Chapter 28 The Sanctuary
Dante Caravelli.
The air in the hallway was thick with the smell of burning plastic, a chemical stench that coated my throat as I ran.
I held Jasmine tight against my chest, her small face pressed into the crook of my neck to shield her from the fumes.
She was limp in my arms, a terrifying dead weight that made my heart hammer against my ribs like a fist.
Behind me, I heard Lilith’s footsteps, frantic and uneven, but she was keeping up.
We burst onto the landing of the second floor, where the air was clearer. I didn't stop.
I took the stairs three at a time, moving with the desperate speed of a man who knows he is running out of time.
"Giovanni!" I roared, my voice echoing through the cavernous foyer.
The front doors flew open, and Giovanni rushed in, followed by a team of guards with weapons drawn.
They stopped dead when they saw me, saw the smoke drifting down from the upper landing, and saw the woman trailing behind me with a knife in her hand.
"Secure the perimeter!" I ordered, not slowing down.
"Get the medic. Now!"
I reached the bottom of the stairs and fell to my knees on the marble floor, laying Jasmine down gently. She was pale, her breathing shallow and rasping.
"Jasmine," I whispered, tapping her cheek. "Wake up, bambina."
The medic arrived seconds later, skidding across the floor with his bag.
He pushed me aside, a dangerous move that I allowed only because his hands were steady.
He listened to her chest, checked her eyes, and placed an oxygen mask over her face.
"It’s inhalation," the medic said, his voice calm. "Her pulse is strong. She’s sedated, not dying."
I let out a breath that felt like it had been held for years. Sedated. Gas.
They hadn't tried to burn her alive; they had knocked her out to send a message.
I looked up. Lilith was standing a few feet away, leaning against a pillar as if it were the only thing holding her upright.
She was still gripping that knife like it was part of her hand.
She wasn't looking at me; she was looking at Jasmine with an expression of raw, terrified devastation.
"Is she okay?" Lilith asked, her voice cracking.
"She’s alive," I said.
I stood up and turned to Giovanni. The rage that had been a cold knot in my stomach was spreading now, hot and violent.
"Lock it down," I said. "No one in or out. Cut the main power to the third floor. If it’s electronic, kill it."
"The third floor is compromised?"
"The whole system is compromised," I snarled. "The locks, the cameras, the vents. The Ghost isn't hacking us from the outside, Giovanni. They own the network."
I looked back at Lilith. She was shivering, the adrenaline crash hitting her hard.
I had a problem.
I needed to move Jasmine to the panic room in the basement, the only place with independent ventilation. But I couldn't put Lilith there.
The panic room was for family, and Lilith was... complicated. She was a target.
But I couldn't put her back in a guest room because the electronic locks were useless.
The enemy could open any door in the house with a keystroke.
I needed a room with a manual deadbolt. I needed a room on a separate security loop. I needed a room where I could see the door.
"Take Jasmine to the Vault," I told Giovanni. "Stay with her. You and the medic. No one else enters. If Antonio comes, he waits outside until I clear him."
"And the girl?" Giovanni asked, glancing at Lilith.
"I’ve got her."
I walked over to Lilith. She flinched when I approached, her eyes wide and white in her soot-stained face.
"Come with me," I said.
"Where?"
"Somewhere the locks still work."
I didn't wait for an answer. I grabbed her arm, mindful of the knife she was still holding, and pulled her toward the East Wing.
My wing.
We walked past the confused guards and the chaos of the foyer. We climbed the private staircase that led to the master suite.
This part of the house was older, the original stone structure that stood before my father added the modern extensions.
I stopped at the heavy double doors of my bedroom. There was no keypad here. No card reader. Just a heavy iron lock that required a physical key.
I unlocked it and pushed the door open.
The room was dark, a space no one entered but me and the cleaning staff.
Bringing her here felt like a violation, a crossing of a line I had drawn in the sand weeks ago.
"Inside," I said.
She stepped in, looking around nervously. The room was stark, masculine, dominated by a massive bed and a wall of windows overlooking the cliffs.
I followed her in and closed the door. I threw the heavy deadbolt and then engaged the secondary floor latch.
"Is this safe?" she asked, turning to face me. She looked small in the middle of the room, out of place among my things.
"Nothing is safe," I said, walking to the windows to check the latches.
"But this door doesn't have a circuit board. If they want to get in here, they have to break the wood."
I turned back to her. She was still holding the knife.
"You can put that down," I said. "Or keep it. I don't care. Just sit down before you fall."
She sank onto the edge of the sofa near the fireplace. She looked exhausted, her energy spent.
"He called me," she whispered.
"Who?"
"The spy. On the burner phone. He told me to watch the fire. He said Jasmine slept soundly." She looked up at me, and her eyes were wet.
"He knew, Dante. He knew exactly when to call."
"I know."
I walked to the sideboard and poured two glasses of water. I handed one to her.
She took it with shaking hands, the glass clicking against her teeth as she drank.
"What do we do?" she asked.
"We wait."
"For what? For him to gas this room too?"
"This room has independent air," I said. "And I am not leaving this door."
I pulled a heavy armchair from the corner and dragged it until it was facing the entrance. I sat down and placed my gun on the small table beside me.
Lilith watched me. "You're staying?"
"I trust no one tonight," I said. "Not the guards. Not the system. Just my eyes."
She looked at the massive bed, then back at the couch she was sitting on.
"Where do I sleep?"
"Wherever you want," I said, leaning back and crossing my legs. "But you sleep. I watch."
She hesitated, then curled up on the sofa, pulling a throw blanket over her legs.
She didn't let go of the knife. She tucked it under the cushion beneath her head.
I watched her settle in. I watched the rise and fall of her chest as her breathing slowed.
She was in my room. She was sleeping ten feet away from me.
It should have felt like a victory, having her this close, under my total control. But it didn't feel like a victory.
It felt like a siege.
I looked at the door, at the heavy iron bolt.
The enemy was inside the house, and for the first time in my life, I wasn't sure if the lock was there to keep them out or to keep us in.
"Sleep, Lilith," I said into the dark. "I am the monster in this room tonight."