by Kaia Bennett
DOING IT TO DEATH
SHIVERS AND SINS VOLUME 2
KAIA BENNETT
Illustrated by
EDEN CONNOR
Edited by
EDEN CONNOR
CONTENTS
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Coming Soon
Other Books By Kaia Bennett
About the Author
Copyright © Kaia Bennett 2017
All rights reserved.
This book is protected under the copyright laws. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork herein is prohibited.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Disclaimer: The persons, places, things, and otherwise animate or inanimate objects mentioned in this novel are figments of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to anything or anyone is unintentional.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The light at the bottom of this rabbit hole is tinted obsidian, and I put the characters in this story through the ringer. Not for the faint-hearted, this read explores the dark side of obsession, in all its forms. Adults only from this point. Strap in and buckle up. Keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times. Because the teeth lurking ahead are razor sharp and the blood they seek might be yours. Please, do not attempt to exert your human morals on the fictional beasts you will meet. They'll just laugh while they rip you to shreds.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to Eden Connor for editing this crazy journey. It was a long road from conception to completion, but you helped make this book shine.
Thank you to Kirsti for proofreading and for all your faith and friendship over the years. You showed me change isn’t something to fear, but something to embrace as a writer.
Thank you to my readers for your enthusiasm over this series, for your kind messages, for sending music and images that inspired you. Thank you for embracing Evie and Jesse’s tale.
Thank you to my family and friends for your unconditional love and support. It’s been a crazy year and you helped me greet spring with a smile on my face and a completed book I love.
1
I dragged my feet down the stairs leading to the basement. Despite the freezing lake water saturating my clothes, I felt nothing. Moments before I’d felt everything—through Evie, a whole world of pain. I’d begged for mercy with her lips, drowned with her lungs. I’d held us both down with my own hands and killed her, along with a piece of me.
I knew my knees bent. I heard the thud of my boots on the steps. Under the numbness of my fingertips, the fortified walls bracketing the stairwell barely contrasted the buttons of the keypad as I tapped in the code. An echo of Evie’s voice howled in my chest like the wind I’d just escaped outside the house. The ghost of her fingernails still dug into my arms. But I felt nothing. Just an empty space I hadn’t expected.
I’ll be waiting for you in hell, Jesse.
She’d promised I’d never be free of her. I wanted to laugh at her accuracy.
I’m already in hell. You’re dead, but you’re still in me.
A dose of venom released by my fangs in a moment of delirium might’ve let her deliver on her vow, but the second she stopped struggling, I felt the fight go out of me, too. I’d been stupid.
She drowned. I walked away.
I think I drowned us both.
“What’s the verdict, then?” Cai’s question shook me from my reverie. I tossed a look over my shoulder to where my father’s errand boy lingered in the doorway I’d failed to close. I returned my attention to Vaughn’s brutalized body without an answer.
One brother gone, dead at my hands before he could succumb to disease.
Then the witch, who’d gotten so far under my skin I could still feel her last breath caged in my lungs.
Finally, in this torture chamber, glowing white and red, lay my last brother. A decision waiting to be made. I wanted nothing more than to shut off my brain, but staring at Vaughn stirred something restless within me. I latched on to that crawling sensation, relieved to feel anything at all as I stared at Vaughn’s lifeless form.
Evie had carved Vaughn’s throat up like a turkey. She hadn’t spared an ounce of her hatred on his chest, either. If she were still alive, I’d have to give her props for getting over on a sadist with a knife. Mid-fuck too, judging from Vaughn’s naked state and his jeans tossed a few feet away from the bloody mess she’d made of him.
A vague smile twisted my lips. If Cai hadn’t been standing behind me, if the prick hadn’t forced me to kill my toy, I’d have dragged her down to this room. I’d have stood behind her, laughing.
And, if she’d been alive, I’d have told her she’d been close to killing my brother, but not close enough.
She’d stopped short of severing his spine and tearing his brain stem from his body forever. He’d live. If I didn’t kill him myself. I’d have told Evie as much. I’d have fucked her raw and made her tell me everything my brother had done, and how she’d overpowered him. I was curious about how she’d managed to get inside his head when he’d been so singularly focused on fucking her to death.
Then, I’d have told her, while making her come on my cock, how she’d failed. I would’ve let her live. I would’ve made Vaughn wish he was dead when I finally decided to revive him.
Between the stab wounds and his open throat, he’d lost too much blood to heal more than a cut or two on his chest, even hours later. At this rate, he’d be limping towards a full recovery in a month. A lifetime of healing for even a turned vampire like Vaughn. He’d be too helpless to hunt and starving the entire time. But, he could live—if I decided I wanted him to.
Unlike her. Unlike the girl floating in the lake with my useless venom in her veins. I’d wanted her alive a little longer. I wanted my toy.
Just a toy, huh? Just a witch?
I’m full of shit….
She hadn’t been a toy. She’d been my pet. I could admit that much. I could admit I’d wanted to play with her just a little longer before I killed her.
Right. Because we always cry over pets and try to turn them.
Evie’d stared up at me beneath the surface of the water just moments ago, daring me to leave her there, when all I’d wanted to do was drag her out. Pull her close. Make her cough up the water flooding her lungs. Our lungs. Using prey for companionship wasn’t how I’d treated the fe
w pets I’d had before I grew bored. At the end, I’d treated Evie more like how I treated my brothers. Someone I cared enough about to joyride with.
“Might as well put him out of his misery.” Cai glided up beside me and took a deep whiff of the room. His flared nostrils suggested he smelled what I did. Witch. Vaughn. Come. The other vampire slid his hands into his pants pockets and shrugged. “There’s worse ways to die. Better one last fuck and feed than V-Sep. Nasty business, from what I’m told.”
I could’ve sworn I heard a hint of laughter in his voice. I hadn’t mentioned Liam, but he must’ve known. I’d had to call in clean-up for my little brother’s body. Cai had been keeping track of my footprints across the country for the last fifty years or so. A long leash, plenty of distance, but still a leash nonetheless.
“I’ve never seen how V-Sep works up close.” His words sliced me with a surgical flourish Vaughn would’ve appreciated. “I hear your insides become your outsides. Is that true?”
My lips curled, making room for fangs that itched to extend. My chest rose and fell as I took a deep, calming breath. Liam’s body, oozing black blood, and his last screams filled my mind.
Please! I’m so hungry! I’m starving, Jesse! I’m starving!
I shifted, and drove my fist so deep into Cai’s gut, he spat blood onto my shirt. He lifted his arm to block my punch to his face and struck me square in the nose with his palm. I felt the gush of blood down my lip, but could barely taste the substance or register the broken cartilage. Only Cai’s laughter penetrated the haze in my mind, the ringing in my ears that faded into the rush of water.
“Touchy. But that’s my bad. I forgot all about Liam’s untimely end.”
“You didn’t forget a fucking thing.”
He didn’t bother to defend himself. Instead, Cai rubbed a hand over his belly and licked his red lips clean. “Hmm. You’re right. I don’t forget much. All your favorites are dropping like flies. If you’re feeling sentimental, I suppose we could keep Vaughn around—”
“We aren’t doing anything.” I swiped my hand across my mouth and turned away from him. What should’ve been a persistent throb as my nose healed faded to a muted sting. “You’re squatting in my house, but you’re not welcome here. Not in my home and not in my business.”
“Your father begs to differ, kid. I’m hungry and it’s been a long journey.” I turned in time to see the back of Cai’s white shirt disappearing up the steps. “Don’t suppose you’ll be joining me for dinner?”
“What do you think, motherfucker?” I spun and flung out my arms. I glowered at his eyes, two shining points refracting in the darkness of the stairwell. “Do I look like I’m in the mood for company? Especially yours?”
“That’s right, you’re probably full of witch blood.” He grinned, playing obtuse. I wondered how much trouble I’d get into if I killed him next. Dad had been pissed about the witch, but I took care of that. Maybe I could risk his displeasure again? “Let’s do breakfast tomorrow before I leave, Jesse. We’ll figure out when your free run is coming to an end and when you have to meet with your father about an exciting new venture of his. It involves one of your favorite things, you know? Witches.”
I gritted my teeth and slammed the door on his smug grin, loud enough to shake the walls. He’d decided to stay the night. I couldn’t kick him out, and despite the twist of foreboding and curiosity in my gut, I couldn’t bring myself to ask what Cai meant. Freedom would be gone soon, just like Evie. By the end of the year, I’d be my father’s heir in full. I’d have work to do.
With witches? What could he possibly want with me when it comes to witches? He just had me kill one to avoid getting close.
Just thinking about Evie made me want to go outside and find her. Even if I was desperate and dumb enough to do so, Cai would be here until the morning. He’d be watching me like a hawk.
I felt strangely mortal and helpless, which in my two-hundred plus years, had to be a first. I clenched and unclenched my fists and rested my forehead against the cool metal door.
Helpless. I could almost feel my father digging his fingers into my shoulders, directing me, turning me like a puppet toward his fucking visions for me and his territory. Shit I didn’t give a damn about. Everything I cared about had died at this point. Except….
“Vaughn.”
There was something I could control, something I could change—or not—as I saw fit.
Right now, I wanted nothing more than to kill him. I wanted to tear down the whole world around us and scream until my ears bled, but I stood, unmoving, except for a tremor under my skin I couldn’t shake. I wanted to blame my shivers on the cold, but I didn’t get cold enough to shiver. I’d had too much blood, too much perfect witch blood recently to even entertain a chill.
I want to go back in the lake and fish her out.
If I killed Cai, I could indulge my whim. I could figure out a place to hide her until I decided I was done with the witch. I didn’t have to let this stand.
I clenched my teeth against the urge. My muscles tensed for a fight. My heart ratcheted up a beat. Grab a knife from the wall. Open the door. Sprint up the steps. I could take Cai. I could rip his fucking spine out, and then, rush out into the cold I couldn’t feel. I could sink under the water. I could lap the lake until I found her.
It’s not too late. I could heal her with my blood if not with my venom. It’s not too late. It’s not too late.
I rubbed my forehead against the door, back and forth. The white metal warmed against my overheated forehead and my crazy plan cooled in my mind.
Helpless. If I killed Cai, my father would know why. He’d hunt for her. He’d find her. If I let Cai live, Evie would die. By the time Cai left, she’d be too far gone to revive with my blood. Healing her would be a long shot even now.
I scraped my teeth against my bottom lip. I tasted her, and instantly found my mind transported to the lake, stuck on a loop she wouldn’t let me escape from.
In that last moment, nothing else mattered, but her scent. A rush of venom had flooded my mouth, stinging between my lips and flowing into her. I’d thought to be quick and gentle, but that last bite had been unexpected cruelty. Nothing crueler than hope when the truth had been made clear. I couldn’t keep her.
Now that I’d escaped the delirious spell she’d cast on me, I knew I couldn’t turn her. She’d never been anything but prey I’d kept past her expiration date. I chuckled at that. If I’d done what I was supposed to do when one of my kind finds a lost witch, if I’d only fucked and killed her, or turned her into some checkpoint for sale, she might still be alive. She’d probably be in some other vampire’s bed right now, wishing I’d killed her. Some ironic shit to ponder.
“I need to break something. Kill something. Tear something apart. Badly.”
I took a deep breath, deciding I’d do just that. I didn’t want to fuck up the door by punching a hole in in the metal. I still had use for this house and this room for what came next.
“You dumb fuck.” I turned my attention to Vaughn.
Vaughn couldn’t be blamed for my father’s hold over me, or for Cai waiting in the wings to watch me kill Evie.
But Vaughn could be blamed for disobeying my orders. He could be blamed for trying to kill Evie when I’d made up my mind to keep her a little while longer.
I’d make him suffer, and then, I guessed he’d have to die. Killing Vaughn would be simple. A crunch and a pop. I’d existed just fine before Liam and Vaughn, my free run would end by the new year, anyway.
Another part of me vibrated with a dull ache, a surprising clench in my chest, despite my numbness. Sadness, I guessed, the kind that stung just behind my eyes when I’d realized Liam had been infected. I wanted to hurt Vaughn, but did I really want to kill another young vampire? I’d been forced to kill so many over the years, so many diseased, weeping messes, dying in slow agony because of that human-made virus.
I recalled the first time I met the blond terror, that first stupid, b
loody grin over a kill he could take his time with. The first race through the woods to catch prey after he’d left New York City for the first time in his life. “I almost beat your old ass!” he’d roared, laughter echoing in the night along with that first girl’s screams. He hadn’t known what freedom meant till I showed him. He’d been fighting for scraps not long after his maker abandoned him.
Memories don’t often stick like this for my kind. Sometimes I think it’s a blessing alongside the curse of the bloodlust. How would we live as long as we do if we dwelled on every little thing? No. We live day to day. We fuck, we kill, we laugh. The thirst is an ever-present hand clenching our gut, twisting and whispering “feed!”. But over time, the memories and the people that do count stick with us, saturated with Technicolor in a black and white world. Even Vaughn’s pale ass. For better or worse, he wouldn’t ever fade for me. Especially if I killed him now. That pissed me off even more. Sentimentality. Weakness. Same shit, different word.
“How’d we get here, huh?”
A little over a week ago, Vaughn and I would’ve killed the witch together, taking turns cutting her up. Now, the bitch was dead and she still sat like a wedge between us.
I kicked off my boots and walked to his mostly-dead body, my wet jeans and feet squeaking against the plastic floor until I stood over Vaughn. I sat cross-legged beside him, sweeping my hair away when the length threatened to sprawl and cling to him. I begrudgingly peeled Vaughn’s head out of the sticky mass of his blood and into my lap, then tried to bite into my wrist.
The soft scrape of blunt teeth over my wrist made me pull back with a scowl.
Not even a scratch? What the fuck?
I frowned and ran my tongue over my teeth, scraping my fangs against my tongue. Sharp, but still retracted. I’d never had to think about extending them before now. I had to force the points out of my gums.
Something’s wrong. I haven’t been right since I came out of the water.
I bit into my wrist and dribbled the liquid past Vaughn’s unmoving lips. His blue eyes stared up at me, beyond me. Only a trained eye would be able to see the minute tick of life, an ember of consciousness glowing in the deep recesses of his pupils. Soon he’d be able to hear, then see. Long before he could move, he’d be awake.