Page 62

“You don’t scare me.”

He flinched. “We both know that’s not true. You looked at me yesterday like I was going to hurt you. You were terrified.”

“That’s not fair, Luce.” I wasn’t going to back down from this. “I wasn’t afraid of you. What happened with Margo scared the shit out of me, and when your eyes went dark…I just wasn’t expecting that.”

He scoffed like he didn’t believe me, but I could feel his tension ease a fraction. “There’s probably a lot about me that you’re not expecting.”

I shrugged and reached for a piece of pineapple. “I know you’re a hybrid.” He finally turned to face me as I popped the fruit into my mouth. “Definitely not a witch. I’d guess vampire. Is that why you’re not hungry? Because this isn’t the kind of food you need?”

His eyebrows nearly met his hairline. “You’re not bothered by that?”

“No. Lucian, I know you’d never hurt me.”

Without taking his eyes off me, he broke off a piece of scone and tossed it into his mouth as if to make a point. “Only part vampire.”

“Alright.” This was progress. “So what does that mean?”

He nudged what was left of the scone toward my side of the plate before grabbing a sausage link. “It means I don’t need blood to survive. It has a different effect on me. More like a drug.”

“Like it gets you high?” I twisted so I was fully facing him and took the pastry he’d offered. “How does that work? Do you bite the guys?”

Lucian gagged, nearly choking on his food. “Fuck no!” He shuddered like the very thought made him ill. “I don’t bite anyone anymore. Not if I can help it. It’s been years since I really had blood.”

I moved the plate to my other side so I could get closer. I needed him to know that I was here. That I was in this.

“Will you tell me what happened?”

He let out a deep breath, resting his forearms back on the railing and staring at his inked hands. “It’s not a happy story.” He paused, chewing at his lip and fidgeting with one of the rings on his fingers. He was quiet for so long I thought maybe that was all he was willing to give me. Then, “I was raised in a vampire den. Separated from my family when I was too young to remember anything about them. Didn’t even know I was a gryphon.”

I gave him a sad smile—I knew a little of what that felt like.

“Life in a den is savage,” he went on. “Violent. Humans are entertainment or pets. My childhood ended pretty quickly. There was a woman, Alice, who worked with the king, and they ran a hybrid fight ring together. When I was fourteen, she pulled me out of a brawl with three other vamps and asked if I wanted to be strong like them. Of course, I jumped at the chance. I was getting the shit beaten out of me daily. I would’ve done anything to be able to fight back.

“So she took me to the king, and before I knew what was happening, she was holding me down while he put his fangs in my neck. His venom burned away anything that could have been considered human, but it didn’t finish the process to make me a full vampire. I was already Other, just no one knew it.

“I was left in this sort of limbo state, where I could have the speed and strength I’d wanted so badly, but only if I was high on blood. I was young and stupid, so I saw no downside to the addiction—only that I could finally fight on their level. I walked right into their trap. When I was fully dependent, they suddenly cut me off. The withdrawal put me out of my mind, and they chained me up ‘for everyone’s protection’.

“That first time, they held me for a week before they brought a human woman to me. She thought it would be glamorous, you know? Having sex with a vampire. Being bitten. I was too feral from the pain to convince her otherwise. I drained her dry and came in a corpse. Then they threw me into the cage fights and got rich on the bloodshed. The cycle went on for three years. Feed. Fuck. Fight.”

I didn’t realize I was crying until I tasted the salt on my lips. “Luce, I…” I croaked, my heart feeling shattered. I didn’t know what I had been expecting, but it wasn’t this. He’d spent his childhood being brutalized, coerced, raped, and used.

He was still staring off into the trees, but a dark smirk crossed his face to shutter his trauma. “I told you it wasn’t a happy story.” He turned back to me and genuine surprise flickered in his gray eyes. “You’re crying.”

“Of course I’m crying!” I scrubbed a trembling hand over my eyes. “You were just a kid. What happened to you was so unconscionably wrong.” My shock boiled into rage. “I want to murder everyone who had a part in it. I want them to die screaming.”

Lucian spun my back to the railing before crowding me against it. “I love it when you talk dirty,” he growled. “Sadly, you’re too late. My gryphon made an appearance without warning when I was seventeen. He took control, and we slaughtered everyone we could get our claws on. I can promise you that their deaths were neither quick nor kind. Especially the king’s.”

“Good,” I bit off, feeling a deep satisfaction. “And that woman? Alice? Did you kill her too?”

“No.” The word was laced with regret. “She disappeared, and I never saw her again.”

Anger rolled under my skin like a living, breathing thing. “If she ever shows her face again, I will help you take her apart piece by bloody piece.”

Lucian took my chin in his hand and ran his thumb over my bottom lip with a featherlight touch. “Be careful, little fury. You’re going to make me fall in love with you.”

My heart skipped a beat and a rush of heat flared through me. His words were playful, but he couldn’t hide the sincerity that rang through our heartstring. Before I realized what I was doing, I’d grabbed him by the belt loops and tugged him against me. His hands slapped back down on the railing behind me.

“You’re not already?” I teased back in a tone that was way more breathy than it should’ve been. The wooden board groaned under Lucian’s grip. He lowered his face and ran his nose up my neck, breathing me in.