Thump, thump.
It comes again, low and muffled, as if the world itself is taunting me with an echo of what I’ve lost. I stagger a step closer, listening.
Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump.
It’s gaining strength and tempo, stumbling but insistent, and the world seems to be tilting beneath me. My lungs burn with denial, with fear, with something so close to hope it threatens to split me apart.
Staring at her chest, I will the rise and fall that isn’t there. Until it is. A shallow breath stutters into her lungs, as if dragged from death itself.
I drop to my knees beside her. Her skin is rosier, her lips more pink.
“Elliot?”
I stroke the matted hair from her face.
Her eyes snap open.
Cornflower blue.
Unreadable.Soulless.
“Elliot,” I breathe out, relief instantly replacing all the anger and hate within me. “You’re alive.”
Gaze finding me, she sits up. Her head tilts as if she’s trying to remember my face, but when recognition flares, those summery blue eyes turn black.
“Lucy,” she says.
Then, she smiles, showing me her fangs.
Chapter
One
Elliot
The hunger rips through me.
Vast.
Deep.
Clawing.
His blood is still in my mouth, on my tongue, in my veins, and it sings.
It tastes so fucking sweet, the merest hint of salt. Of something ancient and sacred.
There’s a haziness to my thoughts at first, then my focus sharpens and narrows to one thing and one thing only: I need to eat.
Lucian’s blood might be the sweetest thing, but right now I want human blood.
My fangs start to ache to feed.
I try to stand, but a hand is quick to shove me back down to the cement floor. The grip is iron, the strengthimmeasurable, but all it does is annoy me. And when I peer up, I see Lucian kneeling beside me.
“Lucy.” I say his nickname again, and like before, it sounds strange coming from my mouth. Sharper and high-pitched. “I’m hungry.”
“I’m sorry, Monty,” he says softly as my mouth salivates and my stomach starts to claw itself raw.
