*CUPID'S MATCH BOOK 2* FIRST DRAFT
Lila receives an ominous Valentine's Day card.
Cupid & Cal are keeping a dark secret.
Fate is being interfered with.
And a sadistic, and extremely powerful banished cupid is intent on stealing Lila's heart. Literal...
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Valentine's eyes glimmer with humor as they fix on my face.
Now, where were we?
His words seem to echo around the vast space.
My heart is pumping blood so fast around my body that I think I might be on the verge of a panic attack. I feel cold and clammy, and the air in the gym is sweet and heavy – it smells like death. It surrounds me. It's suffocating.
I need to get out of here. But I can't leave Cupid.
And I'm no match for Valentine...
Oh God.
My pulse won't slow down.
I close my eyes, just for a split second. I take a breath, gagging as the scent of decay hits the back of my throat, and I compose myself. Pull yourself together, Lila. Then I open my eyes and try to comprehend the situation.
Seven cupids, who do not look alive, are stood around me. Some look worse than others –Matchmaking Service suits soiled and tattered, and gaping wounds open across their skin. I think these must be the ones Cupid fought to get to me.
My eyes shift to him, slumped unconscious against the wall, and my heart beats faster still. He doesn't look good. Even from here I can see his eyes are closed, his face is flushed and bruised, and blood is dripping from his nose onto his moist white top.
Something seems to squeeze my heart.
Please be OK.
I dart my eyes back to Valentine. He straightens the cuffs of his white shirt, brushes off a droplet of blood from his suit pocket with the back of his hand, then brings his gaze back to mine.
His electric blue eyes burn into me.
He grins.
"There's probably no need to tell you there's no use in running," he says, looking around at the cupids surrounding me.
I follow his gaze, the hairs on my arms standing on end as I see their sunken features, their blank, unseeing eyes. They stand to attention – unmoving. Are these the cupids that have been going missing? What the hell has happened to them?!
My need for answers momentarily eases my panic.
"Are they...are they dead?" I manage to say.
He strokes his hard jaw making him look pensive for a moment.
"Yes and no," says Valentine.
My eyes dart to Cupid again. He's still out cold.
A thought hits me.
His arrows are in the quiver on his back.
I can't overpower Valentine – but these weird undead cupids went down before when Cupid shot them with the cupid arrows. If I could get past them, arm myself...
