I remembered the state Lucian had seen me in last night, though at the time, I’d hardly cared.
“No need to be embarrassed, Vincent,” Lucian said, skimming his free hand up my back and causing me to shiver. “But if you ever want something a little more… atypical, my bedchamber door is always open.”
“Lucian, I swear to gods, I will crack open your ribcage and tear out your heart if you don’t shut your mouth and get moving.”
“Feeling insecure?” Lucian asked and then the point of his scalpel dug into my skin.
“Ahhh,” I hissed at the burn and would have raised my head except that you held me down.
“So sensitive,” Lucian murmured as blood dripped down the center of my back. He grabbed the hook and dug around inside my flesh, probing deeper than necessary, it would seem. Was he aiming for my spinal cord? I whimpered from the pain, and Lucian only probed deeper.
“Ah ha,” he said triumphantly and presented me with a tiny, paper-thin microchip, secured between the pointed ends of his tweezers.
Lucian replaced his tools and put pressure against the cut. He licked my back, from much lower on my spine to the very top, then lapped at the wound several times. I expected you to object, but you were silent.
“Lucian, what the fuck?” I asked.
“Our saliva has natural antiseptic properties,” you said.
“Or, you could use some good, old-fashioned hydrogen peroxide,” I suggested.
“And let that good Nephilim blood go to waste?” Lucian squeezed my shoulder, signaling he was done, and you released my head. “I’m afraid I’m all out of lollipops, but I have something far more gratifying you can suck on.”
“Careful, I bite.”
“Tempting,” Lucian said with a sly smile, not discouraged in the least.
After a phone call to my parents to let them know I was okay, the four of us, along with Spooky, squeezed into your janky-ass helicopter, which was only slightly less rickety than your airplane, not to mention the half-inch layer of dust it had on its body when we boarded.
At least the ride was shorter this time. Seneser navigated the desert terrain while you kept the rust bucket airborne. Spooky clawed at my chest in terror, and Lucian studied me like a newly discovered infectious disease.
I was intensely aware of every movement I made, like licking my lips to try to keep them moistened in the dry air. My lotions got left behind due to the space constraints; we needed as much room as possible for blood.
“You don’t look like us,” Lucian said.
“What?” I shouted, pretending I couldn’t hear him. It had always worked on my dad.
“You heard me,” he said, not raising his voice in the least. The earmuffs only dulled our hearing a little.
“So what?” I said.
“If it weren’t for your smell, I wouldn’t think we were related at all.”
I shrugged. I wasn’t trying to prove anything.
“If I wished to pursue you, do you think you could fend me off?” He sat up a little in his seat.
“Um, that’s a weird-ass question, Lucian. Are we talking seduction or brute strength?”
“Either one.”
“Physical strength, probably not. You’ve got, like, fifty pounds on me. But seduction…” I tilted my head.
Lucian laughed. “There is no way, youngblood,” he said soberly.
I raised my eyebrows. “I don’t know, bro, you’re getting up there.”
“Seductive powers only grow over time,” he said arrogantly.
“Yeah, but I’m talking about hunger. That’s something you can’t teach.”
“I’m plenty hungry.” Lucian flashed his top row of teeth.
I shrugged again, acting bored. He was quiet but not for long.
“You know there are a lot of opportunities to get lost in a mine,” he said. “Deep, dark passageways where one can easily become disoriented. I’d hate to see you and Henri get separated. Who knows what might be lurking there in the shadows?”
“Are you hitting on me?” It was an honest question. He’d been trying to vibe with me all day.
“I’m very good at administering pain.”
What had you called him? A mad scientist? “I bet you have some laboratory where you just go to town on people, huh?” Culinary school, my ass. He was probably learning how to carve up human bodies in order to get the primest cuts.
“That would be a solid bet,” he said. “Some people find their true selves through torment.”
“Sounds like hella fun. What a way to spend the summer.”
“I could make it very fun for both of us.” His eyes glinted with dark promises. “The wonderful thing about Nephilim bodies, is that they can be resurrected over and over again. With