I stared at him. He stared back. Neither of us moved. For one ridiculous second, I wondered if I had imagined it. Maybe the lighting had changed. Maybe the alcohol had finally caught up with me. Maybe I had just seen what I wanted to see because the man standing in front of me was so impossibly strange.
Then Lucien's lips parted. The sharp points were gone. His eyes were dark again. My stomach dropped. "You're imagining things," he said. I almost laughed. "You think?"
His expression remained unreadable. "You're tired." "I'm not tired." I gave that irritating look. "You've been drinking."
"Two glasses." I said just two. "Enough." I folded my arms. "You have red eyes and fangs." His gaze flickered toward my mouth. "Do I?"
"Yes." He took one slow step toward me. I immediately stepped back. He stopped. Something passed through his face, like restraint. It was almost as if he was forcing himself not to come any closer. That should have made me feel safer. It didn't.
"Tell me what you are," I whispered. He looked at me for a long moment. Then he glanced toward the entrance. The same people who had been watching him earlier were watching us now. His jaw tightened. "We need to leave." "We?"
"You." He snapped. "Where?" Somewhere safe. I stared at him. "You just showed me fangs and now you want me to follow you somewhere?"
"I didn't show you anything." I gave him an incredulous look. "Right. Of course." He reached into his jacket. I tensed. He stopped immediately. Then slowly removed his phone. The absurdity of the moment almost made me smile... Almost. He looked at the screen. Whatever he saw changed his expression.
"What is it?" He didn't answer. "Lucien." His eyes lifted to mine. "How did you know my name?" I froze. I had forgotten, and honestly I couldn't remember how. I had never introduced myself. Not once. He knew.
Before I could question him, my phone buzzed. I pulled it from my bag. Unknown number. One message. LEAVE HIM.
I looked around the room. My fingers tightened around the phone. Another message appeared.
HE IS NOT HUMAN.
The air seemed to disappear from my lungs. I looked at Lucien. He was staring at my phone. "You know who sent that?"
"No." He was lying and i could see it. "You're lying."
"I know what it means." That was the only things he said. "Then tell me." His attention moved over my shoulder. The blood drained from his face. I turned, mothing. Just the crowded lounge, people laughing, music playing, glasses clinking. Everything was normal.
When I looked back at Lucien, he was closer. "Listen to me carefully." His voice was low. "You're going to walk out through the back entrance." I shook my head. "I'm not going anywhere with you."
"You don't have a choice." That snapped something inside me. "Excuse me?" His expression hardened."Someone knows you're here."
"So?" So they're coming for you. A cold feeling settled in my stomach. "Why?" He didn't answer. "Why me?"
Still nothing. I took a step backward. "Who are you?"
This time, something changed in his eyes. He looked almost tired. "Someone you should have never met." Then the lights went out; the room erupted. People screamed, a glass shattered somewhere behind me, someone crashed into my shoulder. I lost my balance.
A hand caught my waist before I hit the floor.
Lucien. His body was cold. But his grip was impossibly strong. "Don't move." I couldn't. Not because he told me to. Because something had just moved behind him.
A shadow, too fast. Lucien turned; Everything happened at once. He shoved me behind him. A figure lunged from the darkness. Lucien caught him by the throat. The impact cracked against the wall. I stared.
There was no way a human could move that fast. No way a human could hold another man like he weighed nothing. The attacker struggled. Lucien leaned closer. I couldn't hear what he whispered. But I saw the attacker's eyes widen. Then Lucien released him.
The man dropped to the floor, dead. I covered my mouth. Lucien turned toward me. For the first time since I met him, he looked completely different. Not like the beautiful stranger from the lounge. Not like the controlled man who had been flirting with me. Like something ancient. Something that had spent centuries learning how to pretend it was human.
He walked toward me. I backed away. "Stay away from me." He stopped. "Sera." "Don't." I shouted! His eyes softened. "I won't hurt you."
"You just killed someone." I said with a shaky voice. "He was going to kill you." You don't know that. "I do."
"How?" Silence stretched between us. I shook my head. "I knew there was something wrong with you." His gaze lowered. "There's something wrong with this entire world." "What does that mean?"
Before he could answer, the back doors burst open. Three men entered. They weren't carrying guns. They didn't need them. They looked at Lucien, then at me. And immediately dropped to one knee. My breath caught. One of them lowered his head. "Your Majesty."
I looked at Lucien. He closed his eyes briefly. Almost like he had been hoping this moment wouldn't happen. I laughed nervously. I looked at the men again. Then at him. "Your Majesty?"
Lucien opened his eyes. There was no point hiding it anymore. He looked directly at me, and said the words that shattered everything I thought I knew about the night. "My name is Lucien Veyr. I am the King of Veyloria."
I stared at him. Then at the three men kneeling behind him. Then back at the man I'd almost kissed. The man with crimson eyes, the man who wasn't human. My voice came out barely above a whisper. "Vampires aren't real."
Lucien's expression didn't change. "Neither, apparently, was your memory." My heart stopped. "What?" He stepped closer. And this time, I didn't move. Because suddenly, the terrifying thing wasn't his eyes. It wasn't his fangs. It wasn't the dead man on the floor. It was the certainty in his voice.
He knew something about me. Something I didn't know myself. And before I could ask what it was, the world went black.
