Page 34 of Map of Pain
The vampire lifted him from the bench with impossible gentleness, carrying him to the bathroom. Gianmarco’s ornate clawfoot tub waited—a looming porcelain maw that had been filled with ice water, condensation forming on the outside like tears.
“Three minutes this time,”Gianmarco murmured against his ear.“Because you tried so hard.”
He dropped Nick into the bath. The shock of the ice water snapped his mind from compliance.“No!”he gasped, grabbing for the curved sides of the tub. Gianmarco grabbed his injured finger, squeezing it as he shoved Nick down into the water.
“Shh, don’t fight kitten, you know what happens when you fight.”
He forced himself forward, one step at a time. The hallway stretchedendlesslybefore him, the walls rippling like water. His feet moved across something hard and cold. Wood? Marble? The distinction meant nothing.
The icy sensation climbed higher, reaching his chest. Nick gasped, his lungs seizing as if submerged. His vision tunneled, narrowing to a pinpoint of light at the end of the hallway. He staggered toward it, desperate to escape the rising water, the crushing cold.
“Please—”
Gianmarco’s hands pushed him under, the frigid water burning worse than fire.Nick’s head went under in his memory, but his body kept moving through the hallway, driven by blind instinct to find safety, to find somewhere small and dark where the water couldn’t reach him.
Gianmarco pulled him up, cradling him against his chest like something precious.
“Shh, I’ve got you,”he whispered, wrapping Nick in a heated towel.“You were a good boy just then, so good.”
The memory wavered, reality bleeding through in fragments. Nick found himself in the living room, disoriented and shaking. Luka sat on the couch, reading something. The vampire looked up, a smile forming on his lips that dissolved into concern.
Nick was freezing, his body tremblinguncontrollably. His clothes felt soaked, his skin ice-cold despite the warm air of the safe house. He scanned the room with desperate eyes, searching for somewhere to hide, somewhere to make himself small.
Table. Low. Space underneath. Safe.
Nick stumbled toward it, his legs weakening with each step. His teeth chattered as the phantom cold penetrated to his bones. The music box wound down in his memory, the final notes fading into silence.
He was so close to the table, to safety, when his legs gave out. Nick felt himself falling, bracing for impact with the hardwood floor.
Instead, warmth enveloped him. Luka moved with inhuman speed, grabbing a blanket from the back of the couch and wrapping it around Nick’s shoulders before he could hit the ground. Nick collapsed against the vampire’s chest, the blanket cocooning him in unexpected comfort.
The sudden transition from ice to warmth shocked his system. Nick gasped, full awareness flooding back as the flashback released its grip. He was in the safe house living room, wrapped in a soft blanket, leaning against Luka’s solid frame on the ground.
Tears streamed down his face, hot against his frozen skin. Nick hadn’t even realized he was crying. The sobs camesilently, his body shaking with the force of them.
“I—I can’t—”he choked out, unable to form coherent words.
Luka held him steady, one arm supporting Nick’s weight while the other adjusted the blanket to cover him morecompletely. The vampire’s touch was careful, respectful, nothing like Gianmarco’s possessive grip.
His mind fought between past and present—phantom cold against real warmth, memory against the solid weight of Luka holding him steady. He couldn’t stop shaking, couldn’t control the tears that continued to fall.
The blanket smelled like detergent and moth balls. Nick focused on the sensation, using it to ground himself in the present. The texture of the fabric against his skin was soft, worn from use. Real. This was real.
“Cold,”Nick whispered, his teeth chattering.“It was so cold.”
Luka’s arms tightened fractionally around him, offering more support without restraint. The vampire’s chest rose and fell in a deliberate rhythm, slow and steady, as if trying to guide Nick’s breathing back to normal.
The tears felt strange but necessary. When had he last cried like this? Not from pain or fear, but from something deeper—grief, maybe, or relief.
“I saw the tub,”he explained, voice cracking.“He used to—when I made mistakes—”
The words stuck in his throat, impossible to voice. But something in Luka’s gentle hold told Nick he understood. The vampire’s hand moved in slow circles against his back, the motion careful and soothing.
Nick should have pulled away. The hunter screamed at him to create distance, to regain control. But his body refused to move, craving the comfort Luka offered.
“I wanted to hide,”Nick admitted.“Somewhere small. Safe.”
Luka nodded against the top of Nick’s head, the gesture conveying understanding without judgment. The vampireshifted, adjusting his hold to better support Nick’s weight while keeping the blanketsecurelywrapped around his shoulders.
