word target could only mean one thing—that this wouldn’t be a social visit.
Far from it.
Judging by the instruments in Tessa’s interrogation room on the third floor at HFC, and the nature of the phone call, I figured that they would use any means necessary to find out what we needed to know and put a stop to this. I knew he’d be tortured until Tessa got what she wanted. She only said to keep him alive long enough to be interrogated.
But what choice did we have?
The government left us to clean up internal issues on our own. Arie told me that as long as it didn’t affect the general population, they stayed out of vampire business and made sure our existence remained a secret. We had to find out what he had concocted and how much of it before anyone else got hurt.
Besides, he’d brought this on himself by being in cahoots with his brother. The burnt bodies that had lined the floor back at the club made me sick. I couldn’t understand how someone could do something like that. He’d intentionally created a weapon against us and signed his own death sentence in doing so. I didn’t feel bad about Tessa’s decision at all, and from the look on Arie’s face, neither did he. Victoria wore a look of resolve as well, but she folded Luna into her arms just the same. I had no illusions that once Tessa had the information she needed and ensured that it couldn’t be used against us, Luca Monti was a dead man.
Chapter 7
Arie and I didn’t talk much at first on our drive back to the loft. We were both lost in our own thoughts. Most likely he was thinking about the events of the evening too. Snow-covered scenery slid by as we drove in his Venom, but I barely noticed the Christmas lights still strewn about even after the holidays were over. We had just celebrated it with whispered promises about our future and a quiet New Year, only to have it kicked off with more bloodshed.
This wasn’t how I had imagined it would be. We should have had some breathing room after Katarina’s death, and the next calamity had seemed like a distant question mark so far into the future that when we finally did have to deal with it, nothing would matter as long as we faced it together.
But things never happened like you expected or wanted them to. I didn’t have time to sort out my own insecurities about our relationship. I wished I could control how I felt, fake confidence, and bury my fears. The only thing you can control is how you react. I’d been too quick to rush to the female vampire’s aid tonight. I hadn’t thought it through, didn’t even know if I could help, but I’d risked it anyway. The fact that this toxin affected younger vampires differently than it did older ones made me hyperaware that this situation left me vulnerable, and I didn’t like feeling that way.
Feeling exposed.
Call me selfish, but I had the good sense to be afraid, and enough smarts to consider self-preservation over saving someone else’s ass. It would be Crimson Dusk, the donors at the club, from here on out for me, at least until this was over and I could be sure that the Puncture I drank wasn’t infected.
I heard Arie mutter something under his breath. “What?”
“Christ, Holly. Do you even realize that I could have lost you back there?” He looked at me, but then turned his attention back to the slushy road.
“I know. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to help.”
“And I love that about you, but—”
“Look, you and Julian were helping. I don’t like feeling helpless. I wanted to do something even if I wasn’t sure whether it would do any good. I went with my gut instinct. I really wish you’d learn to trust that my intuition is usually right.”
“Holly…” - I can’t lose you. - His telepathic transference was like a punch to the gut.
“I was already thinking that for now I don’t think I should drink the Puncture. Not when we know that to someone like me—”
Arie’s eyes turned dark.
Far from it.
Judging by the instruments in Tessa’s interrogation room on the third floor at HFC, and the nature of the phone call, I figured that they would use any means necessary to find out what we needed to know and put a stop to this. I knew he’d be tortured until Tessa got what she wanted. She only said to keep him alive long enough to be interrogated.
But what choice did we have?
The government left us to clean up internal issues on our own. Arie told me that as long as it didn’t affect the general population, they stayed out of vampire business and made sure our existence remained a secret. We had to find out what he had concocted and how much of it before anyone else got hurt.
Besides, he’d brought this on himself by being in cahoots with his brother. The burnt bodies that had lined the floor back at the club made me sick. I couldn’t understand how someone could do something like that. He’d intentionally created a weapon against us and signed his own death sentence in doing so. I didn’t feel bad about Tessa’s decision at all, and from the look on Arie’s face, neither did he. Victoria wore a look of resolve as well, but she folded Luna into her arms just the same. I had no illusions that once Tessa had the information she needed and ensured that it couldn’t be used against us, Luca Monti was a dead man.
Chapter 7
Arie and I didn’t talk much at first on our drive back to the loft. We were both lost in our own thoughts. Most likely he was thinking about the events of the evening too. Snow-covered scenery slid by as we drove in his Venom, but I barely noticed the Christmas lights still strewn about even after the holidays were over. We had just celebrated it with whispered promises about our future and a quiet New Year, only to have it kicked off with more bloodshed.
This wasn’t how I had imagined it would be. We should have had some breathing room after Katarina’s death, and the next calamity had seemed like a distant question mark so far into the future that when we finally did have to deal with it, nothing would matter as long as we faced it together.
But things never happened like you expected or wanted them to. I didn’t have time to sort out my own insecurities about our relationship. I wished I could control how I felt, fake confidence, and bury my fears. The only thing you can control is how you react. I’d been too quick to rush to the female vampire’s aid tonight. I hadn’t thought it through, didn’t even know if I could help, but I’d risked it anyway. The fact that this toxin affected younger vampires differently than it did older ones made me hyperaware that this situation left me vulnerable, and I didn’t like feeling that way.
Feeling exposed.
Call me selfish, but I had the good sense to be afraid, and enough smarts to consider self-preservation over saving someone else’s ass. It would be Crimson Dusk, the donors at the club, from here on out for me, at least until this was over and I could be sure that the Puncture I drank wasn’t infected.
I heard Arie mutter something under his breath. “What?”
“Christ, Holly. Do you even realize that I could have lost you back there?” He looked at me, but then turned his attention back to the slushy road.
“I know. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to help.”
“And I love that about you, but—”
“Look, you and Julian were helping. I don’t like feeling helpless. I wanted to do something even if I wasn’t sure whether it would do any good. I went with my gut instinct. I really wish you’d learn to trust that my intuition is usually right.”
“Holly…” - I can’t lose you. - His telepathic transference was like a punch to the gut.
“I was already thinking that for now I don’t think I should drink the Puncture. Not when we know that to someone like me—”
Arie’s eyes turned dark.
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