Bitten Beauty (Book 3 Of the Deadly Beauties Live On)

by C. M. Owens

  He walks right through it like it’s not there, and he throws a hand out, using magic like he has all the control in the world. He peels back earth and metal to expose something beneath. I slam my fist into the barrier over and over, trying to break in, but it’s stronger than the one that surrounded the house.

  Zee disappears into the hole, and I punch harder, trying to get to him before Slade does. Panic fuels me, and the barrier finally gives way. I stumble and drop into the opening without any grace or finesse, landing hard on my side.

  I look up just as Zee cradles a lifeless, bloody Leah in his arms and roars louder as rain pummels its way into the opening. Blood is spilling from her neck, and her eyes are closed. But I can hear her slow, shallow heartbeat still working.

  “We can save her, Zee,” I say cautiously, but those black eyes meet mine, and he growls at me.

  Zee is gone right now, and the primal thing in his place is ready for a fight if I get too close. I could knock him on his ass… Possibly. I’m not sure at the moment. Or I could let him take her, even though I know what he’ll be compelled to do.

  “Go,” I whisper, deciding I don’t want to lose it and leave the others with two psychos off a leash while Leah bleeds to death. “Go,” I repeat.

  He growls at me again before disappearing from sight, and I blow out a breath just as Gage drops into the hole, landing on his feet as his eyes run over all the stains of blood left in the underground bunker.

  “Fuck! You know what he’s going to do!” he yells at me, pointing an accusatory finger like I don’t already know what I just sentenced Zee to endure.

  “It was that or me risk losing it by tapping into power to fight him that I can’t control. Do you think you could take him right now?” I snap, glaring at him.

  His throat bobs, and he runs a frustrated hand through his hair. “Damn it!” He turns back toward me, and he narrows his eyes. “Slade dies for this. Zee will never forgive himself, and Leah will fucking hate him. Do you understand? I don’t give a damn how many times he’s saved you; he wants the rest of us fucking dead or ruined. He’s beyond a menace, Ella.”

  My jaw tenses as I push away all the stupid sensations my body once felt at the mention of his name. Zee is my best friend, so Gage doesn’t have to tell me what he was just sentenced to do… What I had to choose to let him do just to keep myself from becoming the threat.

  “I’ll kill him myself,” I whisper, already hating the taste of dread.

  Chapter 23

  LEAH

  Something hot runs through my body, stirring and igniting flames all throughout me. My body feels like I’m stuck inside an inferno, and I don’t know if I hate it or relish the fact I can feel something other than unbearable pain.

  The flames lick over my skin, under my skin, inside me… It’s a taste of painful, with a side of euphoria as something warm spills into my mouth. I drink whatever it is, loving the sweet taste of it and how it toys with my tongue. Dark cherry chocolate…

  A moan from above me is quickly replaced with a growl, and I weakly lift a hand to touch the feather-soft strands of hair I’d know anywhere. More warmth falls into my mouth, and I drink again, feeling something stirring inside me that can’t be explained or understood.

  It’s like velvet and sandpaper is rubbing at my insides now. All at once. It’s irritating and pleasurable at the same time. The sound of clothing ripping has my attention, but only until more warmth finds my mouth again.

  I continue to drink, feeling myself grow stronger with each taste of heaven. My hand slowly slides up my bare chest to reach my throat, and I sigh in relief when I feel the wound on my neck is gone.

  My eyes flutter open, and I barely stop myself from screaming when I see two black pits staring back at me. I swallow down the surprise when I realize who they belong to.

  Zee’s mouth is stained red, and he runs his tongue along the seam of his lips while looking down at me. My fingers run over his lips, and I notice I don’t feel any pain. At all. Nothing anymore.

  My eyes float down to my wrist, and it’s fully healed, along with my ribs. Not even any bruises remain.

  Zee leans down to my ear, and I run my hands up his arms, loving the fact I’m touching him right now. I don’t know if I’m hallucinating or dreaming, but I don’t want to leave this. This is definitely my happy place.

  “Mine,” he growls, and I go still as his lips run up my neck.

  The mirror on the wall across from us shows me something I’m not prepared for as I stare over his shoulder at a girl I barely recognize… A girl with glowing blue eyes and red stained lips.

  This is real. Not a dream.

  And that incredible tasting drink… It’s blood.

  Oh no…

  “Mine,” he whispers again, kissing his way down my neck, as his hands slowly spread my legs for him.

  My life just got a lot more complicated.

  I twist my wrist around, feeling how much it has healed, and I take in the fact he looks like he’s lost it. His eyes are solid black, his voice is different, and he’s clinging to me like I’m the only thing that matters right now.

  His fangs sink into a part of my neck, and my eyes close as sensations begin to clash like never before, sparking in ways that has me arching into him.

  “You changed me,” I groan, trying and failing to be mad, considering he may have saved my life by changing me. It’s the only explanation as to why all the parts of my body are suddenly very operational again, when I was a broken heap on the concrete floor and dying not too long ago.

  “I warned you I would ruin you,” he says against my ear, softly using one hand to grip my neck with a possessive touch. “You should have listened when you had the chance.”

  His lips move down to my neck again, and he turns my head, giving himself a better angle.

  “Mine,” he repeats, sliding his bare body over mine as his tongue flicks against his bite.

  My hands slide up his back, feeling the smooth skin at my fingertips, and I dig in when he bites again. His hips thrust, and he enters me with one powerful motion. My breath catches in my throat as my legs wrap around his waist, and he moves over me, taking me… marking me… making me truly his.

  His unhurried motions make it more of a slow claiming instead of a furious panic. He knows I’m his now. Irrevocably.

  My head tilts back as his mouth withdraws and his lips come down on mine as one of his hands slides down my leg, finding the bend of my knee and holding onto me.

  “Mine,” he whispers softly as he pulls back and thrusts in harder, deeper. The black in his eyes slowly starts to recede, and I run my hands up his shoulders to his face before gripping his hair.

  “I’m yours,” I concede, ignoring the knot in my stomach for what that might mean.

  Chapter 24

  ZEE

  I’m almost shaking. It’s been so long. Too long.

  I’ve suffered without the bite. I’ve starved for blood. I feel like I’m slowly being eaten from the inside out. A man walks by me, and I cringe just thinking about what he’ll have to sacrifice to keep me from killing someone else. I’ve stalked him.

  He’s alone. No family. No appreciation for life. Five failed suicide attempts.

  I’m desperate.

  He rounds the alley corner, and so do I, but there’s suddenly a body in my way, and a hand on my chest.

  “You really don’t want to do this,” I growl, but the guy’s face is cloaked in shadows, so I can’t see who he is. He’s not my prey though.

  “No,” he drawls, shoving me back. “You really don’t want to do this.”

  Just as I start to throw my fist, he slams me against the wall with unnatural strength and locks his arm against my throat.

  “Your eyes are showing. You’re walking around town with a beacon of proof we exist. You look hungry, and I can tell you still crave the bite. I’m guessing you have a dead sire and you’ve not been trained. You can’t just fucking walk around and risk exposure th
ough.”

  “What are you going to do about it?” I hiss, but my fight dies the second his eyes light up blue.

  “Help you learn to control it.” He pushes off from me, and he pulls me away from the wall. “And give you a home.”

  He motions to someone over my shoulder, and I hear the roar of an engine.

  “Why?”

  He looks at me like he’s confused. “Because you don’t want to hurt anyone even though you crave the bite. I recognize the guilt. You’ll fit right in, and you won’t ever have to hurt anyone again.”

  It sounds too easy, not to mention too good to be true.

  “How?” I ask the stranger who seems intent on helping me for no reason whatsoever.

  “Blood banks. We have ties to them. Plenty of donors. As for the bite, it doesn’t have to result in death. Come on. We can talk, and you can drink from the packs.”

  I cock my eyebrow skeptically, and he gives me a genuine smile.

  “What’s your name?” I ask him, still wary.

  Death would be better than the alternative, so even if he wants me dead, there’s still no true risk. I follow him to the car, and he climbs in the back with me as another guy and a girl sit up front.

  “My name is Kane,” the stranger tells me.

  I jump up in the bed, feeling a foreign ache in the pit of my stomach as I blink rapidly, trying to remember what the hell just happened. Panic seizes me as my mind races to the last memory.

  I start to leap out of the bed, when a soft moan sounds from beside me and an arm slides around my waist. My eyes dart to the body next to me, and every muscle in me relaxes when I see her dark hair mixed with red splayed across a pillow.

  She’s here. In my bed. With me. And I can now taste something really damn familiar.

  How the fucking hell did this happen?

  Considering we’re both naked and the taste of her blood is in my mouth, it’s obvious we’ve had sex, and I get a little sick. How could I have fucked her and not remember it?

  She murmurs my name in her sleep, and her grip on me tightens. My fingers run through her hair as I lean back against the headboard and blow out a breath.

  The last thing I remember is the rage… The all-consuming, mind-numbing, dark rage. Then nothing.

  But Leah is in my bed, and she’s alive. Safe. Precious. Perfect. Mine.

  Mine…

  I stand up and shake my head, staggering like I’m drunk as I grab a pair of jeans to tug on. I’m in my room at Gage’s house, so obviously nothing too bad went down. It doesn’t look like I got my ass handed to me, considering I feel stronger than ever and not the least bit sore. Other than feeling inexplicably drunk, I feel great.

  Leah’s bare ass taunts me, and I bite my knuckle, debating whether or not I can just walk away from that right now.

  Priorities. Answers first. Fuck later.

  I grab my phone off the floor, wondering how it ever got there, and check my messages. Nothing. No calls, no texts… nothing.

  Pulling the door open, I jog down the stairs, and head into the living room. Everyone is congregated on the sofas or sprawled on the floors, and they all have books open, studying them as though our lives depend on it right now.

  I clear my throat, and all eyes swing to me. Karma’s eyes widen, and she leans into Dice while watching me with a little fear.

  Weird.

  Chaz, who went missing, looks pissed and guilty at the same time. Ella looks… Fuck. Ella looks like she’s about to cry.

  My phone buzzes in my hand, and the text flashes across the screen from Dice.

  DICE: #Crickets #BlackEyesAreFreaky #GetTheHolyWater

  I cock an eyebrow at him, and he shrugs nonchalantly.

  “Care to tell me why it feels like I consumed two tanks of liquor?” I ask everyone, dropping to a chair and leaning back while they continue staring at me like I’m a fucked up science experiment.

  “It’s a power high. You’re still coming down twenty-four hours later,” Chaz explains. “I shouldn’t have fucking left. I… I’m sorry, Zee. I never fucking thought anything like that would happen.”

  Ella’s lip trembles, and she looks away.

  “What exactly happened?” I ask, confused. “How’d I lose twenty-four hours?”

  Karma pretty much climbs into Dice’s lap, and he looks at me.

  “To sum it up, you went crazy. Like Drackus crazy, only you seem to be a hell of a lot stronger than him. Something that is pretty fucking scary to witness, from what I’ve heard. I wouldn’t know, because everyone fucking left me behind. Idiots. I’m awesome. I could have helped.”

  Thad glares at him, and Dice shrugs again. “What? I am. I saved your girl from the chains, didn’t I?”

  “Like a dog with a bone,” Roslyn mumbles, looking over at Dice to roll her eyes.

  “Did I hurt anyone?” I ask, keeping them on target.

  Gage pushes away from the wall he’s propped against and goes to sit down close to Kimber. “You killed a guy that works for Slade. After you made something freaky happen to him.”

  My jaw grinds, and I shift in my seat.

  “I don’t really give a damn about that. As long as I didn’t hurt any of you, I’m good with that. What are you looking at?”

  Ella flips a page, refusing to make eye contact with me.

  “Well,” Dice drawls, “We—” He motions between him, Karma and Chaz—“are trying to figure out what makes a Gemini die without risking our own damn lives. He has to have a weakness. It’s pretty fucking disturbing to know there’s another one out there just like him that we can’t seem to find. What happens when there are two Slades to fight?”

  Karma shudders, and Thad runs a hand through his hair before he groans.

  “The rest of them are trying to figure out what you’re new little sired girl will be like with the combined powers of her anointed blood and your night stalker blood. So far she’s already different. But we’ve only seen her for a few minutes at a time since you rescued her, since she’s been trying to keep you away from us until you were you again.”

  That entire damn explanation just confuses the fuck out of me.

  “What?” I ask, still trying to get the drunken state of my mind to work like a sober person’s.

  “She’s the only person you weren’t growling at when we got back. She only came down when you’d pass out, which is common after siring someone,” Dice goes on, and my blood chills as my entire body stiffens. I replay his words over and over, trying to make them mean something—anything—else.

  “You might have killed one of us for getting too close while you were all black-eyed and crazy boy,” he continues. “I didn’t get to see it when they were solid black. Per the usual, I missed the good shit. But just seeing the little bit of black was pretty fucking crazy, man. What’d you eat?”

  “You’re such a damn dick,” Gage snaps, glaring over at Dice who looks utterly confused.

  “Why? He asked. I told. The ‘what’d you eat’ part was obviously a joke, but the rest was legit!”

  Gage rolls his eyes, but I’m too busy processing. My mouth feels like cotton and my head feels even dizzier than when I first stumbled out of bed.

  I’m going to be sick.

  “She’s not acting like a normal new night stalker,” Chaz says, but the words blend with the white noise going on in my ears. “She’s not starry-eyed and mindless… Two times she… I heard her… She’s acting the same… That’s why we’re…” I only get a few words in between the loud noise that continues to disrupt my head, and then it turns to an even louder ringing as my world crashes down on me.

  I did the one thing I always promised I never would.

  I became the monster I swore I’d never be.

  I stole a life.

  I’ve destroyed her.

  Chapter 25

  LEAH

  The door kicks open, and I scramble to my feet. Victor’s eyes meet mine, and his gaze narrows. What the hell is he doing in my room?


  “What do you want?” I ask, climbing out of my bed.

  “You keep getting kicked around at school. I’m sick of seeing the bruises. I’m sick of seeing you play dead. You’re a fighter, even if you’re too scared to admit it.”

  What is his defect?

  “I’m fine, Victor. I don’t like fighting. Blood is gross and inflicting pain doesn’t get my jollies up the way it does yours.”

  “You can fight, Leah. You’re just too scared to learn how. Swallow the fear.”

  He grabs me by the arm, and struggling becomes pointless. He’s nothing but a wall of muscle as he drags me outside, past the few strays that have crashed here the past couple of days.

  “Stop! Victor, please, stop!”

  He continues dragging me, and I silently curse myself for not riding with Aunt Masie into town. My bare feet try to dig into the ground, but he jerks me behind him like I weigh nothing and pose no problem.

  When we get to the barn, he shoves me inside, and I stumble over myself as my heart dives to my feet. On the ground, all three Leonard boys are on their hands and knees, staring at the barn floor full of hay and dirt. A couple of Victor’s friends are smiling as they hold shotguns like they’re toys. One of them even laughs as he pokes Tommy in the back of the head with the barrel.

  “Tell me they don’t deserve to be fought, Leah. Tell me that fury doesn’t rage inside you when you see their faces. Tell me you don’t feel anything when you think of all they’ve done to you.”

  I swallow down the bile in my throat when I see Tommy shed a tear, trembling all over and wearing nothing but his underwear. They’re all just in their underwear. Degraded, humiliated, and scared out of their minds.

  This isn’t karma, though. This is cruelty.

  “The only thing I feel is disgusted,” I snarl, turning to face Victor. “Disgusted with you. You’re a bigger bully than them, you asshole.”

  I never see it coming, but the heavy hand connects with my cheek so hard that I taste blood and see dim spots in my vision before crashing to the ground. Tommy looks over at me, terror still in his eyes, and for the first time, I actually feel sorry for him.