Page 72 of Luna

How did I allow myself to forget what he was?

I fell into the same trap I have always fallen into; trusting someone who has literally shown me exactly what they are right from the beginning.

Choosing to believe that this time it will be different.

Lucien murdered someone and sent me their body parts. He is a vampire. He drinks human blood. And on top of that, he’s some kind of supernatural gangster. He ate another vampire’s heart.

But still, I let the heat in his gaze distract me. I believed his touch, and the softness in his eyes, and the things he made my body feel instead of the facts.

I believed he was falling for me, and I thought I was falling for him too. I thought this was what it felt like to finally be safe.

I was wrong.

I am not safe with him, and I never will be. So, it’s time to stop pretending. It is time to leave this place.

I pull on my clothes and pace the room. I tug at the painting Kim hung back over the window, and take it down. I try prying my fingers beneath the sheet of MDF, but there is no gap and it is held firmly in place by the nails Kim hammered into the wall.

I examine every crevice, searching both for a way out and for the camera I know he uses to watch me. I find it in the eye of a statue. A skull with a caved in head that holds a clutch of black roses. I turn it to face the wall.

No more watching.

No more.

My heartbeat quickens. My ribs feel tight, like my breath is swelling against them and threatening to crack them in two. The lights flicker. For a moment, I think Lucien is doing it to mess with me but then they right themselves.

I cross to the door and try the handle. It is locked. I am about to turn away when I hear footsteps outside.

My stomach clenches.

Has he come back?

Why the fuck do I feel relieved? excited to see him instead of dreading it. Hopeful that he might have changed his mind and come to apologize; to show me he’s sorry and that he knows he was wrong. To do what my father and Steven never did and admit his failings.

I hear a key in the lock. It turns and clicks. I stand back, waiting for the door to open. But it doesn’t.

A long moment passes and still Lucien doesn’t appear.

So, I try the handle again myself. I push. And the door opens.

The corridor is almost pitch dark, lit by just a few muted wall lights. Hard floor, long red rug running down the center. The same eerie paintings and pictures.

I stare into the shadows. But there is no one there.

Immediately, my thoughts go to Kim. If things change, I’ll let you know.

Is he setting me free? Telling me to run?

My feet are bare, but there is no time to go back inside and fetch socks and shoes. If I’m going, I have to go now.

I let the door close behind me and move quickly down the hall. Down the same stairs Lucien carried me when he took me outside, through the entrance hall, out of the large wooden doors and onto the steps in front of the house.

Then I run.

Down the driveway between two lines of silver birch trees, standing like sentinels watching over me, toward the large wrought iron gates that separate Lucien’s estate from the outside world.

I have no idea how I’m going to get out. All I know is I have to try.

I am a few feet away when I hear the dogs. I look back over my shoulder and then my foot catches on something sharp. It’s bleeding but I don’t stop. I keep running.