Garden of Roses ✔️

Chapter 9

Zara

         I open my eyes as the light stings me painfully. My eyelids flutter a couple of times as I try to get used to the brightness and take in my surroundings. The throbbing headache makes me squint painfully. It takes a good minute for my vision to sharpen. The room looks luxurious. Almost everything around me is white, except for the carpet that is full of shattered glass and has a bloodstain on it. I'll take it we're in Dante's penthouse.

I try to move, my muscles struggling to find any strength to do so. Also, I'm tied up. They drugged me. This is so not good for my heart condition. I feel a slight ache in my chest as I start to panic when the realization hits me. They found me. They found the bunker and took me.

Well, of course they did. How could I be so naive and reckless? Reckless, once again. Luca is for sure going to kill me if I somehow manage to get out of here alive.

What the hell was I thinking going out? After so many years of perfect discipline, now I can't seem to stop making mistakes. One after another. And this one will probably cost me my life.

Not only was my life on the line. They found the bunker, which means they will probably come after the rest of my people and it is my fault if they haven't already. I don't even know how much time has passed since I've been gone.

Did they already notice that I'm not there? Are they going crazy right about now without me? Or maybe they haven't even woken up yet. I don't know. I don't know anything.

I can feel the ache in my chest starting to build up. Simple breaths are becoming hard to do. The tight ropes around me are certainly not helping. This is not good. Not good at all. I have to stop it. Like, right away.

I force a few deep breaths. In and out, focusing on my lungs filling with air and slowing down my heart rate by will. I keep my eyes closed as I do my routine.

Breathe in... Breathe out... Breathe in... Breathe out...

I focus all of my attention on expanding and contracting my lungs.

Slow and steady.

The blood pumping through my earlobes gets quieter as my heartbeat slowly calms.

The panic and the ache gradually subside as my mind shifts from being a scared kidnapped helpless woman to a ruthless trained assassin that I, in fact, am.

I don't have a multiple personality disorder. I was trained to do this, to shift my persona, to split it in half, and use the one that I needed. The point of the training was to become a deadly weapon without losing your humanity in the process. I learned how to separate the two, how to separate Zara from the cold-blooded Regina del Sangue, how to turn it on and off. I learned how to completely become another person in an instant if need be, and I needed to do it now.

I hear Camilla and Dante chatting about something and focus to hear what it's about.

"Coffee would be great. I didn't get to finish mine this morning," I comment, opening my eyes as Dante turns around to look at me.

"Oh, hello. Did you sleep well?" he asks with a fake smile plastered on his face.

Jerk.

"Would be better if I slept in my own bed. But oh well, what can you do."

"Yeah, well, I don't let my enemies have a good night's sleep, or in this case, a good morning nap."