“Morbius has just texted me on Lilith’s phone.” My voice is flat, but it carries. It always does. Silence drops. Every brother at the table stills. “He has Lilith.” The words leave my mouth, and it feels like something inside me tears open; slow, jagged, and merciless. Like a blade being twisted deeper into flesh that never heals. Echo leans across without asking and snatches the phone from my hand, his eyes scanning quickly. His jaw tightens.
“It says, ‘Here’s my location,’” he mutters. “But there’s no link. No coordinates. Nothing.”
“Could be a prank,” Clutch offers, though his voice lacks conviction; fear and concern consume each word. “Fake number. Someone trying to stir shit.”
“No,” I murmur, voice low and deadly. “She’s had the same number since the nineties.” A beat passes as that information lands.
I shake my head slowly, fighting the urge to rip his head from his shoulders for leaving her. “You fucking left her! You should have been there!” I seethe, every nerve in my body screaming, every instinct clawing at me to move, to hunt, to tear the world apart until I find her.
“I’m sorry, brother. I was following orders. We thought she would be okay,” Clutch apologizes, guilt lacing his words.
“Okay, enough. It’s my fault, not Clutch’s,” Lucian says sharply, already shifting into command mode. “Diesel. Rook. You still run the shipment. Straight there, straight back. No detours. No stops. No mistakes.” His gaze hardens. “Godknows what Morbius is planning. He’s the last standing and only member of the Dominion. He won’t be alone. He’ll be surrounded, served, and protected by the Velmora Vessels.”
Clutch lets out a disbelieving scoff. “I’m sorry, the fucking what?”
Viktor exhales sharply, irritation flashing across his ancient features. “Fuck, do you young ‘uns not bother learning anything after you change?”
“I changed and joined you lot,” Clutch shoots back. “Didn’t sign up for a bedtime story.”
“It ain’t a damn story, boy,” Viktor snaps. “It’s very much the present.”
Cain leans forward, elbows on the table, voice quieter but far more dangerous. “The Velmora Vessels… are us. Vampires. But not like us.” The room shifts. Tightens. “They’re taken and collected and chosen for one reason or another. Some are promised salvation; told they’ll be fixed, turned back into humans. Others go willingly, because they’ve got nothing left to lose.” His eyes darken. “Most of them are old. Real old. From a time before stories softened what we are. Back when people thought they were cursed. Possessed. Punished by God.” My fists clench. Wood creaks beneath my grip. “They’re bound,” Cain continues. “Bound to the Dominion for eternity. Forced to serve. Forced to obey. Kept beneath Velmora like animals, fed scraps, starved just enough to keep them desperate.” A pause. “They’re feral now. Lethal. Their loyalty isn’t a choice; it’s a compulsion. And their hunger?” His jaw tightens. “It’s savage.”
The image hits me: Lilith surrounded by them. Trapped, outnumbered and hunted. Something inside me snaps. “He has her!” I roar, slamming both fists into the table. The wood splinters beneath the impact, cracks spiderwebbing outward as the entire thing shudders violently. “I don’t give a flying fuck who knows about the Vessels!” My voice is raw now, stripped ofcontrol, soaked in rage and something far worse: fear. “All I care about is getting her out of there before he takes her from me again. Permanently!” The room is silent, but it’s not calm. It’s waiting. Tense. Coiled and ready to explode.
“We’ll find her,” Cain says, more carefully this time. “This is Lilith we’re talking about. She’s not just going to let him-.”
I let out a sharp, humorless laugh, cutting him off. “You don’t get it.” I shake my head, a bitter smile twisting my lips. “She loved him.” The word feels like acid in my mouth. “Still does,” I correct quietly, the truth tasting like poison. “There’ll always be a part of her that believes whatever shit he feeds her, because that’s easier than accepting she gave her heart to a fucking monster.”
“And whose fault was that?” Lucian’s voice cuts in, sharp as a blade. I turn to him slowly. Our eyes lock. For a second—just a second—I consider it. Ripping him apart and letting the rage take over and letting it consume everything. But I don’t. Because he’s right, and that’s worse than any insult. My jaw tightens, something hollow opening up in my chest. I told her lies. For years. Built a life on them. Wrapped her in false safety, false truths, thinking I was protecting her. And now? Now those lies might be the very thing that costs me her. Forever.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
LILITH
A bumpy rockingmotion wakes me from my sleep. I blink and open my eyes, looking out of the truck window, surrounded by misted mountains and dark skies. Only a few flickering lights ahead. “Where are we?” I ask, a yawn escaping me.
“Velmora,” Morbius answers with a smile.
I stiffen. We are so far away from home, from the MC. There is no way they could get here in time if I needed them. “Calm. You are safe here. Believe me, you will be worshipped; you will be given your every desire.” His violet eyes sweep over me briefly before returning his attention to the road. I wrap my arms around myself, turning my back to him and continuing to stare out of the passenger window.
“In time you will forgive me, in time you will trust me. And when you get to hold your family again, you may love me again.”
I don’t respond, swallowing. I continue to stare absently at the scenery. That niggling ball of doubt is swirling in the pit of my stomach.
Within twenty minutes, the truck slows and comes to a stop outside a castle. A fucking castle. My mouth drops open insurprise and at the irony. “Welcome home,” Morbius says softly, his voice caressing me like velvet.
“It’s a castle,” I blurt, looking around. There are only a few small homes further down the mountain, although it’s hard to tell with the thick fog rolling in. Morbius catches me off guard as he opens the door and holds out his hand for me to take. I place my hand in his and step out of the truck, tilting my head back to take it all in. “Wow,” I breathe.
“Come, let’s get you inside, in the warm and fed. I’m practically ravenous,” Morbius states, leading us up to the enormous wooden doors. He doesn’t even knock; the doors open for him. Two creatures hold the doors open. My hand tightens on Morbius’s hand. They look like vampires, but dark circles surround their eyes, and their skin is so pale they may as well be ghosts. But it’s their gaze that spikes the fear within me; a hunger, a feral desire for death.
“Bare them no attention; they are nothing but Vessels, here to serve. They will not harm you. They are under my command. Be gone!” Morbius barks, the sound echoing off the huge stone entryway. They flinch and scurry off, not moving with the ease of a normal vampire.
“Are they okay?” I ask, frowning.
“Yes. I told you, they are the insignificant, the ones that never would have survived outside these castle walls. The Dominion saved them; without us, they would have been tortured, burned, destroyed.” His voice carries through the entrance, bouncing off the stone walls. “Let me show you to your room, then I will have some food brought to you. I have some matters to attend to.”
He takes my hands in his and leads me up the huge staircase. My eyes dart everywhere; crystal chandeliers hang from the ceiling, and old oil paintings of past Dominion members line the walls. This place is creepy, quiet, and lifeless.
