  &quot;Megan,&quot; hissed Garrick beside me. &quot;What are you doing?&quot; &quot;No,&quot; I said again, louder this time as I locked eyes with Michael. &quot;Not until you promise me. Not until you promise me that no harm will come to Lucius. I want the boy protected. I won&#39;t kill him. I won&#39;t do it and I want you to swear right now that you won&#39;t either. Now you give me your word or as far as I am concerned, you can either live out the rest of your punishment inside that painting or you can find your own bloody way out, because I sure as hell am not going to help you.&quot;
  The pounding on the gallery door was incessant now, like a nightmarish cacophony of tribal drums beating again and again and again. But it was the silence in the annex that bothered me more. How could silence be so deafening? How could silence make you want to clap your hands over your ears so you 

  I howled in frustration, my cries echoing around the annex, my anger sending force waves rippling around the small space, causing the candle flames to flicker violently. Garrick staggered backwards, glancing around in panic as the shadows began to whirl and eddy across the walls. "Screw balance! Stop talking to me about balance!" I clenched my fists, feeling the heat bubbling in my palms. "You cannot reduce our lives to one moment, one action, one bloody purpose. We're worth more than that! I'm worth more than that! And you stand there and tell me you understand how I feel? You haven't got the first idea how I feel."

  

      The gates were rattling now, shrieking on hinges that looked like they might break apart any second. The metallic vibration reverberated in my ears, the rush of noise in my head only feeding my rage and making my whole body tremble. My fingers twitched hungrily.

  "Without you to protect them, surely Lucifer could have attempted to subvert the bloodline anyway, with or without Benjamin on his side?" Michael gave a wry smile. "And try he did and was almost successful I might add. The Garrick bloodline is strong; stronger than most night creatures', that is for certain. A sense of noble justice runs through your veins. Perseverance in the face of extreme adversity is part of who you are, of who you all are. But not even night creatures can avoid the suffering of love and grief and where there is one, there is always the other. Lucifer knows this only too well and he also knows that one of the first rules of war is to divide and conquer. Divide your enemy's army. Split them into two with grief, doubt and hatred and you weaken them from the inside." Garrick gasped. "Harper. You're talking about Harper, aren't you? Jenny was killed so that Harper wou

&quot;Megan,&quot; hissed Garrick beside me. &quot;What are you doing?&quot; &quot;No,&quot; I said again, louder this time as I locked eyes with Michael. &quot;Not until you promise me. Not until you promise me that no harm will come to Lucius. I want the boy protected. I won&#39;t kill him. I won&#39;t do it and I want you to swear right now that you won&#39;t either. Now you give me your word or as far as I am concerned, you can either live out the rest of your punishment inside that painting or you can find your own bloody way out, because I sure as hell am not going to help you.&quot;
  The pounding on the gallery door was incessant now, like a nightmarish cacophony of tribal drums beating again and again and again. But it was the silence in the annex that bothered me more. How could silence be so deafening? How could silence make you want to clap your hands over your ears so you never had to hear it again? I&#39;d expected thunderous anger. I&#39;d expected great tornados of fur

Chapter 230-1