Hunted Blood: A Love Triangle Vampire Romance (Beautiful Innocence Book 2)

Chapter 6 – Alex

It’s well past midnight when I scale the drainage pipe I always use to the third-floor window outside Gilbert’s hospital room. I’m sleek and silent as a cat, my katana swinging on my hip as I carry myself with precision to the windowsill.

The window is already wedged open, and the white curtains flutter out.

A familiar shiver courses through me. One of my kind is near.

I flip over the windowsill, my feet landing hard on the tiled floor beside the hospital bed. My hand drifts to the katana’s hilt when I spot a shadowy figure looming over the sleeping Gilbert Monroe—a broad-shouldered man with dark hair and a long black jacket that helps him blend into the night. He’s a stark contrast to the white in every corner of the room, like a grim reaper waiting to strike.

And that’s not too far off the truth. Gilbert is sound asleep, and Enzo holds a needle to Gilbert’s IV bag, just about to inject it.

I hold out a hand. “Stop.”

To my surprise, Enzo withdraws the needle before it penetrates the IV’s injection point. He laughs. “I knew you would crawl back here like the rat lover you are. Come to try and stop the inevitable, have you?”

“Mr. Monroe’s death would be premature. No orders have been issued yet. If we keep him alive—”

“You are so very wrong, my pet.”

The third voice enters the conversation like mist, the very sound distorted into an extended, wispy sound as if traversing through a hurricane. A cloud of dark ash swirls through the window and converges in the corner of the room, the pieces flitting together to form the shape of another man. The darkness peels off his face and clothes and falls away, leaving the predatory leer from his dark, beady eyes to carve into me.

He is the tallest of all vampires at almost seven feet tall, but his height emphasizes his ghastly, unattractive features. His long nose juts from his face like a jagged hook, and the haunted hollows of his cheeks reveal how pale his paper-white skin truly is. Though his hunched shoulders suggest an unconfident man, one look at him instills fear so tremendous any mortal being would tremble at his mere aura.

I do not sway in his presence. I do not dare let my hand wrap around my katana’s hilt, lest I mark myself as a threat. But his presence, the darkness of his aura, winds into my psyche and is the only reminder I need of why I am terrified of the lord of the vampires.

The leader of my coven, Aurelius Antonius.

I once mistook him for a visionary. Marcus Aurelius reborn. I have never been more mistaken, and now I am tethered to him for eternity—or until death.

I choke a leash around my terror. Showing any hint of fear, any weakness, would make him question my loyalties. I have far too many secrets to hide.

I fall to one knee, bending my neck. “My lord, I am honored by your presence.”

Aurelius sniffs, unamused. He holds out his hand, presenting a thin hand with a jeweled ring to my face. The ring is exquisite with no match; a yellow ruby cut to reflect light like the sun, dulled and subdued in the ownership of a vampire. Ever the monarch, it’s not enough for him to have control. He must remind us of his power as well.

Biting back a sneer, I delicately lay my lips upon the unique ruby, and a sizzle of warmth meets me. I’ve long suspected that the ring is magical, but as to what it does? Not a clue. He keeps the ring close at all times and never uses it in my presence.

“Tell me, my pet,” Aurelius drawls, “did you truly believe you could save this monkey?” He lifts his chin toward Gilbert Monroe, whose chest still rises and falls with sleep.

“No. I simply came to express caution. Lorianna Monroe evaded me after I fell unconscious due to my injuries, and I have not yet tracked her down. If we kill Mr. Monroe now, she could go into hiding, and it will take some time to smoke her out.”

Enzo hisses and advances on me. “You lost the girl? You foul, disobedient wretch—”

“That is enough, Ethelios,” Aurelius’ voice booms, and Enzo halts in his tracks.

My gaze burns into Enzo’s. His nose and mouth twitch with a snarl, but he obeys the order. Barely. We all know what’s at stake here.

When Aurelius’ eyes settle on me, his lips are pressed into a firm line, and the shadows around him flare with darkness. “You love to cause me problems, Arcien. Questioning my orders. Outright disobeying commands. Any other lord in my position would cut your throat and feed you to the dogs.”

“If that is your wish, I will provide the blade.”

Aurelius’ laugh is like a choking snicker. “Death is an ill-fitting fate for you, my pet. Oh no, you are far more entertaining to me when kept alive and on a leash. Still, your shortcomings must be addressed. You promised to neutralize the witch Morgan, and you failed. You promised to keep Gilbert Monroe under control, and you failed. You promised you would ready the girl to take his place, and you failed. I do not enjoy failures, my pet, and I do not enjoy failures with their own agendas. There is no room for error, Arcien. Or did you forget the last time you tried to rise against me?”

A voice whispers in the back of my mind, telling me this could be my chance. Kill him or escape into death at last. My fingers twitch in the direction of my sword, and it takes all my strength to keep them still.

Even if I were suicidal, I couldn’t face Aurelius with Enzo by his side. Together, they are far too powerful.

An attempt would only guarantee my and Lorianna’s deaths. Aurelius is not oblivious to my hatred of him nor my many attempts to undermine him over the last century, some successful and many not. This is the game we play, kings on a chessboard, maneuvering pieces and sacrificing pawns to come out ahead, but we’ve been caught in a standstill where one wrong move could decide the victor.

So as the screams of the friends I’d made and lost 70 years ago at Aurelius’ hands echo in my eardrums, I don’t act against him. I can’t. Not yet.

The pieces aren’t all in play.

“I haven’t forgotten.” I lift my head, staring straight at Aurelius. Not defiant, but confident. “Nor have I intended to disobey any orders. Do you truly believe it is time to dissolve all assets connected to the Monroe Investment Group, including Gilbert and Lorianna?”

“When blood sours, do you keep it in the fridge, hoping it will become fresh again? No. You feed it to your enemies and watch the poison choke them.”

“Then you intend this dissolution as a strategic move against the vampire hunters, not a reactionary event.” My mind moves quickly. “You’ve been planning this exit for months. Or is it years?”

Aurelius’ eyes flash with a bemused mixture of approval and irritation. “Our position in Los Angeles has been compromised since we discovered the true extent of Gilbert Monroe’s scheming.”

“My plan to bring him back into the fold would have worked if Enzo hadn’t gone behind my back and unduly pressured Mr. Monroe. You know how humans are. Unless you trick them into believing they want it, they will always fight you.”

Enzo laughs, stepping closer to insert himself into the conversation. “I’m afraid you give these animals too much credit. As soon as a cow’s mind is broken, their only use is as blood and meat. Gilbert has already given us everything of value in his possession. His reckless actions have been under close watch for a while now. But you were already aware of that, of course. We have plans to move on to more profitable ventures.”

“So having me train Miss Lorianna and forcing me to threaten Mr. Monroe was all for show? Why waste my time?”

Aurelius brings his hands together in front of his dark suit, his long, claw-like nails glinting in the moonlight. “Because I deigned it so, my pet. You can be quite productive when you set your mind to a task with proper motivation, and this was one way to use your unnatural obsession with that family to our advantage. If it wasn’t for your attempt to draw out these matters by a few more years through his daughter, Gilbert would have been terminated the moment he started plotting. You bought the ungrateful creatures years of their lives. Do you consider that a waste?”

It’s a trick question. Yet another excuse for Aurelius to test my allegiances.

I refuse to let panic settle inside me, but I feel it creeping around the edges of my thoughts, pressing in like a hunter nosing closer to its prey. I’ve worked tirelessly to keep Lorianna and Gilbert alive despite the missteps that put them on Aurelius’ elimination radar, and I thought I had gained ground.

It seems that was an illusion. Aurelius is playing another one of his games; one of life and death, and I am about to lose.

“Of course, it’s a waste.” I stare him down, unflinching. I may be on the floor, but I will not cower. “If you never cared about reforming MIG, my skills could have been put to use elsewhere.”

“And yet, had you demonstrated meaningful progress, I was willing to change my mind and offer Gilbert a more lenient punishment.”

Aurelius pauses as if to let that possibility set in, but I don’t believe him. He was trying to keep me out of the way of his plans, setting me up for failure, but why?

He continues, “I did not truly expect you to succeed, my pet. It was an impossible task. Perhaps it is unfair to judge your loyalties by failing to heal the corrupted hearts of humans. But when studying your portfolio as a larger story, how can I not interpret this string of failures as a sign of you wavering? We may require another lesson for you after all.”

“All my plans performed according to my calculations until those vampire hunters reared their ugly heads. Like hydras, they grow four more heads whenever you cut off the last pair. If it weren’t for them, Gilbert would be on board by the end of the year, and Lorianna wrapped around my finger. Now, it’s all fucked.”

And, if all went according to plan after that, Aurelius would also meet his demise.But all the efforts made over the last decade must be discarded and resumed fresh. Fuck.

“Gilbert wished to expose our kind to the world. He acted to stop our efforts to protect ourselves against the vile chattel who are in control.” Aurelius’ tiny eyes burrow into me. “Whether you intended to help him or not, keeping him alive under the presumption of bringing him back to our side made us vulnerable. You showed weakness and, in doing so, brought these hunters into our city.”

“The hunters would have found us sooner or later.” I flick my eyes in Enzo’s direction, mentally moving a pawn into a vulnerable position in hopes that Aurelius will take the bait. “Vampires and spawn have been acting irresponsibly and erratic in the city for months. Fat on too much good blood, money, and nighttime leisure, they and their superiors forgot about the existential threats we face every day. Laziness breeds danger.”

“The hunters were right under your nose this whole time. You led them to us,” Enzo rages, spittle flying from his lips. “If it hadn’t been for our lord’s impeccable foresight and planning, we could have lost far more than our standing in this city. My mate was murdered because of you.”

I regard Enzo with a cold, careless expression. “Oniva’s death was your own doing. You were in charge of tracking and killing the hunters, not me. I never met Luke Lewandowski face-to-face, nor had I any reason to believe he was a hunter. If I had any suspicions, I would have reported it immediately.”

“Would you? You’ve dreamed of the destruction of our coven ever since that witch got into your head. I bet you knew all along that Luke was a hunter and chose not to report it because you thought they would get to us first.”

I force myself to remain emotionless while I take Enzo’s accusations. He’s not wrong, of course. The moment Gilbert made it clear to me that he had no intention of backing down his plans to destroy Aurelius, I tried to find the hunters in LA so I could direct them to Enzo and Aurelius. In the end, I hadn’t been able to identify them soon enough.

“I had no more information than you did. My profiling attempts of Luke came up clean. Early military recruit to the Polish military after he was taken from an orphanage as a child, then raised into a soldier who was sent abroad to pursue his education in the States. It’s not a background commonly found amongst vampire hunters, and you know that.” I keep my cool as I rise to my feet, adjusting my black tie. Logic and intelligence almost always win out with Aurelius over outright brutality and viciousness. “Are you quite finished with this needless interrogation? If MIG is to be dissolved, we have a lot of work to do. I must track down Lorianna Monroe immediately. Allow me a few minutes alone with Gilbert—”

“Kill him,” Aurelius commands.

A sick smile grows on Enzo’s face, and before I can so much as protest, Enzo jabs the needle into Gilbert’s IV. He empties the syringe, and the damage is done.

Gilbert gasps, and his hands fly to his chest. I don’t move. His head kicks off the bed, and his eyes go wide and bloodshot. Writhing beneath his blankets, the heart monitor goes wild as he moans with the agony of his heart shuddering to a painful stop.

Aurelius’ special concoction is meant to kill quickly without causing suspicion. Even if the room was filled with world-class heart surgeons and doctors, they wouldn’t be able to save Gilbert. In the aftermath, the poison will dissipate into a traceless substance, and his death will look like a heart attack.

There’s nothing I can do but watch him suffer.

To Aurelius and Enzo, humans are chattel, and their pleasure in his pain shows clearly in the lustful glints in their eyes. They are sadists, unsatisfied by the monotony of life and with how few kills they can openly get away with without drawing too much attention to themselves. Deaths like this give them so little pleasure compared to the bloody, drawn-out ones they crave and have inflicted on their playthings for hundreds of years.

The machine flatlines, and Gilbert goes still.

Enzo makes a humming, satisfied sound. “Gilbert’s finale. So ugly and unrefined, like the man himself, don’t you agree? A fitting end for such a disgusting, pathetic man. I only wish we had the time to extend his pain.”

Gilbert was not the most ethical or upstanding man; he was a hedonist willing to sacrifice much and take from others to enjoy his personal pleasures in life. At first, I despised him, as I did many other humans who bartered their souls away for money and depravity. But as the years went by and I was forced to work with him, I began to understand him in ways I never could with Aurelius’ other victims. Gilbert was generous where he could be, and he was an incredible father to Lorianna. Not all of the sacrifices he made were for his personal benefit but for the success and longevity of others.

In the end, it was his attempts to right his wrongs and expose Aurelius that got him killed.

There never was room for negotiation in Gilbert’s fate. As soon as he was caught, Aurelius and Enzo would have had him marked for death sooner or later. They are not ones to forgive attempted regicide. I see that now, the misstep I made. I’ll learn from this.

I disengage and lean against the wall by the window, trying to look casual and not like I’m shaking from outrage. “You just killed our best chance at finding Miss Lorianna.”

“He did what I told him to, without question, as I expect you to,” Aurelius corrects. “You have proven yourself worthy time and time again, Ethelios. Our coven is safer than it has ever been before now that the legendary vampire hunter Ivan Morozov is dead. In recognition of your victory, you are granted leave to mercilessly slaughter the remaining hunters responsible for Oniva’s untimely departure from this earth, as well as any other individuals who wrongfully attempt to deny you vengeance.”

Enzo falls to one knee. “A most exquisite honor, my liege. Their deaths will be delicious. Especially Luke’s… There will be no such thing as a swift death for those responsible for murdering my beloved.”

“The loss of our nest in LA is but a minor loss compared to the victory we’ve landed against our mortal enemies. Continue your wicked ways in my name, and eternity will be yours.” Aurelius rests his clawed hand on Enzo’s head of dark hair, gentle, like a father. Then he withdraws it back to his side and regards me. “Now it is your turn, Arcien.”

“What is it you need of me?” I say without hesitation.

My eyes naturally drift to Gilbert’s lifeless body. I’ve fortunately been spared the need to end him myself, but I already know where this is going before Aurelius speaks again. I must survive the trials to come.

Aurelius’ smile becomes dark and vivid; he takes delight in my discomfort. He always has. He’s waited for this moment ever since I befriended Gilbert and the rest of his family. Aurelius enjoys the inevitability of death while I mourn it again and again, a record stuck on repeat and never learning my lesson.

“The final matter in need of addressing,” Aurelius says, nonchalant as if we’re talking about retrieving someone’s signature, “is the child, Lorianna. All other assets will be handled by the remainder of my inner circle, but you made this problem yours. You will eliminate her.”

Dread sinks into my bones, but I’ve come prepared for this scenario.

“Is that the wisest choice, my liege? We’ve invested a lot of resources in preparing Lorianna to take over MIG. We may dissolve the company, but she could still be useful to us in another venture.”

For a moment, Aurelius seems to consider my suggestion, but then he shakes his head. “No. She’s damaged goods. We can never be sure in what ways her father corrupted her mind or how that vampire hunter may have compromised her loyalties.”

“Lorianna is young, impressionable, and she trusts me. Whatever damage is done, I can undo. All I need is one last chance to bring her to our side.”

“Perhaps if you hadn’t lost her again, I would consider your proposal, but how can you say she trusts you when she ran away at her first opportunity? No. That is final. You had your chance. Now do your job.”

I don’t want to accept this as the end, to promise to take Lorianna’s life and do Aurelius’s dirty work at the expense of my oath to Carmen. I also see that I have no choice. Should I say no, that will be all the proof Aurelius needs to end me now. As much as I have long craved release, Lorianna is my responsibility, and I cannot leave this world without ensuring she is safe, or I have failed.

There’s at least one small mercy left at my disposal: he chose to anoint me his knight and play me on the board in the game he plays against me rather than another vampire who is truly loyal to him.

Either it will be a deadly mistake for him or a painful learning experience for me.

His steely eyes meet mine, and I bend at the waist. “As you wish, it shall be done.”

“Keep me updated on your progress. It would not do for you to fail me again, my pet.”

And just like that, Aurelius’ body collapses into a fine mist, floating through the window like ash on the breeze, disappearing into the night. His suffocating presence is extinguished, and I can finally breathe again.

I never wanted to use Lorianna. All I wanted was to protect her by any means necessary, even if that meant turning her into a useful asset to my coven. After Carmen’s death, my expectations around fleeing Aurelius changed to the worst. He has eyes everywhere. Watching, waiting. Ready to destroy any defectors. Sometimes, it’s just simpler to integrate with the monster than try to escape it. Another attempt to flee would require careful planning and coordination, and I don’t trust myself to succeed where I failed before.

Frantic, heavy footsteps charge down the hallway. It feels like so much time has passed since Enzo claimed my friend’s life, but it’s only been a matter of seconds.

“Poor, stupid, human-loving Arcien.” Enzo’s face twists into a mocking sneer. “You worked so hard to protect that girl, but all your efforts were worthless. A waste. How does it feel knowing you chose to back the horse with a gibbled leg, and now you are one move from losing your head? I’m watching you.”

His figure blurs and disappears out the window, leaving me alone with Gilbert’s body.

The vibrations from the shouts outside tell me the doctors and nurses are seconds away from Gilbert’s room, but... I can’t bring myself to tear my gaze away. My friend. His cheeks are still red with life, but the color is fading to the ugly pallor of death.

Moving to his side, I gently close his eyelids. There’s no hiding that he died writhing in pain, but this way, at least, I can believe he’s at peace.

His life was taken too soon. And if I don’t act quickly, Lorianna will be next.

“I promise, even if it kills me, I’ll keep Lorianna safe,” I whisper to Gilbert. “Enzo and Aurelius will pay.”

I climb out the window, sliding the panel shut just as the door flies open and a flurry of people enter, shouting commands. Long before they declare him dead, I’m gone.