“Your latest toy might have a lot of friends,” Vittoria says, dripping sarcasm.
I think it’s the wordtoy, or maybe the connotations of that wordlatest, but I take a great step toward her, fists balled, wanting to pound her into pulp. But I’m yanked back by the arm, the oxygen leaving my lungs with a whoosh as I land hard against the solid form of Lucian.
“Calm down, Monty,” he mutters against my ear, the smoky, delicious scent of him tying knots around me. I try not to breathe him in too deep. I start to buck but his hand tightens a little more. “If you want freedom, being out of control isn’t the way to do it. Show me you’re still you.”
“I’m fine. I’m good.”
If I want to find my friend—my reason for being here, the thing that’ll make this horrendous turn of events worth it—I need to do what he says.
Show control.
No matter how hard it is.
“You can put me down,” I say.
He pauses, his mouth against my hair, the heat of him on my throat.
Strange how he’s hotter to me now that I’m turned.
Maybe it’s a vampire thing.
There isn’t exactly a handbook on it.
“You’ll learn to fight and not waste energy,” Vittoria says, sounding bored. “And you’ll learnquicklynot to mess with me. That is, if you value your life.”
“Where’s my friend, Kayla?”
“She’s a broken record, Lucian,” Vittoria says. “And I don’t know this friend. I think your problems are bigger than some fucking human friendship. After all, it’s not like trying to spy on us is now going to work.”
She smiles and my blood turns so red hot, it’s acidic, burning its way through my veins.
“This is a new start,” Lucian says more to her than to me, “and we need to watch what’s going on in the mafia world now that word’s breaking about de Santis.”
“On it,” Vittoria mutters, turning, her long hair whipping atme as she does so. She’s got talents, I’ll give her that. Vittoria heads for the elevator. “I’d keep her locked up, preferably down below.”
“Noted,” he says, not even looking at her.
The elevator dings, but I’m unable to tear my gaze from him. “Have you found out anything about Kayla? You said?—”
“Not yet.” But his gaze sweeps just left of me.
I step up to him and put my hands on the fine wool of his vest. Those blue eyes shift back to me. “That’s a lie.”
“It’s not. This is a huge company. People move about, move interstate, overseas, for different roles. People quit.”
But I don’t let it go. It’s the last thing I have left of who I was before. Kayla keeps me tethered to humanity.
Otherwise…what is there for me? Lucian should understand that.
“Kayla wouldn’t quit. She wouldn’t move without telling me,” I say.
He swallows, fingers slipping through my hair, and I’m still super close to him when I don’t mean to be. It’s like he calls and I’m there, always. It makes my stomach flip and clench with disgust.
“The thing is, Monty, our world—yours now—operates differently. We glamour and mesmerize to make things easier, to make things cleaner, to help erase things that shouldn’t have been seen?—”
“Easier?” I spit the word. “Cleaner? Erase? What in gaslighting hell is this shit?”
“Thisshitis to keep killings to a minimum. If she saw something, it’s easier to mesmerize or glamour her and set her up elsewhere. Did you think of searching for her beyond here?”
