Love & Loss

Chapter 56

Marcus's POV:

I strolled down the hallway towards Carlo, spinning the key to his room around my finger.

Nico had this key made the day after Carlo got caught, thankfully making it so that I didn't have to repeatedly get the master key from him.

Honestly, I could see a change in both of us since all of that went down a week ago.

Both of us were seemingly going back to normal. Back to how it was before I delivered that letter to the Lord and his plan was set into motion.

Now that the situation had evolved and was now out of our hands, it was so much easier for us to just hang out in general.

We weren't against each other anymore and it was amazing.

Carlo didn't seem to really mind the fact that he was locked away as much as I thought he would be.

He told me that he knew that it wouldn't last forever and that if anything, it gave him a break.

That even if he was contained, he felt free of the responsibilities that he had beforehand.

I felt the exact same way now that I knew Nico knew everything that was going on, and that Carlo was safe.

He seemed more focused on the fact that I was safe, although I could still see he was skeptical of who promised to keep me that way.

I could tell that he still didn't have a lot of trust in Nico in general, but he kept quiet about it around me.

Although I couldn't really blame him, if it weren't for the fact that Nico literally saved my life, I wouldn't trust him either.

No slaves ever really trusted vampires.

I turned into one of the hallways.

Nico chose one of the most complicated rooms to get to on this floor to keep him in.

Not that I could blame him.

It was complicated to remember how to get to, but the room itself wasn't half bad.

My steps froze as I heard a creak from further down and around the hall.

Exactly where Carlo was.

I stayed quiet for a moment to see if I would hear it again, eventually brushing it off and continuing to my destination.

If anything it was probably Nico.

Carlo said he stopped by occasionally to ask more questions, but they were never any that he knew the complete answer to.

I nearly made it to my last turn before a loud bang caused me to stop dead in my tracks.

It sounded like Carlo's door slammed open.

No, it sounded like Carlo's door was broken open.

My stance went rigid as my hand lifted to cover my mouth and nose. An action that almost became instinctual and reminded me to control my breathing if I wanted to keep quiet.

Which I became very thankful for because the voice that spoke up soon after made my stomach lurch.

"So this is where you've been," The deep voice of Lord Vanderwood spoke.

I took a silent step back, forcing myself to stay and listen through the sudden thumping of my heart in my ears.

This changed everything.

"Yes," Carlo's tone was even, "Things didn't exactly go as planned," he admitted.

I could hear the slightest hitch in his voice that showed his nerves.