his nose curling at the stench wafting off the girl. “Do you plan to return her?”
“Why would I do that?” Seemed wasteful to give her back to the wolves. “I’m going to keep her.”
“What? Why?”
I lifted a shoulder. “She’s amusing.”
“She’s fucking dying.”
“Yes,” I agreed, staring down at her again. “Seems like a waste of blood, if you ask me.”
Damien looked like he’d swallowed a toad. “You’re a sick fuck, Ryder.”
I’d never denied that. Actually, I rather owned up to the reputation. There was a reason I didn’t play well with others. “Call me when you have the information I need,” I told him as I started down the road near the riverbank.
“Try not to catch anything,” he tossed back at me.
“She’s a human, not a raccoon,” I returned. Not that vampires could catch zoonotic diseases, or any others for that matter.
“Seems more like a rat,” I heard him mutter before opening the door to his vehicle. He’d driven one of those four-by-fours out here, the kind that revved loudly. I had a few in my garage, most over a century old.
One of the perks of country living was having adequate storage space. I had more than enough resources to live out here for a few more centuries alone. The world had gone to shit a hundred and seventeen years ago when vampires and lycans took charge and demoted humans to the position of cattle.
I wanted none of it.
Did I agree that vampires and lycans were the superior species? Hell yes. We sat at the top of the food chain. But that didn’t mean I fancied turning my prey into meek little rabbits. What fun was it to hunt a rodent when we used to chase tigers?
Seducing women into bed had been a fun pastime.
Now they just knelt like good little girls and sucked cock on autopilot.
Fuck. That.
I wanted to work for it. Make my conquest cry out for more, not just cry because it hurt. Well, I wasn’t opposed to the latter, but I preferred it in combination with the former.
“What about you, little warrior?” I asked the female in my arms as I reached the edge of my driveway. “How do you take cock?”
Her eyes had rolled into the back of her head, making a reply impossible.
She was barely even breathing now.
I sighed. “It’s just not fun anymore,” I told her. “You mortals are all conditioned to bend over and take it. Which has its rewards and benefits, but it takes the excitement out of things.”
I took the stairs up my porch two at a time, then kicked my door open with the heel of my boot.
The alarms I had rigged up didn’t flare, my technology recognizing my body scan upon approach. I paused, listening for anything out of the ordinary, and found it all peaceful and quiet. Just the way I liked it.
I nearly smiled until I recalled the reason I’d left my sanctuary almost a week ago.
Fucking Silvano.
He’d waltzed through my backyard like a king, setting off every damn alarm along the way. I’d been so pissed that I’d followed him to Clemente Clan, just to see what he was up to.
When all hell broke loose, I’d stayed, somewhat amused by the fight.
A huge mistake—something I’d learned the second Lilith arrived. That bitch fancied herself a Goddess. “The only thing regal about Lilith is her ostentatious tower in Chicago,” I muttered, heading down the stairs to my basement. “And that would look better as a pile of rubble.”
The hierarchy of this world made no sense.
And now I was part of it.
Maybe Damien was right about the punishment being mine.
Well, I’d certainly make Lilith’s life hell, too, just for fun.
It’d also been my idea to step up, mostly because I didn’t want that bitch anywhere near my property.
Why did everyone worship her? She was just an ordinary vampire, and a younger one at that. At least when compared to me and Kylan. And Cam.
Where the hell is Cam?
I didn’t believe for a second he was dead.
That asshole was at the bottom of a pit somewhere, just waiting to be found. His Erosita was living and breathing up in Majestic Clan, something no one else seemed to notice. But I did. Just as I recognized a plot brewing between Jace and Kylan. Hopefully, it would involve Lilith’s demise.
The female in my arms gasped, not in surprise but in a last-ditch effort to save herself.
“Right.” I knelt and laid her across the concrete floor. “Now what am I going to