Page 2 of Lucien

He didn’t hug Jamie goodbye. Didn’t even glance back. He just left the room with his lie floating in the air.

Jamie knew it was a lie, because he’d seen his birthday. Mamá had been there. Also a new bike. But no Dad. And there wouldn’t be again. He had a new family now. Sandra and her kids in California.

Sucks to be them, Jamie thought. He refused to be sad about it. Hewasn’tsad about it. What did Jamie want with someone who didn’t want him? Who would leave Jamie’s mom—the best lady in the whole wide world—behind just because his kid creeped him out sometimes?

It’s not even my fault. I didn’t ask for any of it.

Jamie wasn’t sure how long he sat there in the kitchen, but his cereal was all soggy by the time his mom came in, doing that special waddle she did now that her pregnant belly had gotten so massive.

He didn’t mind her big belly. She was growing his little sister in there. One who was going to look just like him and Mamá. Dark hair, dark eyes. Beautiful.

“Mijo, what are you doing up?” His mom kissed his forehead in passing, and some of that dark, icky feeling his dad had left behind went away at the gesture.

Jamie smiled brightly at her. “I like this new cereal you got.”

“Mm. Thought you would,” she said, grabbing the kettle off the stove and filling it with water. “Although, that was supposed to be for a certain special occasion.”

“Dad left for his business trip.”

His mom’s hand froze with the kettle hanging over the sink, her whole body rigid from his words. “Did he now?”

For the first time that morning, Jamie felt a little…lost. Should he tell her? He didn’t want to lie—hewasn’t a liar—but he didn’t want to make her sad either. Should he have warned her before? But telling people ahead of time never seemed to do any good. It only freaked them out, or they got all angry when things turned out exactly the way Jamie had said they would.

But then his mom turned and looked at him, her dark eyes serious, and he realized she already knew. And that she knewheknew.

They shared a long look, he and Mamá. But she didn’t ask him any questions, or tell him how weird and “unnatural” he was for knowing the grown-up stuff he wasn’t supposed to know about. She just smiled at him.

It wasn’t her best, brightest smile, but it wasn’t too bad either.

“Maybe I’ll have a bowl of cereal too.”

one

Lucien

Seslongsmugissementsfonttrembler le rivage,

Le ciel avec horreur voit ce monstre sauvage.

Those lines from the old tragedy kept ringing around in Luc’s head, making themselves heard even above the whimpers of the man he was draining. It was distracting, honestly. Luc hated when he thought in French. It brought back too many old memories.

Memories he had no need for. People he’d rather forget.

Luc pushed the drained body away with a sigh, letting it flop unceremoniously onto the hot concrete.

Another disgusting cretin for the books. More rat than man, really.

Luc licked stray drops of blood from his lips anyway, not willing to waste the feed, even if he was repelled by the source. It wasn’t theblood’sfault. The blood had been fine—food was food—but he didn’t want to touch the scum it came from any more than he had to. He knew the horrible things his newly deceased prey was capable of. Those horrible things were exactly why he had been chosen in the first place.

And now what? Luc held himself still, assessing. He waited for that internalpush. The drive to go further, to hunt more. But the monster inside him was feeling satisfied for the moment, satiated by the dregs of society they’d just feasted on.

Luc stretched languidly, cracking his back with a satisfying pop, catching sight of the freeway sign ahead of him as he did.

Only a few miles outside of Phoenix.

Ridiculous how far Luc had sunk, to be caught dead—well,undead—in such a graceless town. There was just noeleganceto it. A concrete jungle smack dab in the middle of the desert, where human society had no right to be.

But then again, there was no elegance to Luc himself these days either. He’d been reduced to a mindless fucking beast, the monster inside him driving his actions, his appearance, sometimes his very thoughts.

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