CHAPTER FIVE

L ogan crossed his arms as the little human walked toward him with her chin in the air.

Bold little mouse.

"Going somewhere?" he asked, his eyes glancing around to see the clinic was empty.

"Home. Please move," Brooklyn replied.

"Now, why would I do that?" he asked, making his body as big as it was capable of being. Which was pretty fucking big given he was six foot five and 235 pounds of pure muscle.

And the roast pork meal he had for dinner.

"Because it's the decent thing to do and I don't think it's in my employment contract to be assaulted," Brooklyn replied righteously.

Logan smirked as her heart rate increased. The thump, thump, thump as clear as day in his ears.

Scared little mouse?

He took a step forward, surprising her.

"Logan," she gasped, and damn, he liked the sound of his name on her lips. And the way her blue eyes widened and how her long dark lashes framed the whites of her eyes.

There was nothing worse than having a human in the castle. A pretty human—one sent to test him. Well, fuck you, universe.

He wasn't that easy.

The things he'd seen her race do. It wasn't just the gangs or mafias or criminals. Or the fucked-up scientists at BioZen. Logan had witnessed everyday people—women just like Brooklyn—run sex trafficking rings. Kidnap innocent children. Starve them.

People crossed the road for the wrong reasons. He'd trust a fully inked guy of any skin color wearing leathers any day over a well-dressed man or woman.

Wolves in sheep's clothing.

That's what they were.

He'd lived for over one hundred years and nothing had fucking changed.

One hundred and fifty, to be exact.

Seeing the atrocities of humanity during the world wars—I mean for the love of fucking god, they were starving and putting their own kind in gas chambers! What other living being does that?

Answer—none.

They were worse than animals as far as Logan was concerned. And that was being unkind to animals.

If he was in charge, he'd start wiping them out and let vampires populate the earth. He was pretty sure every insect, mammal, and animal on earth would sit up and clap if he did.

Humans were the greatest pest and contributed in no beneficial way that he could see. Nor was interested in hearing about.

Sniper rifle ready.

"Why are you here?" he growled, leaning down into her face. "Living here."

As blood rushed to her face and a blush appeared, Logan suppressed his curse. The desire to grip her neck and force his mouth on hers almost had him reeling away.

Almost.

"I...I work here!" Brooklyn snapped; her voice shaky.

"Then maybe don't," Logan said, straightening, because fuck, those lips of hers were full and making his mouth water.

She blinked at him.

"Don't work here?"

"Correct." He nodded. "It's dangerous for you. Big bad vampires like me might eat you up."

Her eyebrows shot to the roof of her head and he almost smiled. He enjoyed playing with this little mouse of his.

Not his .

A click had them both turning their heads as Dr. Abbot walked into the office from the adjoining clinic.

"Ah, Logan," he said. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine, Doc. I was just updating Ms..." Shit, he didn't know her surname.

His eyes dropped to hers, and fucking hell she was licking her lips. A growl escaped his throat and she jumped, dropping her mobile phone. One of his brows lifted as she bent over to pick it up and he caught a glimpse of soft creamy flesh on the back of her thighs.

"Good. You heading off, Brooklyn?" Dr. Abbot asked.

"Trying," she mumbled as she straightened.

The door opened behind them. Logan turned as Sage walked in.

"Bye. See you all tomorrow," Brooklyn said as she ducked under his arm and ran out the door.

Sage shot him a look as she walked into the medical center. "I hope you were being nice."

"Of course. I was just telling her what we do for entertainment around here." Logan smiled and walked to a counter, then leaned his hip against it.

Big bad vampires like me might eat you up.

He smirked, then remembered why he was here.

"Ari asked me to share my recovery timeframe with you, given I've been shot twice with the serum."

Sage glanced up from where she was crouched on the floor, digging inside a cupboard. "Is your head still sore?"

He shook his head. "Not now. It went away about an hour ago."

She nodded. "I'll add that to our records. Thanks."

Logan glanced around the center. Never before had vampires needed a medical facility.

Because...vampires.

They healed themselves.

They were pretty hard to kill. Slicing off their head would do it, but that wasn't as easy as it sounded. Also, you could step out into daylight if you were suicidal. But pushing a vampire out under the ball of vitamin D? Not so simple.

Just as a human would be extremely wary standing on the edge of a cliff, so are vampires near the one thing that can turn them to ash.

Couple that with their excessively strong muscles and it's almost impossible to push them into it unless you were a vampire yourself.

Then there was the heart.

Rip it out of a vampire's chest and you went nigh-nigh's forever.

So they weren't immortal.

But close to it.

Ari Moretti was the eldest living vampire, now over fifteen hundred years old. To Logan's knowledge, he'd never shared the origin story of how their race came to be. There were many myths and folklores about it, of course.

What did he believe?

He didn't care.

All Logan wanted was to rid the earth of humans and for his kind to finally be able to live out in the open. He was sick of hiding who he was.

The king had asked for a medical center to be created after the first vampires were kidnapped by BioZen—one of the evilest organizations on the planet as far as he was concerned.

They should painfully kill every scientist that worked there. Sage excluded—she had helped Callan escape and was now one of them.

"So, do you need anything else?" Logan asked.

"No," Sage said, sitting down at her desk which displayed a photo of her and Ari on their honeymoon.

His eyes slid over to Brooklyn's desk, curious if she had someone in her life. If she did, would she tell him about the scary guy at work?

And that she wanted to fuck him.

Well, she could slide her pretty little fingers inside her pussy and dream, because there was no way Brooklyn was ever getting his cock.

Even if the thing seemed interested in her.