Page 100 of Blood Code

“Because they don’t want you to see their faces, and now they won’t have to wear masks.”

“Just kill me, please. End this.”

He kissed my forehead. “One day, I will. I promise. But for now, they want you like this.”

The colors shifted. The movement was clear, the blackness seeping from my vision, leaving an unbearably bright white. The Man in Black had moved away, leaving me strapped to the table, agony still burning in my broken, useless eyes.

They left me like that—alone and untouched—for minutes, maybe hours, maybe days. It was impossible to tell. My focus never returned, all edges and details disappearing completely.

I saw color and shapes, and that was all I would ever see again in this haunting life.

They left me strapped there, sobbing, wailing, and broken.

But he kept his promise.

No one fucked me for more than three weeks.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Xeniya Morozova

Age 24

Eleven Years Ago

Blackwood didn’t come for me. I’d grown accustomed to his comfort after my worst traumas. But he hadn’t come, and my three-week reprieve from rape and torture was over.

The Man in Black had taken my sight and given me three weeks of peace in return.

It would never have been a fair trade.

Even if he’d given me forever without rape, it wouldn’t have been a fair trade.

But he didn’t, and it was only three weeks…. Which were over.

And as if on cue, the guards came back for me, telling me that another Lethe was on his way to rent me.

Fuck me and discard me.

But I didn’t care anymore. I sat on my cot, knees drawn to my chest, my chin resting on them.

My eyes were open, but all I saw was a haze of color shifting across the wall like an interpretive dance. I could tell the monitors were on from the motion. They used to show me my family—used to keep me in line.

Now they were nothing but melting colors, flickering like fire.

I tried to convince myself I could still make it out of here alive. That I would hunt every last one of them down.

But that was a foolish dream. I was never getting out of here, and I would never be able to hunt these men down.

They had broken me too completely for that.

In the blink of an eye, my life had changed forever.

Dr. Gemma Hayes had examined my eyes after the Man in Black left. She’d told me I might regain some vision, but permanent blindness was more likely.

All because sad little men didn’t want to wear masks.

I despised them with every fiber of my being.