After a long moment, he says, “It’s a gift. And all gifts have weight to them, no matter how light in the hand. Besides, I wasn’t rea?—”
Frowning, he stops suddenly, lets me go, and stands.
“Lucian?”
Lucian doesn’t touch me again. He just points to the door to the right. “There’s a suite through there. Bathroom, shower. Soap. And on the bed is a change of clothes, some things Vittoria got for you.”
“I’mherplaything?”
“No, Monty,” he snaps. “I am busy, so I asked her to help out. She did.”
I bite my tongue as more insults and accusations threaten to roll.
If I want my freedom, want him to let his guard down, I need to play the part. “What do you have in mind?”
“If you’re up to it, you can come and see some of what we do on occasion. It’s rare, but I take part when I need to. And this time, I need to. This is payback for what was done to you with de Santis. I figured you’d want to participate.”
My heart starts to beat hard. This is going to be a test. I can taste it, but revenge sounds delicious. Especially if it involves me being able to sink my teeth into a live vein.
“You want me to come?” I ask.
“If you’re up to it.”
“I am.” In ways he doesn’t see.
“This is me trusting you, Elliot,” he says.
I nod.
“Good. Go shower, get dressed. We’re going hunting.”
Finally.
I can’t wait.
Chapter
Four
Lucian
Iwanted to touch her, suck those nipples.
Even though I said the opposite, I’d have fucked her like that, covered in the old, dried blood. I don’t care. The need for her seems to beat stronger now that she’s like me.
That’s something I didn’t think was possible.
But it is. The pull to claim her is a wild thing, alive and merciless. It pushes against my control and allows me to feel her, sense her hunger, lust, anger, and disdain. Like fire pokers, they all sear into my skin.
And now, as she sits in the back of the SUV, so close but not close enough, her very presence buzzes across my nerves. If Vittoria wasn’t sitting beside her and Andrew wasn’t in the driver’s seat, I don’t think anything would be able to stop me from jumping across the console take my fill of her.
When Vittoria had first walked her into my office, I recognizedthe cold, murderous stare that glittered in Elliot’s eyes. It’s something I know well from making vampires over the years.
From Vittoria most of all.
Generally it fades with time and…I won’t use the word training, but adjustments to the change within them.
But there are others who become completely lost to the vampiric blood and lose all sense of their humanity altogether. Because essentially, they have. That’s my fear with Elliot.
