Page 10 of Missing Piece
Luka let out another breathy laugh. «He’s got you there.»
Matteo shoved Luka with half a grin. «You have no room to talk,» he said. They stared at each other again, the only sound in the room occupied by the crackling in the fireplace and the wood stove.
Vincent stared at the waning fire, allowing his eyes to unfocus as the twins continued their silent conversation with each other. If this situation fell in his lap ten years ago, then Matteo would be correct in his assumption that it could be interesting, but things were different now. He was different. He couldn’t even convince himself that he was going to go through with trialing the human. From the moment he put Adam in his car, he was just going through the motions.
If it wasn’t for his beast egging him on, he probably would have just left the human there on the pavement next to a puddle of his own vomit. But even that had been different. He was used to it having a one-track mind that revolved around feeding—whether that be on blood or fear or some mix of the two, and generally he agreed with it. But the damn thing must have been poking around his subconscious, because it wanted something more, and he vowed to himself he wouldn’t even entertain the idea of that.
But you’re already thinking about it. How soft his skin is. How good he tastes. What kind of fun fights he might put up with that body and mouth. Vincent squeezed the empty rocks glass in his hand, paying no mind as it cracked beneath his fingers and the shards dug into his flesh. He set the glass down, or at least what remained of it, shaking the shards out of his hand as the wound began to close.
“We have other issues that need attention, more than my house guest,” Vincent said, signing the translation absentmindedly while he continued to stare at the dying fire. «Notepad?»
Matteo eyed the broken glass as he fished for the small notepad and pen he used to communicate at his restaurant from his back pocket. He slid it across the coffee table. «Those were imported.»
Vincent rolled his eyes as he wrote the name Beth gave him before sliding it back towards Matteo. «I’ll buy you new ones.»
He watched Matteo mouth the foreign words, his brow furrowed and his lips pursed. «‘The Order of the New Sun’? What the fuck is that? Hunters?»
Luka shook his head. «They’re like us. A cult maybe. They sent a spy,» he said. He grabbed his glass of bloody alcohol and threw it back. A faint smile on his face formed as he shook out the shock of the sweet liquor like a wet dog. «Vin broke her neck, so she’s out in a field near the old Mitchell farm.»
«Why not kill her?» Matteo glanced between them.
«It didn’tseem fair. She was starving. I have no idea why they sent her. She seemed too new for espionage.» Vincent looked down as both sets of emerald eyes settled on him.
«He’s growing compassionate,» Luka said with a grin.
«Go fuck yourself.» Vincent buried his face in his hands as they both laughed. They were right though. He was becoming softer. Maybe it was his age. Fifty years ago, he would have had a field day with a new human to play with in his home. He had spent hours, sometimes days, extracting every bit of blood and fear he could out of some silly human who got too close to him, like a game of cat and mouse where he could taste their terror in the air.
Now that just sounded exhausting.
So why the fuck did I bring the human here? I should have just had Luka leave him in the field with Beth as a reward snack if she gets back up. What am I doing?
He picked up Adam’s vomit-smeared shoe with the prosthetic still sticking out, running his hand over the top of the socket. It looked like it had been well cared for, unlike the tattered sneaker the device sat in. Adam said he didn’t have any money, but this device did not look like something someone without money would own. He could ask his niece to investigate who he actually had in his guest room. She would probably roll her eyes and complain, but ultimately, she would help him out.
«He’s missing a limb and you took it?» Matteo asked, wobbling his head back and forth as though he were evaluating his own opinion on that matter. «Interesting. If you’re going to trial him, that would be a good bargainingchip.»
Vincent had thought about that when he was stripping Adam, but for some reason, he hesitated to remove it. At first, it seemed unkind. But then he remembered he never cared about these things in the past. Luka was right. He was developing a conscience. He spent too much time getting close to humans and caring about what they thought.
«I’m going to bed,» Vincent said, grabbing Adam’s other shoe off the coffee table. «I need one of you to take him to the bathroom when he wakes up and feed him.»
He turned his back to them before either could protest, still looking down at the prosthetic. Maybe having the human here would be good for all of them. The four of them were becoming too comfortable and complacent and out of touch with what they once were. A fighter like Adam could reignite a desire for something exciting. Something bloody.
But something about that idea gnawed at him as he reached the stairs. A selfish, burning in his gut he hadn’t felt in years.
He didn’t want to share the human with his friends like a plate of appetizers.
He wanted to keep Adam all to himself.
Chapter Four - Adam
Adam jolted forward, gasping for breath and grabbing at his throat. He could still feel it: Vincent’s mouth on his neck, the weirdly pleasant burn that came with it, the pressure on his hips from being held down. His fingers brushed over the spot, making him wince as his fingertips found open wounds. Every muscle in his body ached and radiated a burning weakness that made him shaky and unstable even while sitting up.
Flinging aside the covers he had been tucked beneath, Adam examined his surroundings. The cuff around his ankle was still there, attached to a chain that was pooled in a coil on the end of the bed. He pursed his lips at the sight of his silicone prosthetic sleeve. That fucker still had his foot. What did Vincent want from him? What was a trial?
Maybe this had something to do with his past. Several dealers and gangs were owed money by him. Before V ratted him out, a lot of different people had floated him because, at least before his parents kicked him out, he could always pay for his fix. Was Vincent associated with one of them? The man wouldn’t be the first strip club owner Adam had met who had a side business keeping his “girls” under his thumb with a drug habit.
Then again, there was that eye thing.
Demons and monsters had visited him plenty of times during withdrawals. Adam always assumed that was something his brain came up with to get him to return to using, digging into the depths of his imagination to trick him into using again to make the monsters and pain go away. But the way Vincent’s eyes changed from normal to black was not something he had seen even in his most elaborate hallucinations.
