Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor

sparkling through their masks, each warming to another’s heart for the first time in their lives. And then the masks came off at midnight, and they discovered they were a Shreck and a Campbell, two Families at war with each other for generations. And each of them was the heir. Their love would have been a scandal, unacceptable, and Evangeline knew that Gregor would rather kill her than lose her. Still worse, he might kill Finlay. So they kept their love secret, snatching moments together when they could, until finally they could be together at last.
    She never told Finlay about Gregor. She knew Finlay couldn’t have coped with it. With knowing how she’d suffered. He would have stormed off in a bloody rage to kill Gregor, and to hell with the consequences. Gregor’s people might have killed him, or he might have been hanged afterward. Either way, she couldn’t risk it. And besides, he might have felt… differently about her. So she had never told him.
    The elevator chimed politely as they reached the top floor. It was like hell in reverse. You had to go all the way up to reach the darkest, foulest part of the Pit. The doors slid open, and the guard escorted her down the bare steel corridor. Their footsteps were loud and carrying on the metal floor. Gregor wanted to know when anyone was coming. Other guards stood to attention the length of the corridor, guns at the ready. Not beetles anymore, Evangeline decided; demons, in the hall of hell. She made herself look straight ahead, and wouldn’t let her mouth tremble. And eventually she and her escort came to a halt before the extra-thick steel door that was the only entrance to her father’s private quarters. It was a very special door, designed to withstand a bomb or a disrupter blast with equal ease. Evangeline stood stiffly before it as the guard announced their presence.
    “Come in,” said Gregor’s soft, oily voice, through a hidden speaker that made his words seem to come from everywhere at once. “Come in, little Evie, and join your forgiving father. Guard six, take up a position outside the door. We are not to be disturbed for any reason.”
    The door swung slowly open, and Evangeline held herself tightly together as she walked unhurriedly into the ogre’s lair. It was important not to walk so slowly that she might appear scared or reluctant, or so quickly that it might seem she was jumping to obey an order. Appearances were everything now. They were all she had to work with. The door closed behind her as she stopped and looked around her.
    Gregor Shreck had made changes in his private quarters since she was there last. The windowless walls of the great chamber were a dark crimson, the color of drying blood, a great scarlet womb, with concealed bloody lighting and dark shadows everywhere. The thick pile carpet beneath her feet was the color of sunburned skin, deep enough to muffle any sound. To every side stood grisly trophies from Gregor’s most recent victims. A pile of severed hands on a silver tray, heaped carelessly on top of each other. A row of preserved severed heads on stakes, all looking faintly surprised, their mouths hanging open as though in shock at what had been done to them. None of them had eyes. A low cupboard displayed a row of severed feet. Someone had wrapped them in pretty ribbons and painted their toenails black. Evangeline could hear air-conditioning units working overtime as they struggled to deal with the pervasive smell of death and preservatives.
    And there, reclining at his ease on a wide bed shaped from gigantic rose petals, the dark heart of that dark kingdom—Gregor Shreck. He’d always been short and fat, a greasy, perspiring butterball of a man, but he’d put on a lot of weight during their separation. He was huge now, bulging with flesh, his face almost perfectly round, crushing his features into the center of his face. He dressed all in black slashed with scarlet streaks, and looked like nothing so much as a gigantic, gorged leech.
    “So,” said Gregor in an unnervingly normal-sounding voice. “You’ve come home at last. I always knew you would. My dear, loving daughter.” “I’m here because you abducted my friend Penny DeCarlo, and threatened to kill her if I didn’t come,” said Evangeline tonelessly. “And that’s the only reason I’m here.
    Where is she? What have you done with her?” “So impatient,” said Gregor happily. “No one has time for the civilized little courtesies anymore.