Page 52 of Born Reckless
Roman’s fist has disappeared into the man’s chest. The man’s eyes go wide, his mouth opening in a horrified O.
With a feral snarl, Roman yanks his head to the side, and he spits out a chunk of something wet. It hits the ground with a squishing smack.
And then he yanks his hand back. His arm goes to rest at his side, and in his hand, I see something soft, and blood pours to the ground beneath his feet from it.
His heart. That’s the man’s heart. And Roman just ripped it from the man’s chest.
The light in the man’s eyes goes out. I watch it fade away. And as he falls to the ground, I see his entire body turn gray.
He’s dead when he hits the ground. This time, for good.
“You going to help me clean this mess up, or are you just going to watch?”
Goosebumps flash over my skin as I realize that Roman is talking to me.
“You just killed him?” I ask. My brain is struggling to catch up to this situation. “You just killed him because he wouldn’t get the tracking tattoo?”
Slowly, Roman turns to look at me over his shoulder. His eyes are brilliant red, so bright, even if I were human, I’d be able to spot them in the dark from two blocks away. Blood is streaked all down his chin, coating the front of his shirt. “You’re going to have to learn that the world isn’t so black and white, blondie.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know, ripping people’s hearts and throats out because they tell you no seems pretty straightforward to me.”
Roman turns finally, squaring off with me. “You trying to tell me you wouldn’t go to whatever lengths necessary to protect what you love?”
That word sends a shiver down my spine, but it’s the look in his eyes that makes me feel numb. “Pretty sure I don’t have to be a monster to do it.”
He huffs just one laugh, and a smile that looks a little like a sneer pulls on one side of his mouth. “Sweetie, monsters are real. And they look like every person you’ve ever known.”
And with not another word, he turns and stalks back to the body on the ground. He grabs the man, hoists him over his shoulder, and walks away to the other entry of the alley.
My stomach feels sour. I kind of want to throw up. I want to scream and maybe cry and beat that evil asshole until he begs for forgiveness for being so savage.
But his words resonate all too clearly in my brain.
Monsters are real. And they look like every person you’ve ever known.
I’ve met plenty of monsters in my life. I’ve been their victims all too often.
A school administrator sexually assaulted me once. A Sunday school teacher once told me that I wouldn’t have ended up in my situation if I weren’t born rotten. A police officer once said that maybe my mouth earned me the black eye an older student had given me.
And I know Roman’s right.
We all have a monster inside of us.
If everyone else out there is a monster too, I need to be able to defend myself against them. Especially monsters like Roman De Luca.
“I want to learn to fight,” I say twenty minutes later when I set the pizza box down on Mason’s desk. “Like, really, really learn how to fight. Want to take lessons with me?”
Mason looks up at me with a little surprise. He reads my face for a moment and sees how dead serious I am.
“Yeah, I do,” he says as a slow smile starts pulling on his face. “I’ll make a call.”
Chapter Eleven
Mason hires a vampire named Francisco.He’s an old vampire who has fought in some bloody wars. His body is lined with the scars to prove it.
Every other night, he comes to the penthouse at ten. Together, Mason and I learn fighting techniques. We learn how to defend ourselves. We throw knives and stakes and make plans to go to a shooting range next week.
I feel a little bad for Francisco. He’s essentially having to teach two different kinds of lessons. Teaching a human to fight and teaching a vampire to fight are two very different things.