Chapter 152

Chapter 152

Calla

A slow smirk spread across Dante's pale features as his eyes met mine. The vampire moved toward me with that liquid grace that made my skin crawl, each step calculated and predatory.

"Well, hello again, old friend," he said, his voice carrying false warmth that made my stomach twist. "You really are going to change things, aren't you? Be part of something truly magnificent."

I shuddered as his cold gaze traveled over me. The casual way he spoke about our past encounters made me remember how Blake could even think to work with such an old, manipulative creature. Dante radiated the rough kind of patient evil that came from centuries of experience destroying people.

My mind drifted to that Lord Virex, wondering why he hadn't suspected these rogue vampires working their own agenda. During one of my dreamwalks, I'd sensed Virex's immense power when he'd almost detected my presence. Was he really as powerful as he seemed, or were Dante and Blake better at deception than I'd thought?

Blake pushed past the big guy with obvious impatience, grabbing a syringe from the medical table. His hybrid features were sharp with anticipation as he prepared whatever compound filled the glass tube.

"She's ready," Blake announced to the room. "Bring the prisoner in."

My heart stopped as two guards dragged someone through the laboratory door. The woman they hauled between them had her hands bound behind her back and wore a thick metal collar around her throat. Despite her restraints, rage blazed in her eyes as she struggled against her captors.

Raven.

She looked different from the last time I'd seen her. Her ebony skin bore new scars that traced intricate patterns across her arms and neck. Those blood-red eyes burned with fury as she took in the laboratory, the suspended prisoners, and finally me.

"What the hell is this?" I whispered, staring at Blake's triumphant expression.

Raven's gaze found mine, and for a moment, confusion flickered across her features. She tilted her head slightly, nostrils flaring as she caught my scent from across the room then rage at everything happening.

"Let me go, you pathetic excuse for a politician," Raven snarled at Blake, her voice rough with anger. "When I get out of these restraints, I'm going to tear your throat out."

Blake's finger hovered over a control device in his hand. "I don't think you're in a position to make threats."

He pressed the button.

Raven's body convulsed as electricity coursed through the collar. Her scream was raw and terrible, echoing off the laboratory walls as she dropped to her knees. The sound made my own throat ache in sympathy.

When the shock ended, Raven panted heavily but glared up at Blake with undiminished hatred.

Dante watched the display with obvious boredom. "Where is the vampire who assisted with your transformation? He should be handling this procedure."

Blake didn't answer immediately, his attention focused on Raven's suffering. When he finally spoke, his voice carried bitter satisfaction. "Raven would have been on my side if she hadn't been such a stubborn bitch. We had something going once, before she decided to play hero and gain score from Virex."

The pieces clicked together in my mind. Blake and Raven had some kind of history, I knew that much as she was the one that turned the wheel in motion in the beginning when I found her and Blake in bed, I also recalled something about the witches, the same witches who'd been fighting for their lives when Axel needed their help. She must've done something to them also if I remember right?

"Tell me you'd behave," Blake commanded, finger poised over the control again.

Raven gritted her teeth, every muscle in her body tense with barely controlled rage. But when Blake's finger twitched toward the button, survival instinct won over pride.

"I'll behave," she said through clenched teeth, anger blazing in her eyes at being forced by a human...hybrid vampire.

"Good girl."

Without warning, Raven's hand shot out, striking one of the guards in the throat. He dropped like a stone, his neck clearly broken from the impact. The other guards scrambled backward, reaching for weapons, but Raven was already moving, ignoring them.

She grabbed the dead soldier's body and dragged him toward me, her movements quick and efficient despite the restraints. The other guards hesitated to shoot, probably afraid of hitting me by accident.

"What are you doing?" I gasped as Raven positioned the corpse between us.

She ripped open my hospital gown from the front, exposing my bare skin to the laboratory's cold air. I tried to pull away, but my restraints held me in place as Raven dipped her fingers in the dead guard's blood.

Her eyes had turned completely red now, not just the irises but the whites as well. The sight made my skin crawl as she began drawing symbols on my chest and stomach with the warm blood.

"Hold still," she said, her voice distracted as she concentrated on her work. The patterns she traced felt wrong somehow, like they were pulling at something deep inside me.

I wanted to vomit from the smell and feel of the blood on my skin. "What are you doing to me?"

Raven paused in her work, studying my face with those unnatural red eyes. "You're not what I expected," she said, confusion creeping into her voice. "I thought you were just some ordinary werewolf Blake wanted for his sick games."

She resumed drawing, her strokes becoming more urgent. "But what the fuck is Dante doing with Blake? Does he just want to see your wolf come out so they can torture you or something?"

I gulped, fighting tears in my eyes while watching in horror as she completed another symbol near my collarbone and under my breasts.

Raven's expression shifted as she worked, her initial assumptions about me clearly changing. "There's something off about your scent. Something feels... blocked."

She drew the final line of blood across my sternum, and immediately I felt something shift inside me. Not painful, but strange - like a door somewhere deep in my mind had been unlocked.

"I see now, they want to release some kind of binding that's blocking your wolf," Raven said, stepping back to examine her handiwork. "Seems to be simple spell work, really. Trauma-based suppression, maybe a protection ward someone cast on you as a child."

The way she said it made it clear she had no idea about my true heritage. She thought I was just a normal werewolf whose transformation had been blocked by ordinary magic or psychological trauma. She had no clue about the ancient Moonkeeper bloodline or the complex binding magic my ancestors had used.

Which meant Blake and Dante hadn't told her the truth about what I really was. They were using her just like they'd used everyone else.

The blood symbols on my skin began to glow with faint red light, and I felt something stir inside me that had been sleeping for years.