Seeing pictures of my own body had been disturbing, but this blatant reproduction of my death evoked a heap of nervous butterflies in my stomach and left an acrid taste in my mouth.
Worse yet, there was a pile of bodies farther in the shadows beyond Chad’s corpse. Three more dead. Two women and a man, all drained of their blood.
Grim’s prediction echoed in my ears. Was I doomed to evolve into a monster? How long had this master vampire been running around, killing people? Did the master start out like me and slowly morph into a lawless savage? Was I weeks away from turning into the same soulless creature? Would immortality and power corrupt me?
My brain clogged with too many questions; I needed a plunger to clear the way.
“Will they turn?” I asked. My words came out quieter than I meant them to. I wondered where the cops were. Then again, if it weren’t for my dark vision, I would have likely walked right by the alleyway without a second glance until morning shed light on the gruesome scene.
“No,” Timothy said with a sniff, peering at the bodies. “If they were going to turn, then our reapers wouldn’t have found them. Their souls required collection and sorting, which is what led us here. And it appears as though most of the blood went toward leaving you a message.” His gaze rose with a pointed focus.
“Me,” I repeated, still in a daze. Of course, I saw it. The presence of the sweet coppery scent of blood sang to me no matter where it was. But this scene stank with soiled, wasted blood. Smeared on the dirty brick alley wall, someone had used written in large, jagged letters, “You thrill me.”
Grim moved behind me. His mouth drew even with my ear, causing goosebumps to rise along the nape of my neck. “Is that the man you were questioning?”
I tried to respond, but my throat had gone dry. I swallowed. “That’s him.”
“Do you now see what chaos and destruction your kind wreaks?” The hard edge in Grim’s voice told me he was on the verge of adding to the body count.
Despite his bitter tone, and the disturbing scene, mere steps away, I wanted to lean back into his warmth. I wanted to turn and bury my face into Grim’s chest and inhale his scent until I forgot everything else. Then again, if I tried, he’d probably kill me.
“Do you smell their blood? Do you crave the violence?” His voice had gone raw with emotion. Somewhere inside, I registered how strange it was for Death himself to be outraged. He saw this kind of thing all the time. Why did he care? That would be tantamount to sending an overly empathic nurse to work in hospice. That environment would tear them to shreds from the inside out.
Was it the violence that offended him so? The vampires? Or me?
“No,” I answered honestly. “I don’t want this. I would never…” Would it be a different story if I hadn’t binged on blood earlier? Would I fawn and feast on the bodies here?
Grabbing my shoulders, Death whisked me around, flickers of gold whipping in his eyes. This was it. I was dead. Would he send me to hell? Chuck me in the room with the mysterious beastie that made me want to hide under a bed and pee myself?
My one regret was I never regained my memories of my past self. I still ached to know. I’d been carrying that ache around with me since I woke up in a freezer drawer. It wrenched and nagged at me so much, sometimes I worried it would turn me inside out. Who had I been? Did anyone care I was missing? Was I supposed to be doing something important? Curing cancer? Taking care of a baby? At dinner with my family and my husband?
“You would, and you inevitably will resort to this,” he said, with no small amount of menace. “You will continue to feed and then one day, you’ll desire to make yourself a playmate, and force one of your victims to drink your blood while they are on the brink of death. And with that act, you will continue the spread of your kind, like a disease.”
The realization that the master vampire had likely forced me to drink his blood to change me, sent a shiver of revulsion through me.
Grim’s earlier words in the penthouse had penetrated, striking fear in me, suggesting I was helpless against my nature. I’d done everything I could to fight what I was, and so far I’d managed to control the inner-animalistic hunter of my vampire side. But was I in a losing game against myself?
My defiance sparked, chasing away the ache. How dare he judge me. He didn’t know me.Ididn’t know me. I pushed him off and he let go, though he could have overpowered me.
“I’d die first,” I said, craning my neck to look up at him.
“That can be arranged.” His amber orbs slid down to my lips and his expression turned inscrutable, as if he were engaged in some internal conflict.
Anger boiled inside me. No part of me was onboard with this kind of carnage. Grim said I would eventually believe I was better than the rest of humanity. Pfft. What a load of crap. I wasn’t better than anyone else. I was worse. The thirst controlled me the way booze controlled an alcoholic. And I absolutely fucking hated it.
Grim believed I was a slave to my nature, and his poor opinion of me bothered me more than it should have. Why did it matter what Death thought of me? He planned on killing me any which way, yet part of me craved his approval. I wanted him to see me as more than some bug to be squashed. Not because I wanted to feel important in the face of death, but because I wanted him,Grim, to think well of me.
Still, Grim set me up for failure and had zero faith in me, which was infuriating and made me want to prove him wrong even more.
“Stop trying to mansplain my own nature. You think because you’ve been around since the beginning of time you know everything. You think you know me.” I poked his chest. He didn’t rip my finger off right away. I poked him again. “You may be old as hell, but that doesn’t make you an authority on who I am.”
I wasn’t interested in power. The idea of feeding my blood to a human after nearly killing them made me sick to my stomach. Right now, I only cared about hunting down whoever had done this to make them pay. Let them know I didn’t care for their creepy-ass love note left in blood while I wailed on them.
“Sire,” Timothy interrupted with a delicate cough. Grim turned and stalked off so fast, the air where he’d stood remained warm for a moment before cooling.
They stepped off to the side, lowering their voices, but my sensitive vamp hearing picked up their words anyway.
“Was bringing her here wise? This is likely a trap,” Timothy said.
