“Smart.” I gulp down the last bag, feeling stronger and more like myself already. When I’m done, I wipe my mouth with the handkerchief in my suit pocket and hand the young vampire the empty bags. When he bows to me again, Vittoria snarls, causing him to scurry back down the storage hallway and out of sight.But she seems satisfied with herself as we take the elevator to the main work floors.
It must be early morning since the people we pass are mostly human. VMR never sleeps, and there are still shows to put on, podcasts to tape, and articles to write in the daylight hours.
As Vittoria and I walk to my office, many of them pause what they are doing to stare at us. Frozen in place and watching our every move. They may not know exactly what we are, but they know we are different. Prey can sense a predator, no matter what the species.
I have no problem ignoring them. Vittoria, on the other hand, sneers until they glance away and pretend to be busy again.
When we enter my office, I walk over to my desk. “We’ll have to wait until nightfall to visit Diamond Hills,” I say. “Hopefully de Santis’s people don’t clear out before then.”
“If Andrew did his job right, word shouldn’t have traveled?—”
“Hold on.” My phone buzzes, and I pull it from my pocket. It’s a text from the very vampire himself.
Andrew
Got it done before dawn. Spotless in the warehouse. Not a drop of blood. What do you want done with the bodies?
Me
I’ll get back to you. Give me ten.
Andrew
Alright.
I sigh, putting my phone away. My brain’s still a bit fuzzy, but I’m starting to suspect it isn’t from the blood loss like I originally thought. It’s something else.
The possibility of almost losing Elliot had rocked me. Clouded my judgement. Made me weak. It’s the closest to human I’ve felt in a couple hundred years. And that scares me.
Everything had happened so fast, I?—
Vittoria snaps her fingers in my face, jolting me out of my thoughts. “Lucian. Hello?”
I blink and focus on her. “Yes?”
“I asked you what Andrew wanted?” she says, irritated. “Maybe we should have gotten you three more bags.”
“I’m fine,” I say, “and he wanted to know what to do with the bodies.”
“Dump them. Burn them. Rip them to shreds and bury the pieces across the States,” she replies. “What a dumb question. He can’t figure that out on his own?”
Moving to the sofa, I sit, lean my head back, and close my eyes. All I can think about is her. She’s a part of me now more than she was before, a constant thrum against my senses.
I don’t know how long I stay like that. The room is silent, and for a moment I wonder if Vittoria left my office, but then I sense her hovering close. Her presence is like a prickle down my spine.
“I have something that may cheer you up,” she whispers, her breath tickling across my face. When I open my eyes, she’s right there, her face mere inches from mine, perched on the couch like a cat. Not touching me, just perfectly balanced with one leg on the armrest and the other on the cushion beside me. Her crimson lips are pulled back in a smile.
I cock my head. “And what is that?”
“Before I ate one of de Santis’s men—” She pauses and her grin widens. “—he gave me some information.”
“Do not tease me, Vittoria.”
Carefully, methodically, she steps off the couch to stand in front of me. “Okay, okay. As we already know, Benicio de Santis had a lot of enemies. And he was powerful.”
I nod. “He was the king of crime in Tenebris City who had a strange obsession with me.”
“Who doesn’t nowadays?” She snorts. “But de Santis had one enemy in particular that his lackey wouldn’t shut up about. One he tried to bribe me with in exchange for his life.”
