Page 55 of A Love So Deadly
Lucian.
Where are his people? His vampire hordes? Vittoria? Surely he’s not this stupid. Is he?
He walks further inside and passes a doorway into another room. On light feet, I hurry to follow. The room beyond is one open space with the remains of old textile machinery and piles of dust-covered rugs and big spools of thread. Lucian has disappeared from sight, but I can feel him here, that indefinable thing. But he’s seemed to poof into thin air.
I’m in over my head. He’s a vampire. His senses are much sharper than mine. He should be able to handle two human thugs.
Then why is my pulse thundering in my ears? I can’t shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen. Really bad.
“Calm down,” I whisper under my breath, edging my way around, sticking to the darkest places. In the back, something moves. There’s another section to the warehouse, and I cross to it.
I see him. Lucian’s talking with Vinnie, shaking hands. But as Vinnie turns and walks off, a shadow moves at the top of the metal staircase. There’s a glint of metal.
It’s Benicio. He’s got a gun, and it’s aimed for Lucian.
I don’t think. “Lucy!”
He spins and sees me.His eyes widen in shock and fear. “Elliot?”
It’s a trap!I want to say, but I’m already running to him.
Benicio’s yells something and Lucian’s head snaps up, but before I can reach him, there’s a loud popping sound followed by a white-hot pain that sears into my chest. I’m knocked sideways,losing my balancing, and hitting the floor in a hard roll. Pain explodes everywhere.
The gun… I’ve…I’ve been shot.
The world is slow motion around me. I try to move, but my limbs are too heavy.Warmth spreads across my shirt, my sweatshirt. Blood. There’s so much of it. And all I can see from my place on the ground is black polished shoes rushing for me, but my vision is quickly darkening around the edges.
Lucian shouts, but there’s a ringing in my ears. It drowns out all other sound.
The last thing I see is Lucian’s pale, beautiful face looming over me, his fangs bared, before I’m sucked into infinite darkness.
Chapter
Eighteen
Lucian
“No!” Everything in me shuts down to nothing. Everything turns black. Everything but the anger.
That burns red.
The bullet that ripped into Elliot, the one that had been meant for me, blasted her right off her feet. She hit the warehouse floor with a loud thump.
“Elliot! Shit.” I’m kneeling at her side in a millisecond. Blood pours out from the center of her chest, the precious red liquid pooling underneath her at a rapid pace. It’s too much—she’s losing too much, too fast.
Benicio shoots again, hitting me in the shoulder. The pain is nothing but an annoyance, and all it does is pisses me off more. I look to where he hides like a coward at the top of the metal landing. He starts to shake, the terror turning the air sour. I stare him down, then turn as my people melt from the shadows.
Vittoria kicks Vinnie’s drained corpse into the center of the room to make sure Benicio sees it.
“Fucking Vinnie,” she snarls. “What a waste.”
Andrew, one of my other trusted vampire underlings, steps in behind her. He’s newer than Vittoria, but nowhere near as wild. To my surprise, he’s the one with the fresh blood glow, not her.
Good. That means she’ll be primed. Pure hunter.
“Kill them all,” I say. Fury vibrates through me, and I want revenge. I want this place swimming with the blood of Benicio and every one of the men he has waiting to ambush me. “Every last mother fucking one. But leave Benicio for me.”
“Excellent.” Vittoria doesn’t need to be told twice. She’s off in a blur of speed. The half dozen other vampires we brought start to pick off every one of Benicio’s men. Blood splatters, people scream.
