Chapter 27 - The poisoned breath
The air turned sweet and metallic within a split second. A thin, lavender-tinted mist poured silently from the brass ceiling grates, rolling across the chandelier crystals like a ghost.
Lorenzo felt the prick of ice across his throat immediately. "Hold your breath!" he roared, tearing his silk cravat from his collar and pressing it over Sophie’s nose and mouth. He scooped her up in one seamless, muscular sweep, kicking through the splintered glass of the study’s terrace doors.
Jonathan lay sprawled on the floor, coughing violently as the purple haze settled over him. "She will... collapse in ten minutes, Lorenzo... Without the stabilizer... her organs will burn from within!"
Lorenzo didn't look back. He leaped through the shattered French doors onto the marble balcony, clearing the stone balustrade and landing hard on the courtyard grass ten feet below. His boots slid into the damp soil, but his arms remained an impenetrable cradle around Sophie.
"Lorenzo..." Sophie gasped against his chest. Her voice was already trembling, her lips turning a faint, alarming shade of blue. "My chest... it feels like liquid fire."
"Stay with me, Sophie. Look at my eyes!" Lorenzo commanded, his heart pounding against his ribs with a terror he had never felt in any war, in any street fight, or before any firing squad. "Dante! Luca! Bring the armored transport to the south gate! Now!"
His radio crackled into life as his men responded in panicked urgency. Heavy diesel engines roared in the driveway. The headlights of the blacked-out SUV cut through the rising fog like searchlights.
Lorenzo kicked open the rear door and laid Sophie onto the leather seat. Her skin was burning to the touch, radiant heat pulsing through the thin fabric of her maid’s uniform. When Lorenzo peeled back her sleeve to check her pulse, he recoiled slightly in shock.
Beneath Sophie’s pale, translucent skin, her veins were not blue or green. They were glowing with a faint, iridescent gold luminescence, branching out across her forearm like microscopic lightning strikes.
"What did he do to you?" Lorenzo murmured, his breath catching in his throat.
"My father... when I was sick at twelve..." Sophie whispered, her eyelids fluttering weakly as tears of pain leaked down her cheeks. "He said it was a vaccine for the rare fever... He gave me twelve injections over three weeks... Lorenzo, it hurts. Everything hurts."
Dante slid into the driver’s seat, slamming the transmission into drive. The heavy vehicle surged forward, tires screaming across the gravel driveway as the wrought-iron gates swung open.
"Where are we going, Boss?" Dante yelled over the engine whine. "Saint Jude Hospital is compromised. Vance mercenaries have roadblocks set up across the northern corridor!"
Lorenzo took Sophie’s freezing hands into his own, pressing his forehead against her burning temple. "Head underground. The Cathedral catacombs. Call Dr. Marcello. Tell him to bring the centrifuge and every unit of whole blood he has in storage. If he doesn't answer in thirty seconds, drag him from his bed."
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Lorenzo looked out the tinted window as the Rossi estate disappeared into the night. Behind them, across the eastern perimeter, three black helicopters without flight markings descended toward the burning grounds.
👉 Who is waiting inside the underground catacombs, and does Dr. Marcello know how to stop the glowing poison?
