I sigh. I don’t have time for this.
“Vittoria?”
She continues to scroll on her phone, uncaring. “I’m not up to a thing. No feeding sprees. Tenebris is pristine.”
“You’re to keep it that way. No more eating interns or people within these walls on purpose or by mistake. If you must, there are those who need to be disposed of?—”
Vittoria shudders. “I’d rather stake myself, Lucian.”
Maybe.
“And you?” she asks.
“What about me?”
“When are you making a decision about your princess?”
“She’s one of us now,” I say, growling. “No decision to make.”
“Elliot’s a wildcard. And you’ve got her in a collar to control her. Not very PC. Not very smart. Lie to her about her friend, and then set up all the rules you need. Control her to within an inch of her unlife.” She sniffs. “That’s what I’d do.”
“I didn’t do such things to you.”
Vittoria hesitates. “I didn’t need that. I understood straight away. The problem with her is that she doesn’t want the gift. You made the choice for her, so there’s resentment. She’s always been strong-willed, and that’ll make her defiant. Reckless. That type is beyond dangerous as vampires. They’re hard to control.”
She’s right.
Elliot’s been able to resist me from the beginning, the glamour, the mesmerizing, the orders. Sex is easy with her. An addiction. But control?
I look down at my phone and see a new message from scheduling. “Buckle up, Vittoria, we have an event tonight.”
“Not interested.”
“You will when you see who it is.”
She crowds me, even though she could read it on her own phone. “It’s just some mafia family we don’t deal with, one whokeeps out of our way. They have other cities. I know Tenebris is?—”
“No. Not them,” I say as she goes still, her gaze locking on another name. “Raleigh.”
Her mouth twists in disgust. “Rogues.”
I don’t point out the hate-fueled years-long affair she and Raleigh had. We might not like his misfit gang of newly turned vampires, calling for our kind to step into the light and live among humans as equals, and they might not like our reclusive ways, but we’re all still vampires.
We supposedly get along now, if you call constantly circling and policing each other a partnership. The Rogues have only gained more numbers in the last few years, but not enough to overwhelm us. They’re being closely watched to make sure they don’t expose us all because that would result in the immediate wipe out of their little group.
So yes, not enemies but not exactly friendly, either.
“Not just them,” I say. “Look again.”
She does.
Then she sees the name of the person hosting this little engagement party for a mafia don’s daughter and the son of a billionaire.
“Santiago.” She frowns. “What the fuck is he doing here?”
Good question.
“I doubt it’s just to be host to a human couple,” I say.
