I stepped inside and closed the door behind me, keeping my back to the wall so that I could keep my eye on all three of them.
“She’s cagey and it’s kinda hot,” Bennet observed. “Is it true all hunter society girls are virgins?”
My cheeks burned with embarrassment, but before I could tell him to shut his mouth, Luka stepped in front of me. “Bro, she’s off limits. Why don’t you and Izzy go and watch a movie.”
Bennett held his hands up defensively. “Apologies.”
Isabella saluted her cousin. “Come get us when you’re done. We’re meeting Sage and Walsh at that rager later.”
Rager?Like a party? I froze. “What rager?”
Isabella curled her upper lip at me and said nothing. Apparently her fondness for me had worn off.
I rolled my eyes, pulling out my phone and rattling off the address to the tip off we’d gotten about the giant vampire party we were going to raid tonight. All three of their eyes widened. “Yeah, that’s the one,” she said.
I sighed, my internal moral compass starting to spin in circles. “Don’t go there.”
Luka stepped closer to me, bringing the smell of his yummy cologne with him. “Why?”
Peering up at him, I regretted it instantly. He was so gorgeous it actually befuddled my thoughts. “Don’t go there,” I repeated, pleading with my eyes. I couldn’t tell him any more without completely choosing a side.
He nodded once. “We’ll go to Bang.”
With that, Izzy and Bennett disappeared into the apartment and I stood there awkwardly. Did I just tip them off that we were raiding their party? What if he called and told all his undead friends not to go anymore? Why was I so stupid?
“Don’t tell anyone…” I didn’t know what to say.
“Tell anyone what?” he growled. “You haven’t even told me anything. You don’t trust me or my friends. That’s clear.”
I liked flirty Luka better than asshole Luka, but that’s why asshole Luka was probably better for me. I shouldn’t like him at all.
I blew air through my teeth and ran my fingers through my hair. “I’m tired of this, Luka. I don’t want to do this anymore.”
“Me neither,” he shot back, but I could hear the tone in his voice; he was hurt by my admission.
Why couldn’t I have bonded with a guy who had a pulse?
Now I felt like an asshole. He’d called a freaking helicopter to save my life, and his friends were really nice to me, and I was just being a bitch.
“Look…” I rubbed my arms, trying to find the words. “This is really overwhelming for me. I’ve … lived my whole life dedicated to…” My voice cracked. I felt too vulnerable to even be speaking this out loud.
“Killing my kind?”
I swallowed hard. “Yes. Killing your kind. The ones whorapeandmurderand drink from humans like soda fountains,” I shot back.
He nodded. “There are a lot of bad supernaturals out there, vampires usually being the worst. I won’t deny that, but there are a lot of bad humans out there too.”
Relief settled into my chest that he would admit such a thing and he was right; the list of murdering and raping humans was quite long. Stepping forward, he approached me, looking me dead in the eye. “But vampires are not all the same. We were notcreatedto rape and murder, we were human too once, just like you, until someone changed us.”
The realization of what he’d just said hit me like a brick to the head.
Luka Drake was human once… I … I’d never thought about it like that.
“And not all of us asked for this life. I didn’t,” he added, a darkness passing over his face.
Holy shit.
What if … what if some of the vampires I’d killed were forcibly changed? Against their will? I’d never even conceived of the fact. We’d all been told they wanted power and money and status, so they willingly gave themselves, especially the Drake line.
