Page 26 of Blood Caged

I’m shaking my head, still backing away, when the cold wall hits up against me. I stop short.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit!

When Lucien closes the distance between us, I lash out at him. He grabs my wrist in one inhumanly strong fist and snaps his fingers with his free hand. The door flies open, and two huge guards burst in.

“Restrain her,” Lucien instructs. I stare around wildly, desperate for some way out of this.

There’s nothing.

But there’s no goddamn way they’re just going to take me down easily. My fist connects with someone’s jaw, my bare foot glancing against someone’s shin. There’s a grunt of annoyancewhen I rake my nails across the one guard’s face, narrowly missing his eyes.

“Little bitch,” he mutters, clasping both my wrists and hauling me back against him. The other one stoops and grabs both my ankles, and then I’m being swung off my feet.

“No!” I scream. “You can’t do this! You can’t fucking do this!” I squirm and twist, trying to free myself, but it’s no use. I’m hefted onto the bunk and set down on the surface. The sheets are cool beneath me. I twist first one way and then the other, trying to worm away from the hands pinning me down. All it does is hike my tunic up my thighs, almost exposing my panties.

Dimitri, who has been watching this whole thing unfold without saying a word, watches me dispassionately. He reaches for the hem of my dress, and I cringe. He tugs it down, covering my thighs.

“There’s no point in fighting, witch.” His voice scares me even more than the goons who are holding me. When he reaches for a syringe with a thick, gleaming needle, I practically pee myself.

At least it’s not a scalpel, Mia.

Small mercies.

I raise my head and spit at him, getting just the tiniest moment of satisfaction when his eyes narrow as the wet glob slides down his cheek.

“When my family finds you, they will destroy you!” I hiss.

Lucien rolls his eyes. “I’ve had enough. Shut her up.”

A palm clamps over my mouth. I gnash my teeth, but it’s clamped too tight for me to bite down. Dimitri reaches for my arm, twisting it so that the inside of my elbow is bared to him. My nostrils flare as I try to writhe away, but there’s just no escaping it. There’s no care behind the sharp jab that punctures my vein.

Maybe you shouldn’t have spit in his face.

No. It was worth it.

‘There you go.” Lucien grins a fang-baring grin. “Easy as that.”

I glare back at him, my chest heaving. Dimitri has attached a tube to the needle in my arm. He connects it to a bag.

I turn my head and watch helplessly as my life force drains away.

9

Chapter 9

Mia

Istare at mypale reflection in the mirror over the washbasin as I pass it. There are dark circles under my eyes, which are haunted. My lips are colorless, aside from a faint blue tinge.

When I glance down at my wrists, the tracery of my veins is visible through my translucent skin, which is just as colorless as my face. Except for the bruises. They’re beginning to fade now. Probably because there are no new ones. I fought like my life depended on it that first day. The second day, too. And again on the third, fourth, and fifth. After that, it seemed pointless. They’re just too strong. And I’m just so weak. And tired.

God, I’m so tired.

“Get a move on, buttercup. It’s not like you’re getting pretty for an Instagram reel.” Patty’s characteristically bitchy.

“They use filters,” I mumble.

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