Page 72 of Hupotasso
“Yin, before anything else I need you to know that Viper bit me and had me under his control for the last few months. He made me do unspeakable things. I was like a zombie, totally under his power. He and Giselle’s sister Tatyana tortured me for weeks, and…”
“Her sister?” Yin frowns. “How the hell did she get there? What’s she like?”
“Viper invited her, and let’s just say Giselle was thenicesister,” I mutter.
She rolls her eyes, and I rush on.
“But anyway, then the pregnancy freed me, but I’ll be his again the moment I give birth unless we kill him. I have to kill him.”
She turns and flicks me a quick look as we speed along the winding mountain road heading away from the city.
“Wait, you’re pregnant? Do you want to keep it?”
“I have to,” I shake my head. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I’m under the control of a vicious psychopathic vampire, but the pregnancy blocks his control. Once I give birth I’ll be a zombie again, and he’ll track me. I’ll say and do everything he says. And if the baby’s a girl they’re going to skin her and use her in their fucked-up vampire rituals as a template.”
She shakes her head and reaches over to place a gloved hand atop my fingers as I wring them in my lap in agitation over everything I have to tell her in case we’re captured.
“Angie, take a deep, deep breath. Not much of what you’re saying makes any sense to me. We’ll be in a safe house in less than an hour and we’ll have time to work through everything before we move again. In the meantime, please calm down. You’re almost manic, and it’s frightening me.”
“Manic,” I laugh quietly, “Oh god, Yin. I’m trying to tell you everything in case they catch us. You’re the only person in the world who has the power to save me. I need you to know why I’ll start saying and doing things that don’t make any sense. And, oh, shit. I need to phone Eleanor so she knows why I’ve run. She needs to warn Falcon about Viper. He’ll listen to her.”
“Angie,” she says quietly, keeping her eyes on the road. “Those who chase two hares won’t even catch one.”
I frown and shake my head.
“It means when your focus is divided you fail to succeed at any of your goals. My focus is not divided. I willnotallow anyone to capture you. You’re safe now. You’re with me. Take a long, deep breath and start at the beginning.”
“OK, OK,” I nod, “but the phone. I need to phone…”
“You’ll do no such thing,” she says firmly. “If you need her to know anything you can order flowers online and add a note.”
“But…”
“Angie, I can’t risk your call being traced.”
“Oh. I didn’t think of that.”
“You don’t need to. Just listen to everything I tell you and do everything I tell you. I promise I have you.”
I nod as she hands me her phone.
“Book the flowers, then put the phone back in its Faraday case, switched off. It prevents any kind of surveillance. I’m not taking any chances.”
With shaking fingers, I do as instructed. The note on the flowers is simple but to the point.
‘Eleanor, I’ve run because Viper bit me and had me under his control. He’s working to undermine Falcon and take the title. You made a mistake choosing me. Your world is not mine; I want no part of it. Angie.’
54
“I’m so very sorry, Lord Falcon,” the doctor murmurs. “We’ve done all we can, but the damage to your mother’s heart is simply too great.”
I stare at her through the glass walls of the intensive care unit she’s resting in. Her face is pale, almost grey, and I shake my head. She’s surrounded by nurses doing this and that, all dressed in white suits, from their headgear to their shoes. The only colour in this sterile environment is the flowers arranged in their hundreds of bunches behind another glass wall, no doubt sent from royals all over the world who’d heard of her hospitalisation.
Mother can see them, but she can’t smell or touch them; the risk of infection is too great. It must pain her. She adores flowers; the castle is never without them.
As I watch even more are delivered and squeezed onto the long bench now laden with blossoms.
“I thought you said you could repair her heart?” I snarl, turning my attention back to the doctors.
