Page 57 of Fangs

I stare at him, my shattered mind flatly refusing to process the horror of his words. “What are you talking about?”

“The mirror spat you back here because you are human,” he says, leaning in closer, his breath cold against my temple. “Alive. You belong to this tangible world. But Blake—” He pauses, a cruel satisfaction flashing in his gaze. “He belongs to the phantom world. To the abyss of shadows. Without the portrait, without an anchor, he is lost in between dimensions.”

I thrash my head from side to side. “No. No, he can’t be—”

“I found you unconscious on the floorboards,” Cain continues, relentless. “Bleeding out. Bite marks carved into your flesh. The mirror shattered around you. I gave you my blood to pull you back from the brink of death.”

The memories slam into me with the force of a physical blow—the silver glass swallowing me whole, the vast, timeless expanse of the shadow realm, and the man who waited for me there. Blake. The real Blake. His midnight hair, his burning ocean eyes, and the devouring hunger in his gaze that made me feel like I was the only soul in existence.

We made love. For hours. Perhaps days. I lost all track of time in that paradise, utterly unspooled in his arms. It was transcendent. Perfect.

I wanted to burn away there forever.

“I chose that,” I murmur, the confession tumbling out of my bruised lips like ash. “I wanted to trade this waking nightmare to stay there with him. Forever.”

Cain watches me, his expression chillingly unreadable.

“I broke—” I choke on the words as the sheer scale of the catastrophe crashes down. “I destroyed the portal.”

“You shattered the only thing keeping his phantom soul anchored here,” he finishes smoothly. “He is untethered now, Lucy. Drowning in the void between worlds. There is no coming back from that.”

I did this. The internal agony is instantaneous, sharper than any blade. I destroyed the portrait. I locked him away in the dark.

Thomas’s warning echoes mockingly in my brain: ‘You’re Trouble.’ He was right. From the second I crossed the threshold of Bloodgrove, I brought nothing but ruin.

I sneaked out when forbidden. I spied on things I shouldn’t have seen. I fell in love with a ghost and destroyed his only anchor to this world.

And now he is gone. Erased. Because of me.

Hot, burning tears carve clean tracks through the dried blood crusting my cheeks. My entire body shatters, wracked by violent, heaving sobs.

“What is going to happen to me now?” The words slip out, pathetic and hollow, addressed more to my own ruin than to him.

Cain remains silent for a long, suffocating beat. Then, he drops fluidly to his haunches, sliding between my trembling knees.

“The auction is accelerated,” he murmurs. “The Order is descending—fifty-two of the most ancient, ravenous vampires in existence. They arrive starving. They expect a feast.”

I lower my trembling hands, staring at him through a blurred, tear-soaked haze. “The vampires who will rip me to pieces.”

“Yes.” He meets my gaze steadily. “I know the truth of your blood, Lucy. What it did to Blake. What it is. If the Order discovers how intoxicating you are, your end will be infinitely worse than death. They will bleed you dry and tear each other apart for the scraps.”

I shudder.

“I can save you,” he purrs, his voice dropping into a low, velvet seduction. “I can purchase you at the auction. I belong to The Resistance. We fight against the Order. Against their slaughter of mortals. We believe you deserve to draw breath.”

My mind reels, clutching at straws. “The Resistance?”

“We have infiltrated every tier of the Order,” his eyes gleam with dangerous intent. “Our blade is poised to slice them from within. To end the human trade forever.”

“Your blood,” I breathe, remembering the fire in my veins. “You gave me your blood.”

“To bind you to life,” he corrects softly. “Can you feel the raw power surging through your veins? The fog lifting from your thoughts?”

I nod, paralyzed.

He leans closer, his gaze pinning me to the chair. “Once I claim you at the auction, I will smuggle you to the coast. Someone is waiting for you there.”

I jerk my head back. “What?”