Page 11

Chapter

Eleven

S erenity

I struggled against Julienne’s grip, my muscles screaming in protest as her vampire strength rendered me helpless. Each futile twist sent waves of despair through my chest—I had just betrayed everyone by cloaking Steve. The image of Enzo’s unsuspecting face flashed through my mind, making bile rise in my throat. Angelo’s brother in everything but blood, about to die because of me.

“You set me up,” I choked out, my voice raw with betrayal. “Every time I think you’ve hit rock bottom, you find a way to dig deeper.” The words tasted like ash in my mouth.

Triumph flickered across Balthazar’s face, his demon eyes gleaming with predatory pleasure. “So you have feelings for Enzo?” He circled closer, each step deliberate. “Does Angelo know?”

I panted hard, anger and pain coursing through my veins like poison. My Nephilim heritage burned beneath my skin, useless against Julienne’s ancient strength. The fires of hell roared in the distance, a mirror to the turmoil tearing me apart inside.

I gritted my teeth. “Why do you want Enzo dead?”

He shrugged, the casual gesture a cruel trivialization of the lives he was destroying. “I actually don’t. Maximo Barone does. He has no intention of handing over Joy.”

“He has Joy?” The name punched through me like a blade of ice, freezing my heart mid-beat. My blood turned to slush in my veins as Angelo’s warnings echoed in my mind. Maximo Barone—the human trafficker. The monster who treated people like merchandise. I thought of all the horrible movies I had seen, the ones that gave me nightmares for weeks—young girls disappearing into shipping containers, screaming faces behind soundproof glass, dead eyes staring from photos. But those were just movies, actors who went home at the end of the day.

Joy was facing the real thing. My Joy who cried at sad commercials and always rescued spiders instead of killing them, who’d held my hand through the night after every panic attack since elementary school. The reality of what could happen to her clawed at my sanity like a rabid animal. “Is he… is he going to sell her?”

“He wanted to,” Balthazar’s words dripped with calculated indifference, “but I talked him out of it.” His lips curved into a knife-sharp smile. “As long as you do as I want, he won’t. But if you disobey me…” He leaned closer, his breath hot against my ear. “Well, you’ll never see your best friend again and you’ll condemn her to a lifetime of hell. The things Barone’s clients do to their ‘purchases’…they make demons look merciful.”

I sagged against Julienne’s grip as if Balthazar had wrapped an iron chain around my neck and yanked it with brutal force. Joy’s face flashed through my mind—her bright laugh, her fierce loyalty. My best friend since childhood, now a bargaining chip in this demon’s game. The weight of responsibility crushed against my chest until I could barely breathe. A moment’s hesitation and I’d condemn her to a fate worse than death.

“Now, I just wanted to let you know that I have been invited to the execution, so I don’t want to be late.” His words shot through me like bullets shredding my heart.

NoNoNoNoNo

The world tilted sideways as understanding crashed through me. My face drained of color, skin going cold and clammy as bile burned its way up my throat. My muscles betrayed me, going slack as the fight drained from my body like water through cupped hands. Even breathing felt like an impossible task.

“Execution?” The word came out as barely more than a whisper, my voice cracking on each syllable.

His smile widened, revealing teeth that seemed too sharp in the dim light. “Yes, Angelo will die today at noon.” He paused, savoring my horror like fine wine. “But don’t worry, he won’t die alone. Enzo will join him.”

Each word was another bullet tearing through my gut. Angelo, who’d protected me despite barely knowing me. Enzo, who’d risked everything to help me. Their deaths would be on my conscience, another burden to carry alongside my worry for Joy and Steve. The room spun around me as darkness crept at the edges of my vision. Their faces flashed before me—strangers who’d become unlikely allies in this nightmare.

“Julienne, you better drag our little Nephilim over to the couch.” Balthazar’s voice carried the casual air of someone discussing the weather as he studied me, tilting his head with the mechanical precision of a clockmaker examining broken gears. “She looks like she’s about to pass out. Maybe you should give her some more blood.”

Hot tears carved paths down my cheeks, each one burning with rage and self-loathing. The demon stood there, so callous, so insufferably sure of himself, wearing victory like an emperor’s robes. My fingers curled into claws—I wanted to scratch his eyes out, to tear that smug look from his face. But I couldn’t even do that. My attempted deception had exploded spectacularly in my face, as if he’d been writing this tragedy all along and I’d just been reading my lines without knowing it. And now Enzo would pay for my failure with his life.

The weight of my catastrophic mistake pressed down on me like a mountain of guilt, making each breath feel like swallowing glass. He’d known—somehow he’d known all along, and I’d walked right into his elaborate game like a pawn thinking itself a queen.

“Make sure she’s ready for her next lesson when I return. I’ll be very put out if she’s not.” His words sank into my consciousness like poison, each revelation spreading through my system until I could barely breathe.

I knew he wouldn’t hurt me—he needed me intact for whatever twisted plans he had brewing. But Julienne... my stomach churned at the thought. He would torture her just like he had Shannon, the memories of that horror still fresh and bleeding in my mind. I could still hear Shannon’s screams as blood cascaded from her ravaged throat, her life force draining away until she was nothing but an empty shell. Or worse, he’d feed Julienne to the hellhounds, their crimson eyes gleaming with infernal hunger—all because of my failure.

Balthazar snapped his fingers, the sharp sound echoing like a gunshot, and disappeared in a whisper of sulfur and shadow.

“I’m sorry, Serenity.” Julienne’s fingers tightened around my hand. Her voice dropped to a whisper as if she were afraid he was listening. “Balthazar wants to possess you, body and soul. This is his way of breaking you down.”

I could sit here drowning in despair, but suddenly Angelo’s face blazed in my mind—his fierce determination, his unwavering strength. He might be captured now, but I knew him. Angelo was a force of nature, unstoppable as a hurricane. He would find a way to escape. He had to.

Something primal awakened inside me, my body going rigid with the effort to contain it. I wouldn’t let his best friend die. Not Enzo. Not while I still had breath in my body and fight left in my soul.

The truth burned like acid in my veins: he played at being king down here in his twisted corner of hell, expecting me to be his obedient little puppet. But he’d learn the hard way—I didn’t break, and I sure as hell didn’t bow. Let him try to control me with fear and guilt. I’d show him exactly how sharp a puppet’s strings could be when they snapped back.

“I’m not going to break like a twig.” My voice came out stronger than I felt, defiance masking the tremor underneath.

“Then what are you going to do?” Her eyes searched mine.

I swallowed hard, my mind racing. “Steven. Maybe I can make him appear just long enough for Enzo to not die. It’s not much, but it will foil his plans.” Even as I said it, I knew how fragile this thread of hope was.

“If you’re worried about me, don’t.” A fleeting, bitter smile ghosted across Julienne’s face, never touching her eyes. “Like you, I’m his pawn. As long as I’m alive and unharmed, Vlad will play along with his game.”

I scrubbed my face with trembling hands, trying to erase the nightmare that wouldn’t end. “If we’re all just pawns to him, what about Joy? Will he still allow Maximo to sell her?” My voice cracked on my best friend’s name, the possibility too horrific to fully comprehend.

Julienne sighed heavily, the sound ancient with sorrow. “Perhaps. Or he will use the threat to control you. He knows that would destroy you completely. Watching Joy vanish into that world of endless darkness...” She left the rest unspoken.

Some part of me knew this might be exactly what Balthazar wanted—this desperate determination—but I didn’t care. Sometimes walking into a trap was better than doing nothing at all.

I braced my shoulders, muscles coiling tight as steel cables, and drew on my power. The Nephilim energy burned through my veins like celestial venom, setting every nerve ending ablaze. Hell’s hounds slammed against the door, their massive bodies making the hinges shriek in protest. Their snarls carried the stench of brimstone and rotting flesh, but I forced myself to focus through the nightmare chorus of their howls.

I reached deeper inside, past the fear, past the exhaustion, into that well of power that marked me as something more than human. It felt like plunging my hands into arctic water, the cold so intense it burned. My vision blurred at the edges, darkness threatening to swallow me whole as I channeled everything I had into making Steve visible.

I believe in you, Angelo. The thought blazed in my mind like a prayer, bright and desperate. Find Joy. My body trembled with the effort, sweat rolling down my temples as I pushed harder, fighting against the limits of my own strength.