Chapter 45

Simone's POV

“How’s your bloodlust?” Lazarus asks.

I shrug. I haven’t felt anything close to it since those first two nights. Even my emotions seem to be doing okay. If I didn't know better, I'd say I'd been a vampire all my life. “Under control.”

“You are a very different kind of neophyte,” he says. “My youngest daughter, she’s ten now, still battles with it.”

Before I can answer him, Lazarus disappears, but within seconds he's back with the potion Vesper brewed for me. “I don’t know if this will work against Asmodeus, but you’d better drink a double dose of this.”

I stare at the potion in disgust. “Is it really necessary?”

He nods and takes a step back from me. I notice the grimace on his face and the tight muscles in his neck. “I can smell your blood, and if I can smell it-”

“Every powerful vampire can. Okay.”

I accept the cup from Lazarus and quickly empty it while I watch the group of vampires come ever closer.

My new brother takes up position next to me and narrows his e