Chapter 58

Violet

Lucas’s scream echoed through my ears, sharp and furious, but not loud enough to summon help. I didn’t unclench my jaw even as he hissed and tugged.

“Let fucking go, you bitch!”

I snarled, keeping a hold of him until I couldn’t, and he ripped his hand out of my mouth.

I spit out the taste of him and went back to screaming.

He snarled and his grip loosened. I twisted, slamming my elbow into his ribs. Lucas grunted, his grip loosening just enough for me to pull free. My legs felt weak and unsteady, but I pushed through the haze of the drug and bolted down the path as fast as I could manage.

It looked like I was running back into the garden. Again, but I didn’t care. I just had to get away from him. To hide. To buy more time before I couldn’t fight or see or move.

“Get back here!” Lucas snarled, his heavy footsteps pounding after me.

My heart thundered in my chest, and my lungs burned with each breath, but I couldn’t afford to stop.

I made it maybe halfway down the hallway before I felt his hand in my hair again. He yanked and turned before slamming my head against the wall. Once. Twice. Pain and darkness shot through my head. I slumped against the wall, dazed. He spun me around. His hand was around my neck. His face darkened, his features twisted with rage.

I could barely see, barely breathe, but I scratched and clawed at him. I thrashed and kicked. Mindless lashing out at this point, all instinct and fear.

“You really don’t know when to quit, do you?” He stumbled a bit but his grip didn’t falter, he was barely flinching when my blows landed.

I was out of time.

“Keep fighting,” he growled, a sick grin spreading across his face. His eyes were hot with hunger. I could feel his arousal, see the crazed look in his eye. “It’s cute that you think it’ll make a difference. All your training, all your strength—it means nothing now, does it? I’m going to make sure it’s never going to mean anything again.”

I scratched at his arm. Swung at his face that was already bloody. His eye was swelling, yet I could see in his eyes that he was just toying with me now.

“You’re just making this harder for yourself, Violet,” he said, his voice dripping with cruel amusement. “But I like it. I like seeing you struggle. Makes it that much sweeter when you lose.”

He laughed, tilting his head back enough to lean away. I wedged my knee up between us and pushed. I struck him in the throat and he choked, releasing me. I dropped, barely keeping my feet under me. I turned, stumbling away from him. The world grew darker.

He snarled, charging toward me. I tried to dodge, to move, but he was too fast. The slap cracked against my cheek, and stars danced across my vision and I stumbled until I hit a cold stone bench and retched. I crumbled. My strength fading until I was more leaning on the bench than anything.

I tried to scream, but I couldn’t get the word out.

“You should have just given in,” he hissed, shoving me over. I curled up on the bench, shuddering, choking and gagging on cries for help and nausea. He yanked his tie loose and shoved it between my teeth to gag me. “All that fight, and look where it got you about to be fucked like a stupid whore on a bench. How noble, Violet.”

I thrashed weakly, muffled cries escaping around the tie, but my strength was gone. The drug had taken hold completely, and my limbs refused to cooperate. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even cry out. Lucas grabbed at the neckline of my dress, tearing it with a violent rip that echoed in the quiet garden.

“This won’t be quick or easy,” he snarled. “I’m going to make you regret every moment of this.” He leaned over me, fumbling for his belt.

Tears welled in my eyes, blurring his cruel smile as despair crept in. I couldn’t move, couldn’t fight back, couldn’t even scream for help. All I could do was lie there, powerless. He was going to rape me. I had never thought him capable of it, but maybe I had only known that there was no way I would let him overpower me.

Blood trickled into his eye, and I tried to focus on the fact that I hadn’t let him do a damn thing. Even with the drug, it hadn’t been easy, and when…. When I woke up after he’d done whatever he would do. No matter how much pain I was in. No matter what anyone would say.

The first thing I would do was kill him.

It was a small comfort as he shoved my legs apart and started to rip my dress’s skirt, shoving it up and fighting with the delicate beading that wouldn’t tear easily.

“This fucking dress,” he snarled. I felt his gritty hands on my bare legs, ripping at my underwear. “Never wore anything like this for me, fucking…”

I closed my eyes, clinging to the small comfort that I wouldn’t have to be awake for what came next. Just as the sounds of the world started to dissolve into the dark, I heard something like thunder. I felt the rain on my skin and a voice roaring.

“Get your hands off her!”

Theodore

Lucas turned, but before I had even seen his face, my fist connected with his jaw. The force sent him sprawling onto the ground. He tried to scramble back up, but I was on him, landing blow after blow. My fists landed like strikes of thunder. My magic sparked and bubbled. The skies above Midnight Park opened with a storm.

Blood sprayed across the ground, but the son of a bitch was still breathing.

I grabbed him by the collar, lifting him only to slam him back into the ground. A wheeze escaped him.

Alive. Threat.

He was still a threat.

Kill him.

Rip his throat out.

Kill—

“Theodore, Violet!”

Tyron’s voice broke through the fury and my head snapped to where Violet was still sprawled across the stone bench. Before Tyron had even reached me, I’d released Lucas and stared at Violet, afraid to move, afraid to breathe.

My heart dropped at the sight of her. She was so still. Bruised and bleeding.

Was she—

She couldn’t be.

Tyron’s hand fell on my shoulder. “She’s alive. She’s unconscious. She needs you, okay?”

I shuddered, trying to real in the surge of magic. I went to lift her, pulling the tie out of her mouth and cradling her against my chest. Her breathing was shallow. She was soaked through, not just from the rain. It smelled like the bleach they used for the fountain. She didn’t even moan in pain. She trembled and slowly started to flush.

She’d been drugged. I could smell it coming from her pores, clinging to her skin.

I shrugged off my jacket to wrap around her as she started to shiver.

“I’ve got you,” I whispered to her. “You’re safe. It’s okay.”

I didn’t know if she heard me. I couldn’t imagine what she would think happened when she woke up.

“Call an ambulance. Dahlia!”

Dahlia appeared as Helena came running down the corridor with a phone to her ear.

People from the party were coming out to see, but I couldn’t address them. I wrapped the shreds of her dress around her. Helena winced, pressing her hand to Violet’s neck and speaking into the phone. She sounded like she had medical experience.

“They’ll be here soon,” Helena said. “There’s a hospital about five minutes away.”

Dahlia looked grim.

“Seize all surveillance from the park. Every single camera. Now.”I looked at Dahlia. “I’m going to the hospital with her… I need you —”

“You won’t have to worry.” She pulled out her phone and a few moments later, I saw members of Midnight’s forces coming. They looked pissed off. The leader was barking orders.

“Canvas the whole area. I want every photo and every scrap of evidence in an hour!”

I looked at Kincaid and Lily, who were joining Dahlia and heading inside to find a manager. I didn’t make it into the ballroom before the EMTs arrived. Nora’s shrill voice pierced through the noise as she saw Lucas being dragged in behind me by Tyron.

“Lucas!” She looked at the EMTs. “You have to help him! He’s the alpha of Darkmoon!”

I glared at the EMTs, who looked like they were going to help Lucas first.

“Viole is the alpha of Darkmoon.” Nora paled and flinched at my tone. “And if she isn’t treated and well on her way to the hospital before you even glance at that son of a bitch, I’m going to make all of your lives hell.”