Chapter 13 #2
“Do you really think Nell would’ve stayed with him if she’d known the truth?
” His voice drops. “She thought he was her savior. But Lucian was the demon who destroyed her life, then stayed close enough to pull her from the wreckage. He created the chaos, Elliot, and then positioned himself as the only thing that could save her from it.”
I force my face into stillness, even as doubt coils tight and ugly in my chest.
“He didn’t mean to love her,” he murmurs. “Just like he didn’t mean to love you. But once Lucian decides something belongs to him…” His gaze flicks to my throat. “He doesn’t let go.”
“No,” I say again, louder this time. “I don’t believe you.”
Santiago’s eyes spark. “You’re allowed to deny it, of course. But patterns are hard to ignore. A tragedy. A disappearance. A truth softened until it can be mistaken as kindness. And then Lucian steps in, offering answers only he controls. He keeps the rest locked away, convinced it is protection.”
I swallow hard, heat climbing to my ears. His words are poison, seeping in despite myself.
“All I’m saying,” Santiago says with mock innocence, “is that if Lucian could do it once—reshape the truth around Nell—why wouldn’t he do it again to keep you?”
Kayla.
I can’t help but think about how Lucian took his time finding out what happened to her. How he hadn’t said a word about her being killed. How he was there when I thought I smelled her perfume at VMR and stopped me from looking for her.
And the way there’s always this unshakable feeling that he’s keeping things from me.
“As I said before, Elliot, you’re smart.
Smarter than Nell was by far. I can’t see you letting him manipulate things for long,” he says.
“You can step out of the cycle. Stop letting him manage every aspect of your life. Use your immortality to do more. I can help you there. Sanguine would welcome you.”
I pause. Have I just been another Nell to Lucian?
“Maybe you should ask yourself, Elliot…” He steps closer to me. “This…Kayla. Are you sure she’s dead?”
I don’t take my case or my pack when I leave my apartment after my run-in with Santiago. His words won’t leave me alone.
He’s far from innocent in the manipulation department. I’m sure he was embellishing some things to get me on his side, but flat-out lying? I’m not sure.
The things he said about Nell and me and Kayla—it rings true.
I should ask Lucian outright, but would it even matter? I can’t trust him.
When Andrew and I get back to VMR, it’s like a ghost town.
I don’t know where everyone is.
Everyone I want to talk to, that is.
Lucian.
The elevator to his VMR floor is locked.
Instead, I go looking for Vittoria, and then I abandon that idea too. We’re not friends, and she’s the most like me and the least. She’s loyal to one person, not counting herself, and that one person is Lucian.
Lucian, who told me Kayla was dead.
“This…Kayla. Are you sure she’s dead?”
Now I need to see for myself.
Heart thumping, I follow the path I took when I smelled Kayla’s scent in the air on Vittoria’s floor. There’s a trace memory of the scent around a door, accompanied by the sharp tang of blood.
My stomach clenches painfully with hunger. I shouldn’t be here.
But I reach out and put my hand on the cool metal handle.
There’s a keypad below so I don’t think it’s going to open, but when I turn it, the door opens.
The room bursts with the scent of Kayla.
It’s a bedroom, and despite the darkness, I can see that on the bed, on rumpled sheets, is a woman in a red corset, high-cut underwear, and fishnet stockings. She stretches her arms above her head as if I’d just woken her from a long nap.
“Vittoria,” she says dreamily. “I thought you weren’t coming back tonight—”
My legs almost give way and I have to hold on to the doorframe to stop from hitting the ground.
No…
It looks like Lucian was right about one thing. Kayla is dead.
Human Kayla’s dead.
Because a vampire is looking back at me.
“Kayla?”
Vittoria’s voice cuts through the silence like a blade. “What are you doing here?”
I spin to find her standing behind me, dressed in black leather, and blood-red lips, her gaze sweeping from me to the bed and back again. Fury flashes on her beautiful face.
“You aren’t allowed on this floor,” she snarls.
Something in me snaps.
“Who did this?” I hiss, my voice shaking with rage. “Was it you? Did you turn my best friend?”
Kayla scrambles up to her knees, clutching the sheets to her chest. “Elliot, please—”
“Don’t,” I cut in, never taking my eyes off Vittoria. “And don’t you dare try lying to me, too.”
Vittoria sighs, like I’m an inconvenience. “You should leave. Right now.”
“Why?” I step forward. “All this time? You’ve been keeping her from me all this fucking time?”
Her eyes harden. “Careful.”
“Was this Lucian’s idea?” I ask. “Or yours?”
“What I do is none of your business.”
“She’s my friend!”
“Not anymore.” Her mouth curves into something cruel. “Lucian’s bitch or not, I will kill you if you keep pushing me.”
Kayla gasps, panic all over her face. “Please, let me explain. I didn’t—”
“Shut up,” Vittoria barks.
Kayla freezes instantly, eyes glassy, body going still.
Fury roars up inside me. I launch myself at Vittoria.
She doesn’t expect it.
My fist connects with her jaw, snapping her head to the side. Pain explodes up my arm, but I don’t stop. I hit her again, then again, driving her back into the wall. She snarls, blood slick on her lips now, surprise flashing across her face.
“You stupid girl—”
She claws at me with her talon-like nails. They slash across my cheek, blood spraying. I barely have time to react when she punches me from the other side, sending me sprawling across the floor. Stars burst behind my eyes. She’s on me in a second, knee in my chest, hands wrapping around my throat.
“It’s time someone taught you a lesson. It’s long overdue,” she says. “Being Lucian’s newest toy doesn’t make you untouchable.”
I grab her wrists, twisting, forcing her balance off just enough to knee her hard in the ribs. She grunts, and I use the momentum to hurl her off me.
I don’t care anymore.
I’m going to kill her.
I surge up the same time she does. Fangs out, every violent instinct inside me screams, and I lunge for her again—
But I’m stopped abruptly with a firm grip on the back of my neck. I’m ripped mid-air and thrown backward.
The force is brutal, sudden, when I slam into the opposite wall with a bone-rattling crack. My vision swims, drywall crumbling around me. It takes me a second, but when I’m able to climb to my feet again, I see Lucian standing there between us, eyes glowing, fury radiating off him in lethal waves.
“Enough,” he growls.
My breath comes fast and wild. My entire body is shaking. Kayla sobs softly from the bed.
And for the first time, Vittoria looks…uncertain.
I swallow hard, chest heaving, trying to catch my breath, but all I can feel is the storm inside me. Kayla…alive. A vampire. And all this time, Lucian knew. He had to know. My stomach twists into a sick, furious knot.
He steps forward slightly, trying to block my view, trying to calm the chaos, and my blood boils hotter. “I…didn’t—”
I don’t let him finish. “Don’t lie to me!” I shout, voice raw, echoing off the walls. “All this time, you let her be turned, let me search for her, make me think she was dead!”
His jaw tightens, but he doesn’t respond and his silence says everything I need to know.
My pulse hammers in my ears. I glance at Vittoria, who is grinning with fangs out, and it only enrages me more.
“I’m tired of this, Lucian. I am not your Nell! I refuse to be manipulated and controlled. I am me! I will never be her!”
Lucian freezes, confusion and horror flashing across his face. “Monty, I—”
“No! You don’t get to say anything! You’ve done this before.
You did it with Nell. You molded her to your will.
You made her everything you wanted her to be.
And I…I see it now. You used Kayla to keep me tied to you.
I see exactly what you are, what you’ve done, and what you do. And I won’t be a part of it.”
I step back, my legs shaking. He looks at me, and the confirmation in his eyes makes me sick. He knows I know. He knows…
Hooking a finger under the collar, I rip it off with one swift tug and chuck it at his feet. “I’m done, Lucy—Lucian,” I whisper. “Master or not, I’m done with whatever this is.”
When I turn away, he doesn’t follow. Kayla doesn’t move either, and both facts sting sharper than the healing cuts Vittoria left across my face.
It’s time for me to face the bitter truth that Santiago was right.
None of this with Lucian was real.
None of it.