Page 104 of Into Darkness (Night Prowler 6)
Sebastian Thorne’s mind tended to run on a hamster wheel when he lay down to try to sleep, so he’d developed chronic insomnia. It was stubbornly resistant to the drugs he’d developed to combat it, though they worked like a charm on every other person
suffering from sleepless nights. If he’d been a superstitious man, he might have found some unease in that, but he wasn’t superstitious, ascribing that kind of whimsy to those of lesser intellect.
So he was awake during the middle of the day when the rest of the world was at rest. At the moment the call came, he was standing in front of his bathroom mirror, considering his reflection, pleased with how well the new drug to combat hair loss was working.
The green light on the phone on the wall began to blink, indicating an incoming call. He pressed the answer button.
“Yes.”
“Sir! It’s Three!”
Thorne frowned at the phone. Three sounded unusually breathless. Excited, even. “Yes, Three, what is it?”
There was a moment of heavy breathing, then the wet sound of gulping. “Sir . . . sir . . .”
Thorne was beginning to lose patience. For goodness’ sake, didn’t the man realize it was the middle of the day? Honestly, it had been over two decades since he’d first installed the isotope clouds in the atmosphere, making daylight poisonous and effectively turning the human population nocturnal. Why wasn’t Three with the program yet? “You have five seconds to explain why you’ve disturbed me at such a late hour, and your explanation better be satisfactory. Speak.”
There was a pause in which Thorne imagined Three’s eyes rolling this way and that in his head, trying to decide which way to focus. Then he spoke.
“Lumina Bohn. She’s been captured, sir. The Peace Guard have brought her into the facility. She’s here!”
Though Thorne hardly believed it, Three’s explanation was, indeed, satisfactory.
A slow, delighted smile spread over Thorne’s face. “I’ll be right in.”
When she awoke, Lumina was nude, blindfolded, and strapped down to a hard metal surface that had been tilted at a forty-five degree angle, so she was neither upright nor lying down.
The better to see you with, my dear, she thought groggily, understanding immediately that she was on display.
The room she was in was pleasantly warm, so though naked, she wasn’t chilled. The restraints on her wrists and ankles, however, were too tight, and chafed. Thick and unyielding, they might have been steel, or something even harder, because they gave not an inch when she tried her strength against them.
Her head throbbed. Weak and disoriented, she simply breathed for a moment, trying to center herself, and think.
She assumed it would be torture first. They’d want to know what she knew, if she had information about the whereabouts of other Aberrants, and who had helped her escape the city the day she’d burned down the Hospice. They’d undoubtedly want to know other things, too, would undoubtedly have extremely unpleasant ways of making her talk.
Magnus wouldn’t talk, she thought, her heart wrenching. Magnus would—
LUMINA!
He burst into her mind with a roar that made her entire body jerk. She inhaled a sharp breath, then relaxed, trying to appear calm; she didn’t know who was watching, but surely someone was. Probably many someones.
I’m here. It took so much effort to concentrate. To speak without speaking.
Where are you? You sound strange! What’s happened?
He was panicked, frantic. She felt the enormity of his worry and his love, and behind her closed lids, her eyes filled with tears.
I don’t know where I am . . . they took me . . . the Peace Guard . . . Gregor set us up.
Another roar of pure rage, unearthly loud inside her skull. She squeezed her eyes tighter shut.
Wait. Let me . . .
Lumina concentrated, recalling with as much detail as she could the images she’d seen when she’d briefly awoken earlier. The cross and checkered floor, the paintings of gilt, the sculptures. That’s all I saw, on the way here. Wherever here is.
I know where it is, he answered in a snarl. His voice was a terrible, dark presence inside her head. Lu had never imagined a man could sound so . . . unhinged.
I’m coming! I’ll find you! Just stay alive!
