Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
Lucian
“Tell me again, Vittoria, why I shouldn’t skin you alive.”
“I’m prettier with my skin on and you know it.” Her smile doesn’t fade as it flirts with the air, and her aura of smugness doesn’t dim in the slightest. “You also need me, Lucian.”
“I don’t need you stepping out of line.”
She saunters up to me, leaving her current human pet in place on the bed, eyes glazed. The wounds on the other woman’s throat aren’t healed, nor are the ones on the thighs or breasts. Tits facing skyward, nipples hard, she breathes in shallow breaths, her skin way too pale.
I’m not surprised Vittoria wrung every last bit from her. She’s never understood limits.
I turn and walk out, forcing her to follow me, and shut the door. I punch in a code, my code that overrides even hers. “She must have food soon. You need to leave her be.”
Vittoria shrugs. “Can I keep him at least?”
She opens the next door to reveal a man, supine and in the same state, covered with bites. His cock is half hard as he strokes it, tiny grazes from Vittoria’s vampire teeth all along it, and as he touches himself he shivers.
“Take more,” he slurs pitifully. “Give me more of you… Please…”
“Fuck.” I slam that door shut too and growl at her. “Vittoria!”
“What?” She bats her eyelashes in feigned innocence. “He enjoyed himself.”
I punch in my code for a second time.
“I’m getting creative with the limits you give me,” she says.
“And Elliot’s little friend? Do you know anything of her?”
She looks away. “I told you, I don’t know. But accidents happen. She’s probably dead.”
Fuck. This isn’t good.
If that’s true, Elliot’s going to be devastated.
“Elliot’s going to keep asking.” I take out my phone and start texting. “She won’t give up on this.”
“So tell her the fucking truth. Or wipe the thought from her mind. Which you should have done already.”
I stop what I’m doing and take in that air of defiance. The coldness beyond, and something else, something new, something I can’t put my finger on.
“What are you up to?” I ask, voice low.
She flips her red hair and checks her phone, ignoring me.
I wasn’t lying to Monty about needing to go. We have meetings. I have things to do. I always do. But it can wait. I want to know what the fuck’s up with Vittoria; two personal humans to feed on isn’t her style. Or rather it wasn’t, but people change, even vampires like Vittoria.
Is this boredom? Her simply trying something new, or is she covering something up?
I sigh. I don’t have time for this.
“Vittoria?”
She continues to scroll on her phone, uncaring. “I’m not up to a thing. No feeding sprees. Tenebris is pristine.”
“You’re to keep it that way. No more eating interns or people within these walls on purpose or by mistake. If you must, there are those who need to be disposed of—”
Vittoria shudders. “I’d rather stake myself, Lucian.”
Maybe.
“And you?” she asks.
“What about me?”
“When are you making a decision about your princess?”
“She’s one of us now,” I say, growling. “No decision to make.”
“Elliot’s a wildcard. And you’ve got her in a collar to control her. Not very PC. Not very smart. Lie to her about her friend, and then set up all the rules you need. Control her to within an inch of her unlife.” She sniffs. “That’s what I’d do.”
“I didn’t do such things to you.”
Vittoria hesitates. “I didn’t need that.
I understood straight away. The problem with her is that she doesn’t want the gift.
You made the choice for her, so there’s resentment.
She’s always been strong-willed, and that’ll make her defiant.
Reckless. That type is beyond dangerous as vampires. They’re hard to control.”
She’s right.
Elliot’s been able to resist me from the beginning, the glamour, the mesmerizing, the orders. Sex is easy with her. An addiction. But control?
I look down at my phone and see a new message from scheduling. “Buckle up, Vittoria, we have an event tonight.”
“Not interested.”
“You will when you see who it is.”
She crowds me, even though she could read it on her own phone. “It’s just some mafia family we don’t deal with, one who keeps out of our way. They have other cities. I know Tenebris is—”
“No. Not them,” I say as she goes still, her gaze locking on another name. “Raleigh.”
Her mouth twists in disgust. “Rogues.”
I don’t point out the hate-fueled years-long affair she and Raleigh had. We might not like his misfit gang of newly turned vampires, calling for our kind to step into the light and live among humans as equals, and they might not like our reclusive ways, but we’re all still vampires.
We supposedly get along now, if you call constantly circling and policing each other a partnership.
The Rogues have only gained more numbers in the last few years, but not enough to overwhelm us.
They’re being closely watched to make sure they don’t expose us all because that would result in the immediate wipe out of their little group.
So yes, not enemies but not exactly friendly, either.
“Not just them,” I say. “Look again.”
She does.
Then she sees the name of the person hosting this little engagement party for a mafia don’s daughter and the son of a billionaire.
“Santiago.” She frowns. “What the fuck is he doing here?”
Good question.
“I doubt it’s just to be host to a human couple,” I say.
She glances up at me. “What are you going to do?”
Another good question. If Santiago’s in town, trouble’s bound to follow.
“Strap in,” I say. “Things just got more complicated.”
Elliot is the most predictable unpredictable person I’ve met. She’s the antithesis to Nell in so many ways, apart from her heart.
Or, I should say, that’s how it was.
Now, she’s a vampire, and Vittoria’s words ring through my veins.
Elliot jumps when I enter the study, and a drawer closes. Of course she was snooping. It’s in her nature.
“We’re going out, Monty,” I say.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she says.
I close my eyes for a moment. “Your games keep you locked up longer. Get dressed and be ready in twenty. There are cocktails first.”
“Cocktails? You aren’t serious.”
I cross to her and close my computer. “Did you find what you were looking for?”
She hesitates, but then holds up a faded picture of a beautiful woman on the beach. It takes me a moment to realize what this is.
She found a picture of Nell, the one she had given me after I had revealed to her what I was. It had been a gesture of assurance that she wouldn’t leave me, even knowing the truth. I had been terrified it would scare her away, but Nell never seemed to be scared of anything.
Not even death.
I’d almost forgotten I had that picture in my desk.
“You really did love her, didn’t you?” she asks.
Looking at Nell’s beautiful, smiling face drives a spike of sorrow through my heart. As much as I’ve tried, I can’t get those last moments with her out of my head. I may have granted her final wish, but it’ll haunt me for the rest of eternity.
“I did,” I whisper, staring at Elliot over the picture.
“For a long time, I thought I had lost my humanity completely, that I was more monster than man, and because of it I would be cursed with an eternal life of loneliness. The madness of monotony.” I pause and do my best to push down the rising grief. “Nell helped me see that wasn’t true.”
Elliot places the picture gently on top of my computer. “If I asked you to kill me, Lucian, to grant my final wish like you did with Nell, would you? You may not have given me a choice in being turned, but would you at least give me that if I wanted it? End me?”
“What?” The words sink their teeth into me. Is she out of her mind? Kill her? I saved her because I couldn’t bear losing her. “Why are you asking me this?”
“It’s a simple question,” she says. “One I’ve been pondering for a while now. There has to be a way to kill a vampire. If this isn’t the life I wanted for myself—”
My hand snatches her by the chin, cutting her off midsentence, her baby blues flashing as they roam my face.
“Please…” I whisper, unable to stop the pain from leaking into my tone. “Don’t ask me that.”
She rubs her lips together, and the simple gesture awakens something inside me. I know she’s debating whether to press me further, but my thoughts are already spiraling into possession. The mere idea of her not being with me urges a desperate need to hold on tighter.
“Is being with me forever really so bad, Monty?” I ask, shifting closer.
“No…” Her hand curls around my wrist that still holds her face. “I’ll never be Nell, Lucian.”
“I know,” I say. “And I don’t want you to be. But I also don’t want you to die, so please don’t ask me to do that for you. Ever.”
I don’t realize I’m leaning in closer until my mouth whispers over hers. And she kisses me back with eyelids fluttering closed. She lifts onto her toes and presses firmly into me, and her excitement fills the air, mingling with mine.
An ache blooms fast, and the kiss deepens.
Her lips part, and instinct takes over completely.
I angle my mouth to hers and our tongues duel.
The way she melts into me like she’s been holding herself back too makes heat coil low in my body.
My hand slides from her jaw to her neck, my palm fitting there like it belongs, grounding me even as everything else spins out.
She’s whimpering against my mouth for more, and I can’t stop it even if I wanted to. Not with Elliot. It’s like her body, her soul, calls to me, and I’m powerless against it.
The kiss turns hungry, breathless. No longer careful. No longer restrained. Whatever line I meant to hold becomes blurred beyond recognition.
I step forward, moving her back until she’s pinned between me and the desk. I press my thigh between her legs and savor the heat radiating off her pussy.
Yes, this is exactly what I want. Elliot mine, like this, forever. My Monty.