Lucien was confident in his ability to steal a car. It would be easy to walk up to someone and talk them into handing over their keys.
They were back on the street for less than five minutes before encountering a man who was exiting a car that had started rusting during OJ’s murder trial. When the man saw Lucien approaching, he scrambled into the car, slammed the door, and locked the vehicle. Lucien stepped up to the driver’s side with its cracked-open window and started speaking to the man.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said in a soothing tone and hoped he was right. The frantic beat of the man’s heart caused saliva to pool in his mouth. “Get out of the car.”
“Fuck you,” the man replied as he shoved a key in the ignition.
“Look at me,” Lucien commanded as he strained to gain control over the man’s mind.
However, the man didn’t look at him as he started the car and stomped on the gas. Lucien jumped back to avoid having his feet run over as the man squealed out of his parking spot. Before he took the corner on two wheels, the man’s middle finger emerged out the window.
Lucien seethed as he watched the car vanish. His ability to bend another’s will to his wasn’t working. It was because he was weak and starved, but it was the worst possible time to lose the ability he required the most to get them out of this mess.
“Was that your big car-stealing plan?” Callie asked. “Because it didn’t work.”
He shifted his attention to where she stood on the sidewalk with an almost amused look on her face. The sun streaming over her illuminated her striking eyes and delicate beauty.
The depth of that beauty slapped him in the face. In the tunnel, he was motivated by an incessant compulsion to keep her safe. That compulsion continued to thrum through his veins; he didn’t understand it, but he couldn’t deny it.
He’d taken note of her appearance too, but it didn’t really sink in… until now. With her full lips, oval face, and straight-edge nose, she was lovely. A thick fringe of black lashes framed her large, almond-shaped eyes. He didn’t detect a hint of a blemish on her smooth, olive skin.
He guessed her to be about seven inches shorter than his six-foot-two height. Her jeans and formfitting, short-sleeved, maroon shirt emphasized her curvy, hourglass figure. For the first time since his captivity, a new hunger woke inside him, and his deadened cock stirred.
His new desire didn’t last long as the burning in his veins returned and his parched guts twisted into knots. However, he couldn’t remain unaware of her beauty.
“It should have,” he said. “But I was too weak to take control of his mind; I’ll have to take the next one by force.”
Callie’s jaw fell open at this revelation. “Control his mind?”
“Yes, it was a talent of mine, but it’s not working right now. Once I feed, I’ll be more capable of protecting us and getting us out of this city.”
“You can control minds?” she practically squeaked.
“When I’m stronger, yes. All vampires possess the ability.”
Holy shit. Callie’s mind spun as she tried to process this information.
Her eyes flew around the quiet street. Some kids were hanging out on a porch at the end of the road, and a man was passed out on a set of stairs, or maybe he was dead. She really hoped he wasn’t dead, but she wasn’t going any closer to find out.
She was sure the guy in the beater car had come here for drugs, but she didn’t know where his supply was located. However, just because she didn’t see many people didn’t mean they weren’t there.
Lucien might let her go rather than cause a scene. If she got free, she could go to the police and tell them someone abducted her.
Yeah, that will go over great. You can explain to them how you were tossed into a van by a group of vampires. I’m sure they’ll think you’re perfectly sane.
Her heart sank as she realized she could never tell anyone about her abduction. If she gave all the details, they would consider her nuts, and if she omitted some of what happened, they would realize she wasn’t telling the whole truth.
She couldn’t go to her friends; she’d only put them in danger, and how could she explain what happened to them? How could she tell them she couldn’t return home but not give them a reason?
And she had to go home. She didn’t care what he said; she had to at least return for some of her things. They may be things, but they were hers, and some of them held a really special place in her heart. Some of them were all she had left of her father.
Tears burned her eyes at the possibility of never collecting her things, and she glanced around the street again. It might be stupid, but if she got free, she could go home, pack a few things, and get out of there fast.
As if he sensed her thoughts, he spoke again.
“I’m the only protection you have against the vamps who captured you; if you run from me, you’re on your own against them. Humans have no idea what they’re up against when it comes to them. As soon as the sun sets, they’re going to start tracking us; can you survive against them on your own?”
She wasn’t sure if she could survive against him, but he’d gotten them this far. As much as he unnerved her, she couldn’t deny that she would be dead if it weren’t for him.
“Why did you take me from there?” she asked. “Why didn’t you take one of the other women? Why didn’t you kill me? You tried, and I know you wanted to. I felt it.”
Lucien tugged at his filthy hair again. He hadn’t wanted to kill her, but as he tried to deny it, the ugly truth burrowed through him. Yes, he did. The second his hands touched her, he had every intention of draining her dry. So why didn’t he?
He frowned as he tried to puzzle it out. What he wouldn’t give for a shower and some blood to clear his mind. His gaze fell to the pulse in her neck, and he licked his lips as he recalled the delicious, honeyed taste of her.
When her pulse skyrocketed and she stepped back, he tore his gaze away before he scared her more. He couldn’t continue like this. His strength was dwindling, his ability to control others was gone, and if he didn’t feed soon, he might collapse or snap. And what would happen to her if either of those things occurred?
The thought spurred him into action. “We have to move.”
“Are you going to answer my question?” Pushing him was a bad idea; she saw the hunger in his gaze when it fell on her neck, but she didn’t understand any of this, and she deserved answers.
“We can walk and talk.”
His urgency caused Callie to glance warily behind her. However, the street remained mostly deserted. From a few houses away, people emerged from the open doorway and descended the stairs, but they didn’t look at them.
She was alone with this man—no, this vampire, but he was the only one who knew the truth of what happened to her, and he could protect her. Which was kind of laughable, considering he looked as if she could push him over.
Resigning herself to her fate, Callie started walking. If he later turned against her and killed her, she would have no one to blame but herself. However, she couldn’t stand there doing nothing.
Lucien returned to the sidewalk and cupped her elbow. He stayed to the shadows while he led her down the street.
“Why did you take me from there?” Callie asked again. “Why didn’t you kill me or take one of the others?”
“I don’t know,” Lucien gruffly admitted.
“You don’t know?”
“That’s what I said.”
She glowered at him. He’d saved her life, but he was kind of a prick.
“I have no idea what compelled me to grab you and run when all I craved was drinking every last drop of your blood. It’s all I still want to do.”
He shouldn’t have admitted it, and the second the words left his mouth, he started kicking himself in the ass, but he’d never been one to hold back or bite his tongue. Still, he was trying to help her feel safe, and he wasn’t helping with that at all.
Callie tried to pull her arm free of his grasp, but he refused to relinquish her. She resisted the childish impulse to kick him. It would probably result in her death, but she’d love to kick him in the nuts. At least she’d get to hear him squeal like a baby before he killed her.
“I won’t harm you,” he said.
“Those words aren’t exactly reassuring after you just admitted to wanting to kill me.”
“If I planned to kill you, I would have done it in that pit. And then I would have killed the other women. It’s what they intended for me to do; it’s why you were there and why I was there.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
When his gaze shifted to her, she forced herself not to flinch away from those red eyes, which were the most unnerving things she’d ever seen.
“Because of you,” he stated.
“Me?”
“Yes, you. I don’t know what it is about you, and I’m too fucking thirsty to figure it out, but I stopped because of you.”