Page 13 of Crimson Possession
“Before?” My throat was raw, my voice small.
“Before they took you.” His fingers brushed my jaw, deceptively gentle. “I want to know everything. Where you lived, what you did for a living, who you were with.”
A lump formed in my throat. I wasn’t sure I wanted to dig all that up, not now, not like this. But his eyes pinned me in place, and something in me knew he wasn’t going to let it go.
“I didn’t… I wasn’t with anyone,” I admitted finally. “Not since a year ago. My boyfriend, ex-boyfriend he cheated on me.”
The word was barely out before Lucien’s entire body went rigid. His jaw clenched, his nostrils flared, his hand fisted in the sheets like he was seconds from tearing them apart.
“What’s his name?” The question wasn’t soft, it was a growl, deep and vibrating through his chest.
I blinked, startled by the sudden intensity in his eyes. “It doesn’t matter…”
“It matters to me.” His fangs flashed, his voice sharper now, laced with a dark promise. “A man touched you and then had the indecency to betray you, to hurt you. Tell me his name.”
I shook my head, clutching the sheet to my chest. “No. He’s not worth it. He doesn’t get to take up space here.” I pressed a trembling hand to his chest, as if that could soften the fury vibrating through him. “He’s nothing. I left him behind long ago, and I need you to leave him there too.”
His stare burned into me, endless, terrifying in its intensity. And then he exhaled through his nose, low and lethal. “If I ever hear his name, Sorcha… he won’t live long enough to remember ever touching you or regret what he did.”
A shiver rolled through me. I should’ve been scared of that, but instead my chest tightened with something else. Possession, or maybe it was protection. As twisted as it was, part of me wanted to believe him. I swallowed hard, needing to shift the weight of his fury off my chest. “What about the others?”
Lucien stilled, the question slicing through the tension between us.
“The women who were with me,” I said, forcing the words out. “The ones chained beside me, I need to know what happened to them?”
For the first time since I met him, something like hesitation crossed his face. His eyes softened, just a fraction, but his grip on my hip tightened as if to steady me. “They’re safe,” he said finally. “Volken made sure they were brought out. They’re being looked after and fed, protected. They won’t go back to that hell.”
My breath shook out of me, relief hitting so hard it almost hurt. Tears burned the back of my eyes before I could stop them. “Thank God,” I whispered.
His hand cupped my cheek, thumb brushing away a tear that had managed to escape. “Don’t waste your tears on them anymore,” he said, steady and certain. “They’re free now. Just like you.”
I wanted to believe that. I wanted to hold on to the idea that maybe none of us had been completely broken. But the way he said free, like it meant something deeper, like he wasn’t just talking about survival, terrified me almost as much as it comforted me.
I swallowed, my voice rough. “Who’s Volken?”
Lucien’s eyes narrowed slightly, studying me. His thumb was still brushing absently against my skin, each stroke grounding and unsettling all at once. “My brother,” he said finally. “One of four. Roman, the eldest you’ll hear his name most. He rules the Blood Mafia. Then Viking, the brute, the fighter. Draugr he is as cold as steel, and he is the one that sorts out certain issues that we might have. And Volken, he is our shadow, sharp enough to see patterns where others don’t. Together, we built what we are. Together, we hold it.” His mouth curved faintly, but there was no humour in it. “And now, you’ve been pulled into it, whether you wanted to be or not.”
The weight of his words pressed down on me; they were in the Mafia. Brutal men not always known for doing the right thing. It is no wonder that my mind snagged on one thing. “The women. I need to see them.”
His brows pulled together. “You just heard me tell you they’re safe.”
“That’s not enough,” I snapped, heat flooding my chest. “I was chained up with strangers for weeks, you can’t expect me not to care what happens to them. I need to know they’re actually safe. That they are protected.” My voice broke, and I forced it steady again. “I have to see them with my own eyes.”
Lucien was silent for a long beat, his gaze drilling into me like he could crush my resistance with sheer force of will.
“You don’t believe me.” It wasn’t a question.
“I don’t know you,” I fired back, my throat tight, my heart hammering against my ribs. “You say you’re a vampire, that I belong to you, that your bite means we’re bound. You say your brothers are… what? A family of killers? You expect me to just take everything you say as truth? No. Not about this. Not about them.”
His jaw flexed, the muscle ticking as he ground his teeth. For a moment I thought he’d shut me down completely. But then he leaned closer, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.
“You want to see them? Fine. I’ll show you. But understand something, Sorcha…” his hand slid from my cheek to curl around the back of my neck, pulling me closer, his fangs flashing just enough to remind me what he was, “You’ll see the truth, but the truth isn’t gentle. It isn’t kind. It’s blood and iron and survival. If it upsets you in any way we will be out of there faster than you can blink.”
The warning in his tone sent a shiver down my spine. And yet, despite the fear sparking in my chest, my answer was immediate. “Then show me.”
His grip on my neck softened, fingers stroking the side of my throat like he was already staking his claim there. “Tomorrownight,” he said finally, the words low and absolute. “I’ll take you to them. You’ll see with your own eyes that they’re safe. That they’re guarded. That no one will ever touch them again.”
Relief flickered in my chest, but before I could answer, his thumb brushed over my pulse point, reminding me again of what he was. “But understand something else, Sorcha,” he went on, his tone shifting, patient but heavy with warning. “I sleep in the daylight, all Vampires do. Our bodies… shut down. You might see us as corpses until sunset. It isn’t death, but it isn’t living either. It’s a vulnerability, and while I’m down, I can’t protect you.”
