now. And the pain, the unrelenting burning, tearing hunger in her stomach, her throat, the agonizing throb of her head, made it impossible to focus on much else.
Her only escape was the memory of Gunner.
The scrape of steel echoed around the room.
Luna lay there and waited, it wasn’t as if she could lift her head to see who walked in. If they were here to kill her, she was only sorry she couldn’t thank them for it. If they were here to torture her, she doubted she’d feel it past the pain she was already in.
She didn’t care who it was.
A hand cupped her face. “Look at me.”
Sir.
He quickly worked out she couldn’t because he pried her eyelids open, forcing her to look at him.
He stared down at her. “You are repulsive,” he said. “So ugly, like this. Those awful unnatural eyes of yours have almost lost all their color.” His head tilted to the side. “Does it hurt, my little dhampir?”
She stared back, unable to close her eyes again. This was the first time he’d come to her since he’d locked her in here, at least she thought it was.
“Of course it does, and you deserve to suffer, don’t you?” He pulled out a blade and nicked the end of his finger. The scent of his blood filled the room as if he’d opened a vein, not given himself the equivalent of a paper cut.
She struggled to get to it, and he chuckled, holding his finger, a bead of blood on the tip, just out of reach. She didn’t want to want it, him, but starvation spurred her on, and somehow, she found the strength to drag herself toward him.
He laughed harder and gripped her jaw. “You’re pathetic.”
Then he pried her jaw open and let that single drop land on her dry tongue. Luna moaned as that single drop ignited her senses. She tried to grab his hand, desperate for more, but her hand wouldn’t move. She had nowhere near enough blood to gain any sort of strength back. He pulled his finger away and stood.
“Your suffering is so strong, my little one, that demons are coming again, from all over the city just to bask in it, to feed off your pain. No one will dare to cross me after this.”
She tried to talk but only managed to mouth the words kill me.
Anger transformed his expression. “You are mine. You have belonged to me since you were seven years old. You die when I decide.” He moved back in, and all she could do was lie there as he took her face in his hands again. “I love you, Luna. You are precious to me, but you betrayed me, you broke my heart.”
He had no heart. None.
“I have to make sure you never do anything so stupid again. I need everyone around me to know what will happen to them if they do. I want them to see you like this, ugly and starved and broken, and know that if they cross me, they will suffer the same.” He stood again. “I don’t think your will is completely broken yet, my little dhampir, and until it is, I can’t trust you.”
He stepped back, tilting his head to the side.
Please, she mouthed. Please.
Sir’s eyes moved over her, and the cruelty looking back would have made her flinch if she’d been able to move. Yes, he wanted to break her, badly.
“Your brother is dead, by the way,” he said in a low, almost gentle voice.
She stared up at him, not comprehending his words at first.
No. No. He was lying.
“Hmm, probably ten years ago now. He gained his powers early, which was a boon, but he continued to ask for you. Where’s my sister? Let me see my sister. It became tiresome, so I removed his head from his shoulders.”
It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be.
“You feel his power, so it can’t be true?” he said as if he could read her mind. “Grace was a rare find, I’ll give you that, but do you really think she is the only demi capable of absorbing others’ powers and using them as her own?”
Pain washed over her, more intense than anything she’d ever experienced. But this pain wasn’t the physical kind.
“Why do you think you’ve never seen him, you stupid little fool?”
He stared down at her, the evil inside him shining bright from his glowing eyes. He knew. He knew what she had been trying to deny, to hide. That she was regaining