“What’s going on?” Evangeline asked.
But even as she asked it, the pieces fell into place. Jacks had told her that if she didn’t agree to open the arch within a day, she would really hate him.
This must have been why. Jacks was working with Chaos.
Evangeline flashed back to her conversation with Luc, how he’d revealed that Chaos was the one who’d helped him steal the throne. It was bizarre to imagine that Jacks would be involved with this ruse as well. But after learning Luc was the heir, Evangeline’s first thought had been that she needed to wake up Apollo more than ever. Perhaps, if she’d had more time, she would have turned to Jacks.
It still seemed extreme, but Jacks was willing to go to impossible lengths to get what he wanted.
“She looks confused,” Chaos said.
Jacks stopped tossing his apple and turned to Evangeline. “Your husband almost killed you. Because of him, you have a ruined shoulder and deeply wounded leg. Left to human methods, it will take your shoulder weeks to heal. Your leg will take longer and will probably never be the same. There’s also the risk of death from infection. But Chaos has kindly offered to help the healing process along.”
A female vampire with dark hair and red lips entered the chamber and approached the bed where Evangeline lay.
“No!” She clutched her sheets tighter, understanding dawning as the female bared her fangs.
There were two types of vampire bites: ones that allowed vampires to merely feed, and ones that infected their prey with vampire venom. Vampire venom had tremendous healing properties, but it also had the potential to change the infected person into a vampire. Being bitten didn’t mean a person would have to change—any human infected with venom had to drink human blood by dawn to transform into a vampire.
But Evangeline had seen what the vampire venom did to humans, how it turned them desperate enough to break cages and locks just for one bite. Evangeline had no desire to be a vampire now, but what if that changed once she was infected?
“We should get started,” Chaos said. “This won’t be easy, but we have shackles to restrain you.” He motioned toward a wall. In between a pair of velvet drapes, Evangeline saw two sets of chains with manacles. “Or, if you prefer, we could put you in a cage?”
“No.” Evangeline vehemently shook her head. “I don’t want to do this at all. Let me heal on my own.” She looked pleadingly at Jacks.
He bit down carelessly on his apple and turned to Chaos. “I think you should use a cage.”
As soon as Jacks said the word, Chaos reached for a lever embedded in the wall. Bars instantly crashed down around her bed, trapping her inside.
“No!” It all happened so fast, Evangeline didn’t even know she’d screamed until she heard her voice echo through the room.
She tried to grip the steel, but that was a mistake. Chaos grabbed her wrist through the bars. “I’m doing you a favor.”
Holding her tight, he offered her arm to the female vampire.
Evangeline struggled and cried out again.
Teeth flashed, and then she felt them sink painfully into her wrist.
10
Everything burned for one sharp moment. Evangeline fell back against the bed.
Then … the pain dissolved. Not just from the bite but from her wounds, which healed almost instantly.
She blinked, and it was as if a veil had been lifted from her eyes.
When she’d first woken up, the room had been dim—a suite of smoke and shadows. But now it sparkled with glittering candlelight. It was the prettiest shimmer she’d ever seen. Everything in the room seemed to glow—the gilded portrait frames, the polished legs of the table, even the awful manacles on the wall.
Then there was the bed, which felt even more luxurious. Her pillow, the mattress, the sheets wrapped around her body were so much softer than before. They were silk and white, and Evangeline swore she could smell the color—crisp and clean and bright, like sunshine streaming through an open window after a mist of rain.
Crunch.
Jacks took a bite of his apple, drawing her attention to the foot of the bed, where he stood, looking like eternal heartbreak. His fair skin faintly glowed, his eyes shone like stolen stars, his hair was spun gold, and the cruel plains of his face filled her with a longing so deep it felt like an ache.
She wondered if Jacks always looked like this and her human eyes weren’t capable of taking him in, or if he somehow dampened his appearance, but now that she had the venom surging through her, she could see what he really was, despite any of his efforts to try to hide it. Just one look set her blood on fire, and she liked the way it burned.