I collapsed onto the floor, pulling Lucy’s cooling body into my lap as I cried, begging her over and over to just open her eyes. I shook her gently, hoping against all hope that she was just in shock, but she stayed terrifyingly limp in my arms. The heavy silence of the room was suddenly shattered when the door was kicked open with a deafening bang, and Luther’s security team stormed inside with their weapons drawn.
They moved with a clinical, cold efficiency, fanning out across the room before two of them knelt beside me. One of the men reached out, his fingers pressing firmly against the side of her neck while the other checked the wound. After a second that felt like an eternity, he looked up at his partner and then at me, his face grim and hollow.
"She is dead," he said, his voice fl
