“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 bursts inside 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.
My heart beats hard and fast.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he says, his once immaculate suit a mess of blood and tears, “and you can’t get past me. Even as you are now, I’m too fast, too strong. You won’t be able to overpower me. You’re in here for your own protection.”
And to think, at one time I thought this man, this vampire, feltsomething for me. Cared for me in some way. And now he has me confined to a padded cell.
I was an idiot.
He pauses for a moment, just staring at me. He wants to say something more, but he’s rethinking it. How do I know this? I’m not sure. He used to be mostly unreadable to me, but now it’s like I can sense his thoughts as he thinks them. Maybe it’s his blood flowing through me.
The hesitation is brief, though. He walks up to me until he’s towering over me, looking down and then reaching out his hand to slide a slender finger under something on my throat.
I reach up and feel it, a cool metal necklace that’s tight against my neck. At some point, while he had me out of it, he must’ve put it on me.
“It’s a pure silver choker. You’re so new, precious metals like this will sap your energy, make the power less intense. But you should know that you can try to run, but with my blood pulsing through your veins, I’ll always know where you are. I’ll be able to track you.”
I won’t be able to ever escape him? That’s horrifying.
“What if I kill you?”
He smiles. Slowly. “You can try.”
His arrogance makes me want to lash out right now and show him that he underestimates me. He always has, even when I was human. And now, with so much strength and energy flowing through me, I can make it a mistake he’ll regret.
As if he can read my thoughts, he goes on. “Right now, you’re overloaded with new lifeblood, my blood to be exact, and I’m old. Very old. Very powerful. It can destroy you if you’re not careful, so you need to be alone for a while until your body adjusts to things.”
I tug at the metal collar and grumble when it doesn’t just snap off. This is ridiculous. I’m not a dog. I’m not his to control and own. “Scared?”
“Of you?” He laughs and shakes his head. “You’re nothing but a kitten with brand new claws.”
