Unease crawls up my spine.
Lucian and I have an understanding, an allyship. Because of the one night Santiago tried to kill us, he granted me new territory and new resources to rebuild the Rogues. He didn’t have to. He’s old money and older blood, the kind of vampire who treats the world like a chessboard already half won. I’m…not that.
I’m new. Newly turned. New enough that the hunger still sings in my veins some nights, sharp and bright and too loud. New enough that I remember what it’s like to be afraid of the dark. It’s why I help guide other vampires in this new life they’ve been given. For the ones who don’t have a master to teach them, the Rogues will always be there.
But still, I don’t like being stood up.
I cross the street, boots splashing through shallow puddles, and stop beneath the building’s overhang. The rain can’t quitereach me here. The glass doors reflect my silhouette back at me—too pale, with eyes catching the light wrong.
I look like what I am.
When I peer through the glass, I can see a lobby that’s sleek and modern. White marble floors. A security desk off to one side, currently unoccupied. A directory mounted on the wall, names etched in clean, professional lettering.
I hadn’t planned to go inside. Not without Lucian. But curiosity is a nasty thing, and paranoia even worse.
I scan the directory. Most of the companies mean nothing to me—consulting firms, tech startups, shell corporations with names designed to sound important and say nothing at all.
Then I see it.
Sanguine International –Floors 7–20.
My head spins.
For a moment, I’m not standing in a quiet city street with rain whispering down around me. I’m back in the smoke and screams with the heat so intense it blistered even undead skin. I smell burning flesh, hear my people shouting, trapped, confused, dying because someone wanted an opportunity to get me and Lucian in the same place and take us out together.
My jaw tightens, teeth grinding together hard enough that I feel it in my skull. Santiago burned my people alive.
I stare at the name until the letters blur. Rage coils low in my gut. I’d sworn I’d get my revenge someday, and Lucian had promised to give that chance to me. One day.
At the time, I’d believed him.
Now, standing in front of Santiago’s building, I wonder if this is where Lucian is going to deliver.
Movement behind me makes me turn, instincts flaring, but it’s just a pair of humans hurrying past under a shared umbrella, laughing about something trivial. They don’t even glance my way.
I look back at the building.
If this is a trap, it’s an elaborate one. If Lucian sold me out to Santiago, bringing me straight to his doorstep would be…efficient. Clean. The kind of thing Lucian might do.
The thought sits heavy in my chest.
I circle the building slowly, keeping to the shadows. The rain thickens slightly, beads of water catching in my hair. There’s a side entrance on the east side, another set of glass doors requiring a keycard. No guards visible, but I can hear many heartbeats inside. Many footsteps.
I could go in. Tear through all of Sanguine’s staff. Find Santiago’s office and leave it painted red.
I could end this myself.
My fingers curl into fists. Maybe?—
Then the night explodes.
The blast hits like a god’s fist slamming into the earth. Heat and pressure ripple outward, throwing me off my feet. The windows on the lower floors shatter all at once and glass rains down in glittering shards. The sound is deafening, an unholy roar that drowns out everything else.
Fire erupts from the building’s core, flames punching through windows and licking up the sides of the structure. The air fills with smoke and screaming and the sharp, acrid stench of burning chemicals.
Car alarms shriek. People run.
I hit the ground hard, rolling instinctively, coming up in a crouch just as another shockwave rattles the street. My ears ring. My vision swims for half a second before snapping back into cruel clarity.
