24. Raven
CHAPTER 24
RAVEN
Lucien blinks at me. “Excuse me?”
“I said, why the fuck would you do that?”
“I heard what you said. I just meant—Well.” Lucien cocks his head to the side and frowns. “Do you not want me to leave?”
“Why on Earth would I want that?”
He lets out a frustrated sigh. “You must be terrified of me.”
“Why?” After everything we’ve been through, Lucien’s the last person I feel any fear toward.
“Because of what I am!” he explodes, hands waving madly in front of him. “Because of what I’m capable of and what I’m capable of bringing others to do.”
“None of this was your fault!” My voice wobbles slightly. “You can’t blame yourself for what Warren did. I’m alive because of you, Lucien. Don’t forget that.”
He shakes his head, clearly not listening. “I kill people, Raven. I end their lives and drain them of their blood. I’m a monster.”
“No.” I step forward and reach up to hold his face in my hands. “You’re not a monster, Lucien. Warren was a monster, but not you.” He tries to jerk away from my touch, but I hold steady. “You’re right; you do kill people.”
Lucien flinches.
“But you do it for survival and you do it as humanely as you can,” I continue. “I can’t hate you or judge you for your instincts. Like I said, it’s not like I’m a vegetarian.”
Lucien’s lip quirks upward ever so slightly. “Those are not exactly two equal comparisons.”
I shrug. “Apples and oranges.”
“Are you saying you don’t mind if, once a week or so, I disappear into the night and?—”
“It’ll take some getting used to,” I say, cutting him off before he can get too graphic. “I won’t lie about that. And maybe we can find some alternatives. Like blood banks or…or me.”
“I can’t get a full feed from you, Raven,” he says quietly. “As glorious as you taste, it’ll only be enough to satiate me for a short amount of time. It would be like eating a bite or two from a meal and never eating more. Eventually, the hunger will take over. I’ll need to feed fully at least once a month.”
Once a month.
I nod. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay,” I say. I bring one hand down and place it over his heart. “This is who you are, Lucien. I don’t think you’re a monster. I don’t think you’re evil. I think you’re someone just trying to survive. To live.”
Lucien’s frown melts away into a soft smile. He brings one hand up to cover mine while the other settles in the small of my back and pulls me into him.
“We can figure it out,” I finish.
Lucien’s smile widens, showing off fangs that make my heart thud for totally inappropriate reasons. “Together,” he says.
“Together,” I agree.
His eyes flutter shut, and I follow suit. But instead of losing myself in the familiar, soft touch of his lips against mine, Lucien abruptly pulls away.
“Wh—” I manage to get out before my door is blown off its hinges for a second time. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
The door clatters to the floor, revealing a tall man standing in the doorway. He’s got warm, brown skin and a head of neat curls complete with an immaculate shape-up.
“I swear it just fell off,” the man says, looking suitably sheepish. He glances between the two of us, still standing in an awkward embrace. “Am I interrupting something?”
“Who the hell are you?” I snap at the exact same time Lucien says:
“Blaine?”
Blaine?
Blaine grins. “You alright, Luc?”
I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Blaine, Lucien’s pseudo-brother, is standing in my doorway when I hear a soft cough.
“Oh, sorry,” Blaine says before hurriedly stepping to the side.
A small woman is standing behind him. She’s about half Lucien’s height, dressed in a perfectly tailored pastel peach pantsuit with a ruffled white blouse and a pair of ornately patterned heeled pumps. Her hair is coiffed to perfection in an updo that wouldn’t look out of place on a very wealthy woman in the forties.
She steps in front of Blaine, arches a thin brow at the two of us, and then says, “May we come in?”
I’m at a complete loss, so I turn to Lucien, but all he has to say—or squawk, rather—is:
“Mother?”