One Crossroads Later

Chapter Sixteen

The door shut on the memory and Flynn blinked as he reconnected with the present. Monica looked away, pulling both feet onto her chair, and wrapped her arms around her knees. Flynn watched her come down from the experience of sharing and felt a pang of sympathy for how much it looked like that'd taken out of her.

"So, you're hiding as much as I am now," Flynn said. "Both of us, from someone different."

Monica nodded. "That was six months ago. I told my father I'd go willingly with the seer to buy myself some time and snuck out again a few nights later. Only this time, I had cloaking spells ready and tickets to New Orleans, where I spent a couple of weeks."

"You bounced around before coming here?"

"Only for a month. They know where I am. I'm not stupid. But I didn't want them to grab me the moment my feet landed here. Since then, I've stayed under the radar. And unless the Fates themselves told them about it, they don't yet know there's a new seer.

"The minute someone slips up," she added, "either me or Sabrina's cronies, this could get interesting."

Flynn nodded and Monica shut her book, as if realizing she'd had it open the whole time. Picking up her pen, mainly to turn it around and tap the journal's cover, she took a deep breath. Flynn read it as her clearing out the emotion she'd summoned.

"All right," she said, taking a breath and exhaling it while she set her pen back down. "I showed you mine. Now, show me yours."

"I guess that was the agreement," Flynn said, inhaling his own steadying breath. As she settled in, he adjusted the way he sat and looked her in the eyes, trying to manifest the same pathway to Monica's mind that she had to his.

She met him halfway. At that moment, the thoughts flowed freely, becoming a part of their shared consciousness. 'She didn't coerce me to kill my first vampire,' he thought, for her benefit. 'She didn't have to. I wanted to do it badly enough.' As he filled in the background, images spread across his mind, painting the picture of a burgeoning monster. It hadn't taken long for two needs to become a basic part of life, which Robin had reassured was natural for a vampire.

Sex became one. The other one, murder.

Something about the latter. He'd only been a vampire for three years, but long enough for the worst of the bloodlust to pass. Robin allowed him to walk among the humans on his own, not fearing Flynn would draw unneeded attention to their coven. What Flynn had failed to tell his immortal brother, though, was what a struggle it had become to hold back that part of his nature. Blood might have been a necessary evil. Yet, simple feeding hardly sated him.

Yes, he behaved when he needed to. Including when he didn't want to make Robin concerned. It had been idly toying with a display knife that'd directed the sadistic part of him into a new hobby, though. Sabrina had been watching and within a week, his first actual knife appeared in his room. She had given him a new toy and Flynn put it to good use.

Until one fateful night, the knife only found its way into his bedroom encounters, with small slices and suckles of blood taken while he fucked his meals. Recently, though, his nature had wanted more and the last man he'd slept with had become his unfortunate prey for a chance at exploration. The human had treated what he'd obviously asked for with disgust afterward, and that had signed his death certificate.

God, he could still taste that man's blood on his tongue the more he thought about it.

As Flynn walked through a portion of Philadelphia suffering most from urban decay, that thought marked his every step. The presence of humans neglected by society made it a common stomping ground for vampires, though most only took what they needed for the night. Flynn frequently passed through, especially in those moods, and that night he wanted someone who might provide the thrill of fear again.