pay her any attention. When the vamp turned, Yannis glimpsed a tattoo on his neck. Something niggled at the back of his mind when he realized it was a sword, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was.
Then the vamp disappeared into the building, and Yannis retreated to his cameras to watch as the man returned to the third floor. Yannis strove to recall what he’d heard about that tattoo, but the memory eluded him.
The other vamp was waiting for him in the doorway. They said something to each other, but it was so soft, the cameras didn’t pick it up before they entered the apartment again.
Yannis settled on the couch and hit a few keys to bring up another screen. He typed a message and sent it.
He’d spent nearly a month in this place, waiting for his big brother to arrive. He’d almost given up hope, but here Lucien was.
He’d taken a gamble his brother would return to the woman’s home; the others had given up hope and moved on, but he remained steadfast in his belief Lucien would return. And he would return because of the woman.
There was a reason his brother fought through the starvation enshrouding him and the vampires surrounding him to save the woman. Most of the others believed Lucien took her to feed on her and kill her, but Yannis knew the truth.
Lucien took her because he wanted her.
And while he had killed many of the things he wanted over the years, his brother was not the same. The woman meant something to him, but Yannis wasn’t sure exactly what that was until they arrived here.
He’d watched them in their vehicle, laughing, touching, and kissing. She was still human, but she was Lucien’s mate. He suspected it when Lucien pulled together enough to break free of his prison, but he did not doubt it now. She was the reason Lucien escaped, and her death would be the reason he fell apart.
After all these years, Yannis would finally get another chance to destroy his brother. He would not fail to slaughter the sanctimonious prick this time.
Sitting back on the couch, he lifted the arm of the woman sitting beside him and bit into it. She was little more than a motionless feedbag now. He didn’t get a rush from her pain when he bit her anymore. And now that he had his brother in his sight, he no longer had any use for her.
He’d brought many humans in and fed from them since arriving here, but he’d kept this one alive. The pretty woman had listened to his story about a broken vehicle, invited him into her home, and fallen prey to him.
He enjoyed torturing her in the beginning, and he’d really enjoyed folding her boyfriend in half and shoving him into their basement freezer while savoring her screams, but their time together was over. She was no longer any fun, and he would soon be leaving here to hunt his brother.
He felt it when her life slipped away, and he tossed aside her wrist as he settled back on the couch to continue watching. He couldn’t track them once they left here, but he had others to do that for him.
He’d have to get to them before they returned to their home. He, along with many others, would love to know the location of Ronan and his followers, but he couldn’t risk not being able to get at Lucien once they returned home.
No, if he was going to kill his brother, he had to make sure it happened before Lucien locked his pretty piece of ass away.
He’d have to be careful; he had no idea if the bitch with the sword was with them, but if she was, he could kill two birds with one stone. Where Derrick failed to procure the sword, he would succeed.
He’d kill Lucien’s mate, push his brother over the edge, and maybe reclaim the sword in the process. He’d love to see the look on what remained of Derrick’s face when he arrived with the sword and his brother’s head.
It was early afternoon by the time Lucien shut the back door of the SUV and climbed behind the wheel. Callie sat in the seat beside him, her hands clasped in her lap, and her eyes staring straight ahead. No matter how he tried to draw her out, she’d barely spoken since Carter’s attack.
At least her throat looked a lot better, and the gash on her forehead