Page 16 of A Love So Deadly
I go up to her and study her pale, beautiful face. Her brilliant red hair shines, silky and smooth. Men and women have literally killed each other to bask in her light. They’ve offered their lives just to feel the euphoria Vittoria brings. She likes sex. She likes to rule over her slaves. And she’s fickle. She’ll turn on them the moment she’s bored, wipe their minds of all but a flicker of her face.
Cruel. Heartless. Utterly Vittoria.
It’s one of the things I adore about her.
It’s the reason we ended up not working as lovers. Not in the long run, not outside of sheer boredom.
We’re both Doms.
I just prefer control, patience, ropes, denial.
She likes her bidding done and chaos in blood and orgasm. She still has her humans. She finds their faults endlessly fascinating and ultimately, endlessly irritating.
“Not even then.”
“So you say, Lucian. But you hired the blonde.”
“I told you I was hiring someone. This only works if humans come and go from here. We remain in the shadows. The humans go into the light. Where they age and they die, and new humans replace them.”
I think about those blonde curls and cornflower blue eyes. The scent of vanilla and cinnamon and lime. It would be easy to dismiss her as another pretty human who’s smart but complacent.
But I don’t do that.
Elliot Montague wants something. I tasted it in her blood. On her skin.
“It’s annoying,” Vittoria quips.
“You want to be in the limelight?” I ask.
“We were once, and no one thought twice.”
She’s right. This new world makes us more careful; we need to be. “The humans have eyes everywhere. They record everything. I prefer freedom of anonymity.”
“You like her.” She drains her drink. “Or are fascinated. You should have drained her dry, not licked her finger.”
“I need an assistant, a human.” I pour us both another drink. It’s a poor substitute for fresh blood, but it will do. “She’s smart?—”
“Smarter and trickier than you think, and you’re already intrigued enough?—”
“Careful,” I say, cutting her off, “or I’ll start thinking you’re jealous.”
“Of what?” Her eyes flash. “I’m letting you know what I saw. She affected you.”
“I’ve been around a woman who’s about to give birth. It’s got everyone’s blood up.”
Suddenly she smiles, and it’s so vicious and cold I know exactly why human men get hard over her. “We could eat her.”
“No,” I say softly, “we can’t. And if anything happens to her, your head will roll. Literally. And then I’ll burn you to ashes.”
Vittoria rolls her eyes at my threat, but I notice she doesn’t approach it again. “We should hunt.”
“We have food in the subbasement.”
“It’s not the same,” she says, going to my desk and flipping open my laptop. Then she points at it. “Make it work.”
I bite down my smile and go over, using my password and thumbprint. “You could learn to use these.”
She hisses low. “I’m hands on.”
