Chapter 2
“ I need to know where we’re going to talk,” I say firmly.
“This isn’t exactly the kind of conversation you want to have in public,” he states, his eyes sliding over to meet mine. “You live close by?”
“Not a chance in hell I’m showing you where I live,” I say with a shake of my head and a raised eyebrow.
“Good, that tells me you’re not a complete lunatic with a death wish.” And I’m surprised at the slight smile that pulls on those obnoxiously perfect lips. “Look, I’m going to get a hotel room. And just so you know, I mean it when I say I’m not going to try anything, take this.”
The man pulls a gun that was tucked into the back of his pants and slides it into my bag.
A curse slips from my lips, and I check the crowds around us to be sure no one saw. “Would a gun even stop you? I might know what you are, but I haven’t quite figured all the rules out yet.”
“Aim true enough, and you’ll take me out,” he says. There’s a dark confidence in him that’s… unnerving yet alluring at the same time.
“And if I don’t?” I press.
“You might slow me down for a second, maybe long enough to get a second shot off.”
His expression is cold and even as I look over at him in horrified annoyance.
I don’t get the chance to say anything else because he pulls a door open and steers me inside, enveloping us in warmer air.
My mouth drops open for a moment as I take it in. There are towering ceilings that immediately tell me this place has money to spare. The entire place is opulent in the most modern and simplistic way possible. There’s a wall of mirrors, and crazy chandeliers. Everything is decorated in natural wood and stone.
This is the kind of hotel you only ever see in the feeds of billionaires online.
I look over at the man next to me as he walks to the attendant and starts reserving a room. He looks like the type who runs in motorcycle gangs and hangs out in tattoo parlors. Not the type who can walk into any posh hotel at the last moment and just casually ask for a room.
But I see it when he hands over a black credit card.
It’s all done and taken care of in less than two minutes.
“Come on,” he says with the nod of his head.
I don’t say a word as we cross to the elevators and step inside. And it all really hits me when the doors slide closed, trapping me with this man in a very, very small space.
A week ago, I found out vampires exist. I’ve seen fangs and inhuman strength and how they can incapacitate you with a bite .
And not only have I talked to one for the first time tonight, I allowed one to drag me out of where I meant to be and let him take me somewhere private.
My hand slides to my bag, closer to that gun he gave me.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he says again without looking at me. His eyes stay fixed on the elevator doors.
“But every inch of you is broadcasting danger, and it’s not just the fact that you’re a vampire,” I say. Every muscle in my body is tensed. My brain is going through every maneuver I might have to take him out, or at least keep his fangs off of me if he turns out to be a liar.
“I am dangerous,” he says darkly. “But not to you. Not right now.”
The doors slide open, and he steps out. When I hesitate inside the elevator for a moment, he turns. “You’re never going to find your friend without my help. And I’m never going to be able to get to her without you.”
My heart is racing. But as I once again imagine all the horrible things that could have happened to Ophelia, I step out of the elevator.
Only then do I realize that it’s opened up to a penthouse suite.
Everything matches the lobby. All the décor is natural tones, dark wood, gray stones. I couldn’t afford even the knickknacks that sit on the side tables. Everything about this place screams wealth. And it’s massive.
The space opens up into a huge living area with couches that look like I’d get the best sleep of my life on them. There’s a gigantic dining table in the area off to the side, and beyond that is one of the most beautiful kitchens I’ve ever seen. Toward the back, I see a set of double doors that open to a massive bed with fluffy white blankets and pillows.
And there are massive floor-to-ceiling windows everywhere, granting us glittering views of the city and a little peekaboo view of Central Park.
“Are you in the mafia?” I didn’t mean for the words to slip out past my lips, but they’re there before I can stop them.
The man hesitates two seconds too long. “Not exactly. My family has a certain… influence in the city, though.”
Shit. I really am the world’s biggest idiot. Not only is this guy a vampire, he’s from a powerful, dangerous family, too.
“You said your friend has been missing for three weeks,” the man says. He walks into the living room and sinks down into a tufted, black leather chair. Even the way he sits screams dangerous and powerful. I have to look away for a moment when I find my eyes studying the tattoos rising up his neck. “You weren’t with her when she went missing?”
I shake my head. Cautiously, I walk into the living room. Still holding onto my bag for dear life, I sink into the couch across from him. “She mentioned something about a Red party. She wanted to go real bad, and she begged me to go with her, but I had a class to teach.”
“You’re a teacher?” he asks, cocking an eyebrow in surprise.
“Mixed martial arts,” I quip, enjoying when his expression changes from doubtful to impressed. “I teach women’s self-defense classes.”
“No wonder you’re crazy enough to walk into a party like that by yourself,” he responds, and the way he’s looking at me changes. There’s a little more respect in his eyes. A little more curiosity. He’s looking at me less like I’m something fragile and stupid .
“She decided to go to the party by herself,” I move on. “I thought she’d call me after and tell me how it was. But she didn’t. I didn’t think too much of it. She could have just been tired after. But she didn’t call me the next day either. She didn’t answer my texts. Her phone rang once when I called her, and then went to voicemail.”
I pull my phone out and open my texts to her. They still only read as delivered, not read. “I started getting worried. So, I went by her apartment. It was locked, which I think is a good thing. She didn’t answer. But her neighbor said she hadn’t seen Ophelia come in or out in two days.”
I look back up at the man. “It took me a while. Whoever is throwing these parties doesn’t make it easy to find any information on them. But I finally found the date and time for the one tonight. As you saw, my search wasn’t proving too fruitful.”
“I believe it’s my father’s company that’s throwing the parties,” the man says. He crosses one ankle over the opposite knee. “I parted ways with him three years ago. But I was looking into the company a few weeks ago, and there are charges that don’t line up. My father is a real estate mogul. I wanted to find out why the hell he was renting spaces. Why he was hiring caterers. Bouncers. Bar tenders. He’s throwing parties, but not attending them, and not hosting them in his own spaces. It doesn’t add up. Your friend going missing at one of his parties…”
He shakes his head, his eyes losing focus as he trails off.
“You think they’re connected?” I ask. I can’t connect the dots yet, but something like nervous fear drips into my stomach.
“She have any connection to vampires that you know of?” he asks as his eyes meet mine once more .
“Hell no,” I answer, confident.
“Feels like a lure then, maybe.”
His words make me sick. “You think he’s luring unsuspecting people in? To be snacks?”
The man shakes his head. “I don’t know. I was watching everyone at that party for an hour when you came in. It’s obvious a lot of the humans there are regulars. They knew what was going on. But others definitely didn’t.”
“Ophelia didn’t know,” I say, shaking my head confidently. Then my eyes narrow at him. “If you’re a vampire, why would you need my help getting to her?”
He lets out a hard breath, and his eyes slide away from mine to look out the window at the night that is never fully dark in this city. “I get the feeling you don’t know much about my world yet. You’re not going to like what I’m about to explain.”
“Trust me, I haven’t liked a single bit of this night yet,” I counter. “Why slow down now?”
He looks back at me. There’s a darkness in his eyes that tells me I’m out of my depth. I have my own bitterness and venom. But this man… he overshadows me a hundred-fold. “You have to be born to a vampire father and a human mother to one day be a vampire, at least the kind I am—a Born. I learned my father was a vampire when I was sixteen. And he told me what I would be someday. I just had to die first.”
I would have expected to feel overwhelmed at the information. This is huge, a massive wave, and I’m just a little, tiny creature on the shore.
But I just find myself feeling relieved. I’ve lived in terrified cluelessness for the last week. I’ve had nightmares. I’ve speculated. My imagination has tortured me with the unknowns for what feels like years.
Finally. Here it is. The truth. Straight from the mouth of the horse.
When the man doesn’t see me having a meltdown over his truth, he presses on. “I died when I was twenty-six. Four days later, I Resurrected to what I am now. I’ve been twenty-six for six years now.”
“You’re immortal.” Not a question.
He studies me closely, evaluating every inch of my reaction. He nods. “But, like I said, vampires can be killed?—”
“How exactly?” I cut him off. My eyes scan him, looking for weak points. I don’t find any.
He hesitates one second. It gives me immense satisfaction that he’s looking at me like I could be a threat to him. Like I might try to kill him the moment he tells me how. “Beheading,” he says, holding my gaze, the coldness returning to his eyes. “Stabbing through the heart. We heal quickly, and we’re pretty damn tough. So, if you’re going to go after a vampire, you’d better have perfect aim and plenty of strength.”
“Noted,” I state. There’s a decorative metal canoe on the side table next to me. It’s pretty pointy on the end. I don’t know exactly how fast this bastard is, but I might have a shot of getting to it quick enough and plunging it through his chest.
“Not a fucking chance,” he says evenly. “You’d make it maybe two feet before I could rip you apart.”
My eyes flick back to meet his. Ice rockets through my veins.
“And no, I can’t read your mind, you’re just being way too damn obvious,” he adds. “But we’ve established some level of trust here, don’t you think? I tell you exactly how to kill me. You know what I am, you could tell any authority. We’re in this shit together now, right,…” and then he trails off, his eyes narrowing.
You’re stupid, you’re stupid, you’re stupid , my brain is screaming at me. How the hell did you get yourself in this situation? But my name leaves my lips anyway. “Lana.”
He mulls that over for several moments longer than seems necessary. He notes I didn’t offer my last name, I’m confident in that.
“Ares Hunt,” he says finally.
A shiver works its way down my spine just before goosebumps flash over my entire body.
Ares Hunt.
How fitting.
“As in the god of war?” I question, even though every syllable of it makes perfect sense.
“My father picked it. Fitting for what he wanted me to be.” He interlaces his fingers, looking at me over the top of his knuckles. “My father is in real estate. He owns a huge portion of Manhattan. And he’ll keep buying up every bit of it he can. He’s building an empire. I am his heir, but not the only one.”
I look out the window. I can barely afford one room in a shitty apartment shared with two other women. Ares is heir to an empire in the most expensive city in the country.
“My father is building not just an empire of skyscrapers. He’s determined to make a presence here in the city. To have an influence. An immortal one.”
An empire of vampires.
“Just how many siblings do you have?” I ask, and I know it; this is the part he warned me I wouldn’t like.
“Eight, so far,” he says. The tenseness in his jaw is telling of how he feels about this. “I’m the oldest. The only one who has Resurrected so far. The next oldest is only sixteen. The youngest is a year old. And I don’t think he has any plans to stop anytime soon.”
“That’s disgusting,” I say, not even bothering to hide the sneer building on my face.
“Agreed,” he says, his tone cold as ice. “It’s the reason I left three years ago. My father told me it was my turn to help build the empire. Started pressuring me within months of my Resurrection. I told him I had no intention of ever being a breeding stud.”
My stomach turns.
“Augustus Lonan doesn’t take the answer of no very well,” Ares grits out. “Things got… ugly. Complicated. Violent. I’d worked for my father for years. Went to school, got the degree he demanded. Helped him grow richer than the king of many countries. But my refusing to make more heirs? He took it as a rejection. A betrayal. When I couldn’t change his mind, I left. Disappeared for a year so he would stop looking for me. When I came back, I moved in with my sister. Same mom, different fathers. She’s the only person I’ve ever actually loved, besides our mother.”
Ares looks away, and I get the sense this isn’t something he shares lightly. This is something vulnerable. To someone more dangerous, more vicious, confessing who the only person you love is would put them in danger.
Once more, Ares is trusting me with something important.
“Augustus knows I’m back in the city,” he continues. “He’s keeping tabs. He’s waiting for me to come to my senses. To come back into the fold. And that’s how we’re going to find your friend.”
My heart jumps in my chest. “What do you mean?”
Ares’ expression darkens. “I’m going to finally come to my senses. I’m going to return to the fold. But on my own terms, where he can’t shove it down my throat.”
My head is spinning just a little. This is already getting so damn complicated. I’m not sure I’m following his line of thought.
“I need you to pretend to be my fiancée, Lana.”