Callie had no idea what time it was when she woke again. For all she knew, she could have slept an hour, a day, or maybe even two. She willed the shadows to part and give her an answer, but of course, it didn’t.
She belatedly realized the owners of this unit might decide to retrieve their belongings, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. She had much bigger problems than surprising a bunch of people looking to collect their things. One of them had his arm locked around her while he slept.
Her stomach rumbled. She’d shared some chicken tenders with her friends at the bar, but that was a day or two, or maybe three ago. It was a lot of running ago, and her belly was letting her know it did not approve of this new fasting and exercise thing.
She tried to edge out from Lucien’s arms, but they clamped around her. She bit back a sigh of frustration; she wanted free of him and this place. Out of the many things she wanted, mostly she wanted her old life back, but that life was gone. Somehow, she would have to figure out what her new life entailed.
However, she didn’t have to worry about that until they were free of the city. Then she could start to panic about how she would feed, clothe, and house herself. Until then, she would focus on making sure she stayed breathing.
When she tried to inch free again, Lucien growled, and she froze.
“Stay,” he murmured.
“I’m not a dog!”
Lucien was very aware she wasn’t a dog. Now that the hunger tearing him apart had eased, the effects of the drugs and alcohol were fading, and he’d truly slept for the first time in a month, he felt healthier and more clearheaded than he had in weeks.
And that clear head had left him with one realization: Callie was the most enticing woman he’d ever held in his arms, and he never wanted to let her go.
Unable to stop himself, he leaned closer and inhaled the scent of pomegranates on her. The sweet aroma was an inherent part of her, and he relished the smell as it filled his nostrils.
Her curvy body, nestled against his, was starting to awaken another hunger. He shifted so she wouldn’t feel his growing arousal. He was aware of her delicious scent, but he was also aware of his foul odor, and now was not the time or place to try making a move on her.
He would learn more about this woman, and he would enjoy memorizing every inch of her lush curves, but he doubted she was eager to be molested by a man who stunk so bad he could make a skunk turn tail and run.
Reluctantly, he eased his grip on her, and she slipped from his arms. He heard her shuffling footsteps before she collided with a stack of boxes and cursed. The boxes rattled, and he could picture her steadying them as the noise died down.
“What are you doing?” he asked as he pushed himself up on the mattress.
“Trying to find the door. I need to know what time it is.”
“I’ll get it. Stay where you are before you attract attention.”
Lucien rose and stepped off the mattress. With no light penetrating the interior of the unit, he couldn’t see, but his instincts guided him to the door. Kneeling, he grasped the bottom of the door and cracked it open enough to reveal the night beyond. The glow of a nearby halogen lamp set high on a post crept inside.
He closed the door again. “It’s nighttime.”
“I hate this darkness.” She’d give anything to see her hand in front of her face.
“We’ll move on in the morning.”
“Will they find us here?”
He almost told her no, but the word froze on his tongue. He didn’t want her to worry, but he couldn’t lie to her. “Probably not.”
“But there’s a possibility?”
“Yes.”
Callie sank to the floor. The cold concrete against her ass drained what little heat remained in her body. She’d prefer not to get closer to him, but unable to take the cold, she crawled in the direction of the mattress. When her hand caught the corner, she pulled herself onto it and perched on the edge.
“I’m a lot stronger now,” he said. “If they find us, it will be a much different battle.”
And if Yannis found them here, he would destroy his brother. Lucien would joyfully tear the bastard apart for what he’d done, and he would ensure Yannis never walked the earth again.
Memories of the past almost overwhelmed him, but he buried them once more. He couldn’t allow himself to become infuriated while trapped in this place. It would not help him earn her trust, and though he’d never tried to earn the trust of a human before, he wanted hers.
He settled onto the mattress beside her. They didn’t touch, but they were so close, her presence warmed his side and her smell engulfed him.
“You’re only one against many,” she said.
“I was one against many before too, and we’ve made it this far.”
He had a good point there.
“True.” They sat in silence for a few minutes before she spoke again. “Why are those things trying to make you like them?”
“They’re trying to turn vampires who don’t kill into vampires who do.”
“You don’t kill?”
“No humans or innocents, but I enjoy destroying those who deserve it.”
He’d regained enough of his abilities that he heard her gulp. He should probably curb some of his blunt attitude, but he’d never been one to hold back before. However, she’d been through enough without him scaring her with his blatant enjoyment of killing.
“I know what I did to you when I bit you,” he said. “But I meant it when I said you’re safe with me. I promise you, Callie.”
His voice rang with sincerity, but she didn’t know how to respond. Instead, she decided to change the subject.
“You said you don’t kill, but you were going to kill that man in the house before I stopped you.”
Lucien couldn’t deny the truth. He’d been out of control and on the verge of taking a life; he’d also been on the edge of turning on her.
“I was out of control then, but I’ve fed and have more control now,” he explained. “They didn’t give me any blood the entire month I was there. I was ravenous and out of my mind. It’s also why I bit you. I’m not offering it as an excuse, but it is the truth. I’m better now and more in control. It won’t happen again.”
For some reason, she believed him. Why would he lie about something like that? How would she act if she didn’t eat for a month and someone suddenly put food in front of her? Hangry did not begin to describe what she was like when she went for more than a few hours without food, never mind a month.
“I won’t take from you again, unless you willingly allow it,” he said.
“There’s no way I’ll let that happen! I don’t ever want to experience that again.”
Lucien winced and started to run his fingers through his hair, but they got stuck on the grime again. Frustration filled him; he needed to fix this between them and a shower.
“A vampire’s bite is actually extremely pleasurable if you’re willing,” he said.
She recalled watching him feed on those humans; she didn’t see how anything could be pleasurable about it, but she wasn’t going to argue with him.
“Many enjoy it tremendously,” he continued.
There was something in his voice that caused her stomach to clench. She refused to be attracted to the vampire beside her, but she couldn’t deny the strange flutter his words evoked.
First Carter; now this guy. She had shit taste in men.
She refused to let herself become attracted to this filthy, borderline animal beside her. She was exhausted, and he was the only one she had to rely on in this horrible situation, so of course her body was going all kinds of crazy on her. When this was over….
What? What would happen then? She might never be able to return to her old life. Sorrow swelled inside her as she considered giving up her friends and her career. She loved what she did, and her friends were the only family she had left now that her parents were dead.
“What do you do, Callie?” Lucien asked.
“Can you read minds too?” she gasped.
Lucien chuckled and then stopped when the distress in her voice registered. “No, I can’t read minds. When I’m at full strength, I can control minds, but I can’t read them.”
Callie wasn’t sure she believed him, but if he could read minds, then he’d already know what she did and wouldn’t have bothered to ask the question. Still, she shifted uncomfortably, which caused her knee to brush against his. She jerked her leg away and hugged her knees to her chest before setting her chin on top of them.
“I’m trying to get to know you better,” he said, though he had no idea why. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d felt compelled to learn anything more about a human or a woman.
“What do you do, Lucien?” she asked instead of answering him.
“I hunt and kill Savages, and I love every minute of it.”
Callie lifted her chin from her knees. She blinked in the direction of his voice, but of course she still couldn’t see him. Had he really confessed to murder with such ease?
Yes, he had. A chill slid up her spine, and she gulped. He’d kept her alive and gotten them this far, but she could never forget she was sitting with a predator, and she was most certainly the prey.
“What are… what are Savages?” she croaked.
“That’s what we call the vampires who took you and imprisoned me. They’re vampires who kill for fun; they enjoy destroying innocent lives, like yours. They’re monsters, they’re Savages, and they don’t deserve to live.”
She pondered this for a minute before replying. “I agree with you on that. Do you hunt them on your own?”
Lucien didn’t know how much to reveal, but he could give her a little more without divulging too much. “No, I have friends—no, they’re my brothers of my choosing, and we hunt them together.”
Because the brother he shared blood with, he never would have chosen. His thoughts returned to Yannis standing there and smiling at him from the tunnel entrance. And then back to a night almost three hundred years ago when he walked in on the bloodbath of his brother’s doing. It was the first and only time in his life that his heart broke.
“I see,” Callie murmured.
She was amazed to discover she enjoyed listening to the rough timbre of his voice. Unlike the man, his voice was pleasing, deep, and melodic.
She yearned to see his face, but it was probably better she couldn’t. She was scared she might start to feel pity or understanding for him, and she’d be playing an incredibly perilous game by sympathizing with a creature who survived by feeding on her kind.
“And how did you end up as the Savages’ prisoner?” she asked.
Lucien focused on her again as he recalled the events that led to him chained to a wall. “A group of us was sent to check on some cameras at an underground site where Savages once lived. While there, Savages ambushed us.”
Now that he could think clearly again, he wondered how his fellow Alliance members had made out after the attack. At the beginning of his imprisonment, he worried about them often, but then his mind became more and more consumed by his obsession with blood while he wasted away.
Had he unknowingly left some of them behind when he fled that underground hellhole? Were some of them now Savages? He hoped some of them survived, but they were probably slaughtered or in the hands of their enemies. He’d tried to hold back the Savages spilling from that hole, but there were so many of them. He didn’t see how anyone could have escaped the tide of evil pouring forth.
“Do you remember how to get back to where we were?” he asked.
“Back to that tunnel?” she asked incredulously.
“Yes.”
“I have no idea how to get back there.”
“Shit,” he muttered.
“Why?”
“Because some of my fellow Alliance members could still be there.”
“What’s the Alliance?”
“It’s what we, those who hunt and kill Savages, call ourselves.”
“Oh.” Callie fiddled with the bottom of her jeans. “You’d really go back there?”
“To save any others who might be trapped there? Yes.”
She didn’t know how to take the revelation that he would return to save others. He’d saved her life, but she still saw him as more of a monster than a man.