Page 114 of Map of Pain
Two days,Luka thought, studying Nick’s peaceful face in the dim light of his bedroom back at the farmhouse.Two days since the diner.
Luka’s beast stirredcontentedly, a warm purr of satisfaction:Safe.Ours.Protected.The possessive certainty felt different now—not desperate or grasping, but settled.
Nick shifted in his sleep, pressing closer as his hand pressed against Luka’s chest. The simple trust in the gesture still amazed him. After everything Nick endured, he could sleep like this, so vulnerable and unguarded as long as Luka was with him.
A memory surfaced unbidden: Owen’s voice in the van, describing what he’d done to Nick... His beast snarled at the phantom threat.
Stop,he told himself.Owen is dead. Shaw is dead. This serves no one.
But the images lingered—Nick kneeling in submission while Owen gloated, saying “thank you” after—
Enough.Luka forced the thought away. Nick didn’t need him carrying this poison.
He looked down at Nick’s sleeping face again, trying to replace the van memories with this reality. This wasn’t the broken thing Nick pretended to be. This was brave, beautiful, resilient Nick. The man who strategically used his own conditioning as a weapon. Who had looked Shaw in the eye as he cut off his head with the world’s dullest meat cleaver. Who had taken control of his own nightmare and ended it on his terms.
A soft knock at the door interrupted his thoughts. Nick stirred but didn’t wake as Lukaextracted himself from the bed and padded to the door.
Vincent stood in the hallway,fullydressed despite the early hour, his expressionneutral despite the fact he was rocking on the balls of his feet.
«Need to talk,»Vincent signed, his movements clipped withbarelycontained energy. «Caleb and Marcus are downstairs.»
Luka nodded and slipped out into the hallway, closing the doorquietlybehind him. They walked to the kitchen in silence, Vincent’s tension radiating through every line of his body.
“Richard,”Vincent said without preamble once they were alone.“I need to tell you something about Richard.”
Luka studied Vincent’s face, seeing guilt etched in every line as Vincent confessed the full story off what truly happened at the warehouse with Adam all those months ago. Richard, the vampire who’d tortured him and Adam, was Vincent’s own creation.
«You couldn’t have known.»
“I made him,”Vincent said, looking sad and nauseous in equal measure.“A hundred years ago. I thought he was dead. I thought...”He ran a hand through his hair.“Shaw was my fault,in a way. My mistake, passed down through Richard. How many people died because I fucked up a turning a century ago?”
The raw self-recrimination in Vincent’s voice made Luka’s chest tight. He understood guilt—the weight of choices that echoed through decades.
«You couldn’t have known Shaw would exist,»Luka saidfirmly.«You couldn’t have known Richard survived.»
“But I did know, seven months ago. When Richard attacked us, when I learned he was alive—I chose to focus on protecting Adam instead of warning people. I chose to let sleeping monsters lie.”
«You chose love over destruction,»Luka replied as they continued towards the kitchen.«Shaw chose to become a monster after Richard turned him. You didn’t make those choices.»
Caleb sat at the kitchen table and looked better than he did two days ago, when Luka and Nick rolled back into town looking like hell. Marcus was the steady presence Caleb needed then—grounding him, keeping him from overwhelming Nick with his own emotional reaction.
Luka was grateful for that. Sometimes the kindest thing wasn’t to cry for someone or with someone. Sometimes it was just to be strong and present.
“How is he?”Caleb asked, looking like he was fighting very hard not to jump out of his chair and go running through the house to find his brother.
«Sleeping,» Luka said. «Healing.»
“The Society?”Marcus’s question wascarefullymeasured, but Luka caught the underlying concern.
«Leaderless again. Scattered, hopefully.»Luka shrugged.«We wait. Watch. But we don’t go hunting.»
Marcus nodded.“Smart. Let them tear themselves apart fighting over succession.”
“And the neutral hunter networks?”Caleb asked.“Haley and Alexei’s people?”
«That’s different,»Luka sighed.«That’s building something, not destroying it. When Nick is ready, if he wants to help rebuild what Shaw destroyed, we support that.»
The conversation drifted to logistics—safe houses, communication networks, the quiet work of protecting their community without becoming aggressors themselves. Marcus’s voice took on a thoughtful tone as he observed Vincent’s continued guilt.
