Lucian had seemed distracted for most of our conversation, but he finally looked at me with the edge of playfulness I’d caught brief glimpses of from him. “I wonder if it’s stranger for you to be so hopelessly attracted to an old, crusty geezer such as myself.”
“Yes. It’s strange.”
We were making some scorching eye contact when a small child approached our table. He looked about eight and had shock white hair cut into a perfectly strange bowl cut.
“Good of you to come, Adam,” Lucian said.
Adam inclined his chin, looking from me to Lucian with a hint of curiosity. There was a strange vibe to the little boy. I knew Lucian must’ve been talking about him when he mentioned the hundred or two hundred year old kids, and I believed it. I’d never seen a young boy who looked so confident or carried himself quite as the boy did. He had coal black eyes and little touches of malice on his small face that I couldn’t put my finger on. All I knew was I felt nervous around him.
“Where are your brothers?” Lucian asked.
“My brothers aren’t as willing to listen to your words as I am. They think you’ll just bring Bennigan down on us all.”
“And you disagree?”
“I wasn’t willing to miss the fights. And I enjoy hearing powerful people beg. So, please, let’s hear why I should convince my brothers to support you and not Bennigan. Is this your human?” he asked, pointing to me.
“No. She is one of us. Newly turned, of course,” Lucian said.
I nodded, then remembered a vampire wouldn’t look wide-eyed and confused. I tried to put on my best smoking hot, I’m a badass who bites people for fun look. Adam’s frank disinterest as he regarded me made me feel immediately silly.
“It’s true,” I said. “I love blood. I spread the stuff on my toast, even.”
Lucian slowly turned his head toward me, giving me look that clearly said please stop talking.
Adam completely ignored my dumb comment and started listening to Lucian’s attempts to convince him to come back to The Order.
I lost track of the conversation between Lucian and Adam because the seats around the room had filled and the fighting ring was now occupied by two very muscular, sculpted men wearing no shirts. There was no announcer and no ceremony. Both of the men in the ring just charged at each other and started clawing, biting, and punching.
I immediately averted my eyes, but I could still hear the violence. When I tuned my ears back into the conversation between Lucian and Adam, they were talking about the ways Bennigan would eradicate their entire family lines if they crossed him. It was hard to follow some of the references the two men made, but I poured as much of my attention into it as I could. It was better than focusing on the fight raging while the room full of vampires cheered.
I’d thought of this whole experience with Lucian as a dangerous, wild adventure more than once already. I’d even felt sad just minutes ago to see him cross the room without me and demonstrate the bond was weakening. But in a rushing, overwhelming moment, I was reminded how serious it all was.
These creatures were dangerous, different, and deadly. One of them wanted to use me to hurt Lucian, and after that, he wanted to wipe out anyone who so much as dared to support Lucian.
Half of me wanted to scoot closer to Lucian and cling to him for protection. The other half wanted to run as far as I could and try to forget I’d ever learned vampires were real.
24
Lucian
We were in Cara’s cramped little room while I put the finishing touches on a dresser I’d built her. I’d seen the way she had to lay the majority of her clothing on the floor in a neat pile and then carefully dig through it when she wanted to find something to wear. The rest was stuffed in an extremely small closet that barely had room for a few jackets.
I had a chisel in one hand and a mallet in the other as I fine-tuned the joinery for the dresser doors.
She was sitting on her bed, watching me while she twirled a bare-footed toe in idle circles. Cara had on a fuzzy, oversized sweater and a pair of the “leggings” she liked to wear on lazy days. Some of her short hair was pulled up into a very small topknot while the rest hung at the back messily.
I kept forgetting to focus on my work because I was stealing glances at her, and she had noticed. She was wearing her patented knowing smirk as she sat there, toe endlessly circling.
“I can’t believe you built me a dresser,” she said. “Fixing the sink was nice, but this might be the most manly thing a guy has ever done for me.”