~4

Luciano

Rage surged higher in my lungs as I kept thinking back to what I'd had to leave behind.

That perfect, round body. The perfect tits. That cute face.

I couldn't remember the last time I'd had a vanilla, innocent beauty in my palms. And just when I had one so sweet and wet like that, a new development hit like a headache.

I was still mad about sending her away, but sometimes this path I'd chosen for myself called for sacrifices. Besides…a big-shot hybrid like myself couldn't let a tiny human like her ruin my plans.

“Don Draven, I beg you!” The whiny voice of the man beneath my fingers snapped me back to reality. I shoved his head back into the drum of water, with all strength and anger.

“Why did you do it?”

I let his head up to hear him speak.

“I-I don't know what you're talking about!” he cried between gasps. “Please let me go!”

I shoved his head back into the drum and held down hard. “I only have so much patience left, Duke. Don't test it.”

He wriggled and thrashed inside the water, and I let him up for air when I felt his pulse start to slip. Grim reaper duties were far from my to-do list at the moment.

“I swear to you! I've been by my daughter's side in the hospital and—”

I snapped my fingers, cutting him off. The door opened a second later and a large man with silver eyes and a buzz cut shoved another man bleeding from his nostrils and mouth, into the basement.

“Remember this,” I flung Duke Montclair against the wood barrels lined against the walls, “I gave you enough chances.”

“Thank you, Don! Your graces are never forgotten!” His eyes widened as he recognized the man covered in his own blood, the repulsive stench of his fear upsetting my stomach.

I scoffed and signaled the bloodied man forward with a crook of my fingers.

He scurried forward, his eyes cast wide at his feet, trembling all over.

“Tell us why you took those misleading pictures of my betrothed and I. And you know better than to skitter around.”

The man spilled the tale in a flurry of stutters and sobs. “I was scared at first when Mr. Montclair told me to tail you and capture anything implicating that could give him an upper hand. But he offered to pay three years worth of my salary if I did as he said.”

I tilted my head, narrowing my eyes on Duke Montclair who trembled with fear. “So you've got that kind of money, huh? You just wanna screw me over, then?”

“Not at all! I only promised him that to get him to—”

“Good. So you asked him to do it.”

He paled all over again. “Don Draven, I really didn't mean to do it, please. I was just curious if my daughter was behaving —”

“Your daughter is mine, Duke. Mine. You should know to never cross the line with me.”

I walked over to the large steel table in the middle of the room and picked up a sharp paper cutter.

Duke shrank in fear as I turned and stared right at him.

“Vale, hold him down.”

My right-hand man stepped forward and yanked the back of Duke’s hair, forcing him to his feet.

Duke screamed like a child as he was dragged to the table and forced into position, his left pinky finger flattened against the surface.

“You owe me a shit-ton of money, yet you throw me under the bus.”

“Why would I do that when I offered you my daughter?” Snot ran down his face as he looked to me pleadingly.

“You tell me, Duke.” I leaned forward and positioned the paper cutter above his pinky finger. “What were you trying to achieve?”

He didn't get a chance to respond. A guttural cry of pain echoed off the walls, as I sliced his finger clean off.

He fell back, gripping his wrist as blood spurted from his hand. “I'm sorry! Please, forgive me!”

I stared at him for a long moment, wiping my hands against a small towel. “What happens if your daughter never wakes up? I'll be needing my money one way or the other, Duke.”

“I'll make sure she wakes up, please! I'll pray to the heavens and the earth, whatever it takes!”

I chuckled and shoved my fingers through my hair. “Do what you will.” I picked up the finger and tossed it to him. “Get out.”

They scurried off in a hurry, Duke and his snitching reporter.

Vale stepped forward, his expression hard. “Aren't you being too easy on him?”

“That's for me to decide.” I flicked him a glance. “And the other agenda?”

“It's already underway. Some of the boys are at work at the field.”

I nodded, smiling to myself as I shoved my hands in my pockets and walked to the window.

My mind trailed back to the girl from earlier. Quinn Parker. I knew her name because it was a piece of cake to know things like that, as a hybrid. Manipulating human memories was one of the many powers a demon like me had access to.

She was one of the few people whose irresistible bloodlust had called to me like a magnet. And tonight, she dies. Into the black hole. As the rule demands. Too bad I wouldn't get a chance to taste that sweet arousal I smelt on her.

I turned and started towards the door. “Get the car ready. We're heading to the field.”

~~~

The boys lined up at attention as the grey Mazda pulled into the field.

“Welcome, boss!” They yelled in unison as I stepped out of the vehicle. I rolled my eyes at the annoying chant that I couldn't get them to stop no matter how much I tried. I detested such flamboyancy.

I rolled the sleeves of my black shirt up as the ginger–haired, forest-green-eyed beauty marched up to me, readying for battle.

Fucking hell, see how those tits bounce? How are they just the right size? I knew they could fit right in my—

“What is this?” Her voice washed over me like ice packs, cold and soothing. “What's going on here?”

“Good to see you again, Quinn Parker.”

She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “I'm not about to ask you how you know my name. More importantly, I'd like to know why these men are battering my home. If you can explain? You seem to know them.”

I made a show of looking around at the men, then I all too eagerly fixed my gaze on her face again. “Pack your things and leave. We're taking this land.”

“What's that supposed to mean? This is my home, you can't just up and—”

“Of course I can. I own half the city, love. I can take whatever I want, whenever.” I raked hungry eyes down her body. “Your body would have been mine too but for—”

A heavy wind knocked the rest of the words out of my mouth, leaving a painful sting. She slapped me. The brazen witch.

I scoffed, rubbing my palm against my jaw. “Guess I deserved that.”

“You deceived me, Luciano Draven.”

I smirked, leaning close and curling a strand of that ginger-hair around my finger. “No. You wanted me.”

In the blink of an eye, she slipped a surgical blade from her hair and held it up to my carotid. It all happened too fast, and I just…let it.

This little human amused me. “Do you think you can kill me?”

“Quinn, for goodness sake! Stop it!”

I flicked the dark-haired woman who looked just a tad bit like her, a bored glance. She knew better than her daughter, at least.

“I regret ever letting you put your hands on me.”

“But you can't deny enjoying it.”

“I won't let you get away with this,” ginger-haired beauty spat, green eyes flaming like coals. “I will go to the ends of this earth if it means—”

A loud shot rang out in the air, cutting off her words and sending her staggering back from me.

Everything seemed to stop and happen in slow motion for a bit. She touched her chest that now leaked with her blood, her eyes growing wide with horror and realization.

Then she fell back.

Her mother's shriek rang across the entire city.

I watched as ginger-haired beauty lay in her own pool of blood, gurgling and staring blankly into the sky. Fuck. It all ended too soon.

I lifted a blazing gaze to Vale who stood feet-apart with a gun, his hard glare fixed on the bleeding girl.

“You always have to end things when they just get bloody interesting, don't you?”