I might have been turned into one of the vile creatures and crave blood as though it’s all the drugs in the world, but I’m aware of what I am.
What I can do.
What I could do.
Like find Kayla.
What steps out of the elevator finally is something I want even more than escape.
Lucian.
It infuriates me to the point my vision blurs.
“Where’s my friend?” I demand.
Behind him is the redheaded vampire, Vittoria. Cold, calculating. I didn’t entirely understand her when I was human. Now?
I do.
The cold she exudes streaks through me, too. But I don’t want to be like her. I don’t want to lose my humanity completely. When I was first turned, I didn’t care. But after the incident with the child…
Vittoria flips her hair over her shoulder and gives me a small, knowing smile. “Your friend?”
“Vittoria.” One word from Lucian. A warning. One she heeds.
I’m not sure why. She’s dangerous. Very much so, and it’s a bright thing I can almost see now that I’m one of them.
She could walk away from him. She doesn’t like his control, his owning her. At least, not all the time.
“Your latest toy might have a lot of friends,” Vittoria says, dripping sarcasm.
I think it’s the wordtoy, or maybe the connotations of that wordlatest, but I take a great step toward her, fists balled, wanting to pound her into pulp. But I’m yanked back by the arm, the oxygen leaving my lungs with a whoosh as I land hard against the solid form of Lucian.
“Calm down, Monty,” he mutters against my ear, the smoky, delicious scent of him tying knots around me. I try not to breathe him in too deep. I start to buck but his hand tightens a littlemore. “If you want freedom, being out of control isn’t the way to do it. Show me you’re still you.”
“I’m fine. I’m good.”
If I want to find my friend—my reason for being here, the thing that’ll make this horrendous turn of events worth it—I need to do what he says.
Show control.
No matter how hard it is.
“You can put me down,” I say.
He pauses, his mouth against my hair, the heat of him on my throat.
Strange how he’s hotter to me now that I’m turned.
Maybe it’s a vampire thing.
There isn’t exactly a handbook on it.
“You’ll learn to fight and not waste energy,” Vittoria says, sounding bored. “And you’ll learnquicklynot to mess with me. That is, if you value your life.”
“Where’s my friend, Kayla?”
“She’s a broken record, Lucian,” Vittoria says. “And I don’t know this friend. I think your problems are bigger than some fucking human friendship. After all, it’s not like trying to spy on us is now going to work.”
