I still had a smile on my face when I took a turn right at the foyer and followed the signs down for the rear parking lot. The security guards were around, and I could sense them, but I didn’t slow down in my paces, just kept my head up high.
And then I waited.
I waited in the shadows for Elaine Constantine with a strangely hypnotic thrill rising up in my veins.
I checked my watch, ticking slowly. I looked up at the building, counting the seconds.
Waiting. Wanting. Planning.
Planning all the filthy painful things I was going to do to that pretty little temptress as I made her mine.
I was going to bind her, and brand her, and tear her apart.
I was going to take her soul, and her heart, and her secrets. Every little last one of them until she was bleeding her sins on the floor and begging me to end her life.
Elaine Beatrice Constantine was my little virgin, giving me my every breath.
And there she was. A flighty shadow in the shadows.
Her wide blue eyes looked more scared than ever as she joined me under that awning with her arms wrapped tight around her chest.
She was skittish. Terrified.
Perfect.
“Don’t hurt Tristan,” she said as she stepped up close. “Please, don’t hurt Tristan.”
“You’d better be a good little doll for me, then,” I said, and took her by the hand. “I gave up my company for you. My family. My pride. I gave up everything to keep you, and I’m going to make you pay it back to me in pain and tears and red marks on your skin.”
SOULLESS
Chapter One
Elaine
I used to dream about it late at night—being kidnapped by a monster.
There was a strange dread and fascination with being taken. Owned. It was no different in real life, walking away from my apartment complex at the side of Lucian Morelli.
He didn’t speak to me, because no words were needed. I knew he was my god from here on in. I was nothing more than a little doll in his sadist show.
That’s what he was. A sadist. A sadist who wanted my blood.
I had no doubt he’d be taking it, slowly and painfully.
I was the one who broke the silence. “Where are we going?”
He could have told me it was none of my business, and I would’ve still followed him. I had no choice. Not while my best friend in the world was being held for ransom if I didn’t obey. Tristan’s life was worth more to me than mine.
“We’re going to get a cab,” the monster said, just like that.
We could have called a car on his phone easily enough, but I guess he didn’t want to. The anonymity of a taxi must have been a more appealing option. It made sense.
A Morelli with a Constantine in any form would be remarkable in our world.
Lucian’s eyes were fixed ahead of us, glittering in their darkness. His jaw looked as firm as ever from my angle, looking up at the beast. It occurred to me for just that second, trotting alongside him on the sidewalk, that he was as unsure of how things were panning out as I was.
It seemed odd that he was acting on impulse, totally out of character with the way he usually reeked of control and structure.
Yeah, he was out of his comfort zone. The thought made me smile a little, even in my fear.
It happened to be the moment he chose to fix me in his stare. “What’s funny, sweetheart?” he asks with a taunt in his voice. “Share with the class.”
It didn’t stop me from smiling. Even now, with the mind-spinning promise of fate ripping me out of this world, there was a beautiful sense of relief in my soul. “Why shouldn’t I smile?” I countered. “Maybe I’ll be happy when you hurt me. I was about to end my own life, after all.”
I thought back to the bottles of pills I’d left behind and how he’d disturbed me from them by turning up at my apartment door. He still had the Tristan suicide note I’d written in his inside pocket. It was typical that he’d used it to work out just how important Tristan is to me.
“You’ve had plenty of chances to end your life. You didn’t. Even tonight you were waiting for the big bad wolf to come and take you. You’re lying to yourself.”
That offended me.
I stopped walking and folded my arms across my chest.
“I wanted to be the one to take my own life,” I told him. “It’s my life. That was my right.”
My heart leapt a little as he turned to face me and stepped close. He loomed tall. His voice was barely more than a hiss when he spoke. “It’s not your right anymore, Miss Constantine. You can wave that freedom goodbye. Your life belongs to me now.”
I belonged to Lucian Morelli. “Ha!” I couldn’t help laughing in his face.
He didn’t even flinch. He held out a hand, and I looked down at his outstretched fingers, so big and firm. He was so big and firm. It felt weird to take his hand in mine. The power in his grip was…intense…
My heart leapt again as he pulled me along with him.
In that moment, hand in hand on the sidewalk, we must have looked like any regular couple enjoying their evening. If only we were. If only we’d been two people meeting each other at a party and wanting to fuck. If only we’d been two people drawn together without our family war gripping us tight. It was a bizarre truth how instinctively I hated the man holding my hand, and I had since I was old enough to understand his name.
Constantines versus Morellis. Enemies over generations. Malice to the death.
I’d long forgotten even half of what was so terrible that their family had done to ours. More than our family had done to theirs though, that was for sure. That was a mantra I’d learned since I was a toddler. The Morellis are bad people.
“You’d better behave in the cab,” the monster told me as the stand came into view. “Even so much as a squeak for help will lead to nothing but the death of your friend.”
Part of me doesn’t want to believe him. It’s one thing to defend your family and your territory. Another thing to hurt an innocent like Tristan. I think Lucian is just bluffing…but he might not be. “Don’t insult my intelligence by thinking you have to tell me that. I’m well aware what an evil piece of shit you are, Lucian Morelli.”
His mouth pressed up to my ear. “I’m well aware of what a little liar you are too, Elaine Constantine. And I’m going to make you suffer for it.”
I shivered as we stepped up to the first cab in the line. Lucian held the door open for me. What a gentleman. I shuffled climbed into the back seat as he joined me. I stared out of the window on the other side, looking anywhere but at the man setting out to destroy me.
You wanted him to take you, murmured a low, raspy voice in my head. You’ve always been a slut. You’ve always wanted men to hurt you.
I shivered in the cool leather seat. There was a strange bond between us. Attraction. Lust. Or maybe something far more base—an exchange of power.
We were like two poles of a magnet, drawn together.
And I couldn’t deny that I would have fought harder, would have used my teeth and nails to escape another man bent on kidnapping me. With Lucian Morelli, I was willingly going along.
He leaned forward to the driver, keeping himself as low-key as possible, no doubt, as he cleared his throat and pasted on a sad little smile.