Chapter Eleven
CASIMIR
As I reach the next floor up, I look around for what had snagged my attention. It wasn’t a sound so much as a presence, telling me that the vampire is likely older, but I have no way of knowing how old.
I step into the hallway, but it’s empty.
There doesn’t seem to be anyone here, but I can still feel that presence.
Quietly, I move down the hallway, trying to pinpoint where the person is.
They’re clearly here. They’re watching us try to figure out what they did and probably enjoying every moment of our incompetence.
Slowly, I continue down the hallway, knowing he could be in any one of these rooms, but I can’t see or even hear him. I inch forward step by step, trying to see what I can find before they make a run for it or attack.
I reach the end of the hallway, but I don’t sense them any longer. Instead, I find myself looking out a window as I question where the fuck they went. Did they leave the moment they heard me coming? But then why did I not sense them passing me? Unless they didn’t go past but went up or down.
That’s the moment I sense something beneath me…
No, no, no… they’re beneath me? Did I pass them?
Wait… like Julian said, there’d only been one person going in and out of the door the vampire frequented, but instead of climbing ten floors to the window, he was likely jumping down from the floor above, which means he’s now down with Ezio and Julian.
Is there any way to speak to Julian like he can speak to me? To warn him?
Julian? Julian? … Fuck… all I’m doing is talking to myself! I have no idea how he does it so simply, and I don’t even know if I have the capability of doing it, so there’s no sense in wasting time trying.
Running down the hallway, I hit the door for the stairwell so hard, I end up busting it off its hinges.
Dropping the remnants of the door, I jump down the stairs, stopping at the tenth floor, expecting the worst. When I open up the door revealing the hallway inside, though, I see Ezio squeezing Julian like he’s some stuffed animal.
Julian appears displeased as they both look at me.
“What’s wrong?” Ezio asks.
“They’re down here,” I say a moment before the door they’re standing before is flung open and Ezio and Julian are dragged into the room, out of my sight.
I rush into the room after them just in time to see Ezio’s body slam into the floor-to-ceiling window so hard it shatters.
Ezio tries to catch himself, but the vampire kicks him hard enough he’s flung out of the window and disappears.
I want to rush forward, but I can’t when the vampire has his hand around Julian’s throat, lifting him off his paws.
Julian flails, teeth latching on to the wrist that holds him.
“Step into the room and I’ll crush his throat,” the man says in a lilting English accent as he looks over at me.
He’s a vampire I don’t recognize, a man young in appearance with a cruel expression twisted across his face.
He’s handsome with long hair pulled up out of his face.
He smiles at me as his nails dig into Julian’s neck.
Hopefully his fur is thick enough it’s creating some kind of cushion against the attack.
I’m left standing in the doorway, teeth gritted, anger coursing through me at the idea that this man would literally refuse to listen to me.
“Let him go.”
“You’re too nosy, Casimir. Far too nosy,” the vampire says in a teasing tone.
“You are trespassing in my territory.”
“I’m simply doing a few good deeds,” he replies with a smile.
I’m livid because I can’t rush in and rip his body apart. This man would honestly stand up against me? If he didn’t have a hold of Julian, I would kill him where he stands. “LET HIM GO. Remove yourself from this territory before I remove you myself.”
Julian releases his fangs from the man’s arm before he shifts into his human form.
The vampire looks at him with a peculiar expression on his face, and I find that I’m also questioning why he’d choose to put himself in his more vulnerable form.
“Why?” Julian asks, voice calm.
The vampire’s expression slowly turns curious, then he laughs, like he thinks Julian is ridiculous. “Why… the wolf asks why?”
“I do. Is there a reason you’re killing them? Did they do something?”
The vampire laughs harder, and the anger he’d flicked toward me seems to smooth out, like he’s intrigued by the strange man in front of him.
“Did they do something?” he repeats. Then he smiles as he tips Julian’s chin up. I notice Julian’s neck is bleeding, his blood running over the vampire’s fingers making my anger deepen. This vampire really thinks he can waltz into my territory and do as he pleases? Hurt and touch who he wants?
“It doesn’t matter,” I growl. “You do not have permission to be on my land. You don’t have permission to even live.”
He leans forward and whispers something to Julian before smiling again.
And just like that, he flings him toward the floor-to-ceiling broken window.
A look of shock crosses Julian’s face as he stumbles back, trying to catch himself, but Ezio had destroyed all that was left of the window when he’d been kicked through it.
I could kill the vampire, but if I do, I won’t have time to save the wolf and he knows it.
He knows it’s the only way he’s getting out of this situation alive.
Rushing past him at full vampiric speed, I hear him chuckle and the rage that fills me makes me want to tear him apart, but I can’t when Julian is in danger.
Dropping out of the window immediately after Julian had, I push myself forward so I can catch him before he gets too far from me.
Thankfully, I’m fast enough that I manage to grab him with ease, wrapping an arm around his body and tucking him into me.
His fingers dig into my sides, squeezing tightly onto me as I hear his heart racing.
I twist my body so he won’t get hurt, and with my free hand, I grab on to the decorative edge.
“Fuck… fuck…” he whispers, squeezing tightly onto me like he thinks I’d actually have let him fall.
Eh… I guess when you can’t just immediately heal, being tossed out of the tenth floor is a bit scarier.
Using my free hand, I pull us both up.
A man and woman who’d likely come over to the window to see what was going on stare at us with peculiar expressions, likely confused why I’m holding a naked man outside their window.
“What a fucking mess,” I growl as Julian tightly digs into me. His heart is racing out of his chest as he clings to me.
“Oh fuck… oh fuck…” he whispers, fingers shaking.
“Stop, you’re fine,” I say. Does he seriously think I’m just going to drop him to his death at this point? Hell, I could jump from here and still be fine.
I leap up, catching onto the edge above me, and drag us both back into the room. The vampire is gone, and honestly, there’s no sense in chasing after him. He’ll have used the time it took me to grab Julian to make sure I won’t catch up.
Julian seems reluctant to let go of me, even now that we’re on solid ground. “Fucking hell, thank god you catch people better than you hold hands. I nearly died. I thought I was going to die.”
“And you had to sass my hand-holding,” I grumble as the sweet smell of his blood assaults my nose.
I tip his chin up and lean down, wanting to taste the blood that coats his neck from that dreadful man’s nails.
I run my tongue over his neck, not planning on biting him, but wanting to clean the blood away, and you’d have thought I’d been the one who chucked him out the window.
He tears away from me, jerking back before I can even get much of a lick.
It was such a good fucking taste too. It makes me want more.
It makes me want to sink my fangs into him and soak in that delicious…
wait… why the hell would it be delicious?
I’ve bitten him before and he tasted as disgusting as wolves generally taste, but not this time.
This time his blood is almost intoxicating.
But what the hell would cause that? Wolves taste borderline toxic—let alone a wolf with the taste of silver still coursing through him.
Vampires are not much better, so why does he taste so?—
I hesitate as I get a look at his expression and realize I can sense the panic racing through him. His eyes are wild, and his heart is back to being out of control. He’s literally terrified and I didn’t even notice.
“Julian…”
He shakes his head and lets out a breath he must have been holding. “Sorry… I think… I think it was from… being attacked by that group… when they… tried ripping my throat out. Sorry.”
Why the hell is he apologizing to me? “I didn’t mean to terrify you.”
Julian clears his throat. “I… I’m fine if you want to chase that man or check on Ezio or… something.”
“I’m sure Ezio’s fine. If he’s not, it’s also fine.”
He gives me a weak laugh as he rubs at his neck. “Right. Uh… should I shift or put my clothes on…”
Julian steps toward me, like he wants to reassure me that I did nothing wrong when I clearly did. I didn’t even notice his fear because I was so hung up on how his blood tasted. When he moves toward me, I realize he’s leaving bloody footprints.
“You’re bleeding. You must have stepped in some glass when you were shoved.”
“Oh… it’s fine. Sorry I didn’t… I was…” He seems weird, and I don’t know what to do about it, especially knowing that I made it worse.
“I’m not going to catch up to him at this point,” I say. “What did he say to you?”
“Oh, right. He said, ‘The liars will continue to lie which means they have to die.’”
“What the fuck is with his rhyming ass? How stupid. He should die just for that.”
The door opens and Cyrus looks in at us. “You guys okay?” he asks as he shuts the door behind him. “I saw Ezio fall and tried rushing up as quickly as I could.”