Page 3 of Lucien

And where to next?he asked his internal master. There was no answer, not when it was feeling so docile from the kill, but Luc felt the hint of a pull. Further south, it seemed. Phoenix wasn’t their destination, just a pit stop to grab a little…snack.

Luc had thought too, for a moment, that he’d caught a certain scent. A cinnamon…something…driving him to stop the car. But it had been gone the very next instant.

He sighed, checking his reflection in the car window to see if he’d missed any spots of blood. He was probably chasing phantoms anyway. What did he think he was going to find? A mate waiting for him in the desert? Some cactus flower meant only for him?

Unlikely.

And who would want to be mated to you anyway? Shackled to an honest-to-God monster.

He was taken away from his own maudlin thoughts by an older man—at least, older in terms ofappearance—turning onto the side street where Luc was standing, the drained body conspicuously at his feet. Luc shoved at it indelicately with his shoe, pushing it behind his car and out of the intruder’s eyeline.

He supposed he could have been more discreet with his choice of location, gone inside a building or something. But ah well, done was done. He hadn’t been thinking very logically at the time.

The older man shuffled toward him, the smell of his sweat invading Luc’s nostrils, and Luc wrinkled his nose in distaste. Summer in Arizona, a horrific blow to the senses. The heat itself didn’t bother Luc—he could feel a pleasant warmth, nothing beyond that—but he hated what it did to the humans around him. The sweaty gracelessness of it all.

Perhaps if he were somewhere with more class. Corsica, possibly. People there knew how to handle the elements with style. Luc sighed wistfully to himself at the memories of sleek tanned bodies in pale linen, salty skin paired with dry white wines.

Life had been good, once.

And now he was…here. They all were.

Himself, the geriatric, and the corpse.

Said geriatric lifted his head to give Luc a nod, mere steps away from coming into sight of the drained body at Luc’s feet. Luc smiled easily at the stranger, taking sick satisfaction in the way the man instantly paled under the flickering streetlight, all the delicious blood draining from his face.

Luc couldn’t blame him.

He knew exactly what kind of monster the man saw. Subtle, perhaps, but nonetheless terrifying to humans, in Luc’s extensive experience. All-black eyes without a hint of white, veritable pools of darkness, with fangs glinting from between his bared teeth. Luc hadn’t had his human face out in he didn’t know how long. The monster was always front and center. Always in fucking charge.

The stranger tripped over his own feet, his frightened eyes on Luc’s unnatural pair. “S-Sorry,” he stammered.

Luc smirked at him. Poor little lamb. “And what are you apologizing for, exactly?”

“Didn’t—didn’t know anyone was here,” the man said, backing away hastily.

“On this very public street?”

But the stranger had no response to that, already disappearing back around the corner he’d arrived from.

Spineless little hamster.

Luc could follow him, he supposed. Drain the little hamster and show him what kind of nightmare Lucreallywas. The monster may not be hungry anymore, but it never said no to a bit of bloodshed.

So why wasn’t Luc moving forward, going for the chase? Why did his limbs feel so heavy and unwilling? Just because the man was a potential “innocent”? What was the point of hanging on to any last-ditch morality anyway? Luc would descend into a feral state soon enough, whether he liked it or not. He was only delaying the inevitable with his lack of action.

He ducked back into his car, annoyed with himself and the endless cycling of his thoughts. He already knew what stopped him. His very own goddamn words. A promise to a lovely, naive boy, freshly turned.I can hang on.

He spoke the words again now to himself, hands gripping the steering wheel tight enough to crack the leather. “Icanhang on.”

He had so far, more or less. Over a year spent wandering around the American Southwest, unable to bring himself to stray any further away than that.

Somethingheldhim here. And it wasn’t the charm of the fucking locals.

He wondered how young Daniel was faring these days. His monster perked up at the thought. It had liked Danny very much. The sweet, lovely look of him. The honeyed taste of his blood.

And that’s how you justified turning a young man against his will? Liking the taste?

Luc didn’t know if he was asking those questions of himself or his monster.

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