Page 9 of Because the Night

“No,” he agrees. “I didn’t think so.”

“If you hadn’t been there earlier, I would have killed her.”

“Is that your way of saying thank you?”

“Of course, if you hadn’t turned me, none of this would have happened in the first place.”

He clicks his tongue impatiently.

When the elevator doors slide open, it is to a scene of slaughter. Blood is smeared across the gray marble floor of the lobby and halfway up the wall. The security guard’s throat is torn open, his sightless eyes are staring at the ceiling.

A scream catches in my throat, and I slap my hands over my mouth to hold it inside.

Standing over the body, licking his fingers clean, is a young man with olive skin and long brown hair. Handsome, of course. And exceedingly tall and built. He is basically a murderous, bloodsucking lump of muscle.

“Christos,” says Lucas. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“You were followed. We had someone watching your house.”

“For seventy years?”

The stranger’s smile is purely predatory. “He wants to see you.”

“Does he?” Lucas steps out of the elevator. “What a mess. Was killing him absolutely necessary?”

“I was hungry.” Christos shrugs. “Who’s the girl? Is she a newborn? Did you make her?”

“None of your concern.”

His gaze narrows on me in a way that creeps me right the fuck out. The worddeathappears in my mind as I follow Lucas into the lobby. If this is a psychic gift compliments of the change, it could be more helpful. Because there’s a whole lot of death happening around me. The poor security guard. And still, it’s all I can do not to drop to the floor and start licking up his blood. Such a heady scent. It’s delicious. My hands start shaking, and holding myself back is not easy. Thank fuck I filled up on the blood bags upstairs.

“Was that all you were asked to tell me?” asks Lucas. “That he wishes me to pay him a visit?”

A scowl twists Christos’s face, and his huge hands curl into fists. “It’s an order, not an invitation.”

Lucas nods and smiles.

“Look at you. You look like shit.” The other vampire laughs mockingly. “My how the mighty have fallen.”

Despite my heightened senses, I can barely track Lucas when he moves. He is little more than a blur. But suddenly he’s standing beside the other vampire, his hand stained red, and in it there’s a…oh fucking hell. It’s his heart.

Christos folds to the floor, his chest a bloody ruin. He didn’t have time to react to the attack. Lucas was just that damn fast. The male’s remains lie there for no more than a moment before his body turns into a pile of ash.

“Holy shit,” I mutter, stunned.

Lucas pulls a handkerchief out of his coat pocket and proceeds to wipe the ash from his hand. No other trace of the vampire remains. I’m not sure what shocked me more. Thequick and brutal murder, or the pile of ash that’s all that remains of his body. Both, probably.

And with the way information is flooding my mind, it is hard to know what to freak out about first. Me wanting to lick blood off the floor. Lucas displaying superpowers. Or the way my whole life has hit the wall and gone splat. He’s already threatened to make me deader. Will he rip my heart out, too, if I displease him?

“You killed him,” I say, just making conversation. “Tore out his heart.”

Lucas tucks the handkerchief away. “Yes.”

“I, um, I think I’m going to be sick.”

His expression turns pained. “Vampires do not get nausea, Skye. We certainly do not vomit. Would you please show some decorum?”

My gaze is drawn back to the blood, and the dead body of the security guard, and the piles of ash that was Christos…and oh man. “Why did you kill him? Was it because of the guard?”

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