Chapter 27
Twenty-Seven
TALULLA
The moment my mother leaves the door unlocked, I get to work. After securing the ring in my pocket, I ease the door open and scan the hallway.
Empty. Just like she promised.
Stefan and Andrei are guarding Flynn—of course they are. They’re the best hunters my father has after me.
I might sound cocky, but it’s the truth. I’m the best one here, and I know exactly how to use that.
I make my way to the basement as silently as possible, every footstep deliberate, controlled. My pulse is steady despite the adrenaline flooding my system. This is what I was trained for—infiltration, precision, control.
Just not for this purpose.
I open the door, knowing exactly what I’ll find.
Two muscle-bound assholes who’ve spent years undressing me with their eyes, thinking they ever had a chance.
“Boys,” I purr, letting my voice drop into something sultry and dangerous. “I didn’t expect this time apart would make you get even hotter.”
The two hunters smirk at me, licking their lower lips like wolves circling prey.
Idiots.
“Talulla, what are you doing here?” Flynn’s voice echoes from the cell, sharp and strained. His eyes widen as they search mine, his jaw clenching as the two men approach me.
I can’t help but smile and wink at him—a silent promise that everything is under control.
“I came to say hi to my favorite boys around here, of course.” I gesture to the two dark-haired men, letting my hips sway just enough.
They walk with the arrogance only a hunter has, their eyes raking over me like I’m a piece of chocolate cake ready to be devoured. It doesn’t help my little acting job, knowing Flynn is foaming at the mouth, ready to rip them to shreds just for looking a little too long.
“Sweetheart, what a pleasure to see you back on the right side,” Andrei says, leaning in to leave a kiss on my cheek. His breath reeks of stale coffee and arrogance. “You look sexy as hell.”
Ew.
“I guess it is nice to be back, isn’t it?” I mutter—then knee Andrei in the balls and punch Stefan in the face in one fluid motion.
A syringe falls from Stefan’s pants as he drops to the floor, whining like a toddler losing his favorite stuffed animal.
“Oh, so you’re the asshole that drugged me,” I say, grabbing the syringe and sinking the needle into his neck. “How does it feel, bastard?”
I make sure there’s enough liquid left, then do the same to Andrei.
Both men crumple to the ground, unconscious.
Flynn’s eyes darken as his jaw falls open. He’s amused and surprised at the same time, and I love seeing how proud he looks when I get something done.
“Talulla, what are you doing?”
“Getting you out of here.”
His surprise shifts into something softer—vulnerable. To everyone else he might look like the scary, heartless vampire, but with me he can’t fake it. And I know exactly what he’s thinking.
“Listen, I know your mind is driving a hundred miles a minute—”
“We’re in Europe now. It’s kilometers per hour.”
“Let me finish.”
“Such impertinence.”
“Says the one who can’t even let me finish a sentence as I’m trying to break them free from a cell my father put them in.”
“You know, I’m starting to really like this bossy side of you.”
I snort. “You always did.”
“You were saying…”
“I know you think you’re not worthy of me. That I could never see you as more than an abomination, even if I’ve told you a thousand times that you’re not.”
“Why would you get me out of here when you know my connection to the Original? When I didn’t tell you from the start—”
“How about you let me choose how I feel on my own?”
“Talulla, I did things I’m not proud of.”
“And I was trained to kill you. What’s your point?”
“I deserve to be here. I’m an abomination. I am the monster your father let you believe I am.”
I shake my head, frustration bubbling up. “I can’t believe you’re trying to make me leave you here when you know very well my mother talked to me.”
His head tilts to the side. “What?”
“Flynn, love, I’m devoted to you, and absolutely no one else.”
“You believe me.”
“I can’t believe you’d even think I wouldn’t,” I say, resting my hands on my hips. “But you do have a lot of explaining to do.”
He nods. “I do.”
“And I know very well you love me just as much as I love you.”
At that, he snorts and shakes his head. “That would be incorrect.”
“What?”
His gaze fixates on the ground now, but not even that can hide the corners of Flynn’s mouth lifting into a smile. “I love you way more.”
I can’t help but roll my eyes, but I don’t waste time. I ask the question that’s been eating me up for the past two decades. “What happened to my grandmother?”
“Vlad,” he starts, clearing his throat. “The Original took the blame. That’s why he went into hiding right after.”
I nod, accepting the fact that my father made me hate a being for no reason at all. As per usual.
But I know there’s something more he’s not proud of. While I know he isn’t behind my Bunica’s death, I know someone close to him is.
“Who killed her then?”
Flynn sighs, then starts pacing around the cell, trying to find the words. “It was an accident,” he starts. “Or so I thought it was at the beginning,” he adds in a soft whisper.
“You’re not answering the question,” I say, a little harsher than I intended.
He chuckles. “Gods, if we get out of here, you can be this bossy whenever you want.”
I smile. “Only if you punish me well enough.”
“Always trying to get into my pants.”
“Flynn.”
He stops, his eyes meeting mine. I can see the pain he’s been keeping inside. The tempest in them.
“My brother.”
My eyes widen. “You have a brother?”
His eyes meet mine, and I can see the weight of centuries pressing down on him. “Had.”
“Oh.”
“He was turned right after me, and well—” He pauses, his jaw working. “He never took the transition well. He went crazy.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oliver was deranged. I thought finding someone would calm him down, but it just got worse.”
“Did his lover leave him or something?”
He shakes his head. “She got killed.”
“Oh shit.”
“And from that moment, he just wanted to end the Popescu family for good. Wanted to end every vampire hunter’s family.”
“Oh my god,” I say, covering my mouth with my hand.
The realization hits me like a freight train. Flynn’s been carrying this for over twenty years. The guilt. The shame. The knowledge that his own blood killed my grandmother.
“Vladimir and I thought he went quiet, that he was done… Until your grandmother’s accident. I begged Vlad to help me get him out of there, that I would take care of it. I just wanted to get my brother back.”
“But he didn’t come back.”
His lips turn into a thin line. “No, he didn’t.”
“Flynn—”
“Vlad took the blame because he cared for me. Ironic, isn’t it? The man that turned me into a monster actually cared for me. He knew Oliver was doomed, but he still took the blame and spent the last twenty-two years in hiding because of it.”
“You were there that day.”
His eyes find mine. “I was.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want you to possibly relive such a traumatic event.”
“Maybe that’s why I started to get these nightmares.”
He nods. “Very possible.”
“You got me out of there, didn’t you?”
He shakes his head. “Don’t try to portray me as a hero, Talulla.”
“You could have told me you knew me.”
Flynn chuckles at that. “Knew you? I saw you for about five seconds. The time it took me to get you out of there and hand you over to your mother. I was in survival mode, I—” He sighs. “I just had to get you out of there and deal with the rest.”
I let it go. “What happened to your brother?”
“I killed him,” he tells me, his voice cold and firm. “And I should have done it centuries ago.”
I don’t even realize I’m tearing up until I feel Flynn’s fingers catching one, drawing a line down my cheek.
The weight of it crashes over me—what he’s carried, what he’s done, what he’s sacrificed. Centuries of guilt and grief and loneliness, and he still chose to protect me. To save me.
He’s been alone for so long.
And now he thinks he deserves to rot in this cell.
I drop to my knees and stare at the ground, my vision blurring.
“Little hunter, are you okay?” Flynn’s concerned voice resonates in my ears.
I’m more than okay. And if I had any doubt before, I certainly have none now.
My body moves on autopilot. I put my head between the bars and look up at my vampire. The man who is part of my soul—hell, maybe he’s all of my soul. The man who owns my mind and body and venerates every second of it.
I’m his, and he’s mine, and I have to remind him of that before we get to the plan I have in mind.
“I’m yours, Flynn.”
He tilts his head to the side. The bulge in his trousers tells me he’s enjoying the sight of me on my knees for him. “And I’m yours, Talulla. Always.”
The corner of my lips lift. “Let me show you.”
“What do you mean?” Flynn asks, even though he knows exactly what’s about to happen.
“I’m here, on my knees, with my head between these silver bars that separate us.”
“Tal.”
I shake my head. “Let me consecrate myself to you.”
His eyes widen as realization hits him. I need him now, like this. In a desperate situation, I still need to show him that I’m the same girl who couldn’t get away from his essence.
He positions himself right in front of me. Unbuckling his belt fast, I unbutton his black trousers with ease and gently pull them down just enough. Feeling his cold skin under mine feels like fire, and I’m ready to light up.
“Talulla, you don’t have to do this. I know you love—”
“I need this, Flynn.” I look up at him. “I need this before I tell you how we’re getting out of here.”
That’s all he needs to hear before he gets his boxers down, and his throbbing cock unleashes right in front of my face.
Gods.
My mouth waters at the sight of it, and I waste no time. I wrap my hands around his shaft, and after licking the tip—tasting salt and something uniquely him—I take him down to the base.
Flynn groans as soon as I start twirling my tongue around his length, the sound raw and guttural.
“No one, and I mean no one, can take my dick as well as you do,” he praises as I continue to let him fuck my mouth.