She watched as his golden eyes worked over the papers, reading every fine detail laid out in the legal documents. With his vampire perks, he was able to read through the paperwork as fast as it took her to skim them.
“So? Is it hopeless?”
“Nothing is hopeless until you lose hope,” Lucien stated before handing the paperwork back to her. “As for the legal document, it’s a crock of shit. I think that’s what you mundies say. From that small bit of information from your conversation from earlier, you can file harassment against the company. There’s also emotional distress amongst others.”
“But a lawyer costs and at the present we could never afford those costs,” Melinda admitted with a defeated sigh. “I guess it is hopeless.”
Lucien reached out as she began gathering her things, taking the hand that Bryon had grasped earlier. The skin to skin contact caused a reaction that had the two of them jumping back with their chairs clattering on the ground behind them.
It felt like pure electricity created a heat in their chests and made it almost hard to breathe. Melinda grasped at where the fire had faded as soon as his touch did. The space now felt empty, hollow even.
“You’ve become more dangerous to me than I originally thought.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, “Me? Dangerous? I’m not the one with fangs!”
The anger was unexpected to both of them, but Mel decided to back down as she continued to gather her things and storm out of the bar. Lucien did not follow after her. He watched her leave, silently cursing every deity that has ever existed that he would find his mate in such a place.
His human mate.
What a cruel joke.
Chapter Nine
Lucien
I knew this mission to bring Isadora back home would somehow doom me. That damned seer had warned me. I had avoided the human realm for that very reason, and now my sister had delivered the very source of my suffering straight to me.
“Why does she have to look like that?” I demanded of the deer pinned beneath me.
It screamed and thrashed, desperate to be free, but I had it trapped—held firmly in place. Its beady black eye stared up at me, and within its dark abyss, her face appeared.
Those stormy eyes were a disaster I couldn’t escape from. My mate had a name: Melinda Hardgrave.
This mundane would not get the better of me. The bond was nothing but a weakness, one that bought more pain insteadof anything worthwhile. Remembering the face of my newest source of daily torment did nothing to dull my hunger.
I let the beast inside me, the one that was driven by the lust for blood, take control. My head tilted back before striking like a viper with my fangs sinking in the deer’s flesh. Blood flooded my senses, washing her face from my mind, even if only for a moment.
The beast was displeased with the animal blood, but it drank greedily all the same—as hungrily as it would have from a fresh mundane.
When the blood ran out, so did the veil over the image of her in my mind. She returned instantly, glaring at me—and somehow, that only made her more tempting. She was a magnet to the beating organ in my chest, stronger than any woman had ever been before. A magnetic force that pulled me in her direction, so certain that even now I knew I only had to run and I would find her.
“Stop it!” I slammed my fists against my temples, as if that alone would drive away the suffering.
I needed more blood. Maybe if I drank enough, I would be rid of this torture entirely. I could take Isadora home, and this town’s killer could help make Melinda disappear.
The snarl that tore from my throat at the thought of her dead body did not agree with my plan, but I would have to ignore it. Even if every instinct within me burned for her, I would freeze my heart to keep from giving into her.
A twig snapping to my right drew my attention, and I was already running before I could decipher what my next prey would be.
When I finally caught up to the animal, I found a doe—not as large as the last, but still bigger than a rabbit. I fed more slowly this time, savoring the blood and the blessed absence of thought.
I didn’t wipe the blood from my mouth when I finished, already searching for another target. Eventually, I lost track of my prey—and the time. Only then did I realize the sun had begun its slow return.
The sky was still black, but to the east, I could see the introduction of color to the night sky. Soft darkness morphing into purples and pinks. Soon there would be orange and gold, until the horizon was bathed in the gentle colors of the sunrise.
“I see you’ve left a trail of bodies like some untrained pet. Hungry, Lucien?”
Erie’s taunting voice drifted from above. She sat perched on a branch in a nearby tree. Her tone was too grating—almost too knowing—as if she understood the source of my plight. But that was impossible. Unless she had developed her twin’s knack for stalking from the shadows.
