Page 22 of The Midnight Order (The Thorngray Vampires Duet #1)

Silver

The way Lowell is looking at me has me backing into Asher more, trying to disappear into his chest.

I’m not afraid.

If anything, I’m intrigued.

Which scares the shit out of me.

“Little lamb,” he says, stepping closer, his fangs gleaming in the colored lights swirling above.

“Lowell.”

The last time I was with him was last night, and the haunted way he looked at me when I ran my hands over his scars is still floating through my brain as I look into his crazed red eyes.

“Where have you been? I couldn’t scent you.”

I furrow my brows, not realizing he could scent me before. Logically, he’s a vampire; they all are. Their senses are heightened.

I don’t know why I didn’t realize he was using my scent to find me. To stalk me.

“I was…” I look between the two males, who look concerned, which is not helping my heart calm down any.

Corvin shakes his head at me, as if warning me off telling him where I was, and I wonder why.

We’re all supposed to be in this together.

Sharing.

That’s what this is about, right?

Something in Corvin’s eyes, however, pleads with me to handle Lowell on my own and to tread lightly.

Asher shifts away from my back, inching toward where Corvin is nearing the exit.

Are they about to leave me alone with him?

“Answer me. I’m not a patient male, little lamb.”

I swallow thickly, watching Corvin and Asher slip out of the door behind Lowell as Corvin mouths to me: I’m getting Jasper, keep him distracted.

I nod, more to myself than them.

I’ve got this.

I can do this.

I question that affirmation as Lowell rushes me, toppling me over the fallen punching bag.

He looms over me with a sick grin on his lips. “I love the hunt, Silver. But hunting you without end has me crazed.”

His tone is dark, gravelly. It rakes against my nerve endings as I scramble toward what looks to be a bench meant for some kind of sexual act.

I stand, using the foot of the contraption to lift onto my feet.

“Why were you hunting me?” I ask, trying to do the thing Corvin told me to, distract.

“Because you weren’t in your bed when I came back to the house.”

“Where did you go?” I swallow. “When I woke, you were gone.”

His chest bumps mine, backing me up.

My hand grips the black leather of the bench behind me.

“Why? Did you miss me?”

Lowell always seems insane, but tonight, he looks a bit more so. Like his missing me had driven him into this state.

Or maybe my getting close to his secrets last night in the form of his scars caused this?

I don’t know, but his frenzied side is on the loose, and my stomach is winding into kinks.

The way his red eyes gleam at me ruefully behind his mask has me wanting to beg for forgiveness when I’ve done nothing to warrant it.

I eye the door where Jasper still doesn’t stand in its fissure, and my breathing speeds.

Lowell flicks his hand behind him, slamming the door with a wave of magic I don’t yet understand.

I’m suddenly very aware of his immortality and how easily he could kill me.

He can’t, though, I realize.

I’m the key to everything they want.

Though he seems to take his time assessing whether I’m the key to his curse.

He almost seemed reluctant when I mentioned it.

Scared, even.

“Did you miss me when you woke without me?” he asks, and my vulnerability heightens as he runs his finger along the prominent vein in my throat.

I whimper as my heart speeds.

Fear braids into arousal, and I don’t understand the reaction, so confusion is right behind it, causing a storm in my brain that stunts my words.

“Remember what I said about my patience?”

“I did,” I admit, and it’s not a lie.

I was sad when I woke and scrubbed my arm on the empty side of the bed he’d been on when I went to sleep.

“Elaborate.”

His finger is still running up and down my throat, causing an ache to settle into my bones, burrowing deep into my marrow like a fucking mole.

“I wanted to roll into you and go back to sleep. Wanted you to hold me,” I whisper, some of the fear ambling through me, seeping out into my voice as it wavers.

“Did you?” His voice softens.

I nod as he leans down and inhales deeply, running his nose over my throat.

A growl from his mouth jolts me, pinning me straight.

“I’m not a good male. My past is… dark and twisty.”

“We all have our pasts,” I whisper, unable to speak any louder because his proximity is doing something to me.

It’s still confusing to me: how I can have such a pull toward each of them.

Sure, each attraction is different. Each relationship is unique, and each one is at a different stage. But I can already tell I’m becoming addicted to the way they make me feel, how a profound hunger gnaws at me in their presence.

No matter which one of them it is.

I feel as though they’re the ones altering me, unlocking me from a curse, instead of the other way around.

“Don’t placate me,” he snarls, and his fangs glimmer as he bares them.

A shiver moves through me as I remember how it felt to have venom racing through my veins when Asher and Jasper fed from me.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I just don’t think whatever you have to tell me will change how I feel about you.” It’s out before I can think of the repercussions of my words.

He stiffens, looking down at me with his red eyes and blown pupils. “And how do you feel about me, little lamb?”

I don’t know why he calls me that, but it has me feeling much like the snake getting pecked at that I saw on my way into Blackmoore.

“I don’t… I can’t put it into words right yet. But I would never judge you based on something that happened before me; it’s not who I am.”

He’s silent, his eyes calculating.

“Whatever you did…”

He hisses. “Why do you assume I was the offender? What if I were the victim? Would you judge me for what I was before if I were the weak one?”

“The broken,” I whisper, realizing his earlier words.

What happened to him?

“No. I wouldn’t judge you if you were the victim.”

He scoffs. “So they all say. Then pity grows in their eyes as soon as they find out.”

“How many have you told?” I’m trying to judge how many came before me. Sure, it’s setting me up for failure, but I’m so curious that I can’t help it.

“Only two made it as far as me.”

“And what happened to them?”

“They’re dead.”

An ominous shock strikes through me at his words as I swallow.

“I don’t want to kill you,” he whispers, pressing his nose against my cheek as he breathes me in.

Fear should overtake me. He’s a monster, and I know that. Still, I turn my face into his, peering into his cursed eyes, seeing the sadness floating in them before I lean into him.

“So don’t. Don’t kill me. Give me the chance you didn’t give them.”

My words register with him, and his brows furrow.

His dark hair falls over his mask, and I reach up and curl it back over the edge of it, wishing I could rip it off and see him.

“You’ll only disappoint. Like they did.”

Anger swirls in my chest, and I beat it back. I can’t go toe-to-toe with this man, even if I want to.

“I won’t,” I say, stamping down the need to scream at him.

“Prove it.”

Shocking even myself, I lean forward tentatively, brushing my lips against his.

His insanity is a tangible force, and it’s hovering between us like a cloud of poisonous smoke, wafting up my nose and cultivating an answering mania inside me.

“Silver,” he warns, using my name, which he’s only done a handful of times.

“Lowell.” My whispered words die as I press on, connecting our lips in a frenzy.

His guttural snarl slides down my throat, prodding at my resolve. My blood boils, pulling to the surface and begging him to partake so we can begin this process—the one where he realizes he’s mine and I’m his.

Because even if I’d like to deny it, I know I’m right where I was always meant to be.

His tongue presses against mine, and I lift on tiptoe to deepen the kiss, sliding my hands into his dark hair.

He turns us, sitting on the bench, and pulls me between his massive, open thighs.

He’s in jeans and no shirt, and I’ve only just now realized. His scars are on full display.

My hands run over them, exploring as our kiss turns dark. Lowell bites my lip, his fang nearly breaking the skin before he sucks it into his mouth.

My moan shocks even me, and I fist my hands into his hair as his face falls into the crook of my neck, biting softly before grazing his fangs over my flesh.

“Right there,” I whisper, pleading for more, even though I know more with Lowell will be so much different from with the others.

His hands grip my hips, squeezing as if he’s fighting with himself on doing more than he is: teasing himself and me to the edge of sanity.

“You’re so much like her. Fuck, it’s intoxicating.”

I assume he means Valentina, so I don’t ask.

“Soliel was the only time I felt accepted.”

His words have me opening my eyes and looking down into his feral eyes. “But I thought you said… oh, I forgot she’s gone.”

Sadness swarms me as I realize he hadn’t lied about the two women who got to him are dead, even if one of them was my great aunt.

“Even she turned on me in the end.” He tucks some of my hair behind my ear as a shiver works through my stomach, as a foreboding douses me with awareness.

“Wait, she did?”

“She did. She was just like them. Her wants and needs came above mine in the end. That’s not love.”

I swallow. “But you loved her?”

“I did. Until the moment I killed her.”

I’m not sure he meant to admit it to me.

“You… what?”

He nods, his crazed eyes lingering on my face as he wraps his hand around my throat. “Don’t be like her, little lamb. I don’t want to know what your blood looks like splattered on the world.”

I’m shaking as I grapple with what the fuck to do. The gravity of his words is bearing down on me, nearly driving me through the floor.

“Lowell!” Jasper sounds as Lowell’s eyes grow dark.

He stands, looking down at me. “There’s the fear that should’ve been in those pretty blue eyes this entire time.”

He tightens his grip, taking my breath completely.

“Don’t fuck with me, little lamb. I’m the only one who holds your life in the palm of my hand, and I don’t want to snuff you out, but I will. I swore a long time ago I wouldn’t do it ever again. I won’t be enslaved ever again!”

I don’t know what he’s saying. All I know is my eyes are watering, and my lungs are burning.

And despite myself, I feel sorry for him.

There’s a visceral sadness in his tone, and it makes me want to wrap around him and protect him from the world.

Which is fucking insane.

He’s killing me.

Suddenly, with a whoosh of air, Jasper is beside us, fangs bared and a gun pressing into Lowell’s temple. “Let her go.”

His tone is lethal, and Lowell seems like he’s going to ignore him, but eventually lets me go.

I drop to the ground in a heap as I gasp for air, looking up at Lowell as he turns and barrels for the door.

Jasper watches him, crouching and resting a hand on my arm in protection.

“Don’t come back until the demons are gone, Lowell.”

The door slams behind Lowell as I sob and choke as I fill my lungs.

“Bullets kill you?”

Jasper smiles. “No. But it’ll incapacitate him for a few hours. You alright?”

“No.”

“I guess you’ll want to discuss what he said.”

I nod, anger welling. “Yeah. I do.”

“Come, let’s get you upstairs. We’ll have a chat.”

I get nearly to the door as I follow him before I stop.

“Wait. You knew he killed my aunt?”

He turns, sighing. “Yeah. I knew.”

“What the fuck?”

“Well, don’t write me off too fast, Silver, especially when she’s technically not your aunt. Seems we’ve all been keeping secrets. Maybe it’s time to lay them all out.”

Wait, what?