Lucian
“Fuck.” I drop my head against the door.
What have I done?
“Saving me for me? Or for you?”
I can’t answer that because…because I really don’t know. I want to say it was for her, but when the memory of her bleeding out resurfaces, my heart clenches painfully and I know my selfishness drove me to give her my blood.
“Locking her up is for the best,” says a familiar voice behind me.
Straightening, I turn away from the soundproofed room I just locked the woman I love inside and face the woman who stands as my equal within the company, the one who opposed turning Elliot from the start.
Her arms are folded, and there’s a triumphant expression on her face.
I run a hand over mine. “You aren’t helping, Vittoria.”
“You never listen to me,” she says with a biting tone. “If you had to turn her, you should’ve let me do it. It would’ve been an easier transition for her.”
The thought of someone else’s fangs in Monty makes something ugly stir inside me. Jealousy isn’t a vice I’ve ever possessed. When you live as long as I have, you get used to sharing lovers or having multiple ones at once. What humans may see as taboos aren’t taboos for us.
But Elliot isn’t someone I want to share. With anyone.
“You’re not forming your own army,” I say to her. “I forbid it.”
She goes to the small monitor that shows surveillance of the room. Vittoria sighs and picks up one of the protein bars on the table. She tosses it up in the air, snatching it with ease. “I don’t require your permission to turn humans. And I have no intention of building an army.”
I raise a brow.
“But the girl isn’t why I’m here,” she continues. “Benicio’s family and business are.”
“What about them?” I ask, holding back annoyance. We’d killed a good number of them at the warehouse, but like us, the mafia has tentacles woven into everything. “Are they giving us trouble?”
“Trouble?” She scoffs. “Not in the least. I simply wondered if you wanted to come with me to finish the job. Like old times.”
Old times. I was a different man when I turned Vittoria, a different vampire.
“Or you could send your pet,” she suggests with a smirk. “I’m sure she’d love some fresh?—”
“No. Elliot stays here. Letting her out now is dangerous.” I frown as I cross to her. “Who knows what she’d do if let loose.”
Vittoria’s eyes gleam. She knows better than to take a newly minted vampire out on that kind of hunt. But she’s just as bloodthirsty. Just as ruthless. And she wants to push me.
“She stays,” I repeat. “I’ll come.”
“You need to feed first.” She throws the protein bar at me, and I catch it like it’s a pesky insect.
A protein bar won’t give me what I need. The blood that I had at the warehouse wasn’t sufficient, especially after giving Elliot enough to restart her heart. I need to replenish.
It’s time I visit our food banks.
I take one last look at the camera feed. Elliot’s raging in the soundproofed room. I want to open the door. Hold her again. But instead, I turn once more to Vittoria. “Walk with me.”
Together, we take the VMR elevator to the floor designated as our living food bank. The moment the metal doors open, one of the vampires guarding the entrance almost falls over himself to greet us.
“Sir,” he says with a small bow. He’s young, maybe a decade into his undead life.
Vittoria rolls her eyes and shoves him aside. “Move, cretin.”
