing in London’s hair, using it to turn her bruised face towards me like she was nothing more than a puppet, rocking her head from side to side. “And what is it that I’ve done to her, Avery? I have freed her, I have given her peace.”
“You’ve stolen her mind,” I told him. I shifted on the floor while his attention was on London, trying to push my legs under me so that I could stand.
“Yes,” he said thoughtfully, nodding London’s head almost comically at me, “I suppose I did. It wasn’t hard, you know. She was weak. They’re all weak.”
“Like the people outside?” I asked him, and he let London go to wave his hand in dismissal, her head slumping back down again.
“Don’t you understand, Avery? They were nothing before me. I have given them purpose. They exist now to serve their true Master.”
I shifted again, managing this time to move into a crouch, waiting for the footsteps behind me again but none came. “You had no right.”
“I had every right,” he snapped, his calm demeanor slipping as something ugly rippled beneath the surface of his beautiful face. “I have cleaned the trash from this city, just like I will clean the trash from the world. The meek do not inherit. The meek are given.”
Given.
“Who is Belial?” I didn’t really care, I only wanted to keep him talking and distracted. My fingers splayed out on the concrete, nails digging into the broken ground, poised to jump to my feet. With my question, however, his gaze returned to me, and again something rippled beneath his surface, his pale eyes darkening until they were no longer blue, but an inky, midnight black. The effect was terrifying, and I froze, staring up at him with wide eyes.
“You know who I am…” I was sure the answer came from Lucus, and yet his lips didn’t move, the words echoing around me then fading away again. Familiar laughter swelled around me, mocking and cruel. “Avveerryy…” The voice from my nightmares pulled at me, twisting my stomach. Lucus hadn’t moved, his now-black eyes still boring into mine, the voice turning into a hiss that slid along my skin. “Did you enjoy my present?”
The world stopped as horror and disbelief warred within me. It wasn’t possible, it couldn’t be possible—and yet the laughter rose around me again, impossible to deny.
He was talking about Carter. He knew.
“Let him go, you asshole!” The words burst from me, my demand echoing in the empty space. The laughter switched off and Lucus’s eyes snapped back to blue, surprise in his expression. Anger was pulsing through me, my gaze steady on his.
Lucus’s eyes narrowed and he rose, London slipping from his lap and onto the floor at his feet in a careless heap. As he moved towards me, I pushed to my feet, standing unflinching when he came to a stop before me. He was tall—so tall I had to tip my head back to keep the eye contact that I refused to break even with him towering menacingly above me. I found in that moment that I wasn’t afraid—not anymore. He had Carter, and that gave me something to hold onto. Something to fight for.
“Give. Him. Back.” My words were ground out between clenched teeth, my hands curled into fists at my sides. Confusion flickered in Lucus’s eyes, and the silence that stretched between us was thick. His focus shifted suddenly to the men standing somewhere behind me, his voice rising.
“Bring him.”
I blinked but didn’t move as feet shuffled across the floor and a door slammed. Lucus returned his attention to me, his head tilted curiously like I was some sort of strange bug to examine. “There is something different about you,” he murmured, and I flinched away from the long fingers that rose to stroke lightly along my cheek, his touch cold. “It is a pity my Master demands you. I think I would enjoy keeping you.”
“Like you kept London?” My voice was scathing. A trembling started in me at his touch, revulsion coursing through me. “Are you in need of another special pet?”
“Perhaps.” He smiled, his face breathtaking even when cruel, “I have perfected her, there is nothing left to do.”
“You’re a fucking psychopath.”
“I am Chosen,” he corrected, “Belial has made me his vessel. In his name I will—“
“You won’t.” I cut him off, and a faint flush of anger rose in his pale cheeks. “Maybe your mind games work with some people, but they won’t with everyone. They will fight you, just like I have, just like Alex.” A door slammed shut behind me, and Lucus smiled—his composure back in place, sweeping his hand towards the dragging footsteps coming closer.
“Is that so?” he asked. “Let me show you then, Miss North, what it is to fight me. See for yourself.”
I turned despite the dread curling in my stomach, a gasp escaping me. Alex’s sagging body was held upright between two of the men who’d brought me here, their grip on his arms the only thing keeping him from falling to the ground. He was almost unrecognizable, his handsome face a mass of purpled swelling and blood. Both eyes were swollen shut, and his mouth hung slack in a way that made me think he was unconscious. Or dead. He’d been stripped of his shirt, and there were bruises and scrapes across his chest and arms as well. The most chilling sight of all, however, was the angry red brand that blazed out from his left shoulder.
“Alex,” I cried out, trying to run towards him, but Lucus’s hand shot out, his fingers closing on my
wrist to jerk me back. I tried to pull free of his hold, but he had me like a vice, that same vicious smile stretched across his face.
“Do you see now?” He waved a hand and the two men holding Alex let him drop heavily to the ground where he lay unmoving between them. They laughed, one of them kicking him hard in the side before stepping away to make room for Lucus’s advance.
“Leave him alone.” My voice ragged, and I turned to hammer my free hand blindly at his chest. Lucus only laughed as my fist slammed into hard muscle, then shoved me away, my body colliding into Girly-voice. Long arms wound around me, pinning me against him, and I fought even harder to get away, the sour smell of old sweat making me sick. I drove my elbow into his stomach and he cursed, loosening his hold long enough for me to break free. I ran straight for Alex, taking his head in my hands and turning his face up. “Be alive,” I begged, my fingers moving over his lips, feeling the faintest flutter of breath before I was ripped away, fighting them until Girly-voice stepped before me his fist driving hard into my middle, leaving me gasping for air. I stopped fighting then simply because I was sure I was going to throw up that time, my teeth clenched against the pain as I gagged. The three men surrounded me, shoving my back against one of the narrow posts and holding me there while they pulled my arms behind it, securing my wrists roughly with rope before moving away to face me. I worked at the binds, but they held fast, and I pushed aside the rising panic of being tied, forcing my attention instead to where Lucus was standing over Alex, staring distastefully down at him.
“Don’t…” I managed, and Lucus turned with a raised eyebrow.
“Don’t?” He moved forward, and his hand flashed out, catching my chin and jerking my face up. His face pushed close to mine—so close I could feel the heat of his breath, though his tone was cold. “You killed my child, you bitch. My favorite son is dead. You took him from me.”
“I didn’t,” I choked, trying to pull away from his grip, “I shot him in the leg.”
“You made him weak,” Lucus snarled, his mask dropping—his eyes shifting back to terrifying pools of black, threatening to consume me with the force of their pull.
“You killed him.” My eyes widened as the realization hit me. “It was you.”
“It was me…” Again, the word seemed to come from him, though he didn’t speak, his fingers tightening painfully on my jaw as the mocking laughter returned, coiling around me. “Avveerryy…I have another present for you…”
“No,” I managed when he let me go, but he ignored me this time, though it wasn’t Alex he turned towards then, but London. She hadn’t moved from beside his chair, leaning back against it from where she’d slid to the floor, her eyes unfocused. There was very little left of the person I’d first met in the bar, and nothing at all of the struggling, battered woman who’d come into my apartment.
She reacted automatically when he reached for her, his grip rough on her arm, pulling her to her feet where she swayed precariously before him. Lucus’s movements were unnatural as well, a halting animation that was almost puppet-like, like someone was pulling at him with invisible strings. His eyes were still an all-consuming black, and the evil that had been rippling beneath his surface now poured from him, almost palpable in the space between us. I tried to recoil from him, but the ropes held tight, and I could only watch in horror as he placed his palms against her temples and tipped his head back to face the ceiling.
I couldn’t understand the words that flowed from him then, but I knew them well, the chanting beginning like the buzzing of a million flies, emanating from him and reaching out. I felt it along my skin, pressing in at me, trying to find a way in. The other men stiffened, their poses shifting to match his—faces turned to the ceiling, their eyes glassy. All around me, the chanting swelled in volume, suddenly joined by a multitude of voices from outside the walls.
Horror filled me as London began to twitch between Lucus’s palms, her glassy-eyed expression distorting to one of pain, her eyes bulging as her mouth opened wide in a soundless scream. The chanting grew louder, and her body lifted, her feet barely brushing the floor, suspended impossibly by Lucus’s hold, almost hovering as she began to thrash. My own mouth opened, my screams lost in the waves of sound swirling around me, the chanting growing louder still, the weight of it crushing down. London’s eyes rolled back in her head, arms and legs flailing as blood spurted suddenly from her nose, her entire body going tense—fingers splayed out, her muscles rigid like a thousand volts of electricity was shooting through her.
And then, abruptly, the chanting ceased. London’s body went slack, hanging limply in Lucus’s hands just before he released her, and she crumpled to the ground where she lay still, limbs and neck bent at unnatural angles, her battered face streaked with blood. Desperately I willed her to be breathing, to be alive—but I knew, staring into her wide, unblinking eyes, that she was dead.
Dead.
Given.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
* * *
In the absence of chanting, the silence was deafening. All that was left were my thoughts, screaming inside my head. I couldn’t seem to look away from London’s discarded body, panic rising with every breath I took. I could feel my control slipping, and I knew I was very close to spinning into the darkness that surrounded me. Maria’s work was a carefully constructed wall between me and the void, but it would do me no good if I tore it down myself.
I forced my gaze from London, my breathing a series of ragged pants. Lucus still stood above her, but there was something different about him now. He seemed larger, his form casting huge shadows on the walls that framed us, emanating a blackness that consumed the light. He looked at me, his eyes sightless pools as the laughter started again, this time louder than before. Everything about him just then was more. He had been right, he was not just a man anymore. Somehow, I doubted if he was even human.
“Avvveeerrryyyy…” Again, the voice, hissing in my ears.
“Fuck off,” I answered, my teeth gritted, and the laughter came again.
“Why do you fight me?” Lucus took a step towards me and I flattened against the metal pillar digging in between my shoulders, the force of his evil pulsing at me. As before, the words came from him, though he did not speak, and I wondered if the other men could hear them. They certainly gave no indication, a dazed expression on each of their faces when I glanced over. Even Girly-voice stood stock-still a few steps away, his eyes still fixed on London’s crumpled form.
“You belong to me….”
“No.”
“Come to me….”
“No!” This time I shouted it, and Lucus stopped a few steps away from me, watching me with his black, sightless eyes.
“He gave himself for you. Join him…”
“He didn’t—” I cut myself off, knowing even as the words escaped me that what he’d said was true. The voice in the parking lot, the blinding moment just before I’d run. The darkness had come for me and Carter had sacrificed himself to keep me safe.
“Join him…”
No. The word came from deep inside me, Carter’s voice rasped with pain. Leave me.
I looked back to London’s body, my heart hammering in my chest, my thoughts spinning. I’d almost married the asshole who’d sent me to prison. Alex had betrayed me, and I’d stayed instead of running to save him. I’d even turned back and trusted Gina when she was willing to give me up. Carter was the only person who’d ever cared for me and never asked for anything in return. Never before had I felt so protected—never before had someone put me so completely first. How could I leave him when he had given me everything? It didn’t matter that he wasn’t flesh and bone before me.
I wouldn’t abandon him.
No. His voice came again. Avery. Get out.
I ignored him. I’d known when I passed through the red door that I was never meant to live through this—there would be no escape. I accepted it with a calm I’d never expected, all fear leaving me. I looked at Lucus. “What do I hav
e to do?”
“You have to die…” The voice hissed.
Lucus stepped before me, his cold palms pressing to my temples, his face turning up.
“Wait,” I gasped, but his head had tipped back, the chanting beginning again. I tried to jerk free, but my head was pinned. I kicked out at him, but he didn’t move. I might as well have been kicking a stone. “Wait! Tell me how to find him!” I cried, but my voice was drowned out by the chanting, the sound slamming into me once more. I closed my eyes, preparing myself for the pain and pressure that would surely come, my mind fixed on Carter. Find me, I begged him silently, please don’t leave me.
The chanting continued, Lucus’s hold tightening, and I could feel the words slithering sickeningly over my skin like a thousand tiny snakes ready to strike.
But nothing happened.
The noise cut off suddenly, Lucus’s hands pulling away. My eyes flew open to find him staring at me with his dead eyes, a look of confusion on his face. Then he reached out again, his fingers fastening clumsily on my shirt, taking it in his fist and jerking it down, the material tearing to expose my left shoulder. Lucus paused, his attention fixed on the healed mark. Just that morning it had been a blazing hot burn in my skin, but now there was only the puckered white flesh of a long-healed scar. I shrank back when his hand raised again to touch the spot.
“How…” He snarled, his nails digging into my skin and raking down, leaving painful welts behind. His face pressed closer to mine and I gagged, turning away from the sweet, rank smell of death on his breath. He wrapped his hand around my throat and squeezed. “Why do you defy me. You are mine…”
My gaze fixed on his, a thrill of defiance rushing through me even as I fought for breath. “No,” I choked out, my voice only a whisper. “I’m his.”
Lucus let out a low growl, but from somewhere deep inside my mind, I felt something stir.
“I will have you,” the voice whispered, and a shudder ran through Lucus’s body with the words, jerking with the command that followed. “Take her…”
Into Dust: The Industry City Trilogy - Book One Page 20