“Elliot,” I snap.
“Elliot. You are going through changes. Your body is trying to adjust to my blood. It’s going to take time.”
“W-what?” His words spin within me and panic begins to climb up my throat.
“I am your maker now. You are mine, my responsibility to teach, to control. At least until you settle into this new version of yourself.”
The seconds before I reopened my eyes slam into me like a freight train—Benicio de Santis, the ambush, the gun…
And I…died.
But then…how am I notdead?
I blink, gaze sharpening on the vampire in front of me.No.He didn’t. He wouldn’t— He?—
White-hot fury blazes inside my chest. “You… You turned me…into…into…” It can’t be true.It can’t be true.“You made me like you?”
“You were dying.” He gets off me and pulls me to my feet. It seems leisurely, slow, but I think it’s fast. Preternaturally so.
I think about Nell, the now-dead love he could’ve saved. He could have given her the lifeblood of the vampire, the thing that scrapes through my veins, changing me from within, making me mad with hunger. Lucian could have done that. But he didn’t. He said he loved her. He gave her a choice and respected her decision.
Not me. He didn’t givemea choice. He turned me.
Bitterness bubbles. The only thing overpowering the fury is this unrelenting hunger. It’s a fever in my veins, a raging tornado in my mind.
It’s all I can think of.
“I want tofeed,” I say, and I hate how desperate my voice sounds.
“We’re going back to VMR,” he replies.
“To eat?”
He doesn’t say a word, just drags me behind him, out of the warehouse and into a waiting car. I claw at the door the moment he lets me go, but it’s locked, and even though power burstsinside me, I can’t get out. I’m like a fumbling newborn lamb, too big for my new legs but full of energy, and it’s frustrating.
“I don’t want to go to VMR!” I’m shouting now. “You made me, Lucian! I need to eat. You can’t let me starve! You fucking?—”
He clicks his fingers.
“—bastard…”
As darkness swirls behind my eyes, fear hits me and my stomach tightens. Then I drop head-first into unconsciousness.
When I wake, we’re not in the car anymore.
For a wild moment, the double click of Lucian’s fingers rings through my bones and nausea roils.
What the fuck just happened? He did something. Used his power over me.
Is he magic?
This is insane.
I snarl, swinging around, taking in my surroundings.
The room isn’t that big. And it’s empty. White walls and floor and no windows.
Lucian is there, watching me with his dark eyes, and he stands between me and the door.
