"Lucien," Adrian warned.
"What? I'm just being honest. She can smell it on me anyway, so what's the point in pretending?"
Lucien turned his attention back to Lilian, his smirk widening. "Fair warning, gorgeous, I'm not as good at the whole noble restraint thing like those two. So if you keep looking at me like that, I might forget we're supposed to be keeping our distance."
That was Lucien, with his brutal unfiltered honesty. No pretty words or careful wording, just the blunt truth, laid out bare for her to deal with.
Lilian didn't know whether that she was intimidated or attracted, but she was being drawn to it.
"How did the Council meeting go?" Adrian asked, clearly trying to steer things back to safer topics.
"About as badly and as well as expected. They're suspicious about why we're paying so much attention to a newborn, especially since we're claiming she's just a normal transformation."
Lucien shrugged out of his suit jacket and tossed it over a nearby weight bench, looking restless. "I told them she's just unusually strong for her age, which is technically true. But they're demanding to meet her within the week."
"A week?" Lilian repeated, feeling her anxiety spiked. "I'm not ready to meet some vampire Council."
"You'll be fine," Lucien said confidently. "We'll make sure of it. Besides, the meeting is just a formality. They want to make sure you're not going to go on a rampage and expose us all to the human world. Once they see you've got a handle of yourself, they'll back off."
"What happen if they decide I'm not?" Lilian asked in worry.
Lucien's expression hardened for a split second. "Then we all will handle it. But it's not going to come to that. You're doing great than almost any newborn we've seen, Lilian."
She hadn't expected the praise to affect her as much as it did, but she felt warmth bloom through her chest. These three men who barely knew her were risking their reputations, their positions in vampire society, and likely their lives, to shield her from the Council while she learned to survive.
Lilian was about to ask why they cared, but Dante stepped into the room, cutting her off. He was wearing training attire, black pants and a fitted shirt that showed off his lean and muscular build, similar with Adrian.
"Is the Council giving you trouble?" Dante asked Lucien.
"Nothing we can't handle," Lucien replied with a shrug. "They're just paranoid. Can't really blame them after what happened in Prague last year."
"What happened in Prague?" Lilian asked, her curiosity piqued.
"A newborn lost control and killed seventeen humans before anyone could stop it," Dante said flatly. "It almost exposed our existence to a small group of humans who had to be dealt with. It almost blew our cover entirely. The Council has been hypervigilant about newborns ever since."
"Dealt with?" Lilian pressed, not liking the sound of the phrase.
"It was only a memory alteration," Adrian jumped in, catching the look on Lilian's face and shooting Dante a warning glance. "It's not pleasant, but it's better than the alternative."
Lilian didn't want to imagine what the alternative might be. "So basically," she muttered, "if I fuck up, I could expose the entire vampire species to humanity?"
"You're not going to fuck up," Dante said firmly. "That's why we are training you. By the time you meet the Council, you'll have enough control that they'll have reason to doubt you."
He walked over to Adrian, his dark eyes assessing the pulverized concrete and the cracks in the wall before finally settling on Lilian. "How's she doing?"
"Better than expected," Adrian reported. "Her strength is roughly triple a normal newborn's, her speed is excellent, and her combat instincts are solid. She's a natural fighter."
"Good," Dante said with approving nod. "Next we'll focus on her bloodlust control. That's usually where newborns fall apart."
"Not today though," Adrian interjected, glancing at Lilian with concern. She's been at this for over an hour. She needs a break."
"I'm fine, I'm not even tired," Lilian protested, even though she could feel a dull fatigue began creeping in her mind.
"Your body might not be tired, but your mind does," Dante said calmly, pulling off his shirt in one smooth motion that left him standing there in just his training pants.
Her mouth went dry instantly at the sight of his lean muscle, pale and flawless skin that practically begged her to touch it. She quickly looked away, only to catch Lucien's knowing and wicked smirk on Lucien's face.
'Damn vampire senses,' she cursed. They could probably smell her pulse racing and her arousal spiking from across the room.
"We'll resume training this afternoon," Dante continued, apparently unbothered by his own state of undress. "Go eat and lie down. Mrs. Hemsworth mentioned she was making lunch for you."
"I'm not even hungry," Lilian argued, but her stomach chose that moment to growl loudly enough for everyone to hear.
The three princes looked at her, their expression ranging from mild amusement to full-on grinning.
Lilian felt her cheeks heat with embarrassment. "Fine. Lunch sounds good."
She turned, and headed toward the stairs, acutely aware of three pairs of eyes watching her leave. And that time Lilian realized that the hardest part of this new life wouldn't be the training or the control.
It would be living day after day with three dangerously attractive vampires who wanted her just as much as she wanted them, while pretending she wasn't one look away from losing all restraint.
It was going to be an agonizing torture.
——
When she pictured a vampire estate, she would imagined a dark and gothic dungeon spaces with heavy curtains and old stone soaked in centuries of darkness, something dramatic with the touch of some cobwebs in the corners.
But this estate had a bright and ultra modern kitchen straight out from a luxury home magazine.
White marble countertops lined along the walls, spotless and gleaming under warm pendant lights that hung from the high ceiling. The stainless steel appliances that looked expensive sat in perfect arrangement.
A large island dominated the center of the room, with bar stools tucked neatly beneath it. Along one wall, French doors opened to a garden, letting in a natural sunlight that shouldn't have been possible for a house full of vampires.