Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
Elliot
Everything else is falling into calmness inside me, my new reality, everything apart from Lucian and how he affects me.
My hate, my need to emerge like a blood-soaked butterfly, are still there simmering beneath the surface. I can just control them better. My tether to my human life is finding my friend—and how Lucian makes me feel. Which is strange since there’s nothing human about him.
But there is a part of me, some small part that still clings to the hope of being cared for by him. More than as an employee and now a responsibility.
Love? I’m not sure if a vampire is capable of such an extreme emotion. If I am capable of it.
I don’t know. Lucian sure did seem to love Nell. And a part of me craves that, too. That hope is enough, as stupid as it may be.
I try to concentrate on the insanely good-looking ice-blond vampire with pale green eyes and a narrow face in front of me. He had strolled right over to me, as if he’d been seeking me out, and something tells me there’s a reason for that.
He must know Lucian.
I’m just not sure that’s a good thing.
This vampire is elegant, beautiful, and, I think, powerful. That fact seems to radiate from him like it does from Lucian.
I smile at the strange, charismatic vampire with a heavy accent I can’t place.
“I’m Elliot,” I say as an introduction. “And you are?”
He kisses my hand again. “Santiago Angelus from Sanguine.”
Ah, shit. The Santiago Angelus from the emails and the one Lucian warned me about.
I pull my hand away quickly.
“And here I thought Lucian had lost his lust for life, had dulled his fangs, not sharpened them on a pretty little morsel like you.”
My heart pounds. I’m not sure if I should stay and pry some information out of him or run. As usual my curiosity wins out, so I play dumb. “You work for him?”
“Not exactly. We’re…” he says carefully but pauses.
“Friends?”
“More like brothers,” he replies with a grin, and I almost choke on my next breath. Brothers? Lucian never mentioned having family. “He’s never spoken about me?” He sounds a bit hurt.
I shake my head. “No, sorry.”
“Hmm, yes, well, decades do lie between us, and we haven’t seen eye to eye for a while…
” His gaze drifts over my shoulder, and before I can follow it, he takes my wrist and gently tugs me outside the glass doors that lead to a small patio area.
A firepit is lit, casting the night in fire flickering light, and above us, the sky rumbles with thunder.
There are a few guests outside, all mostly human and more drunk than sober.
“But I’m tired of talking about me,” he goes on.
“Tell me more about you. Lucian doesn’t turn many, so I’m intrigued. What makes you so special?”
Besides me and Vittoria, I’m not sure who else Lucian’s changed. Maybe that other vampire that runs errands for him? Andrew? If there are more, they probably left VMR to live their lives without all of his strict rules.
“I’m not special,” I say. “I was stupid.”
He raises one blond eyebrow. “Oh?”
“I jumped in front of a bullet, thinking it would kill him, and it ended up killing me instead. He must have felt obligated after that. Maybe pity.”
“I very much doubt that,” he says. “Lucian likes humanity, but at a distance. Or should I say he tolerates it. He wouldn’t give you his blood if he didn’t want you around.”
“Maybe he just needs another employee to cover the night shift.”
He laughs, throwing his head back and making a show out of it. At least someone in this fucked-up family of theirs has a sense of humor.
“You’re a funny one, Ms. Elliot,” he says. “And strikingly beautiful. I would want to keep you around just on that alone. Although I’ve never known my brother to have much of a humorous bone in his body. He can be very dull, don’t you think?”
So far, I don’t see what trouble Santiago could pose. Besides being a bit arrogant and a big flirt, he seems harmless.
Maybe Lucian is just the jealous type.
“I…I don’t know.”
Santiago’s eyes fall to my choker, and he smiles. “Maybe he’s just sentimental in some ways. Vampirism should have strengthened him, but it’s made him weak. Fucking humans, sure. But falling in love with them? Absurd.”
Something about his words strikes me as odd. “He’s done quite well for himself. VMR is the biggest media company in the country, maybe even the world, so I’d say he’s doing something right.”
I don’t know why I’m defending him, but I can’t stop myself.
“I suppose so,” Santiago says. “But you are so unlike him. You shine. You have the lust for blood, the streak for violence that entices. It’s exciting.”
“I think that’s Vittoria you are describing.”
“She’s a hunter, yes, but she’s…loyal.” He makes a face that’s like disgust. “You’re still young enough, new enough to make your own decisions, and I suspect smart enough to know who’s worth your time and who will only ever waste it.”
“And you are worth my time?” I press.
He laughs and leans against the building. “All I’m saying, Ms. Elliot,” he says, practically purring, “is to choose your ship. If it were me, I’d take the sleek new one and not the old sinking one.”
“I don’t think VMR’s going anywhere.”
“He should watch his back. Changes are coming.”
“From you, Santiago?”
Once more, he smiles wide, his fangs sliding out of their sheaths and reminding me a bit of the Cheshire cat in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. “You should work for me. I could use fresh blood, a sharp mind.” He holds out a card.
I’m about to take it when he leans in close to me and slides the card into the bust of my dress. His palm brushes against my breast, over my puckered nipple, and I have a feeling that seemingly innocent touch wasn’t meant to be an accident.
Like Lucian, Santiago doesn’t seem like the kind of vampire who does anything on a whim. I guess the brothers share that trait.
“Don’t go down with the Titanic, Ms. Elliot,” he whispers, his breath feathering over my face. He’s that close. When his gaze drops to my lips, a sickening feeling stirs in my stomach. “I can help you rise above—”
Santiago goes flying backward midsentence, narrowly missing the firepit, and crashes into the chairs set up across the patio. The few humans left outside scramble out of the way, rushing back inside to the party.
My blood surges, hot and hungry. Lucian stands in front of me, his entire body vibrating, and I don’t need to see his face to know his fangs are out. The air around him feels charged, like the moment before a storm breaks, and it moves through me like a thrill.
“Touch what’s mine again, and I’ll finish the job I started years ago,” Lucian snarls, sounding more like a savage beast than a man.
I’ve never seen him like this before. This is something raw and unrestrained, all instinct and possession. And my body reacts instantly. A throb of need shoots straight to my pussy.
Santiago laughs as he rises to his feet. “Yours? I don’t see your name on her anywhere.” He pauses. “How’s Penelope?”
Lucian leaps on him, and my stomach drops as his fist connects with Santiago’s face and the sharp scent of blood wafts on the breeze. My hunger ticks up a hundred notches, and I can feel fangs pressing against my lips.
I take a shaky breath. I hate how fast my instincts want to take over.
I know Lucian said this constant appetite will dull as time goes by, but I don’t know how.
Drinking the richness of blood being pumped from a living heart is all I can think about.
And while there are moments of distraction, like being on my knees with Lucian’s cock in my mouth or attending this party, the moment the scent of blood hits my nostrils all other thought is gone.
I don’t want to be a slave to it. I don’t.
But when the shadows stretch across the street and a dark figure breaks into a run toward the park, something animalistic stirs inside me.
My hackles rise, and a low growl rumbles in the base of my chest, the predator in me wanting to chase, pounce, and feed.
My vision sharpens and the sound of the man’s footsteps thunders in my head.
I glance at Lucian and Santiago, still locked in their standoff, threats snapping back and forth like teeth and each trying to land a hit wherever they can. Santiago’s laughter echoes across the patio, and it only seems to push Lucian closer to the edge.
Then my focus snaps back on the fading human shape hurrying away. My pulse syncs to their footsteps. My mouth waters, and the world reduces to one thing.
Lucian is distracted.
Santiago is occupied.
And I am hungry.
I take off, running fast across the street, the delight of speed whipping through me as I streak like lightning.
Despite the tightness of my dress, I still plunge into the darkness, following my prey into the quiet park.
I track him past swaying trees and dense bushes, past the tiny lights illuminating the running paths.
Voices whisper, rise, some angry, others soft. I can pinpoint them, all over the vast expanse of the park, the thunder still rolling overhead, but that scent of blood drives me forward.
I’m closing the distance fast.
Blood. Blood. Blood.
The need pumps through my veins.
He’s veered off the path, into the darkness of shadows, but I can see him as if sunlight is pounding down.
I leap at him, fangs bared, only to crash against something solid and hard and then be jerked backward until my ass hits the ground.
Lucian’s voice booms in the silence. “Run!”
The guy doesn’t need another warning. With wide eyes, he takes off.
And when Lucian whirls on me, I understand why. Lucian looks feral. His eyes are an electrifying shade of blue, and his dark hair has mostly fallen out of the queue at the nape of his neck. The skin of his face is so pale I can see purplish veins underneath, and his fangs are on full display.