Page 42 of Violence and Vice

His eyes are no longer glowing brilliant red. They’re him. His beautiful, comforting hazel. He blinks, and his eyes flicker—as if surfacing from drowning.

“Lana?” he calls out, his words haggard and confused. “Sysco?”

I feel it in my bones. “It’s done. You did it, Ophelia.”

But we don’t get two seconds to celebrate, to take it in, to process. Because there is a feral snarl. I don’t even see it when James darts forward, only when he suddenly slams into Ophelia from behind.

“You should be worshiping us on our knees, and you make us kill each other?” he snarls next to her ear. I’m not even sure I heard him right. But the next second, he’s grabbed her by the back of her shirt. He yanks her back, flinging her across the warehouse like she’s nothing but a ragdoll.

She hits the edge of the stairs with her ribs first, and then her head makes a sickening crack sound as it hits next.

There’s a blur of motion that bullets for the door in the same breath that Ophelia falls to the floor.

What the hell just happened? I stand rooted for a second, trying to process Ophelia’s unconscious form lying on the ground and the empty space beside me where James was just a few seconds ago.

“The hell?” Roman snarls as he crosses the warehouse, looking out the door.

But James isgone.

“Holy shit,” Juliet breathes as she rushes forward. With careful hands, she straightens Ophelia’s limp form. There’s blood smeared on the ground beneath her head.

“She needs a hospital,” Juliet says as she checks her pulse. “She’s definitely got some broken ribs. There’s the risk of a punctured lung, her breathing doesn’t sound right. And she probably has a cranial fracture.”

Her eyes snap up to mine. “If we don’t move now, she might not make it. Roman, help me.”

I stand frozen. Torn.

Ares is still in the vault, dazed, barely upright. His eyes dart, lost. I want to run to him—but Ophelia…

Roman lifts Ophelia gently. Juliet’s hands are already covered in blood, but her voice is cool, sharp. "Look, Lana, I’m an ER doctor. I’ll keep her alive. But we have to go right now."

I blink five times, stunned, confused. "Thank you."

And just like that, they vanish into the corridor.

I turn back to the monitor. Ares sits on the floor, bloodied and broken, but… here.

He lifts his gaze to the camera.

Recognition flickers.

My heart stutters.

He’s back.

“Holy fuck, what the hell just happened?” Sysco blurts, vocalizing the chaos we’re all still a little stunned by.

“Ares?” I say, pressing the button on the control to activate the voice com.

“Lana?” I hear him, my name coming out breathy and anxious. “Where the fuck am I? What… What is going on?”

Instantly, my eyes sting. Shit, this is going to be so hard.

“How are you feeling, Ares?” I ask. My voice cracks.

I see Ares shake his head as he kneels on the concrete. “Foggy,” he says honestly. “A little fucking dazed. Vengeance, what’s wrong?”

And here is why I would go to the ends of the earth for this man. His head is scrambled right now. He has no fucking idea what’s going on. But he hears the emotion in my voice, and it’s me he’s worried about.