Page 51 of Map of Pain
Luka reached toward the bodies, his hand trembling in the air. He couldn’t seem to bring himself to touch them, as if afraid they might disintegrate. The grief etched into his featureswasraw, unguarded.
“We need to leave,”he said quietly. They’dbeen here too long. Standing exposed while Luka grieved made them perfect targets. But he couldn’t bring himself to rush the vampire’s mourning.
Luka didn’t respond. When he looked up, those familiar jade eyesvanished completely—pupils expanded until no iris remained, just pools of absolute black.
Nick’s hand moved instinctively toward where he used to keep his knife on his belt. Every muscle in his body tensed as a primal fear flooded his system. Thiswasthe apex predator his trainingwarned him about—a creature given fangs and hunting instincts honed over a century.
Luka’s face held statuesque stillness that raised every hair on Nick’s neck, as a low sound—not quite a growl, not quite a snarl—rumbled from his chest.
This wasn’t the gentle vampire who shared vulnerable moments with him. This was death.
Every instinct screamed at him to run, to fight, to do something other than stand frozen like prey.
Strike now.While he’s distracted.Go for the throat.
But that impulsewasn’this training—itwaspure animal panic. And underneath the terror, Nick forced himself to look past the black eyes and fangs to the raw anguish etched into Luka’s features.
Thiswasn’tbloodlust. Thiswasgrief so profound it that it bypassed all the parts of Luka that made himhim. Thiswasthe beast that lived inside Luka, the one he kept carefully controlled, breaking free in a moment of overwhelming loss.
He’s in pain. He’s not my enemy.
The realization cut through Nick’s panic like a blade. This creature kneeling in front of himwasn’tsome mindless predator. Itwasthe same person who asked permission to smooth his hair, whocreated blanket nests, andstayed awaketo protect him. The same person who showed him what gentle touch could feel like.
Nick’s hand trembled halfway to where his weapon would have been, then slowly uncurled, dropping to his side.
“Luka,”he said softly, stepping closer instead of retreating. His voice shook, but he held his ground.“I know this hurts. But we have to go.”
The black eyes fixed on him with unnerving intensity. For a heartbeat, Nick wondered ifhe’dmadea fatal mistake—if the beast wearing Luka’s face would see him as threat or prey.
Instead, recognition rippled through the darkness. The low rumbling stopped. Luka’s features softened, though his fangs remained extended.
“They’re gone,”Nick continued, voice steady despite his racing heart.“Staying here won’t bring them back. But it will get us killed.”
The predatory stillness began to fade as the black receded from Luka’s eyes, jade bleeding back through like dawn breaking. His shoulders sagged, almost defeated. He looked at Nick with something like surprise, as if shocked to find him standing close instead of running. His hands shook as he pushed himself to his feet.
Nick felt his pulse settle as Luka’s human face returned. Whatever beast lived inside the vampireretreated, leaving only grief and exhaustion. The fangswerestill visible, but they didn’t look like weapons—just another part of Luka that he usually kept hidden.
I saw his beast and I didn’t run.Nick realized with wonder.I chose to stay.
They turned away from Haley and Alexei’s bodies without another word, but the profundity of the tragedy nagged at the inside of his skull. NickhadseenLuka at his most dangerous and chosen trust over fear. That choice felt like another small deathof his old self, and another step toward whoever hewasgoing to become.
Chapter twenty
Honey-sweet and poisoned...
Nick
The drive from the community center had been a blur of back roads and Luka’s shaking hands on the steering wheel. Nick remembered fragments—Luka pulling out his phone with bloodstained fingers, texting someone for another address to a safe house in the area.
When the response came back with an address, Luka drove in grim silence while Nick stared out the window, trying not to think about Haley’s body wrapped around her vampire lover’s remains.
The safe house was less of a house and more of a sad double-wide trailer that smelled like dust and old coffee, nothing like the gasoline-soaked community center they fled. Nick checked the window locks for the fiftieth time. His reflection stared back—hollow-eyed, jaw tight with the kind of tension that meant the hunter was still pulling the strings in his mind.
He didn’t question it when Luka handed him his cell phone, the contact already selected as he pleaded with his eyes for Nickto be his voice. Nick didn’t hesitate. Hemade the call. Luka’s hand rested on his back as he dialed Marcus Graves’s number with shaking fingers.
“We need help,”hemanaged, voice cracking on the words. When Marcus demanded to know whowascalling on his daughter’s phone, he could barely squeak out his own name.
Marcus said he would be there in an hour and hung up without another word.
