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A young woman lay on the floor of my room, wriggling her body in pain. Her eyes were bloodshot, and I could see her temples and neck veins pop. She was dying—choking on blood.I crouched in the corner, urging my eyes to look away from the gruesome scene, but I couldn’t peel them off her. She looked pathetic, and it was all my fault.I hated myself.She had been the fifth victim they forced me to feed on to the point of death. Ventura then urged my blood down the woman’s throat and broke her neck. The vampire said they had to die with my blood in their system for their bodies to transform. All five subjects returned to life, only to die—confused, in pain, and alone.“I don’t understand why it’s partly working. The subjects came back but died soon after.” Ventura shouted with a bang of his fist on the steel table.My body jerked from the sound. I didn’t know how much more I could take. Those people died because of me. They didn’t want this, and neither did I. Michel executed five innoce
They moved me to a new room, and I pulled and twisted the padded collar installed around my neck. The staff connected it to a chain attached to the wall. No matter which way I turned it, it did not come off. The same restraints on my wrists prevented me from leaving the room or escaping.They chained me like an animal, and I felt wild and dangerous. The blood I had drunk from the first five failed test subjects flowed through my veins, and there was no longer any sedative to dull my senses.Vessels underneath my skin burst, and a warmth coursed through me like fire. This sensation wasn’t normal, and I attributed it to the excess blood rushing through me. I pulled again on the chains bound to my wrists and gritted my teeth from the exertion. Tiny cracks formed where the metal hooks were bolted on the concrete wall, but I wasn’t strong enough to tear them down and free myself.I knew I didn’t have long until Ventura returned, and I didn’t plan on welcoming him back.I stopped pulling wh
Death was all around me. I was the angel who appeared without notice and reaped the lives of everyone standing between me and the forest line.Everything had been a blur. I remembered tumbling outside a set of heavy, double doors. The fresh air hit my face, and each breath I took wasn’t quenching my thirst for it. It was nice to be out—to be free.I was standing outside a compound, and a little further ahead was the black mass of a forest.Sirens were ringing in my ears, and flashes of red lights had guards running everywhere around me. It took time before some of them noticed me, and when they did, they pulled their guns out and aimed.After that, I remembered nothing until I stumbled into the dirt and grass inside the woods. The wet medical gown clung to my body and was no longer a pale blue colour. It looked black under the moon’s glow.I dug my nails into the earth and slowly crawled until my head cleared. When I found my focus again, a river of tears pooled down my face. I was so
Jace POVI silently walked alongside the Harrington and Leigh Corporation president. I did my best to match his long and determined strides, wondering what kind of meeting we were heading into.Whenever the vampire congregation met, it was always an event. It didn’t happen often, and it only did when urgent matters needed to be settled. Lately, those meetings were composed of newly turned vampires, the death they caused, and how to control the situation so it wouldn’t come out to the public.Staying in the shadows was important to vampires, so any time a vampire made waves that would disrupt our livelihood, meetings like this one occurred.Although I was well aware of the dealings in those meetings, my father rarely brought me along with him, so it surprised me when he asked me to join him. I didn’t mind, but it was not an activity I was fond of.The last meeting with the congregation I attended was when my mother was “killed” by vampire hunters. The assembly had made an investigation,
I stayed under the warm water for what seemed like hours. Every time I went under the stream, the water pooling under me was dark brown and disgusting from the dried blood I was furiously scrubbing off my skin. My hair was the worst. It was matted with tree twigs and dirt. “A good thing my hair is black.” I scoffed, running my fingers through the strands to untangle them. When I was satisfied, I got out and patted myself dry. I returned to the bedroom and found a pile of clothes on the foot of the bed. Lukas must have brought them up. After all, I had arrived with only the soiled medical gown. I shook my head, thinking I had run into the forest buck naked with only a thin fabric to cover myself. I inspected my feet before putting on a pair of warm socks. The soles were still sore, but fresh pink skin covered the cuts. Next, I lifted my arms to pull the loose shirt over my head, and I was happy my ribs didn’t hurt anymore. Good. It meant I was healing. When I was ready, I followed
I didn’t know where I was going, so I let my feet guide me until I found a path in the forest and followed it. It led me to a small lake. It seemed like the one I had seen in my dream. How was that possible? I shook my mysterious thought from my head and spotted a big rock bordering the bank and the water. I went to sit on it, then looked at the rippling lake, which was gently hitting the shore, and found the scenery peaceful. It helped clear my mind from the trauma inflicted on me while imprisoned in the Noctua compound. My body sagged, and I hid my face in my hands. What exactly happened when I escaped? Was Michel really dead? Many questions flooded my brain, drowning me in guilt and shame. I couldn’t lose control like that again. Ever. “My whole life is fucked up,” I huffed and dropped my chin over my folded arms. “I wouldn’t say that,” Lukas answered. He propped himself beside me and stared into the distance. “You have people who care what happens to you. Mortimer and Beatrice
I rolled to the ground and quickly got back on my feet. When I looked up, Lukas was standing above me. The setting sun behind him created a halo of orange, pink, and gold around his imposing black frame, making me almost squeak.After our second round of sex, we returned to the cabin, and I confessed everything to Bea and Moe, who had arrived. My compulsion ability did not surprise them, and they immediately covered me in a hug. Their action melted away the icy fear of their rejection and made me feel more at peace with whom I was becoming.I was still high on sex and adrenaline, so I asked Lukas if he wanted to brawl a little with me. I hadn’t trained in weeks, and I could feel it in my restless body that I needed a good workout—other than kicking my boots off with a hot Alpha male.“Use his height to your advantage!” Shouted Moe from the porch. “Stay low.”Moe was happy to watch and offer comments as he scrutinized our dance on the dirt path. He kept repeating that I needed to focus
Lukas POV The smell of Max’s arousal woke me. I had been lightly asleep but was now fully awake, and my dick painfully swelled inside my boxers. I didn’t want to act on her scent because I didn’t know if she was excited for me or for Jace, who was inconveniently sleeping on Max’s other side. I needed to change my mind. Anything was better than thinking of everything I wanted to do to Max. I thought back to what had happened before I went to sleep. After furiously running in wolf form, I returned to the cabin and found Jace waiting beside Max’s sleeping form on the bed. He had gotten here much faster than I wanted, and I despised every second of him brushing his light fingers against the pale white skin of her bare legs. No amount of yelling and violent disagreements could remove Jace’s bond with Max. She was as much his as she was mine. Jace and I both made our claims, and the rest was history. We would be there for our mate, but Jace and I would need to have a more profound discu