“Let him come, Luc.”
I told him he could come so Vivi would feel better about the extra precautions. But now I think it wasn’t the best idea. But hell, I can’t say no when I look at Mauricio’s banged-up face.
“All right. Let’s go before the girls return and ask to tag along too.”
“Vivi can handle herself. Don’t underestimate her,” Rikkon tells me.
“I know, but I can’t help but want to protect her at all costs. I almost lost her.”
“Do you still blame yourself for what happened?”
I nod. “Every day.”
“You were cursed, Lucca. You couldn’t control yourself,” Mauricio says.
“It doesn’t change the fact that I almost drank Vivi dry,” I grumble.
I take the stairs to the basement where my uncle’s room is located, and it feels like I’m heading to the dungeon—albeit a very luxurious dungeon. He’s not lacking comfort, but this isn’t a way to live, locked in a room and not knowing who you are half the time. No wonder he made me promise that when the disease progressed to the point that he couldn’t remember anymore, I had to kill him.
My chest aches whenever I think about that. My mother is gone, and Manu is lost in Ellnesari and I may never see her again, or Ronan, who’s like a brother to me. I can’t bear the thought of losing my uncle too, who has always been my father figure.
There’s a monitor just outside my uncle’s room that shows the feed from the camera. Uncle Raphael hasn’t moved from thespot on the floor. Mauricio gives Rikkon a vial. “This is vampire’s bane. If he escapes the room, throw it onto his face.”
“Will it stop him?” he asks.
“No, but it will slow him down,” I say.
“Let’s hope it won’t come to that.”
Mauricio unlocks the door and insists on walking into the room first. I follow him quickly and close the door behind me. The entire floor is covered in broken pieces of furniture and glass. The mattress has been shredded to pieces, and tufts of foam and feathers litter the area where the bed used to be. He went on a rampage.
“My king, Lucca is here to see you,” Mauricio says.
Uncle Raphael lifts his head, and the air gets stolen from my lungs. His face is hollow, there are dark circles under his eyes, and his beard is longer than it has ever been and unkempt. He’s barely recognizable.
“You shouldn’t have come, Lucca.”
I walk round Mauricio and offer him the blood bags. “You need to feed.”
He eyes them with suspicion. “Whose blood is that?”
“It’s Rikkon’s.”
“It smells funny. It’s laced with vampire’s bane, isn’t it, boy? You want to poison me so you can steal my crown.”
His eyes flash red, but he doesn’t make a move to attack me yet.
“I don’t want your fucking crown. You know I never cared about that. I want to see you well again.”
He grimaces, then lets out a pitiful sob that I feel deep in my soul. “There’s no hope for me. I won’t get better, Lucca. My time to meet the sun has come.”
“No! Your time hasn’t come yet.” I drop into a crouch in front of him. “Now drink this.” I shove one of the blood bags into his hand.
I see the fight brewing in his eyes, but so is the hunger. In the end, his survival instincts kick in, and he drinks from the bag. Almost immediately, his visage improves. The dark circles disappear, and his skin loses the sickly gray hue. His cheeks look fuller too. The only thing Rikkon’s blood can’t improve is the state of my uncle’s beard.
He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “Thank you, son.”
“You’re welcome.”
