AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Gulping down his blood, the savage creature I’d become gripped his furry shoulders, holding his massive body in place even though he made no move to stop me. No, he’d actually surrendered the moment I landed on top of him, and anguish filled me at the possible reason why.
Ozias knew his blood could bring me back to sanity. The witches of the Jeweled Coven and my own experience had made that clear. And even though he’d given me a thousand signs he wanted nothing to do with me, he’d still come here as this beast.
And he’d let me bite him.
More blood poured down my throat, as delicious as an elixir from the gods themselves and more flavorful than the most exquisite meal. No matter how I wanted to stop, my body still drank it down like it was water in the desert, regardless of how I could feel his heart slowing with every second.
How I could feel him dying.
Frantically, I struggled to wrestle control of my body back from the ravenous monster I’d become. Nothing I’d done until this moment had worked, but now I had Ozias’s blood in me.
Giant blood, no matter what he looked like right now.
A snarl escaped my lips, and blood spilled around my mouth to pour down his neck and soak his fur as the vampire fought back, determined to stay in control. Still trapped in the darkness in my mind, I marshaled every scrap of strength I could and tried to fling my body backward.
My hands ripped free of his shoulders. My back slammed down onto the dirt. I’d succeeded in breaking away from him, if only barely.
Please gods, let the blood he gave me be enough to cage the vampire inside me once again.
But the monster I’d become didn’t want to go quietly. Need still pounded through me, demanding I return to the feast. Ragged shrieks tore from my throat as the dark flood of the vampire’s will pushed at my control, shoving me into a sitting position and then trying to throw me back down upon him to create more bites upon which to feed.
Desperately, I gripped the tree roots below me like they were anchors and squeezed my eyes shut, drawing up every memory, every moment of care and compassion and gods-damned humanity I still possessed. I wasn’t this monster. I wouldn’t be. And I’d never kill Ozias or any of the men who’d saved me.
My chest spasmed, my heart and lungs starting and then stopping as the vampire tried to regain full control. It didn’t want to be fucking human. It wanted to feed. One of my hands ripped free, taking a chunk of tree root with it as my arm reached for Ozias, my fingers curling like claws.
Grunting with effort, I forced my arm back and twisted, shoving to my feet and stumbling farther away across the clearing. I knew I likely looked insane. A girl staggering around a clearing, thrashing uncontrollably as she fought a battle no one else could see.
But gods, it truly was a war. At every turn, the vampire was there, looking for a weak point in my mind, my will. Endlessly, it sought some way to make me take the last of Ozias’s blood.
Winning this fight when I first woke as a vampire had required the blood of all seven of my giants. Ozias was only one man, wounded, who wasn’t making a single motion to save himself from me.
Who wasn’t making any motions at all.
Tears leaked down my cheeks. I couldn’t go closer to help him. I’d only bite him again. But the throb of his heartbeat drummed in my ears, slowing, weakening. His breaths were shallow, barely stirring the air.
He was almost dead anyway, the vampire whispered in my mind. I’d taken too much already for him to survive. So wouldn’t it be better to put him out of his misery quickly? After all, it didn’t matter whether I finished him off or left him there. The result would be the same.
Ozias would die.
A scream ripped from me, raw and agonized. The vampire surged up immediately, trying to take the opening. It was only a predator, nothing more, and to its eyes, I looked weak crying like this.
Like I was nothing.
Like I was prey.
The vampire smiled in my mind. Prey like him.
And that thought was the monster’s mistake. Cold rage surged up inside me, the sensation so intense it felt like frost in my veins. Ozias was no victim. And I was no weak and broken thing. I’d survived my stepmother and the witches’ tests and the gods-damned Wild Lands.
I wouldn’t lose to the vampire inside me now.
Staggering across the clearing, I flung myself forward step after step, even as the vampire let out another scream from my throat in protest at being forced from its meal.
But I didn’t stop. Every inch was a battleground, but one that I would fucking win. Because I was not prey. I was Princess Gwyneira of Aneira, daughter of a king.
And Ozias had given that back to me. His blood fueled my power.
My will.
