Page 101 of Petals and Fangs

And I can't see much either. Just shadows moving around in the corners. There's a single beam of light in the ceiling somewhere above me.

“You really need to work on your situational awareness,” Perry chuckles softly while he leans up against one of the walls.

“Damn you, Perry.”

“It isn't good to fall asleep here, you know. This is the lair of a vampire king. And you fell prey to him.”

“So, you kidnapped me to bring me here? Here Perry? To this awful place?”

“How awful can it be? Your very own father is buried here somewhere, Ethan.”

“Don’t talk about my father.”

“And now, I did not only kidnap you, no. I also drugged you. I used your own medicine against you. It's called chloroform. That's pretty much everything you could need.”

“You are the one behind the FDA, right?”

“Oh, that,” Perry chuckles and approaches me again. “Yes. I am."

“And Demetrius?”

“That bastard betrayed me.”

“How is that?”

“We were not able to complete our little plan, and since then, he decided to take matters into his own hands.”

“And now you are going to kill me. Aren’t you, Perry?”

“Not that easily. I need to torture you first. I need to keep you locked down here, install a massive TV in front of you, and force you to watch the news of your company collapsing. The fall of Rothschild Pharmaceuticals. What a wonderful headline that would make.”

“I have always thought of myself too careful, that the FDA wouldn't even suspect anything like this and file a lawsuit against me. The moment it began happening, I knew something was wrong. I felt it. And here we are.”

“Oh, but they did,” Perry replies as he stands directly in front of me, pressing his hand against my chest, and pushing me back into the chair.

“It is all you. It has been you all this time, and I have been nothing but clueless.”

“Oh, yes,” Perry chuckles and walks again to the end of the room. He is doing his best to intimidate me. But I am slowly regaining my alertness.

“You are going to pay for this, Perry.”

“Good gracious, it has always been money with you Rothschilds, wasn’t it?”

“Perry, I swear if you don’t untie me right now, you will witness dreadful things happening to you.”

“Well, the nightmare is about to come to an end. How does it feel to know that everything you worked for was a lie?"

“A lie? What are you talking about?”

“Everything you've done, and everything you have built, will be ruined the moment we get through with you.”

“We? You are not alone in this?”

“Alone? How could I be? I have a whole army of rebel vampires ready to come and help me destroy your company once and for all. Your father never stood a chance against me. Neither will you.”

“You can’t earn a vampire’s trust, Perry,” I snarl at him.

“Oh, trust me. I just need to provide them with real, fresh blood. The rebels will always be on my side. They are my clan.”

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