Page 57 of A Love So Deadly
A sob leaves me, ripped from my soul. My cheeks are wet with bloody tears as I shove my bleeding wrist into her mouth and pray for some kind of miracle to happen.
“Please…Please, Monty. Come back to me,” I beg. “I can’t lose you, too. I can’t.”
“Lucian…” It’s Vittoria again, but this time, her voice is gentle. So is her touch when she puts her hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, but she’s gone.”
I feel every fucking word. Cold, harsh. I stare at Elliot, searching once more for any signs of her life coming back, but there are none. It didn’t work.
She’s dead.
Slowly, I lay her down and sit back. Benicio did this. He took Nell from me and now, Elliot. And he’s going to pay.
The bottomless sorrow snaps into something bigger, deadly.
I’m rage itself.
Centuries of fury and loss.
Whirling around, I’m on my feet. There. Benicio. The scent is strongest from across the warehouse, at the bottom of the stairs. He’s there, hiding behind a tower of boxes, just waiting for the chaos around him to die down so he can run. The thing is, the fool can’t hide. Not from me.
I run for him. Someone else fires their gun at me, and the bullet rips into me, slowing me down. I stop and spot the fucker immediately. I’m on him before he can blink. Grabbing him, I rip out his throat, blood and muscle flying and not caring about the wasted blood.
I toss his corpse away.
Another one of Benicio’s men comes from my left. He thinks he has the jump on me until I look at him at the last second and terror lights up his face.
With one swift movement, I snap his neck and let him fall.
I keep striding to my quarry.
Boxes fall and Benicio drops a clip. He reaches for it, but now in front of him, I kick it away. He throws his gun at me, and I dodge it easily. He screams. He scrambles back, hands covering his face, but I haul him up and slam him against the brick wall.
His eyes go dark for a second from the power of the hit, but when he comes to, his absolute fear perfumes the air.
“You have no idea what you’ve done, of the monster you’ve unleashed.” My fangs descend and my vision sharpens. I know to him, my eyes are black and I look like the creature that I am.
He sputters. “P-please, please! I can?—”
“Shut up.” I slam him hard against the bricks again, and this time, his skull cracks. Power courses through me, the power of my true potential, the power I usually keep under tight control.
I let it out. And it invades every inch.
I grin at the fucker.
“You killed Nell. You shot my Elliot. Mine.” I slam him once more, until his head goes limp. “You took my heart, and that means now, I’m going to take yours.” Then, lifting him high, I punch into his chest, through the bone and flesh. There’s the scrape of broken ribs, but when I feel my prize, I wrap my fingers around his beating heart and squeeze.
His heart bursts. Ripping it from his chest, I let him drop and throw the fucking useless blood-drenched muscle down before licking my fingers clean.
I know it won’t bring Nell or Elliot back; it won’t end the pain I feel, but at least Benicio and Vinnie both met their justified ends.
Wiping my mouth, I turn on my heel and stride back to Elliot.Andrew and Vittoria are there whispering to each other while the other vampires finish off the last of Benicio’s men. Elliot still lies there, motionless, eyes closed.
I want to lash out again. I want to kill, go on a rampage until I’m the blood numbs the ache. But most of all, I want?—
Thump, thump.
I pause. What is that?
My fists clench because that sound doesn’t belong here. Not when every human here is dead.
