Cara looked sad for a moment, but she recovered quickly. “You think they’ll leave me alone when the bond is done?”
“I think this will be over when I find a way to make sure they know you’re off limits.”
“How will you do that?”
“I haven’t decided yet. But death and dismemberment for anyone who dares to touch you is on my list of options.”
The door to my house flew open as Alaric and a very naked Vlad came in. Alaric had a wound on his neck that didn’t look too serious but appeared otherwise as casual and unconcerned as usual.
Cara threw her hands in front of her face and let out a terrified little scream. “Oh, God,” she said, averting her eyes from Vlad. “He’s so naked.”
“I know,” Vlad said, smiling like a pirate. “Impressive, isn’t it?”
“So the bat thing is real?” she asked nobody in particular, still turning her head and squeezing her eyes shut.
“Oh,” Vlad said deeply in his thick accent. “She wants to see my bat. She can touch, if she wants to see how it feels in her grip.”
“Vlad,” I warned. “Go find some pants so we don’t have to keep looking at your… bat.”
Vlad waved me off, then clutched his lower back as he walked up the stairs. “Alaric,” he said over his shoulder. “You’re fucking heavy, man. Next time you want a ride, you are going on a diet. Virgin blood only,” he said, wagging a finger and laughing from his belly as he left.
Alaric gave Vlad’s hairy ass the middle finger, then looked Cara and I over. “You two appear to be alive.”
I nodded. “You as well.”
“You’re welcome.”
“What does Bennigan think he’s going to accomplish like this? If he really wanted me dead, he’d stop charging at us with guns in the open. He’d get the supposed army of charmed women in his harem to surround us. Something about these attacks feels wrong, like he’s not really trying to accomplish what it looks like he’s trying to accomplish.”
Cara looked thoughtful. “Maybe he’s trying to make it look more like a war and less like an assassination.”
“What do you mean?” I asked her.
“You said it’s all political with you guys, right? What if he’s not really trying to get the revenge he wants on you yet? Maybe the others will just start hearing about all these times you two were fighting and they’ll lose track of who was starting it.”
Alaric gave Cara an impressed look. “She sounds like she understands this better than I do.” He pulled out his phone then took a picture of himself and the wound on his neck.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked.
“There’s this place called Instagram. As soon as I post pictures of myself, swarms of women try to sleep with me. It’s wonderful.”
“I’m glad you’re devoting your full attention to Bennigan and the threat he poses to us.”
Alaric shrugged. “You worry too much, Lucian.”
“And you don’t worry enough.” The truth was I might not have cared as much as I did if I hadn’t tied Cara up in the mess with us. To a lesser degree, I also cared about keeping Seraphina and Alaric safe. I was the oldest remaining Undergrove as far as I knew, and that put the responsibility of the family on my shoulders.
Cara’s stomach rumbled, reminding me once again that humans needed to eat actual food on a regular basis. I’d dragged her straight here and completely forgotten she most likely wanted dinner.
“Let’s go get you something to eat.”
Cara smiled a little shyly. “Are we going to get shot at if we go outside?”
“No,” I said. I paused briefly. “I don’t expect we will, at least.”
“Good enough. I’m starving.”
31
Cara
I woke in the morning and looked to the floor, where I expected to see Lucian in all his hot, ridiculously cliché vampire glory—arms crossed and gorgeous pale face at rest. Except there was just an empty place on the floor. He wasn’t even looming in the corner as he liked to do sometimes.
My heart jumped in my chest and I sat up suddenly. “Lucian?” I hissed. “Lucian! Where are you?”
I looked around the room and didn’t see him anywhere. I didn’t even feel the tug I’d become so used to pulling me toward him. He was just gone, and apparently, so was the bond.
We’d both known it was growing weaker for days now. I’d been on my own during the daylight hours and back with him at night. But we hadn’t had a real conversation about what would happen when the bond was completely gone.
Except that wasn’t entirely true. Lucian had made it clear from the beginning that he was going to do anything to keep me safe. His disappearance meant he thought I was safer with him gone, and I wished he was here so I could tell him what an idiot he was being.