Page 53 of Blood Red Rage

“And,” Sorcha continued, clearly enjoying my discomfort, “you’ll need to stay in your room when it starts.”

“Why?”

Runa’s gaze sharpened. “Because other vampires will smell it too.”

That had me gasping in surprise. Glancing towards Nico and Luka I see their amused expression.

Layla said quietly, “Not all of them have control.”

My stomach tightened at the thought of being attacked. Sorcha’s grin faded. “It can start fights, real ones. You don’t want to be walking around a mansion full of predators while broadcasting fertility.”

I stared at my hands. This life really was dangerous.

“And Viking?” Runa said softly. “He’ll become even more possessive. You’ll feel it.”

I let out a shaky laugh. “Is that even possible?”

Layla tilted her head thoughtfully. “Yes.”

I leaned back in my chair, stunned, overwhelmed, and weirdly… curious. This was insane, absolutely unhinged. And yet, somewhere deep in my chest, beneath the fear and disbelief, something sparked because despite everything they were telling me… Some reckless part of me couldn’t help thinking I can’t wait to see what he’s like then.

I looked down the hallway again, toward the room where Viking slept through the daylight like a fallen god. Dangerous, possessive, and now he was mine.

And since the gunshot, I let myself believe that maybe this wasn’t just survival, maybe this was the beginning of something wild, something terrifying, something that was my reality now.

Chapter 10

Eight days after the shooting, the world still felt wrong, still felt too quiet. I sat in the passenger seat of the SUV, forearms braced on my thighs, eyes fixed on the road ahead as the city blurred past. Draugr drove like he always did when we were hunting. Smooth, fast with no wasted motion. The marina was ten minutes out, ten minutes too long.

“You nearly didn’t let him talk,” Draugr said, breaking the silence.

I didn’t look at him. “He talked.”

“He choked,” Draugr corrected. “There’s a difference.”

I exhaled slowly through my nose, jaw tight. The memory rose anyway of the vampire pinned against the wall, feet dangling, hands clawing uselessly at my wrists. The smell of fear, the way his eyes bulged as I squeezed.

He’d tried to bargain, they always did. “I got the information,” I mutter.

“You got it after you started killing him.”

“He accepted a hit on my mate.” Draugr didn’t argue that, he couldn’t.

“I watched the life drain from his eyes,” I continued flatly. “I wanted him to understand why he was dying.”

Draugr’s hands tightened on the wheel for half a second. “And the blade?”

“Mercy,” I said. “Compared to what I wanted to do.” The knife in my mind sank into a vampire heart, clean and final. Silence returned, heavy but familiar.

After a moment, Draugr spoke again. “She’s changed.” That pulled my attention to him. “Bryn,” he clarified. “Since the shooting.”

I nodded once. “I know.”

She had, the fear hadn’t vanished, but it had sharpened into something else. Awareness, resolve. She asked questions now, about security, about routines, about the rules she hadn’t known existed two weeks ago. She walked the mansion like she belonged there. She laughed with the women, sparred verbally with Lucien, rolled her eyes at Volken like he was a grumpy guard dog, she even corrected Roman once to all of our surprise. She was integrating better than I’d ever expected.

“She should have broken,” Draugr said quietly. “Most humans would have.”

“She’s not most humans,” I replied.