26. A blood bag with a bendy straw.`
Chapter twenty-six
A blood bag with a bendy straw...`
Luka
M ovement pulled Luka from deep sleep—the first genuine rest he managed since finding Nick bleeding in that junkyard. He heard shifting fabric, the soft exhale of someone settling deeper into slumber. Nick moving in his sleep, his drowsy mind supplied, and contentment purred through his chest.
The scent that lulled him to sleep remained unchanged: Nick’s floral notes mixed with the lingering warmth of their intimacy. His beast stretched lazily, satisfied beyond measure. Ours. Protected. Fed. Content.
But when Luka cracked his eyes open, expecting to see the top of Nick’s head tucked beneath his chin, he found himself staring at Ophelia Graves instead.
She crouched barely three feet away on Nick’s side of their nest, perfectly balanced on the balls of her feet like some sort of predatory bird.
In her hands, she held a blood bag with a bendy straw poking out the top—presented like a child’s juice box.
Her dark eyes squinted at him with the concentrated focus of someone solving a particularly irritating puzzle.
“This sleeping arrangement,”she said in her flat, high-pitched voice,“is not what I learned about in health class back in high school.”
Luka blinked slowly, his mind catching up with the surreal image.
In his arms, Nick remained deeply asleep, cradled against Luka’s chest, breath even and warm where his head rested in the curve of Luka’s shoulder.
Looking down at their positioning, Luka could see whatcaught Ophelia’s attention: Nickwasclothed, having pulled his pants back on, while Luka remained nude beneath the thin sheet thathadslippeddown to his waist.
?Quiet,?he said, though his movements remained gentle to avoid disturbing Nick.
Ophelia held up the blood bag in response, waggling it at him.“Brought you breakfast.”
Nick stirred as the security of Luka’s embrace disappeared, but settled back into sleep when Luka’s hand briefly smoothed over his hair. The sight made something tender twist in Luka’s chest—even unconscious, Nick sought comfort and warmth rather than defensiveness.
Luka made no effort to hide his nudity as he stood. He simply didn’t care about such things, and Ophelia’s expression didn’t shift at all—shewasrarely scandalized by anything.
He accepted the blood bag with a grateful nod, then padded to where his clothes lay scattered across the floor. As he bent to retrieve his jeans, he gestured for Ophelia to follow him into the hallway.
She lingered instead, her unsettling gaze fixed on Nick’s sleeping form.“I can’t believe someone who looks that patheticwaswith the Daylight Society.”
The words carried her typical monotone delivery, but Luka caught the genuine confusion underneath. She reached toward Nick’s arm where a scar peeked out from beneath his sleeve, curiosity overriding consideration.
Luka’s hand shot out, catching her wrist before she could make contact. He gave her a look that conveyed volumes: Don’t. Touch. Him.
Something flashed across Ophelia’s blank features—not quite shame, but close enough to pass for it in her emotional vocabulary. She gave a single, sharp nod of understanding and followed him from the room.
Lukawasstill pulling his jeans up when Marcus emerged from the kitchen, a mug halfway to his lips. The vampire froze, amber eyes widening as he took in Luka’s state of undress and Ophelia’s presence.
“I—”Marcus began, then stopped, looking thrown for a loop.
But then Marcus set the mug down and opened his arms.“Come here.”
He stepped into Marcus’s embrace, feeling arms thatprotected their makeshift family for decades wrap around him with familiar strength. “Do you need someone to talk to?”Marcus asked softly.
Relief flooded through Luka’s chest like cool water.
Yes. He needed that. The past weekshadbeen a cascade of crisis and connection, life-altering decisions made on instinct rather than consideration.
His beastfound its match in Nick, but his human mind craved processing with someone who understood the complexities of caring for broken humans.
Luka nodded against Marcus’s shoulder, then pulled back to sign,?Yes. Please.?
Marcus gestured toward the comfortable seating area, his movements carrying the careful consideration of someone who navigated delicate conversations for two centuries.
Opheliahadalready claimed the armchair furthest from the kitchen, blood bag abandoned on the coffee table as she pulled out her phone with the studied disinterest of a teenager.
“Privacy?”Marcus asked, glance flicking between Luka and his adoptive daughter.
Ophelia didn’t look up from her screen.“I’m not listening. I’m texting Vincent about whether Adam’s therapist counts as a medical professional for insurance purposes.”
Marcus settled onto the leather couch, leaving space for Luka to choose his distance.“Insurance?”
“Adam wants to add Vincent as his emergency contact,”Ophelia said in her flat tone.
“His therapist says this indicates ‘healthy relationship development.’ Vincent is concerned this means Adam expects him to fill out paperwork and remember his blood type.”She paused, glancing up with those unsettling blank eyes.
“I told him Adam’s blood type is probably ‘caffeinated.’”
Luka claimed the opposite end of the couch, drawing his knees up and wrapping his arms around them. The blood bag sat ignored on the table—he should drink it, knew his body needed the nutrition, but conversation felt more urgent than feeding.
Marcus noticed his hesitation.“Drink first, talk after. I’m not going anywhere.”
Luka nodded and reached for the blood bag, taking a tentative sip.
The process felt mechanical—sterile plastic and processed nutrition that always carried a faint bitter undertone no matter how carefully itwasstored.
Nothing like Nick’s blood, whichhadbeen a revelation of jasmine and vanilla, sea salt and plums somehow.
This felt like eating medicine instead of sharing intimacy.
Still, his body needed it. The nutrition spread through his system, chasing away the weakness thathadbeen building for weeks.
“I haven’t heard your voice in twenty-five years,”Marcus said.“Itwasquite a surprise.”
Heseldom found a reason to use his voice around Marcus—he had never really seen the point in hurting himself when they communicated so effectively through sign. The realization felt strange, highlighting how much hecompartmentalized the pain of speech over the decades.
?Itwasimportant in the moment,?he said after setting the blood bag down.
Marcus waited quietly and patiently, the way he always did—never pushing, never demanding more than Lukawaswilling to share. Itwasone of the things thatmade their friendship endure for so long.
Ophelia’s voice cut through the silence with characteristic bluntness, “So is anyone going to explain to me why he looks like that?”
Both vampires turned toward her. Shehadn’tlookedup from her phone, but her tone carried curiosity rather than judgment.
Marcus used her question as a segue, leaning forward.
“What happened, Luka? I remember Nicoletti being cruel, like all the old ones are, but people as damaged as Nick never survived long around the ancient vampires in Chicago. Theyweregenerally kept by other old ones who treated them as...”He paused, searching for diplomatic phrasing.
“Display pieces. Status symbols. I never saw that level of breaking around Nicoletti before we left.”
Marcus lowered his voice, though Opheliawasclearly listening.“Caleb didn’t feel comfortable telling me what he talked about with his brother, and I’m respecting that. But from the perspective of protecting this family, I need to know how broken he is and if he’s still a threat.”
Luka forced himself to think past the rage that surfaced when he thought what may have happened, to catalog what he observed. But clinical detachment felt impossible when describing whathadbeen done to Nick.
?The scarring covers his whole body,?Luka said, his hands shaking.?Words carved into his skin like hewasproperty. A brand with that bastard’s seal. Bite marks that show hewasfighting or restrained during feeding.?
Marcus’s jaw tightened, but he remained silent.
?Everything about his body tells the same story—prolonged captivity, systematic breaking.?Luka’s signs became sharper, more violent.?Two years of being treated like an object rather than a person.?
Opheliastopped pretending to text, her dark eyes fixed on Luka with unusual focus.
?His mind is fucking shattered,?Luka continued, grimacing as he did.?It’s like he has three distinct pieces of himself. The Society hunter, the thing Nicoletti made him, and buried underneath all that shit is who he really is.?
“Systematic conditioning,”Marcus said.“Like the pets the old ones kept, but more thorough.”
?Worse than pets,?Luka said, his hands trembling with controlled rage.?Pets got treats sometimes. Got told theyweregood. Nickwastorturedinto compliance. Broken down piece by piece, then rebuilt into something that couldn’t fucking exist without permission to breathe.?
Marcus absorbed this information with the grim understanding of someone who knewthe worst of vampire nature.“So a survival mechanism?”
?Yes. But there’s more.?Luka’s hands stilled for a moment, his beast stirring uneasily at having to voice what he suspected.
?His reactions to being touched, to small spaces, to anyone with authority.
The way he flinches like he’s expecting to be hit.
The way his body just... surrenders when he’s overwhelmed. ?
Luka’s hands clenched into fists before he forced them to continue signing.?I think Nicoletti raped him, repeatedly, and turned it into conditioning so deep that Nick’s body betrays him even when his mind knows he’s safe.?
The silence that followedwasprofound. Even Ophelia had gonecompletely still, her usual detached expression replaced by something that might have been horror.
Marcuswasquiet for a long moment, processing. Then his expression shifted to something almost worse than rage—confusion mixed with sick understanding.
“But that raises a question,”Marcus said slowly.“If the Society found him in that state—broken, conditioned into absolute submission—how did they turn him into a hunter? Into someone cold enough to torture his own brother without hesitation?”
The question hit Luka like ice water. His mind conjured the image: Nick, kneeling, hands positioned to cause himself pain, waiting for orders, not moving until given permission. A shattered thing thathadbeen trained to seek approval through absolute compliance.
What did they do to him?
The thought spiraled before Luka could stop it. If Nickhadbeen that broken, that desperate for direction, whathadthe Society done to reshape him into a weapon? What new tormentshadthey layered onto the foundation of Gianmarco’s conditioning?
Stop . His beast spoke with sharp authority, Stop thinking about it . Can’t imagine more pain for him . Hurts too muc h.
Luka’s hands stilled mid-sign, his torso seizing with something that felt like physical agony. His heart shouldn’t hurt at all—vampire heartsweresupposedto be still, functional only when needed. But something in his chestwasclenching, twisting, making it hard to think.
Don’t think about what they did to break him again. Focus on anything else.
?I need to ask you something,?Luka began,?about being drawn to humans.?
Marcus’s eyebrows rose with understanding and perhaps a touch of relief.“What about it?”
?How did you know? With your human. How did you know itwasreal and not just...?Luka paused, searching for the right word.?Not just the beast’s desire??
“Ah.”Marcus settled back into the couch cushions, amber eyes soft with memory.“You’re wondering if what you feel for Nick is genuine or if it’s your beast responding to his vulnerability.”
?Yes. And no.?Luka’s hands stilled for a moment.?My beast is certain. Keeps saying he’s... mine. But I need to understand the difference between claiming someone because they’re broken and...?
“And recognizing someone who chooses you back,”Marcus finished.
?My beast keeps calling him...?Luka paused, feeling awkward about the term.
Marcus’s expression softened with understanding.“Mate? Those are the words that come to mind?”
“The beast uses those words because it doesn’t understand complexity.
I don’t like that terminology myself—it implies an inevitability to the relationship, like humans lack the agency to resist becoming involved with us.
”His amber eyes grew serious.“Humans always have choice, even when our beasts insist otherwise. That’s what makes their choices meaningful. ”
The certainty in those words settled into Luka’s bones like truth. His beasthadn’tbeen responding to Nick’s vulnerability or his need for protection. Ithadbeen responding to the fundamental compatibility, the way Nick’s choices and Luka’s nature aligned like puzzle pieces.
?What about the timing??Luka asked.?Meeting him when hewasso damaged, when he needed help. Doesn’t that complicate things??
“It would if you tried to fix him,”Marcus said with quiet wisdom.“If you gave him choices and waited for him to choose you back, that’s the difference between claiming and recognizing.”
Ophelia spoke up without looking away from her phone:“Also, hewastrying to kill you. Hard to argue you took advantage of someone whowashunting you with a crossbow.”
Both vampires looked at her in surprise, then Marcus began to chuckle.“Shehasa point. Traditional predator-prey dynamics don’t really apply when the ‘prey’ is attempting to murder you.”