Page 21 of A Love So Deadly (Kissed by Darkness #1)

Chapter

Eighteen

Lucian

“ N o!” Everything in me shuts down to nothing. Everything turns black. Everything but the anger.

That burns red.

The bullet that ripped into Elliot, the one that had been meant for me, blasted her right off her feet. She hit the warehouse floor with a loud thump.

“Elliot! Shit.” I’m kneeling at her side in a millisecond. Blood pours out from the center of her chest, the precious red liquid pooling underneath her at a rapid pace. It’s too much—she’s losing too much, too fast.

Benicio shoots again, hitting me in the shoulder.

The pain is nothing but an annoyance, and all it does is pisses me off more.

I look to where he hides like a coward at the top of the metal landing.

He starts to shake, the terror turning the air sour.

I stare him down, then turn as my people melt from the shadows.

Vittoria kicks Vinnie’s drained corpse into the center of the room to make sure Benicio sees it.

“Fucking Vinnie,” she snarls. “What a waste.”

Andrew, one of my other trusted vampire underlings, steps in behind her. He’s newer than Vittoria, but nowhere near as wild. To my surprise, he’s the one with the fresh blood glow, not her.

Good. That means she’ll be primed. Pure hunter.

“Kill them all,” I say. Fury vibrates through me, and I want revenge. I want this place swimming with the blood of Benicio and every one of the men he has waiting to ambush me. “Every last mother fucking one. But leave Benicio for me.”

“Excellent.” Vittoria doesn’t need to be told twice. She’s off in a blur of speed. The half dozen other vampires we brought start to pick off every one of Benicio’s men. Blood splatters, people scream.

It’s music to my ears.

“Lucian.”

I glance up. Andrew is on the other side of Elliot now, peering down at her unmoving small frame.

“Lucian,” he says again. There’s something in his voice that rips me into shreds. “It…it hit her heart. She’s bleeding out.”

The words echo but don’t grab hold. I just stare.

“What do you want me to do?” he asks.

“I… I…” I’m paralyzed. This is too sudden. Too familiar.

My chest constricts.

“Pressure on the wound.” Vittoria snaps orders at him as she whizzes past and tears out the throat of another of Benicio’s henchmen. Blood coats her face and she licks her lips clean. “Keep her alive for him.”

Keep her alive.

For him.

Andrew rolls Elliot onto her back. Her eyes are closed, and her breathing is becoming more shallow. He presses his hand between her breasts to try and slow down the bleeding, but it keeps oozing past his fingers. “Fuck, she’s slipping. Her pulse is irregular. I don’t…”

Panic blooms under the fury.

I’m going to lose her, too. Just like Nell.

I’m going to lose her.

No, I can’t. Not her, too.

I shove Andrew away. I respected Nell’s wishes not to turn her, and all that did was bring death. I refuse for Elliot to have the same fate. Refuse.

I brush her blood-soaked blonde curls from her throat. I do it. I sink my teeth into her flesh.

Oh, the taste… Her blood is euphoria distilled. It’s everything. It’s glory, it’s power, it’s the elixir of life that’s so honeyed and sweet that I’m compelled to drink every last drop.

Someone is shaking me, yelling—Vittoria—but I ignore her. I drink and drink until everything around me fades but this act.

“Stop, damn it. Fuck, Lucian,” Vittoria snarls. “You need to fucking stop. It’s too late. She’s gone?—”

No, she can’t be. She can’t… My love.

I love her.

Elliot’s heartbeat is only a throbbing beat, so soft, it would be unreadable if my fangs weren’t in her. I don’t know if this is going to work—I may be too late—but I rip open my wrist and tilt her head back.

I let my blood flow and drip onto her colorless lips. I watch it slide into her mouth.

“What are you doing? You aren’t—” Vittoria shouts, but again, I ignore her. Right now, I couldn’t care less about her jealousy.

Elliot needs more of my blood for this to work, so I press my thumb against the vein on my wrist and help the blood come faster. It trickles onto her tongue, but still, she doesn’t move.

She’s boneless in my hands, and I know, deep down, I’ve failed.

Her heart isn’t beating; it’s gone silent. And my own is shattering.

I’m out of time.

A sob leaves me, ripped from my soul. My cheeks are wet with bloody tears as I shove my bleeding wrist into her mouth and pray for some kind of miracle to happen.

“Please… Please , Monty. Come back to me,” I beg. “I can’t lose you, too. I can’t.”

“Lucian…” It’s Vittoria again, but this time, her voice is gentle. So is her touch when she puts her hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, but she’s gone.”

I feel every fucking word. Cold, harsh. I stare at Elliot, searching once more for any signs of her life coming back, but there are none. It didn’t work.

She’s dead.

Slowly, I lay her down and sit back. Benicio did this. He took Nell from me and now, Elliot. And he’s going to pay.

The bottomless sorrow snaps into something bigger, deadly.

I’m rage itself.

Centuries of fury and loss.

Whirling around, I’m on my feet. There. Benicio. The scent is strongest from across the warehouse, at the bottom of the stairs. He’s there, hiding behind a tower of boxes, just waiting for the chaos around him to die down so he can run. The thing is, the fool can’t hide. Not from me.

I run for him. Someone else fires their gun at me, and the bullet rips into me, slowing me down. I stop and spot the fucker immediately. I’m on him before he can blink. Grabbing him, I rip out his throat, blood and muscle flying and not caring about the wasted blood.

I toss his corpse away.

Another one of Benicio’s men comes from my left. He thinks he has the jump on me until I look at him at the last second and terror lights up his face.

With one swift movement, I snap his neck and let him fall.

I keep striding to my quarry.

Boxes fall and Benicio drops a clip. He reaches for it, but now in front of him, I kick it away. He throws his gun at me, and I dodge it easily. He screams. He scrambles back, hands covering his face, but I haul him up and slam him against the brick wall.

His eyes go dark for a second from the power of the hit, but when he comes to, his absolute fear perfumes the air.

“You have no idea what you’ve done, of the monster you’ve unleashed.” My fangs descend and my vision sharpens. I know to him, my eyes are black and I look like the creature that I am.

He sputters. “P-please, please! I can?—”

“Shut up.” I slam him hard against the bricks again, and this time, his skull cracks. Power courses through me, the power of my true potential, the power I usually keep under tight control.

I let it out. And it invades every inch.

I grin at the fucker.

“You killed Nell. You shot my Elliot. Mine.” I slam him once more, until his head goes limp.

“You took my heart, and that means now, I’m going to take yours.

” Then, lifting him high, I punch into his chest, through the bone and flesh.

There’s the scrape of broken ribs, but when I feel my prize, I wrap my fingers around his beating heart and squeeze.

His heart bursts. Ripping it from his chest, I let him drop and throw the fucking useless blood-drenched muscle down before licking my fingers clean.

I know it won’t bring Nell or Elliot back; it won’t end the pain I feel, but at least Benicio and Vinnie both met their justified ends.

Wiping my mouth, I turn on my heel and stride back to Elliot.Andrew and Vittoria are there whispering to each other while the other vampires finish off the last of Benicio’s men. Elliot still lies there, motionless, eyes closed.

I want to lash out again. I want to kill, go on a rampage until I’m the blood numbs the ache. But most of all, I want?—

Thump, thump.

I pause. What is that?

My fists clench because that sound doesn’t belong here. Not when every human here is dead.

Thump, thump.

It comes again, low and muffled, as if the world itself is taunting me with an echo of what I’ve lost. I stagger a step closer, listening.

Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump.

It’s gaining strength and tempo, stumbling but insistent, and the world seems to be tilting beneath me. My lungs burn with denial, with fear, with something so close to hope it threatens to split me apart.

Staring at her chest, I will the rise and fall that isn’t there. Until it is. A shallow breath stutters into her lungs, as if dragged from death itself.

I drop to my knees beside her. Her skin is rosier, her lips more pink.

“Elliot?”

I stroke the matted hair from her face.

Her eyes snap open.

Cornflower blue.

Unreadable. Soulless.

“Elliot,” I breathe out, relief instantly replacing all the anger and hate within me. “You’re alive.”

Gaze finding me, she sits up. Her head tilts as if she’s trying to remember my face, but when recognition flares, those summery blue eyes turn black.

“Lucy,” she says.

Then, she smiles, showing me her fangs.