Julian
I stand in front of the mirror in my bathroom, cheeks red, breathing elevated, eyes shining from the pleasure still humming inside me. I look so deliciously disheveled.
Gods, what have I done? I crossed a line I can’t uncross. I fucked Isidoro.
Or did he fuck me?
This wasn’t supposed to happen. But damn, he was so hot. So turned on for me… and because of me.
I suck in a breath, my cock already hard. He was so fucking bossy as he took it. My hand reaches down, fingering the head. So tight, so hot, so decadent. I jack myself off, my mind a mess. Who would’ve thought that the king of the vampires is so dominant while taking it in the ass?
Glaring at my reflection, I chase after the high, coming with a suppressed growl that surprises even me.
No one has messed with my head like this before.
I’m supposed to hate this man, even if we are temporarily allies and even if he’s objectively the most handsome vampire to grace this earth, not hate-fuck him.
Or get hate-fucked by him. I’m not sure anymore who fucked whom, even if my cock was inside him.
I slow down my strokes as my mini orgasm passes. It’s nothing like spilling inside him. It’s bland, unexciting, but at least it takes off the edge and clears my mind.
Seriously, what the fuck am I gonna do now?
Grinning, I snort. I guess I’m hiding a superweapon in my pants, heh. He just couldn’t resist it.
No. I shake my head. Yes. This is all his fault. I’m the victim here. We are still enemies, and this truce is only temporary. I need to remember that. I got into this whole mess because of him and so I could survive. I shouldn’t let myself get carried away just because he’s suddenly nicer.
Snarling, I wash myself and put on some underwear, then leave my bathroom.
“Took you long enough,” Isidoro says nonchalantly, perching his ass on the edge of my desk.
I tense instinctively, flashing my incisors as I ball my fists. “What are you doing here?”
He’s wearing a satin red robe and his hair looks damp. How long has he been here for? How much did he hear?
“I got word from the lab,” he says, lifting his phone. “I thought you’d like to hear what they have to say. Samuel is setting up a video call in the media room.”
I nod enthusiastically, grabbing the sweatpants and hoodie hoisted over a chair. Finally! This is perfect. We are finally making some progress, which will take my mind off this annoyingly pretty man. And he didn’t bring up the sex, either. Good. Maybe we can just pretend it never happened.
“Let’s go!” I rush out of the room, not waiting to see if he follows.
“Mr. Corvath, Sire,” Samuel says, bobbing his head as we walk into the media room. “Everything is ready. Shall I call the lab?”
Ria, who’s sitting in the middle of the row of chairs in front of the massive screen, waves me over.
“Yes, please! Let’s get started,” I toss, beelining toward her.
I can feel Isidoro behind me, his presence stronger than usual, more distracting. Or maybe I’m just more conscious of it. Jesus, stop thinking about it, Julian. Focus on the important things.
I sit to Ria’s left, which leaves the seat to her right for Isidoro. He takes it, and I pretend I don’t notice his displeased expression when our gazes clash for a second as Samuel facilitates the video call.
“Mr. Altamirano, good evening. Apologies for the late hour, but I thought you’d want to hear this ASAP,” a middle-aged human woman says, her strawberry blond hair tied in a messy bun.
Isidoro lifts his arm, waving off her concerns. “I appreciate you expediting this, Clara. I know how busy you are.”
She smiles at the camera through her oversized round glasses, then shifts the focus to the examination table next to her.
“Right. I’ll get straight to it then. We’ve never seen anything like this before.
Initially, we thought it was some kind of a ghoul, maybe one of those mongrels you get when they inbreed, but that’s not it.
It’s an unknown hybrid, and not the kind you get when you cross one of them with another supernatural being.
We found traces of high-level mutations, gene-splicing, neural manipulations, that sort of thing.
All very unnatural. This thing was engineered. It’s man-made.”
Goosebumps crawl all over my arms. Man-made? Who would create a savage monster like this? Why? For what purpose? I glance at Ria, her lips pressed into a tight line and her fingers digging into the chair’s armrests. And why would Ria’s father be involved in it?
Isidoro stands, pacing to the front of the room. He studies the creature’s open chest in the screen’s corner. “Its behavior and actions were very erratic, almost like it was rampaging…”
Clara nods, the camera shaking a little. “Yes. We discovered brain deterioration and a few indications that whatever procedure was performed on it didn’t go without side-effects. I’m positive this is a failed version they simply kept as a test subject.”
“A failed version?” I shoot up from my seat.
Her green eyes dart to me. “I’m sorry, you are?”
“My husband,” Isidoro jumps in, his voice low and authoritative. “Clara, elaborate.”
Recognition passes over her face and she nods.
“The level of manipulation required to create such a hybrid… This wasn’t done just by anyone.
We’re talking about a massive operation, experts, scientists, equipment, enough money to stay under the radar and pay off officials.
If I had to guess, this isn’t the only failed attempt either. Just the one you came across.”
Came across isn’t exactly how I’d describe this.
We found it, even though everything suggests it was supposed to remain hidden.
My mind flashes back to the Red Leaf, the abandoned quarry, the cots in the hideout, the boxes of uniforms we found in the clothes factory.
There are more like the creature out there, I can feel it.
Did my father know? What was he doing at the Red Leaf, visiting one of them?
“What does any of this have to do with my father? Or Ria’s?” I huff out, frustrated and feeling like a thousand ants are skittering under my skin.
The woman on the screen shrugs. “That I can’t tell you.”
Fear stabs me. It can’t have been a coincidence, my father had no reason to go to an abandoned spice factory. He went there to meet someone, I’m convinced of that, maybe to see the creature… “And the blood and bones? Who did they belong to?
“A human male, early sixties. He went missing three weeks ago. It doesn’t seem to be related. Probably a food source. But…” Clara hesitates, her sharp jaw clenching.
“What is it?” Isidoro demands, arms crossed as he remains by the screen.
“We found traces of iridium.”
“We know,” I butt in, exhaling through my nose. “The claws were coated in it and obsidian. Our injuries are taking ages to heal.”
“No. I mean inside its system.” She moves the camera again, aiming it at a dish with this weird-looking fleshy pouch thing that’s been cut in the middle.
Something oozes from the incision. “We found a gland inside it, full of iridium-enriched venom and obsidian particles. Its claws weren’t coated with it, but rather, secreting it. ”
I rub my hip, swallowing hard, my gaze straying to Isidoro, who’s watching me with shiver-inducing concentration.
Jesus. We got lucky, didn’t we? Had our attacker used more of this venom, no amount of blood and healing would’ve helped us.
If the iridium had spread further and deeper, we’d be dying a slow death, and no one would be able to help us.
“Clara, this is all very concerning,” Isidoro says eventually as the air in the room grows tense and heavy. “It almost sounds like someone intended to create a super killer targeting us, vampires, specifically.”
There is a noise, like she’s moving her chair, and then her face enters the screen again.
“I cannot confirm that, but that’s my theory, too.
It got me thinking…” She swivels around, taking out a bunch of reports.
“I made some calls here and there and went through all the cases that seemed similar. I found no reports that match this creature’s description or ones where the victim died of causes that could be traced to a hybrid like this.
If it is any consolation, this seems to still be very much contained. ”
I see where she’s coming from, but I’m not so sure about the contained part.
If whoever killed my father is connected to this creature, then what’s to say the non-failed version wasn’t used in his murder?
And if it was, then none of us is safe anymore.
Not just me or Isidoro, the entirety of the vampire race.
And they don’t even know about this danger because Isidoro and I lied that he’s the one who killed my father.
“Any idea who might be behind this?” Ria pipes up, her expression strained to be neutral.
Clara aims a sympathetic look at her. “I’m afraid not. Whoever they are, they’ve made sure to cover their tracks.”
“Thank you, Clara. You’ve been most helpful.” Isidoro smiles, but it looks forced.
“Mr. Altamirano, if you choose to pursue this, be careful. There’s no telling what else might be out there.” Clara hangs up, the big screen losing its brightness and throwing the room into a foreboding gloom.
“Could this be werewolves?” Ria poses, frowning at Isidoro. “My father worked with a few, mostly business partnerships in Europe, but perhaps it went beyond that… They’ve always had a thing against vampires sitting at the top in the Americas.”
Isidoro leans his shoulder against the wall. “That might be so, but I don’t think it’s them. It’s too elaborate, too planned. And it seems to have been going on for a while. They don’t have the patience for such methods.”