Ten minutes later, they left Belle Morte in the back of a black van, with Seamus at the wheel. Ludovic felt restless and tense – not because he was afraid of Unger, but he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to control himself around the human. Unger had carefully planned out how to hurt Roux for financial gain, and he didn't care what effect it had on her. He wasn't one of the children who'd bullied Roux at school and crushed her self-confidence, but Ludovic couldn't shake the awful, raw look in Roux's eyes as she resigned herself to Unger getting away with this. Unger was as much a bully as those schoolchildren. Ludovic couldn't change what had happened in the past, but he absolutely could stop someone from hurting Roux now. Even if it meant he had to hurt Unger.

It didn't take them long to arrive at the man's flat. Seamus parked, turned off the engine, then walked around the van to open the doors.

"Will this take long?" he said, curiously eyeing the block of flats.

"I hope not," Ludovic said.

Seamus waited with the van, while the three vampires strode up the paved path towards the building. Ludovic could easily handle one human, but he couldn't deny that it felt good to have two friends close behind him – not because he needed their help, but because it reminded him that he was part of a family now.

Gideon pressed his thumb to the buzzer, and a moment later, a male voice said, "Yeah?"

"Kevin Unger? It's Peter Jones from Night Secrets. I'm a little early, I hope you don't mind," Gideon said, the lie falling smoothly from his mouth.

"No, no, that's cool, come on up," Unger said.

The front door buzzed and Ludovic pushed it open harder than was necessary. Memories roared through his head – the grinning face of Roger DeSanti, the vampire who'd kidnapped and forcibly turned Roux; Roux herself, lying pale and still on the floor where DeSanti had dumped her in a building site, like she was nothing.

Unger was not DeSanti – Ludovic knew that, and he could not handle this like he would have handled DeSanti if Roux hadn't killed him first. No matter how angry he was, he had to keep control.

They walked the four floors to Unger's flat, and then Ludovic knocked on the door. It seemed likely that Unger would recognise him – if he knew about Roux's newfound fame, then he'd know about her vampire partner, but that didn't matter. If Unger locked himself in his flat, Ludovic would just break the door down.

Footsteps hurried across the floor inside the flat, the sound of a man with a spring in his step, and Ludovic's lip curled. Kevin Unger was about to get a very unpleasant surprise.

The door opened, revealing a tallish man with dark hair and a neat beard, and Ludovic reined in the urge to punch him.

Unger blinked at him, seemingly confused, and then recognition clicked into place. "Oh, shit," he said and tried to slam the door.

Edmond moved quick as lightning, stopping the door with one hand. He gave Unger a lethal smile, fangs out.

Unger stumbled back, almost tripping over his own feet, as the three vampires advanced into the flat. Gideon shut the door behind them.

"I assume you know who I am," Ludovic said.

Unger's expression turned petulant. "You're Roux's boyfriend."

"Yes, I am. Can you imagine why I'm here?"

Unger's eyes darted around his own flat.

"Even if there was a way out, we can all move a lot faster than you can. Don't try to run, and don't call for help," Ludovic said, letting his own fangs slide out.

Unger swallowed loudly. "What do you want?"

"I'd like to know why you think you can get away with blackmailing Roux." Ludovic didn't bother to bring up that Unger was blackmailing her with lies, because it made no difference in the end. Blackmail was blackmail, regardless if it stemmed from truth.

"Look, I was only messing around," Unger started.

Ludovic slashed the air with his hand. "Do not lie to me," he said, his voice low and deadly.

Unger's eyes went to Ludovic's fangs, then to Edmond and Gideon who stood behind him, and swallowed again.

"Look," he said.

"No," Ludovic cut him off. "You're going to send Roux another message, apologising for your behaviour and your threats, and you're going to assure her that you'll never breathe a word about your past relationship with her, to anyone, no matter how much money they offer you."

"And if I don't?" Unger was trying for defiant, but Ludovic could hear the panicky pace of his heart.

Ludovic looked around the flat, taking in the small living room, the shelving unit built around the television, the sofa crammed in one corner, the cooling mug of coffee sitting on a small table.

"What do you know about vampires?" Ludovic asked, moving further into the flat.

Unger scowled. "Is this a trick question?"

"You understand that we're very strong, don't you? Much stronger than humans," Ludovic said. He lifted the coffee mug with exaggerated care, and set it on the shelves, and then he flipped the little table upside down. With his eyes fixed on Unger, Ludovic ripped the legs off the table, one after the other, with one hand. "Imagine those are your arms and legs," he said. "I could do it without even trying." He picked up a cushion from the sofa and ripped it down the middle, scattering stuffing across the floor. "Alternatively, I could rip your arms and legs clean off."

Ludovic approached the shelves again, slowly and leisurely. Unger's heart pounded in his ears. Ludovic punched the unit, smashing the wooden shelves, and books and ornaments tumbled to the floor. The mug smashed, and coffee spilled around Ludovic's feet.

"I could cave in your ribcage with one punch," Ludovic said. He put his fist through the television. "I could cave in your skull just as easily."

"You can't kill me. Vampires aren't above the law," said Unger, but his voice trembled.

"We don't have to kill you, to make your life a living hell," said Edmond helpfully.

"Killing you would be easy, but I'm not going to do that. But if you ever threaten Roux again, if you even speak her name, then I will hurt you in ways that you will feel for the rest of your miserable life. However much you were hoping to extort, it will not be worth what I'll do to you. Do you understand?" Ludovic said.

"You can't do this," Unger stuttered.

The smile that Edmond gave him was lazy and utterly terrifying. "Yes, we can. You need to understand that if you try to hurt Roux, then you're hurting all of us, and we don't like that." He took a step forward, the threat of him seeming to fill the small space, and Unger cowered. "I don't make idle threats," Edmond informed him. "But Roux is important to me too, and if you ever try anything like this again, I will crush your balls like grapes. Understand?"

"If he doesn't, I will," Gideon added.

Unger backed away from them until he hit the wall. Ludovic followed him, crowding the man's space. Unger couldn't meet Ludovic's eyes, his fear so strong that Ludovic could almost smell it.

"Whatever Edmond and Gideon will do to you is nothing compared to what I'll do. You will apologise to Roux, and you will stay out of her life from now on, or I will make you regret it in ways you can't imagine," Ludovic said.

He suddenly punched the wall beside Unger's head, his fist putting a hole in the plaster. Unger yelped and wet himself.

"Okay, I get it, I won't say anything," he sobbed, sliding down the wall to sit in a puddle of his own piss.

"I'm glad we could come to this understanding," Ludovic said. "If you ever tell anyone we were here . . ." He left the threat hanging.

Unger frantically nodded.

"Good." Ludovic straightened up. "Enjoy the rest of your day. We'll see ourselves out."

By the time they got back to the mansion, Roux had already received a grovelling apology from Unger, lamenting the error of his ways and assuring her that he would never contact her again, nor speak of their relationship to anyone.

"This is weird," Roux said, eyeing her phone suspiciously.

"Is it?" Ludovic said.

Roux narrowed her eyes. "Did you do something?"

"Me?"

"Yes, you."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I don't believe you," Roux said, but she smiled as she said it.

She climbed onto the bed where Ludovic was sitting, and pushed him down so she could curl her lithe body against his.

"You didn't hurt him, did you?" she said.

"No," Ludovic said.

Roux rested her head on his chest, and Ludovic put his arm around her, holding her.

"You didn't have to do anything, you know," she said.

Ludovic kissed the top of her head, where her hair was spiked into little tufts. "There is nothing in this world I wouldn't do for you."

Maybe Unger wouldn't be the only one to try something like this. Roux had been frank with Ludovic about the fact that she'd slept with a lot of men once she blossomed into a beauty, and it wasn't unreasonable to assume that some of them might now see her a shortcut to five minutes of fame and a hefty reward.

But if any of them tried, Ludovic would deal with them the same way.

He'd failed Roux once before, when DeSanti had kidnapped her.

He would not ever fail her again. 

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