“We don’t need to act tonight,” I say. “I’m going to look into who the biggest enemy of de Santis is, and if there isn’t one, we’ll create a straight-up power grab gone wrong.”
“For the cops,” she says.
I nod.
“Good,” she says. “And if someone else does want another fight?”
I smile, spread my hands. “Bring it the fuck on.”
Chapter
Three
Elliot
Idon’t know how long I’ve been locked up. The collar around my neck burns. The lack of fresh blood direct from the source tortures. The mindless rages drain me.
And though it all, I cling to one thing.
I fucking hate Lucian Vale for doing this to me.
My stomach hurts, an ache that gnaws at me, and I try to ignore the hunger that wants to consume and claim me as its own.
I could easily sink down—and there’s a part of me that wants that.
But the other side beckons, too. Control. Using my hate and anger and lust for blood.
I close my eyes for a moment. A part of me wants to cling to Lucian, but he’s no longer the man I fell for in my head. The god-like creature who I thought could feel something for me. Everything has shifted.
I’ve been claimed. Owned.
Turned.
Against my will.
And he’s my master. In every true sense of the word.
He controls me.
So if he touches me now, will he be the one making my heartbeat skip because he’s manipulating me?
Am I just a thing he can control like a finely tuned instrument?
If he wants to fuck me again, is my response something that’s now tailored tohisurges and needs? And if I like it, is that because I do, or because he silently dictates it?
Even worse, was he doing that to me before he claimed my life as his?
I don’t know. That’s the thing, I don’t fucking know.
The panic is like a flock of birds, rising up, threatening to choke me. But I try to get it in control. I believe Lucian when he says the power of his blood can overwhelm me. I just can’t let it.
“I can control it,” I whisper, pushing up from the ground. “I’m still me.”
There’s nothing to be scared of, apart from the sun and wooden stakes.
Garlic?
But Lucian’s not worried about the sun. He keeps away from it when he can, and we’ve been out during the daylight hours. So maybe…
