Lucian welcomed the mists as they enveloped Tumbricane in a shroud of dark secrecy. This was how it should be. Lucian cursed softly beneath his breath as he pushed away from the window and began to pace the hallways of his vast and empty home. He could sense Mr. Jones as he passed his living quarters. His manservant was asleep, his mind at peace. Lucian knew he would need to find suitable alternative accommodation for the man before he made the journey to Europe. He didn’t know how long he would stay away and the frail human most likely would be nearing the end of his life in another twenty years. It was time to release the thrall he held over him and set him up comfortably elsewhere. He would need ongoing support for his mental health. A well-funded health care plan would take care of that.
Practical things. That’s what he needed to focus on, Lucian told himself as he continued along the corridor. It was easier than thinking about the hurt he had caused to the most beautiful of souls. The sadness in her eyes had felt as though his own heart were being attacked, his harsh and cruel words had broken her spirit and that was something that he would never be able to forgive himself for. She would recover and rebuild herself once again. His beautiful darling was a survivor and stronger than she might believe. But he would never be able to forget or come back from that moment. He was an abominable creature of pure darkness and he had acted accordingly.
It would be easier for Katherine to get on with her life if she could think of him as such.
She could hate him and dismiss her professed love for him as an untruth, convince herself that the man she had fallen for didn’t exist. Her heart may have been broken by him but she would recover and would build her defences twice as high as a result. That was of some perverse comfort to him. In the future, only the most worthy would make it into her heart, which was as it should be. A vampire had no place there to begin with, he had been a fool to pursue such a position.
Even without knowing her rare blood type, he should have known better than to have sought her trust and affections. However, knowing what he did, he needed to act accordingly to ensure her safety. Alerting the elders of her existence would most likely result in her having her mind wiped of all and any memories of him and she would have her life picked up and moved somewhere else so she could carry on as if nothing had ever happened, only she’d be under strict surveillance. Lucian himself would face punishment. Most likely a term of isolation in the ground. That was acceptable. But he wouldn’t have Katherine’s dreams and ambitions interrupted any more than they had already been by him.
He cursed his stupidity for agreeing to Kyle Daxton’s proposal. He had been detached from humanity for too long and his judgment had been skewed as a result. After less than two weeks with Katherine, he had seen the error of his ways. Although if he was honest he had felt the guilt and regret of his decision immediately upon her entering his home. He’d just been too stubborn and blinded by his own selfish interest in her to set her free sooner.
All of this was his fault, had he not been so foolish, none of this would’ve happened and Katherine would have walked away unharmed. Although her blood type still would’ve guaranteed a target on her back. It would only have been a matter of time before she was discovered, and potentially not by those who would honour the laws against drinking from O negative humans.
He couldn’t change the situation now, however, so he would do what he could to make things right for his beautiful darling. Cayden would protect her, he reassured himself. The brief phone call he placed to Benson Pines now meant she would continue to have protection while in the city. The bear shifter would remain there to shadow her as required.
The last person he needed to visit was Etienne.
Asking for the dragon’s vow of protection might result in some unwelcome complications and so he would have to handle the situation delicately. Dragons were extremely possessive by nature, if Etienne vowed to protect Katherine he would likely begin to view her as his, and Lucian wasn’t too happy with the creature getting too attached. It would require some careful negotiation and his mind and heart simply were not up to the task that night. He would make the journey to the dragon’s lair tomorrow evening.
The halls were silent around him. There was no light tapping on a keyboard or sound of distant music playing that he had become accustomed to hearing while Katherine had been in residence. He looked up from where his eyes had remained glued to his own feet as he had paced the halls and found he was outside her room. He drew in a deep breath and stepped inside, willing the lights to flick on with his mind.
The emptiness hit him like a physical wall as he looked about the space. Her bed was neatly made, the office chair and desk he had bought her and all the other gadgets sat upon it in the corner of the room. The roses hung their heads sadly in the vase, a few petals lay in shrivelled stillness at its base. He walked to the closet and peered inside; her own clothes were gone. Those that he had provided her were left to haunt the space.
All traces of her were gone. Her scent lingered and Lucian breathed it in with gluttonous desperation, hoping to find some echo of her to ease the ache in his chest. He walked to her desk and looked
