Page 52 of Map of Pain
You should bargain,the submissive whispered.Offer yourself in exchange for Caleb. Promise to be good.
Nick moved to the kitchen window, peering through cracked blinds at the empty field beyond. Something nagged at him—fragments of memory that felt important but stayed just out of reach.
He remembered the Society finding him after Gianmarco. Remembered being grateful for the rescue, for someone telling him the vampirehadbeen wrong to hurt him. But the details between that rescue and Henderson taking over his training...
Shaw’s face kept bleeding into Gianmarco’s in his memories. The same gentle tone when delivering pain. The same disappointed sigh when Nick failed to perform correctly.
What happened between the rescue and Shaw?
The memory gap yawned like a missing tooth he kept probing with his tongue. Therehadbeen other handlers before Henderson,hadn’tthere? Shaw trained him in more than just combat techniques...
His heart rate spiked. Cold sweat beaded along his spine as phantom pain lanced through his missing hand. The kitchen started to waver, his reality attempting to bleed away—
A cool palm pressed against his chest. Steady pressure, right over his racing heart.
Nick blinked. Luka stood close enough that Nick could smell his soap, could feel the vampire’s breath against his cheek. Thecontact anchored him, pulled him back from whatever dark spiralhe’dbeen tumbling toward.
“Thanks,” he whispered.
Luka nodded, but somethingwaswrong. His eyes weere rimmedwith red, dark stains tracking down his pale cheeks.
Blood. Vampires cried blood.
Nick stared, transfixed by the crimson tears. In all his time with Gianmarco,he’dnever seen the vampire cry. Even when Nick fought back, even when he managed to draw blood with desperate scratches and bites, Gianmarcohadonly laughed.
But Lukawasgrieving. For friends who died protecting humans from the very organization Nick served.
Shame twisted in his gut. Here hewas, spiraling into his own trauma while Luka suffered in silence.
Nick reached up, using his sleeve to wipe the blood from Luka’s cheek. The vampire’s eyes widened with surprise, then something warmer. Gratitude, maybe.
Luka leaned forward, then caught himself, pulling back with a quiet sniffle.
The gesturewasso small, so human. He wanted comfort but wouldn’t ask for it.
Nick didn’t hesitate. He stepped closer and wrapped his arms around Luka’s shoulders, pulling him into a tight embrace. The vampire melted against him, tension draining from his frame as if Nick’s touch unlocked somethinghe’dbeen holding rigid. Luka’s body shuddered once, then twice, silent sobs that Nick could feel reverberating through both their bodies. The cool press of the vampire’s skin against his ownwasstrangely comforting, like finding shelter during a storm.
Nick tightened his grip, his fingers digging into the fabric of Luka’s shirt. He’dbeen the one needing help for so long that offering comfort felt like using muscles that atrophied. But this felt right. Necessary.
Luka’s arms came up slowly, hesitantly wrapping around Nick’s waist. The gentle pressure made Nick’s breath catch, not from fear but from the strange intimacy of it. They stood there, two broken people holding each other together, and Nick realized with startling clarity that hewasn’tafraid—not of Luka’s touch, not of his strength, not even of the grief that transformed him earlier.
They stood like that for a long moment, Nick’s head resting against Luka’s chest. The vampire’s bodywassolid and cool, grounding in its stillness.
When they separated, Luka’s eyeswereclearer. He moved to the small notebook on the kitchen counter, writing quickly, then returned to settle beside Nick on the threadbare couch.
‘Failure.’
Nick frowned. “What?”
Luka underlined the word twice, then added more: ‘Haley + Alexei. Twin. You.’
“You didn’t fail anyone,” Nick said. “What happened to them—that wasn’t your fault.”
But Lukawasunderlining‘you’now, tapping his pen against the paper with increasing urgency. Fresh tears welled in his eyes as he pointed to his mouth, then his eyes.
Understanding hit like a punch to the gut. At the community center, when Luka’s grief transformed him into something predatory—Nickhadseenthe fangs, the black eyes. And Luka thoughthe’dfrightenedhim.
Luka wrote again, blood from his tears smearing across the paper:‘Never want to scare you. Failing everyone.‘
