If he had to kill, then Killean would at least keep it to the worst forms of human life. It was a small piece of twisted, moral judgment—and he was the last vampire who should be passing judgment on anyone—but he could live with himself if he stuck to men such as Arlo.
Arlo spoke in a low whisper with a young kid who resembled a walking skeleton instead of a human being. They stood between two dumpsters overflowing with trash and rats that didn’t care about the presence of the humans. The skeleton handed Arlo some money and received a small bag of white substance in return.
The skeleton slunk away with his head bowed. Arlo started toward Killean and was nearly on top of him before he realized Killean was there. The man, in his mid-twenties, came to an abrupt halt when he spotted Killean.
“I’m closed for the night, buddy,” Arlo’s racing heart belied the bravado of his tone.
“I’m not here for what you’re selling,” Killean replied.
Arlo’s hand fell to the gun tucked into the waistband of his jeans. Killean followed his movements, but he didn’t try to stop him from pulling the gun. He didn’t care about the weapon; he was far more interested in Arlo’s blood.
His fangs throbbed as his gaze fell to the vein in the side of the man’s neck. He regularly fed on humans, but this was the first time he’d be able to let go of all the restraint he’d kept himself under for over four hundred years. The first time he could give in to the impulse to kill that had obsessed him for most of his life.
Before Simone haunted his dreams, graphic images of murder, death, and copious amounts of blood sliding down his throat had filled them. He’d woken from them drenched in a cold sweat, with his fangs fully extended, and his fingers digging into the mattress to keep himself from launching out of bed, fleeing into the night, and slaughtering every human he came across.
On those nights, his dreams were so vivid that he woke with the coppery scent of blood in his nostrils. Over the centuries, they’d nearly hurled him to the brink of madness more times than he could recall, but because of Ronan, and the mission he’d accepted when he joined with Ronan, Killean somehow kept himself from unleashing his murderous impulses.
But tonight, if he went through with this, he wouldn’t have to restrain himself anymore. In his life, the only thing that excited him more than this knowledge was the kiss he’d shared with Simone.
It could already be too late for her. You don’t have to do this.
But as he thought it, he knew there was no other recourse.
“Hey, asshole, get out of my way,” Arlo said and waved his gun at Killean.
Killean seized Arlo by his shirt and propelled him into the brick wall of the nearby building.
“What the fuck, man?” Arlo complained, and lifting his gun, he pressed it against Killean’s chest.
Before Arlo could pull the trigger, Killean gripped the barrel and wrenched the gun from his grasp. Arlo’s eyes rolled as sweat beaded his forehead and he squirmed in Killean’s grasp. The rapist and drug dealer punched Killean in the cheek.
Killean could have dodged or blocked the blow, but he gladly took it, and the next one Arlo delivered. The punch of a human was nowhere near as strong as the many he’d received from Savages over the years, but he welcomed the blows. He planned to end this man’s life, the least he could do was take a few punches from him.
“Get off me, man!” Arlo yelled.
“Calm down,” Killean commanded as he allowed his ability to manipulate the minds of others to slide free; Arlo’s struggles eased when Killean took control of him.
Killean breathed in the scent of Arlo’s blood. Unlike his customers, drugs didn’t taint Arlo’s blood, and the coppery tang of his blood called to Killean. His fangs lengthened and saliva filled his mouth as his heart raced with excitement. Killing Arlo would finally set him free of the constant struggle dominating his life since he became a fully matured vampire at twenty-four.
Don’t do this! You can find another way!
The tiny piece of conscience he still had pleaded with him, but his conscience had never been much guidance in his life. His loyalty to Ronan, and his mission to destroy Savages had kept him on the straight and narrow, until now.
Ronan. His friend, his mentor, and the man who had saved his life more times than Killean could recall. The man who would ruthlessly hunt Killean and strike him down for choosing this path.
I will come back.
No one has ever come back from being a Savage before.
And no one has ever endured the things I have and survived before; if anyone can do this, I can.
“Easy,” Killean said when Arlo started to thrash again.
He’d inadvertently pulled back his control over Arlo while wrestling with this decision and asserted it again. He may be about to step over the threshold from vampire to Savage, but he wouldn’t inflict unnecessary suffering on another, at least not yet. Who knew what he would do after he killed, but for now, he would retain this piece of his barely there humanity.
Realizing he was going around in circles with himself and he couldn’t stand here all night, Killean pushed Arlo’s head to the side and sank his fangs into the man’s throat. Arlo remained unmoving and unaware of what Killean was doing as he eagerly consumed the blood until Arlo’s pulse weakened.
Stop!
Killean’s fangs almost retracted as he neared the line between what he was and what he would become. Then Simone’s eucalyptus scent, and the sweet taste of her lips, danced across his memory. His mate was trapped and being abused. This man’s life was nothing compared to hers.
And who are you to judge that?
I am no one. I stopped being someone when I was a child.
But for those few seconds, while he stood on the beach with Simone in his arms, he’d been someone again. For the first time since he was seven years old and his world fell apart, he’d felt as if he finally belonged somewhere, and that was with her.
No matter he despised her hunter blood, no matter he would never claim her as his mate, he couldn’t abandon her to Joseph.
Instead of stopping, Killean bit deeper and Arlo sagged against him. Arlo’s heart thudded, stopped, thudded again, and then gave one more limp beat before ceasing.
A moment of panic descended over Killean as he irrevocably stepped away from his old life and into this far more turbulent and uncertain one. Who and what would he become now?
He would return from this, but he didn’t kid himself into believing he could ever be the man he’d been before committing this act. This death of a human would forever change him, but what it would transform him into remained to be seen.
The panic vanished when power unlike anything he ever experienced rushed over Killean and the last of Arlo’s life filled him.
Gasping, Killean pulled back to stare into Arlo’s sightless blue eyes. Guilt tore at his insides as he released the man and let the body slump to the ground.
But despite the self-hatred and uncertainty battering his brain, he gathered Arlo’s body, disposed of it, and went in search of the next name on his list.
One victim would not be enough to make him a Savage.
Chapter Two
Chained to the wall, the cold concrete floor leached the heat from Simone’s body. She had no idea where she was, and she’d given up caring. The parts of her that weren’t freezing hurt so bad it felt like someone was taking a knife and slicing it across her vertebrae before leisurely flaying the skin from her bones.