Page 49 of To Crave Truly

Lucifer growled beside me, and I started to wonder whether Iver was going to make it to the vault alive.

“What was that you said about socialising him…?” I asked with a chuckle.

“Perhaps I spoke too soon.”

“Again, I am literally standing right here. You know, a lesser demon might develop a complex,” Iver said as he fell into step next to me.

“A lesser demon would know his place,” Lucifer replied with gritted teeth.

I grabbed his hand and intertwined our fingers, hoping that my touch would cool his violent thoughts. “It is getting darker. Perhaps that means we’re nearly there.”

The tunnels were getting narrower, and I was having to rely on my vamp vision to see in front of me. Which still felt weird to think. How long was it going to take me to get used to thinking like a vampire? I was a little disconcerted that there was a niggle of hunger starting to churn in my stomach, but I had no way of measuring how long I had until that hunger became unbearable. Was it days? Hours? I didn’t exactly have a point of reference to work with. I’d barely been a vampire for a few days and Mordecai had flung me out into the world and left me to it. Did he even care if I died? Or was he just hoping I got him what he wanted quickly. I had to admit, there was a small part of me that wanted to fail, just to see what he’d do. Would he come and get me? Or would he just kill everyone and then make me watch like he said? God, I really hated that guy.

Except for that moment when he kissed you, my demon added unhelpfully.

“Hush, you.”

I was there, remember?

“Nope. I don’t remember that.”

You don’t remember the way you absolutely attacked that man’s mouth? Or the way it was like absolute fucking fire in your bloodstream?

“I think I preferred it when you didn’t like speaking.”

That was before you turned out to be so much fun.

“I hate you.”

My demon chuckled and snorted. No, you don’t. You hate that I’m right.

I did. And she was right. There were glimpses of Mordecai that had me questioning if he really was bad.

You gonna tell Lucifer and the others you kissed him?

“I should… it feels like I’m lying by not telling them.”

But not right now because the biggest door appeared in front of us. I mean the thing was huge. Surround by an ethereal pale blue light, it stretched upwards at least fifty feet, probably more, and there were gorgeous carvings across the surface. My guess, a warning to stay away entering on pain of death. There was also something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. A sense of unease or discomfort that creeped along me skin.

“Can you guys feel that?” I asked.

“Yes,” Lucifer replied. “Like it feels wrong to be here.”

“Oh, well. Best get over it and figure out how to get in the vault.” Iver fixed his black eyes towards me. “By my calculations, we don’t have much time.”

Shit. “How do you know that?”

Iver took a step towards me, his jaw set in a grimace. “Your demon feels a bit further away which means your vampire nature is coming to the surface. New vampires should feed every day and for you it’s already been a couple where you haven’t fed. Soon, you’ll be starving.”

“Then let’s get this over with,” Lucifer said. “Then we can figure out what we’re going to do next.”

I nodded and turned to the door, but my heart was starting to feel a little heavier.

Chapter Twenty-One

Jasper

“You’re an asshole, you know that?” I stared at Mordecai as he sat there, drinking from some random woman in front of me. I was fucking starving. I’d barely healed after the whole incident where Lori had almost ripped out my heart and there he was, just sat there, gorging on blood.

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