by Kaia Bennett
“Give Evie a turn, Vaughn. I wanna see how she handles a knife.”
Vaughn laughed. I looked between the two vampires in confusion.
“No.” I shook my head at Vaughn but he bounced in glee from one knee to the next, spinning the glistening knife between his fingers with dexterous ease. I knew what Jesse wanted. I knew what would happen if Vaughn gave me the knife.
“What should we have you carve, huh?” Vaughn stroked his chin with a bloody hand, feigning thought. “A pentagram?”
“’Evie wuz here’?” Liam countered with a chuckle.
While his friends laughed, Jesse titled his head, caressing a place inside me with his gaze the others couldn’t reach.
Ball’s in your court now, witch.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Death sidled up to me and ran a bony finger along my spine. I felt all three vampires tensing for the answer that would seal my fate.
If I refused, Jesse would take his privilege first. He’d fuck me bloody and give me just enough of his blood to keep me alive, to show me what I’d lost. His would be a utilitarian cruelty, each rape a climb on a brutal rung, each bite more vicious.
What’s the matter, baby? Why you crying? He’d laugh and wipe my excess blood off his face with the back of his hand. Did I hurt you? Come here, let me kiss it better.
Hours of violence would see me fall into his mind fuck. Desperate for the hint of a kind embrace I’d crawl into his arms. He’d stroke my hair and I’d apologize for being ungrateful.
He’d muffle those apologies with the mattress when he shoved me onto my belly and started again.
I saw Jesse shower and dress while I wailed in torment. I saw him look through me like I didn’t exist, abandoning me to the cruelty of his brothers.
In Liam’s mind, he pummeled my ass and fed from me, until blood flowed from wounds, from the brutalized fissure clamped around his dick.
That would be date night compared to what Vaughn desired.
Vaughn’s thoughts slid like an errant tongue into the crevices of my brain. I’d pray for death after he sliced off my breasts. I’d reach for the bony grip of the Reaper when he stuffed the fatty tissue of my chest into my cunt. I gagged at the image, and on the phantom blood he imagined pooling in my mouth when he ripped out my tongue with his teeth.
He’d committed enough atrocities to know how long I’d take to die if he flayed me. When he finished he’d leave me in a heap of body parts.
Jesse would make the call to room service.
I saw my dead body stuffed into a vat. The bowels of the motel opened up, howling with the ghosts of liquefied victims. Not even my bones would remain. I would cease to exist.
Either I grabbed the handle, or I became the next body under the blade.
They wouldn’t be gentle.
They wouldn’t be quick.
I opened my eyes and clenched my jaw. This time I shook with fury instead of fear.
Ruby Falls. Motels. The forest floor of my own fucking hometown. Every stop on this hellish ride, from the first up to right now should have been my last. I’d cheated death over and over. I’d made the choice to live despite the pieces of my soul I’d forfeit along the way.
I wouldn’t give them the luxury of killing me without a fight. They owed me a debt and I would live to see them pay.
The beast grinned, proud of my vicious resolve.
Vaughn crouched over the prone body of the sobbing girl on the bed. He stepped off the bed and sauntered across the room seductively. Desire, relief, and fear warred in the girl’s eyes as she watched him leave. Vampire blood was some kind of twisted drug.
The blood flowing from her back pooled around her, soiling the bed in so many layers of crimson they looked black. So much blood all over this room, so much pain. By the headboard, Liam shook the boy in his arms like a petulant child. The boy breathed shallow, with long intervals between each breath. Liam tossed his meal onto the floor with a harsh thud. Tapped dry of blood and screams, he landed against the end table Jesse must’ve broken with Vaughn’s face.
Vaughn flipped the knife over in his hand and offered the handle to me with a devilish grin. He’d completely healed from Jesse’s beating. Blood smeared the white jade, but I spied the shimmer and felt the warmth when I curled my fingers around the handle. The blade had heft, and I weighed the knife in my hand the way I might a gun. I’d never held either weapon, but now the weight of the world seemed cradled in my shaking fist.
I stood on trembling legs. The room, the whole world, went quiet. Vaughn circled me.
“Maybe she’ll carve her name, with a little heart over the ‘i’.” The blond vampire laughed and drew a heart in the air before licking some of the blood spatter off my cheek. I flinched, but barely heard or felt Vaughn’s invasion of my space. I was trapped in the girl’s pleading brown eyes.
Had I looked like her just days ago? Had every blink of my tear-soaked lashes been an S.O.S., a silent scream for death and an end to the misery?
I stumbled around the bed, stood behind her long enough to make my watery knees lock. With Jesse’s vision of the fate that awaited me if I refused playing in my head like a Technicolor movie, I forced a knee onto the bed and slowly climbed on top of her. Her keening wails at my slightest movement shattered my already-broken heart. I knew she hurt all over, but I settled my hips over her blood-smeared backside. I would need a sturdy seat for what came next.
Through the copious crimson leaking from her back I spotted Vaughn’s name, beautiful and grotesque, outlined in sharp swirls. He didn’t spare a single flourish or perfected line. He’d done this—and worse—many times, I knew.
She’s strong. She’ll be able to take a few more go ‘rounds before he finally kills her.
Her body wavered and blurred in my vision. I willed my tears not to fall but they didn’t listen. When the salty drops landed, she roared to life at the sting in her open cuts. They’d already begun to heal, thanks to Vaughn’s blood, but I felt the sizzle against her back. The salt sank into the raw divots and I cursed myself for my cruelty. She screamed, and yet, I stared at the knife in my hand.
No more waiting. Do it.
I tightened my grip and my resolve and then lifted her by her bright red hair. The strands were greasy and wet with sweat.
I leaned down and whispered, “I’m sorry.” I wound her hair tight around my fist so her neck arched taught as a bowstring. Then I slit her throat as deep and as fast as I could, with my eyes closed.
The knife sliced through so easy and sharp I thought I’d imagined cutting through her flesh. Until she screamed. I hadn’t thought she’d be able to scream. I held her for a moment, unsure of what to do, until her voice gargled to a halt. She went limp and I dropped her to the bed with a gentleness I couldn’t show her in life. Her face connected with the soaked sheets with a wet smack.
The girl in the corner with her knees tucked into her chest howled into her hands and then covered her ears. Even now she seemed unwilling to raise her voice. Did she think being quiet would somehow let her avoid these vampires’ attention?
I remained silent for a different reason.
I waited for Jesse’s disapproval. He’d wanted me to help torture the girl, but I’d used his own words against him. I’d showed him how I’d handle a knife.
With mercy for the innocent, if I could.
Jesse’s lips spread into a wide, bloody grin so gorgeous and feral my heart stopped.
“Come here.” Jesse crooked his finger.
I locked gazes with Jesse and held out the knife for Vaughn.
“Uh oh, someone’s gonna get it.” Liam’s sing-song voice made what I’d done worse.
I used the back of my hand to wipe away my tears and steeled my resolve. Sliding to the floor, I still wobbled and almost fell in a heap. To my left lay a dead boy who looked like he should have been in his first year of college. He’d never see the light of day again.
I burned to help the girl in the corner, but Vau
ghn shoved my victim off the bed and stalked toward his final kill.
If he didn’t kill her soon, I would. I’d take away the pain and Jesse would let me—If I gave him something he wanted more than my punishment.
Killer. Murderer. You’ve killed her. You killed her. You’re a killer!
The girl in my mind had bloody hands and stalked the cage like a madwoman.
The beast said only, it was a good kill. Clean. Swift.
The beast bent the bars and pressed her collarbones against the metal of my mental cage. She had more room than ever now. Escape seemed possible, increment by increment.
The wait is almost over. But we need more blood. We need an opening. Vaughn grabbed the untouched girl by the hair and shoved her onto the bed, spreading her legs wide and sinking his teeth deep into the artery in her thigh without delay.
Liam went for her throat.
I met Jesse on the other side of the bed, our gazes locked, his face the first thing I saw clearly after taking a life with my bare hands.
It was a mercy kill. I had to do it. I’d have killed them all myself if I could stop their pain.
The sickness twisted in my gut. The feeling that I’d taken something I had no right to take didn’t abate. I’d made another choice that ended in death for someone other than me. And now, looking into Jesse’s rapt expression, I knew I’d done this, in part to draw us closer after falling out of his good graces.
Jesse grabbed my hand, the one that had done the deed. My hand trembled in his palm. Saline trails of regret tickled my face, falling until I had to close my eyes against the soft sensation of Jesse’s mouth on my fingers.
I answered his call for more, sliding them into his mouth with a sneer. My chin trembled as I fought not to sob.
Yes. The beast whispered, tugging at the bars. They moved, and the beast leaped out. Show him your anger, your strength. He won’t respect anything less.
He won’t let his guard down for anything less.
I pulled my fingers away, gave him a wide grin to match his own, and then painted his blood-smeared face with the blood on my hands.
“This is what you wanted? Right?” I mashed his features under my roving palm, covering his face with my kill. His eyes blazed and he growled at me in warning. I’d sparked the feral beast now.
Good.
He grabbed my wrist, and quick as a shot, I turned in his grip and grasped his forearm. I hauled him to me, leaned in, and I sank my teeth deep into the ropy flesh of his wrist. This time, he wouldn’t control the feeding. By the time I finished with him, he’d be dry and content in all the ways a vampire could be. I’d be watching and waiting for my next chance to break free, but first, I had to show him my fearlessness and my desire.
I sensed the imperceptible shift in his muscles, the tension of combat receding into wary arousal. A low growl vibrated through the room, a warning that I’d crossed a threshold and he hadn’t determined if he liked the result.
I found the sound funny in a sick way, something I’d imagined a werewolf doing. Jesse had mentioned werewolves before. Did they hunt in packs, too? Did they rape and murder and drive through dust from one end of the country to the next? Did they squat in motels and leave dead bodies in their wake, like plastic cups at a frat party?
Focus! The beast shouted. She drew me out of the horrors bouncing in my bead like a beach ball and licked her teeth. Her fangs coated with blood.
Focus.
Jesse didn’t stop me, and soon, I settled into my victory. If he’d been ready to kill me, he’d have done so. If he wanted to hurt me, he’d already done so time and again.
The girl on the bed whimpered. I heard the sounds of a scuffle, a bang against the wall. A squeak. A body pinned and struggling. She’d been quiet, but she was a fighter after all. I prayed for her to be weaker than I thought or for them to get bored and kill her quick.
Jesse tore my face away from his arm by my hair. I licked my lips with lascivious relish.
“I want more.”
The man providing me with the addictive ambrosia I sought said, “Ask me nicely, like a good little witch.”
Jesse cupped the back of my head and pulled me closer, pressing his blood-drenched body to mine. I blinked away the intrusive thoughts of the girl caged in my mind, the one who called me Whore. Her accusation made me want to cower from Jesse’s touch.
“That's it, fight back,” I heard Vaughn mutter. I didn’t dare look but I didn’t need to see. I tensed at the sharp wail of pain, the satisfied grunt from Vaughn, followed closely by the rapid smack of flesh on flesh. I knew all too well what she felt now that Vaughn had gone from bloodlust to just plain old lust. I heard her choking and knew Liam had joined in.
I shuddered, but Jesse made me filter Liam and Vaughn out by biting down on my bottom lip. He pierced the skin, then licked the wound he’d made. He’d only taken a taste here and there as I healed from the accident. Already, the taste of him on my lips zinged through me. His blood no longer needed to repair my wounds, I felt the first lick of euphoria. My clit answered by throbbing to life. I wish I’d been resigned to Jesse’s touch, but that would’ve been a lie. My body already held the tremors of terror turned lust. The disgusting mixture that accompanied every touch Jesse commanded me to endure.
He thought this time I’d endure more of the same. Instead of letting him kiss me I turned my face away, evading his lips by licking the blood from his cheek. I pulled away enough for him to see me swallow the taste. His gaze bloomed black with furious lust.
Part of me wanted to vomit at the taste of human blood. Another part of me, an animalistic part, recognized and relished the sweetness. The look of surprise and desire he gave me was just a bonus. Nothing turned him on as much as believing I’d become willing to sink into depravity with him.
“We don’t ask, Jesse, remember? We take what we want.” I whispered against his lips. “So I’ll take what I want from you and I won’t ask. I won’t beg. If you wanted a pet, you picked the wrong witch, baby.”
Jesse’s face softened into something like shock when I swept my fingers into his hair, gripping the blood-slick strands tight. I twisted a knot with my fist and wrenched his head back to expose his neck.
“You get something you want, too.” I licked the soft skin of his throat. He almost seemed vulnerable with his Adam’s apple bobbing against my tongue. “You get a dirty slut with a dirty mouth. Someone to lick you clean and suck you dry. That’s one of the reasons you kept me. One of many.”
His voice cracked on a moan and I knew I had him. Despite his strength and the pain he’d caused, despite the men who followed his orders, and the victims who shivered in fear at his voice, I made him whimper with need. I pressed my lips to the artery in his neck and bit with primitive teeth. I bit and he groaned at the pain, while I lowered my free hand to wrench pleasure from his cock. He sucked in breath when I broke through with my dull canines, gnashing with the blunt edges of my front teeth.
When I finally shredded the delicate skin of his throat, enough for the flood to begin, he groaned like I’d never heard him groan before. Not once, in the week since I’d been forced to witness the flood of men and women they killed in dark corners of the world, had I heard this sound. He grabbed the back of my head and pulled me tighter, urged me take more.
The sweet high of his blood hit me at once. What he used to force on me, I took from him, stroked from him. Before that moment, he’d always been completely in control. I relished turning the tables, if only for a moment.
I walked him to the bed, never releasing my hold until I felt him butt up against the mattress. We fell onto the bed together, with me straddling his waist. And still, I sucked, still, I took.
Quicker than a human could, he sat us both up, his hand splayed across my lower back. His erection rubbed stickily against my stomach. He wanted inside, but beyond that basic desire, he wanted something else. Something he’d never be able to say, but in his vulnerable state, he couldn’t hide. He didn’t n
eed to speak, because I saw.
Images of sweat. Of his wrists pinned by my smaller hands, and the flood of wetness between my legs. I coated his cock with my juices and the human blood coating his skin. The vision had been so decadent, the slide of my cunt over his cock so right he needed to escape. When he wrapped his fingers in my hair and tugged my head away, I finally released him, gasping like I’d just broken the surface of the ocean. The world shook as my eyes adjusted to their modified strength. A clearer world greeted me.
Quicker than a human woman could, I pushed him onto his back and pumped my pussy against the underside of his cock, riding a fantasy wave and growling into the cradle of his throat.
I sat up so I could look down at Jesse’s eyes, and in them, I saw my reflection. I saw a beast straddling a monster, a beast edging out of her cage. His wound had already closed, but I had plenty of his supernatural ichor in my veins, and now, I would give him a taste of my power. I reached between our bodies, gripped his hard cock and sat down on him with a fierceness that caused me to scream with pain and pleasure. A growl that wasn’t entirely human escaped my lips, and then I began to move over him, rough, strong strokes guiding him home.
I didn’t spare his beautiful skin, not as bloodthirsty as I’d become. I scratched deep, my nails scoring his chest as I fucked him. I watched him bleed, watched him heal moments later. I swirled my handiwork over his skin, my scarlet handprints mingling with his sweat.
I spread my legs as wide as I could, then leaned back to brace my hands on his corded thigh muscles. I watched his blood-streaked cock reappear and disappear, smeared with my juices.
I swirled my hips like a cyclone over him, faster and faster, faster than my hips should’ve been able to move. He roared in anger, in ecstasy, so thoroughly had I been able to top him. So easily. He wanted to fight back, so he sat up, squeezed one of my breasts and sucked the other into the wet heat of his mouth.
I cried out as he pierced the flesh and suckled from my breast. We grasped each other in a frenzy, my arm slung over his shoulder, his arm wrapped around my back to pull me closer. Our slick bellies never parted. His nails scored my back, my ass, the fortified bed rocking to an otherworldly rhythm. Soon, my breast wasn’t enough. He wrenched my head to the side, sank his teeth into my throat, and sucked like a man dying from thirst.