Page 4 of Resurrection (Daemons & Lumens #2)

CHAPTER THREE

Seraphina

M y eyes darted around the room, barely registering Dev and Andras.

My skin crawled, and my mind shattered with memories of this room.

The room where my sister and mother were killed.

Images and voices pierced my mind, and I wanted to scream.

I couldn’t breathe. I needed to get out of here.

I needed to burn this place to the fucking ground.

“Seraphina. Sweetheart.” The sound of Andras’s steady voice pulled me from the fog.

I looked up at him, desperately hoping for a cure, a way out of the darkness inside me.

“You are in desperate need of a bath.”

A laugh bubbled out of me, and oh gods, I loved him for bringing me out of my terror. “I rather like this look. Although the blood of the Obscuritas lackeys I killed is starting to stink.”

My body slammed to the ground as a guard shoved a taser into my side. I gritted my teeth, refusing to scream as the pain seared through my limbs. Andras shouted. And I thought I even heard Dev’s voice demanding they stop. My ears rang as the assault continued.

“Enough!” Laszlo Blackbyrn’s voice boomed as he entered the Banquet Hall, and the sharp pain subsided.

I took several long breaths, willing the ache to leave my body faster. I needed to be coherent for this exchange.

Laszlo’s fancy dress shoes appeared near my head, and I forced my arms and legs to move so I could stand before him.

He looked so much like his son it hurt. I didn’t want to see any of Andras in him, but it was impossible not to.

He wore an obviously expensive, tailored suit.

His nose was straight, like his son’s, and he looked down at me with cold, calculating eyes.

His head was shaved smooth, and his full mouth crooked into a smile that made me shiver.

“Welcome to my home, Seraphina. Or should I say welcome back? It’s been quite some time.” His deep voice mocked me.

I wanted to stab him in the heart. And the dick. And everywhere else. Just stab, stab, stab.

Laszlo touched his temple with a subtle smirk.

“Don’t forget. Any sign of resistance from you results in punishments dolled out to the boys you have enthralled.

” His face contorted with jealousy, but smoothed back into indifference almost immediately.

“I commend you for that. Be it your wit or magical cunt, who can say?”

“Laszlo.” Andras growled his father’s name, fury in his eyes. “Do not speak to her like that.”

Laszlo didn’t even flinch at the rage in his son’s voice. This man feared nothing and no one. “I have heard you can sing. You will perform at the party next weekend. I think it will be fitting to have your voice heard one last time.”

I kept my mouth shut. I was so furious and unprepared I didn’t know what would come out if I spoke. And I wouldn’t do or say anything to hurt my men.

“What are we doing here? Why was I summoned?” Dev cut in, and I finally looked at him. My heart felt broken, a piece missing, at his betrayal. I was so confused how he could turn against me so easily, how he could betray his brothers.

Laszlo stepped away from me and toward the bodyguards he arrived with.

One of them carried a small wooden box. He opened it and pulled out my mother’s key.

Shit. “This key was spelled by Aurora, and even dead, her power is great. There is a safe deposit box in Seraphina’s name and inside is another box, which this key will open, but only Seraphina can retrieve it. ”

I hated the careless way he spoke of her death, as if he wasn’t the cause of it. I pictured Laszlo’s body strapped to a gurney. Stab, stab, stab.

“What’s in the box?” Dev asked, crossing his arms and refusing to look at me.

Laszlo turned to him and held out the key. “A relic. Speaking of, Devon. You will bring us Typhon’s relic as well.”

Andras’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, and he eyed Devon.

Devon frowned, his bright-green gaze colored with confusion. “I don’t have it.”

Laszlo turned to me with dark, narrowed eyes, his jaw clenching in annoyance. “I know you were the one who killed Bullseye and raided one of our outposts, Seraphina. Where is the relic?”

I couldn’t help the smug smirk on my face. “No idea what you mean. Must’ve been someone else.”

Laszlo stalked toward me, and Andras stilled, his face etched with fury and fear as his father approached me.

Laszlo’s arm snapped out, and his smooth fingers gripped my cheeks, pinching my face hard enough to make my eyes water.

“The more you resist, the worse it will be for those you love. You may pretend to be a heartless cunt, but I have a noose around each of them. Your sister. Tabitha. My son. Now tell me what I want to know.”

His threats irritated the hell out of me, but I refused to cower to this asshole. “I. Don’t. Have. It. I don’t even know what it is.”

Laszlo’s icy gaze leeched under my skin as he absorbed my words. “It is a weapon. A mace.”

My mask slipped before I could stop it as I recalled the unique weapon.

Laszlo smiled like a slimy cartoon villain. “So you have seen it.”

The mace was in my safe, which currently sat in the basement of The Towne House. I jerked my head back, and Laszlo released my face from his grip.

“If I tell you where it is, you will give me something in return.”

The devious King arched an eyebrow. “And why should I agree to that? You are in no position to make deals.”

I glared up at him. “No one knows where the mace is but me. Go ahead and torture me. You won’t get the answer.”

Before I could blink, Laszlo smacked my face hard enough to bruise and my knees slammed into the floor as I fell. Blood coated my tongue and adrenaline zipped through my body. A sigh of pleasure nearly escaped my lips.

“Laszlo!” Andras shouted, his voice as cold as his father’s. “I know where it is. Leave her alone.”

Laszlo Blackbyrn smiled victoriously at his son. “Good. Go and retrieve it, or I will beat her near to death in front of you. Over and over again.” He smiled as his son’s eyes filled with hate. “Several guards will accompany you.”

He turned to Devon, his expression hard and unyielding. “Seraphina’s relic is the final piece needed for the ritual to connect her essence to ours. We will finally finish what was started so long ago. And you will escort her.”

“Fuck no,” I blurted out the words before I could think. But no, I would not be doing that.

Laszlo smirked, and I knew it meant nothing good.

The double doors opened again, and we all turned to see three men enter the room.

I knew all three of them. Ty’s father, Darren Radnor.

He was almost as muscular as his son. His eyes were dark and cold, though.

Merciless. This man enjoyed inflicting pain more than anyone.

The second man was Levi’s father, Samuel Delano.

He was harder to read. Mercurial. And a full-blooded lapdog of Laszlo’s.

But the third man, the one who nearly brought me to my fucking knees, was my father.

I couldn’t hold back the strangled sound that left me when I saw him.

What was almost worse, he looked…fine. He wasn’t dirty or bruised or beaten.

He wore a tailored suit like the others.

He walked ahead of them, and when he looked at me, I nearly dropped to the floor.

His eyes were infinitely sad. My mind flashed back to that moment he left me, a decade ago.

When he gave me the key and told me it was safer this way, for us to be apart.

He was so sad then, and I wanted to help.

I wanted to make that sadness go away. And yet it was still there, all these years later.

He didn’t seem surprised to see me, and I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

“What a lovely little reunion,” Darren’s mocking voice cut through my thoughts, and I wanted to strangle him.

“Indeed.” Laszlo nodded. “There is another special someone here as well. But for now, Seraphina, the reunion with your sister will have to wait.”

I lunged for Laszlo, but six sets of hands pulled me back. “Where the fuck is my sister, asshole?!” My blood boiled in my veins. She was here, somewhere in this massive stupid mansion. I would die before I let another of my sisters be used by this cult.

“She is resting.” Darren smirked, his light-blue eyes filled with lust. “In her condition, she needs it.”

My eyes caught my father’s. He looked near to tears.

“What condition?”

Laszlo frowned at Darren. “It’s not the time, Darren. Take Mr. Bronwen back to his rooms. If all goes well at the bank, you can see your sister when you return.”

My mind whirled with the implications of what was said. Darren looked entirely too pleased, and it terrified me. If he hurt my sister, I would give him a death so painfully glorious, the devil himself would cower before me.

“Fine. I’ll get the stupid relic.” I ground out the words, and Laszlo smiled knowingly.

“Of course you will.” He turned to the guards. “Escort the obedient prisoner to her room. She has forty-five minutes to look presentable.” Laszlo spun away without another word.

Andras and Dev stayed, watching as the stupid guards shoved me away and out a separate set of doors.

I didn’t even have time to speak to my father.

A part of me was furious with him. Why was he here?

How could he let them take Michaela? I hated him for being weak.

And I hated myself for not finding her first.