Page 21

“—which means you can handle pretty much any weather—” He paused mid-gesture, his hand dropping. “God, I’m sorry. I’m boring you to death, aren’t I?”

“Not at all.” I shifted to face him properly. “It’s delightful to see someone so passionate about something.”

“But you haven’t understood a word I’ve said.”

“That’s irrelevant.” I smiled, hoping to ease his sudden self-consciousness. “I may not follow the technical details, but I understand the feeling behind them. The way you describe these boats… it’s like poetry.”

Flynn ducked his head. “Anyway… I must say, I won’t miss cleaning the decks with sand and oil each summer. Though nothing beats the satisfaction when you’re all done and it’s gleaming.”

“So, you didn’t leave Braymore to get away from all the boats?” I said it with a jesting tone, but in truth, I found myself more and more curious about Flynn and where he’d come from.

Flynn’s smile turned wistful. “The boats were never the problem.” He leaned against the railing, gazing out across the dark water.

“Being out at sea… There’s nothing like it.

The way the world just opens up around you.

No walls, no boundaries. Just endless horizon in every direction.

” His voice took on a dreamy quality. “Sometimes, when the weather’s perfect and you catch the wind just right, it feels like you could sail forever. ”

An endless abyss sounded fairly horrific to me, but I appreciated his passion.

“But…” He trailed off, shoulders tensing. “Some things happened back home. All at once. And I needed to get away. Quickly.”

The sharp buzz of his phone cut through the peaceful atmosphere. Flynn pulled it from his pocket, grimacing at the screen before silencing it.

“They all keep calling me about it, actually.” He shoved the phone back into his jacket. “I just can’t bring myself to deal with it. I know that makes me a coward, running away like this.”

“No.” The word came out sharper than I intended, and Flynn startled slightly. I softened my tone. “Running away and choosing to remove yourself from a harmful situation are very different things.”

God knows I’d done enough running in my centuries of existence to recognise the difference.

“I didn’t say it was a harmful situation,” Flynn said carefully, gaze locked onto mine. The marina’s lights caught the vulnerability in his eyes before he could mask it, like moonlight breaking through storm clouds.

“You didn’t need to.” I could tell from the tight set of his jaw whenever his reason for moving came up. “And sometimes distance is exactly what you need to heal. There’s nothing cowardly about protecting yourself.”

Flynn’s eyes met mine, searching. Whatever he found there made his shoulders relax slightly.

“You sound like you’re speaking from experience.”

“Perhaps.” I offered him a small smile. “But we’re talking about you right now.”

Eyes widening, Flynn stepped towards me, and his scent hit me like a tidal wave. The cold night air had chilled his skin, but his gloriously warm blood still sang beneath the surface, sugar-sweet and tempting. My fangs ached. I gripped the railing harder, willing myself to stay perfectly still.

“Well, I want to hear more about you,” Flynn said, moving closer still.

My body threatened to betray me, threatened to lean towards him like a flower to the sun .

Panic clawed at my chest. What had I been thinking, bringing him here? The setting that bordered on romantic, the intimate conversation… I’d created the perfect atmosphere, planting more seeds in Flynn’s head for something that could never be.

The metal railing creaked under my grip. I forced my fingers to relax before I left dents in it.

This was selfish. Cruel to him, but also to myself, getting closer to him when our orbits were so temporarily aligned.

But it was hard to remember that when Flynn’s proximity sent electricity crackling across my skin. His warmth radiated towards me like a beacon in the darkness. My gaze dropped to Flynn’s lips, and centuries-old hunger stirred deep in my gut. Not just for blood, but for connection. For touch.

Though twenty years wasn’t nearly long enough to forget how thoroughly love could destroy you.

For over twenty long years, I’d starved myself of any human touch, intimacy, or sex.

After James… I’d sworn that was the end of anything like that for me.

The pain of loss had carved too deep a wound.

I’d told myself I could live without those things— had to live without those things.

The hunger gnawing at my insides was proof enough of why. That monstrous part of me wanted nothing more than to sink my teeth into Flynn’s throat, to taste what I’d been denying myself.

Flynn didn’t even know what I was. Didn’t know that every time he stepped closer, my fangs threatened to descend. Didn’t understand that the hunger I felt wasn’t just intense physical attraction, but something far more dangerous.

“Well?” Flynn said, his voice warm like melted honey, sweet with promises. His fingers found my tie, smoothing down the silk with a touch so light it was almost reverent. “Tell me about yourself, Sebastián Salazar.”

Oh, Flynn. You deserve so much better than lies.

I gripped the railing tighter, steeling myself to put some distance between us before my control slipped completely. The phantom warmth of his fingers against my chest was already too much.

“I think we sh—”

Something darted at the edge of my vision—my only warning. Before I could react, a figure launched itself at Flynn from the shadows, slamming into him with inhuman force.

Flynn let out a strangled cry as he was wrenched backwards, the assailant’s arm locking around his throat. His head snapped back, hair gripped in a vicious fist, exposing the creamy column of his neck.

Fangs glinted in the dim light, poised to tear into Flynn’s flesh.

It took me a disorienting second to recognise the fledgling vampire restraining him—Eliza, a reckless newborn I’d been monitoring.

One of Marcus Vale’s clan. A constant thorn in my side, they were a group of feral vampires who rejected my ideals of civilised existence.

I’d still never met Marcus Vale, only dealt with the fallout of his actions.

“Why are you allowed such pretty things when you claim the rest of us should suffer?” she hissed at me, her words slurred with frenzy. “Tell me!”

Eliza’s grip tightened on Flynn, her gaze wild and unfocused. She nuzzled against his throat, panting like a rabid animal scenting its prey.

The scent of Flynn’s fear cut through the night, sharp and cloying. My fangs descended instantly, the predator in me roaring to life at the threat.

Time seemed to grind to a halt as my gaze locked with Flynn’s. Terror flooded his eyes, raw and visceral, as he took in the full sight of my extended fangs, his heart pounding like a captured rabbit.

The world ceased to exist beyond the two of us.

In that infinite moment, I saw every flicker of emotion play across his features—shock, confusion, dawning realization. Eliza’s grip was an iron vice around his throat, yet Flynn remained perfectly still, paralyzed by the monster I had become in front of him.

My own reflection stared back at me from the depths of his eyes—a twisted, inhuman thing. A predator, poised to strike. The truth about what I was had never felt so real as it did seeing the naked fear etched onto Flynn’s face.

Well, he’d already seen the truth of it now.

I had nothing left to hide.

In a blur of motion, I launched myself across the marina’s walkway, crashing into Eliza with enough force to send her reeling. Her sharp nails raked across my cheek as she lost her grip on Flynn, but I barely registered the sting.

Flynn crumpled to the ground with a cry, scrambling back against the railing. His eyes were wide, one hand clutched to his throat as if he could still feel Eliza’s grip there.

“Flynn!” I barked his name, the sound tearing from my chest with more desperation than I intended as I stepped in front of him. “Stay there.” I couldn’t have him running off—Eliza’s associates could be waiting around any corner.

I didn’t dare look at Flynn again, focusing every shred of my being on the threat before me.

Eliza whirled, lips peeled back in a snarl, every muscle tensed to attack.

“Well, Black ?” She spat the name I used when dealing with her kind.

“Wait until I tell Marcus about this! You strut around London telling us to control ourselves, trying to suggest we drink from bags , to deny our nature, while you keep a pretty pet for yourself? I’m still waiting for your answer!

What makes you so special that you get to feast while the rest of us starve?

Or do rules only apply to the rest of us lesser vampires? ”

“Eliza!” I snarled, unable to control my anger. How dare she manhandle Flynn like a ragdoll, and how dare she tear away any chance for me to tell him the truth in my own way? “You need to calm down. That man is an innocent human. He knows nothing of the world of vampirism, and you’re scaring him.”

“Innocent?” She looked behind me to Flynn, then her eyes locked challengingly on mine.

“You expect me to believe you haven’t had a taste?

Or are you saving him? Keeping him fresh?

” She laughed maniacally, the sound awakening an urge to rip out her tongue and end her taunts permanently.

“Maybe I should show you what it’s like to have something precious taken away.

To be forced to watch while someone you care for is slaughtered. ”