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

Chapter 16 – Alex

Lorianna’s honey-brown curls fan around her in gorgeous curls that drape over the pages of an open book and down her shoulders, rising and falling with a steady rhythm of sleep. I followed her scent here when I came into town, the lavender and hints of vanilla and roses pulling me toward her like a drug.

When Morgan told me that she could only give me an approximate location because the necklace I brought her was broken, I thought it would take me a while longer to find Lorianna.

But here she is. Asleep, vulnerable, so innocent.

Aurelius’ voice races in the back of my mind. I could finish this now and prove my loyalty to him once and for all. I could embrace my future as part of his inner circle and delve back into the darkness he promised me. Or I could let him think I’m back on his side entirely and wait until the moment to strike—if I was willing to sacrifice Lorianna for that possibility.

The longer I stare at her, the quieter Aurelius’ voice becomes. All I can see and feel is the essence of her, drawing me closer.

Her pink lips are parted ever so slightly. They look so soft. So perfect. With her nose small like a button, she’s a being of such indescribable beauty. I’ve felt that pull toward her for several years now, but it’s only these past few weeks that it’s become so much stronger. She could be a sleeping princess, despite her dark hoodie and jeans that are damp from the rain that’s been pelting outside all day.

I step closer, and her scent hits me in full force. A rabid hunger claws in my stomach. A hunger I know all too well. I haven’t fed in days, not since I last tasted Lorianna. I should keep up my strength to protect myself during these uncertain times, but how can I ever drink from someone else now that I’ve felt the caress of the sun on my face after a century of darkness, and that’s all because of Lorianna’s blood?

She’s a goddess walking on earth. I’ll do anything to keep her safe.

I fall to my knees beside her. “Lorianna,” I whisper her name like a prayer. “I missed you.”

Her brows crinkle in sleep as she hears my voice. She blinks rapidly, and her eyes land straight on me. In this light, they look more green than blue, inquisitive and dreamy, like she doesn’t quite understand who is in front of her. Then understanding dawns on her face, even more gorgeous than the sunrise. Her eyes light up, and a smile parts her pretty lips.

Just seeing how happy she is, a wildfire blazes inside me, and I can’t hold back anymore. I place my hands on her cheeks, and I pull her into a kiss.

Her lips are softer than I imagined. She tastes like a dream, sweeter than any dessert I’ve had the pleasure of devouring. She is everything I’ve ever wanted, everything that’s kept me going as Aurelius became more brutal over the years leading to the dissolution of MIG.

As Lorianna’s lips move against mine, a sigh of passion escapes me. “I’ve dreamed of kissing you for so long, Lori. I don’t want to hold back anymore.”

She moans into my mouth, her arms rising to fist at my shirt and drag me closer to her. I put everything into the kiss; every flick of my tongue across her lips is meant to show her how much I’ve missed her, how much she means to me. In this kiss, I tell her everything I’ve never said. Everything I promised I’d never breathe outside of my own head.

I pull back, gasping for air. I inhale to take in more of her scent, but what I smell instead makes me want to gag.

My nose twists, and I rear away from Lorianna, surprising myself and her.

She stares up at me, confusion swimming in her eyes. “A-Alex,” she murmurs, suddenly on edge.

I recognize the scent, harsh like metal and grime laced with a hint of sour poison. I growl when I realize what it is—holy water. She’s been with Luke.

I let my face smooth over; I don’t want to draw attention to my disappointment. But the damage is already done. After I pulled away from her like that, her heartbeat picked up to the speed of a terrified prey.

“Why are you afraid of me?” I growl, pinning her with my eyes. “Have your aunts turned you against me?”

“N—no!” she gasps. “You—you startled me, Alex, that’s all. You kissed me, and then when you pulled away like that, I—I’m confused.”

“Someone’s spilled lies in your head, sweet Lorianna, haven’t they? Is that why you ran from me?”

I advance toward her, planting my hand on the table directly beside her. There’s only two feet between us; not enough for her to escape me if she tries to bolt, but enough to show her I’m not an immediate threat. Her lips turn into a pouty frown, and I want to take back the harshness of my words, but I need to know the truth.

Her smell swirls in my mind, and it’s hard to think about anything else when I’m near her. The possibilities, the betrayal. I don’t want to jump all the way to the worst conclusion, but after everything… that smell is unmistakable.

Lorianna runs a hand through her hair. She’s clearly upset by everything I’ve said, but she still looks sleepy, like she’s caught in a dream. “How did you find me? I didn’t think that…” She trails off, and her hand travels to her wrist, where she rubs a cloth bracelet of white and blue fabric that she didn’t have the last time I saw her.

“Anti-tracking magic cannot stop me from smelling you. I know you like I know myself. I have tasted your blood, and that is a connection that you cannot dampen with magic unless it is severed.”

My eyes bore into hers, and she meets them for a frantic, heart-stopping moment, but then her cheeks turn rose red, and she looks away. “I am sorry that I left, Alex. I needed space to think. I honestly thought I would be back home before you woke up.”

“You could have asked. Or told me where you were going. I’ve been worried to hell, Lorianna. The only reason I knew you still lived was because Enzo was not bragging about it.”

There’s a flicker of regret in her eyes. “I wanted to hear my dad’s perspective on all this. After I talked to him, he told me not to go home. Basically, he wanted me to run and hide, although I didn’t know that’s what he really meant at the time.”

I rock back on my heels. I can feel her guilt and her shame; I shouldn’t have come at her so aggressively, but I was thrown off when I smelled Luke on her. It’s far too fresh of a smell to be a leftover remnant from the last time they were together. I never intended for this to be a confrontation.

“Your dad told you to leave?”

She nods slowly. “He told me that I should just get away from everything until he sorted it out, but then when he died that night, I… I was afraid. I wanted to talk to you, and I’ve missed you too, but… I didn’t know who to trust.”

“You can trust me. You can always trust me.” I pause, looking down at her sadly. “I thought you did.”

“Did Aurelius kill my dad?”

“Aurelius gave the order,” I confirm. “I heard it from his own mouth. He is after you, too, Lorianna. But I don’t give a shit about his orders. I’ll die before I let him take you.”

I’d do a lot more than that. I would openly turn against him if it meant Lorianna would be with me. Defecting is all I’ve wanted to do for years, and now that MIG is no more, this is the perfect chance to disappear during the chaos.

If only Lorianna truly wants me the way I want her.

Lorianna’s cheeks redden another shade. She looks up at me hesitantly while she worries her lip. Her pulse picks up for a moment as she examines me, and I let her see everything, all of me. After a moment of silence, her pulse returns to normal. She’s not afraid of me after all; I really did just startle her.

“I trust you,” she says, and I believe her.

“I tried to save your dad,” I whisper. “He was not a perfect man, but he loved you, Lorianna, and he did his best for you always.”

She was already in a fragile state when I arrived, but as soon as I mention Gilbert, that fragility shatters. Her lips quiver, and I wish I could make it stop with my own teeth biting down on it.

But I wouldn’t dare kiss her again before I know if Luke is back in the picture. Our first kiss has been tainted by his presence, his shadow always looming over us like a fucking ghost. Even when he’s not here, he might as well be.

Lorianna’s eyes gloss over with unshed tears.

Slowly, I move back to the table and place a hand on her shoulder. “I am so sorry for your loss, Lorianna.”

The tears spill down her face. “I know you tried, Alex. I know you did. He told me in the end that I could always trust you. And I always have.”

Her sweet words move me, and I wrap my arms around her and hold her small, trembling frame against me. For the first time since I witnessed Gilbert’s death, I let the grief of my lost friend flow through me. On the outside, perhaps, I appear stoic, comforting a grieving young woman who’s lost so much in a short span of time. My eyes close, and I imagine that her grief is my own, allowing myself to feel everything I’ve lost through her shaking and cries. We feel that loss together in the way that we can, a friend and father lost to us both forever.

“I intend to finish what he started. We will stop Aurelius one way or another.”

“How?” Her voice breaks as she sobs into my neck. “How can we stop someone so powerful that even you’re afraid of him?”

I’m taken aback by her comment. Can she feel my fear as I can feel hers? Aurelius’ name evokes fear even though the man himself does not make me afraid. I’m not ashamed of my wariness toward a creature who is the pure manifestation of evil, the man who almost single-handedly destroyed the legacy of the Witch Queen with his twisted, ravenous hunger hundreds of years ago.

If I told Lorianna what her blood is capable of, she might want to throw herself into the fight against Aurelius. She would put her lot in with Morgan and go to war.

But Lorianna isn’t ready. As strong and brave as she is, she’s only just awakening to her identity, and I couldn’t bear it if a misguided sense of justice got her killed. I can’t give her that hope. Aurelius has already destroyed so many good people and killed many more. There are those like me who want to be good, or perhaps were at some point, who were then tormented by him until they became the images of evil alongside him for the sake of survival.

I was almost one of them. And in his line of sight, I still am.

If we thought that Aurelius was hungry for her death now, if he thought she had any connection to Queen Daciana, he would hunt Lorianna and her relatives forever. If I’m afraid of anything, it’s losing Lorianna now that he has his sights set on her.

“I do not know yet,” I lie, “but your dad and I were working on a plan. Without him, it is all in shambles, but… together, we can pick up the pieces and figure out what to do.”

She rests her head on my shoulder, relaxing into me completely, and I’m happy to just hold her like this for the rest of my days. But, like all good things, it must come to an end eventually.

“I’ve been so scared, Alex,” she whispers. “These past few days, I’ve looked over my shoulder every ten minutes. Until my aunt pretty much shoved me out the door with this library card, I’ve not been allowed out of the house in case Aurelius is hunting me… and when I was starting to think I might be safe after all, Luke appeared out of nowhere.”

I tense around her as if to make a protective shield with my body. “Did he hurt you? Are you okay?”

“I’m… I’m fine. I… I told him to go away. I didn’t want to talk to him, Alex, I… he broke my heart, and it was you who I wanted to find me. But he wouldn’t leave without me hearing him out, so I let him talk.”

She closes her eyes and takes in a deep breath, then I listen to her relay some of what Luke told her about how he used her to try and get to Aurelius and my coven. Even though it’s a smart tactic, my arms flex around Lorianna protectively, enraged that he’s hurt her this way. That I put her in the line of fire by encouraging her to date him in the first place.

If only I’d known he wasn’t just a piece of shit but a vampire-hunting piece of shit…

Lorianna has had to endure so much pain because of a conflict between two parties unrelated to her. I’m angry with Luke for doing this to her, but I’m also pissed at myself for not finding her first. If I wasn’t a fucking vampire, I wouldn’t have spent an entire day stuck twiddling my thumbs while Luke ran about during the day, hunting her down. That should have been me at her window. It should have been me.

The pain is jagged, and I have to bite down a growl. I can’t afford to let her see how much my own failures hurt me. I don’t want to scare her again.

“I have to know the truth, Lorianna,” I murmur against her hair, breathing her in like it could be the last time I hold her this way. I pull away, finally, because I need to see her face when I ask the question. “Does this mean that you forgave Luke? Are you together again?”

She blinks shyly. “No, I don’t think so. I still have feelings for him; they don’t go away just because I want them to. But he lied and took advantage of me, and that can’t be undone with an apology.” She hesitates for a moment and drags her lip through her teeth. Her eyes widen ever so slightly, looking at me with hope so pure it makes my dead heart ache. “Plus, there’s you, Alex.”

Me. Her voice resonates in my chest, and I want to give in to her sweetness. Give her all of me right here, right now.

But my pride is a demon. Greedy, vicious, and it does not leave any room for questions.

I can tell at a glance, without any further explanation from her, that she is truly hurt by everything that Luke did. There is no doubt in my mind about how much emotional pain she’s in over this, and maybe it’s unfair of me to expect her to give me a definite answer right here, right now. At the same time, she’s lying to herself if she thinks she’s over Luke. Those feelings she has deep inside her are still there, covered in scars and fresh wounds. She doesn’t want to dig them out and throw them in the ditch—she wants me to kiss it better. But I can’t.

I know how the heart works. Have I not been a fool for love countless times before?

If these wounds stay inside her heart, tended to by another man—me—they will fester and cause more pain for the both of us over time.

I can’t give her what she wants until she roots out that poison herself. Any effort I make to see her be rid of Luke will only make her want him more.

That doesn’t mean I won’t be by her side, protecting her. Waiting for Luke to royally fuck up and burn his bridges with Lorianna permanently.

“Have you eaten tonight?” I ask instead of answering her question. “There is a nice place nearby that is open late.”

Her lips part in surprise, and a flush covers her cheeks. “You mean like a date?”

I clear my throat. “As friends. We have a lot to talk about how the future will look from here on out, and these are topics better discussed over drink and food.”

The light in her eyes dims, crushed like a blossoming flower beneath my fist.

I hate to cause her this disappointment. But she nods, and I hope she understands one day that it’s for the greater good. When that realization comes, she will be mine.