CHAPTER 1
The ends of the black trench coat brushedhis ankles when Aiden shrugged into it. He felt like a walkingvampire cliché every time he put the thing on, but it had a lot ofplaces to stash his weapons. It also covered the blood seeping fromthe gashes on his back and staining his shirt.
The lacerations would heal soon enough. Whenhe pulled the shirt off later, he knew from past experiences someof the material would stick to his wounds. It would take time, andmore pain, for the material to work its way out of his flesh, butthat fresh pain would help to once again re-center him, for a timeat least.
“I can do more for you tonight,” Carhapurred and fondled his ear.
Aiden recoiled from her touch. She repulsedhim almost as much as he repulsed himself these days. “No.”
He didn’t know why she’d bothered to offer.Every time he came to her, she did the same, and every time heturned her down. He’d already acquired what he wanted from hertonight. Dipping into his pocket, he pulled out a roll of hundredsand threw them on the table. Sex with her would be free, butnoone would inflict the amount of torture on him Carha did,and for that, she charged a lot.
The money was worth the release she gavehim. Or at least it used to be worth it. That release had oncelasted a month, then a couple of weeks. Then a week. Now, an hourhadn’t passed, and he could already feel the tension creeping backinto him. He’d have to find a different way to get some releasesoon, but it wouldnotbe with her. Not even he had sunkthat low yet.
No. Never so low as to be with Carha.He knew if he did, he wouldn’t be himself anymore. He would be afar more twisted version of himself, one he could never come backfrom.
He’d love nothing more than to walk out ofhere and never see Carha again, but every time he tried to keepaway, he found himself irresistibly drawn back to this place, andCarha. He’d started losing the battle to stay away at anaccelerated rate.
“You don’t have to pay.” She rubbed his earagain.
“I said get off!” he snarled and bared hisfangs at her.
She smiled back at him, unfazed by his fangsas she leaned close to offer him a view of her cleavage. Despitehis revulsion of her, he found himself growing aroused before hetore his eyes away. He didn’t desire her, but he craved sex as muchas pain, and he hadn’t fucked anyone today. Unlike some of herother clients, he received no sexual release while in this room.This place was strictly about the pain for him.
“I already got off,” Carha replied and slidher hands between the legs of what he knew were crotch-less blackpants. She’d flashed him more than a few times while she’d beencutting him. Pulling her hand away from herself, she flicked herwhip against the ground. Drops of his blood splattered across thefloor when they flew off the tip of the whip. “Now I’m offering toget you off too.”
Within her green cat-like eyes, he could seethe sick twistedness of her soul. She was not a killer ofinnocents, he would smell it on her if she were, but she couldn’thide the evil nature within her. If she started killing innocentsand turned Savage, he wouldn’t be surprised. It shocked him moreshe hadn’t already done exactly that.
Carha’s black hair hung in a thick braidover her shoulder. She was one of the most stunning women he’d everseen with her Jessica Rabbit body and refined features, yet hisarousal faded while he gazed at her.
Perhaps she had such an adverse effect onhim because, in her eyes, he saw where he was heading. Carha wasbeautiful, yet twisted. And he came to her once a week to ease hisneeds. No, now he sought her out more than once a week.
After only making it six days last week,he’d been determined to make it seven days before turning to Carha;he hadn’t held out past day five. With the way he’d been descendingthis past year, and his increased spiral into his vilerinclinations since Christmas, he would find himself coming hereevery day within three months.
But maybe, even if he did have to come hereevery day, have sex once and sometimes twice a day, as well as feedmore than an average vampire, and if he continued to kill Savages,he could keep himself in control. Maybe he wouldn’t spiral into thething he hated the most: the killer vamps who stalked the innocentsof this world.
He told himself this and tried to hope itwould be true, but he knew eventually he would need more. Healwaysneeded more. This insatiable, empty pit inside himcouldn’t be filled no matter how hard he tried.
He should go to Ronan and ask Ronan to killhim now, before he lost complete control and turned into abloodthirsty monster.
His fingers tore into the flesh of his palmsas he turned away from Carha. No, no matter how empty he felt, hewould hold out. He may be cracking, but he wouldnotbreak.Not yet anyway. He still had time to find a way to get a handle onthis before it became too late for him.
Inhaling a deep breath, his gaze fell on themetal poles sticking up from the concrete ground in the center ofthe room. A dim red bulb, hanging directly over the poles and theheavy chains attached to them, was the only illumination in thechamber. The thick cuffs dangling from the ends of the chains hadnever bound his wrists. If they did, he would be able to break freefrom them, but he would never allow Carha to chain him.
Between those poles, puddles of his bloodglistened in the light as it had countless times over the past yearand a half he’d been coming to Carha. Near one of the puddles was adrain. The body fluids spilled here were hosed into the drainbefore the next client entered.
The room sickened him. Two years ago, henever could have pictured himself walking into such a place. Then,he’d stopped aging and everything changed. Now, he couldn’t picturehow he would survive without the relief Carha’s whip gave him.
He wasn’t Carha’s only client, but she’donce revealed to him that he was the only one she flayed open untileven she flinched. He hadn’t believed Carha could flinch for anyother living creature, but he’d seen her do it for him. It didn’tstop her from pulling her hand back and slicing him open as it hadthe other women he’d gone to before her.
Carha expertly sliced him until his ribsshowed through and the blood loss made him unsteady. Earlier, he’donly remained upright by holding the chains while she deliveredblow after flesh-rending blow. Only when his legs were about tobuckle, and he was dizzy from blood loss, did he ask her to stop.That had been less than half an hour ago, but he already feltstronger. It would be a couple of hours before the world stoppedspinning whenever he turned his head too fast.
“I’ve never seen anyone who can withstand mywhip like you,” she murmured.
Carha had no idea he was a purebred vampire,and she never would. He wouldn’t put it past her to try to use theknowledge to her advantage. The underground ring of vampires Drakehad run to capture purebreds—like his sister, Vicky—and feed onthem, was mostly eradicated. There were a few stragglers who hadhelped Drake, but they’d scattered when Drake died. However, therewere those out there who would use a pureblooded vampire to theiradvantage, if they could find a way to do so, and Carha was one ofthem.
“Soon,” she purred when he turned away fromhis blood and the posts. “You’ll be begging to have me.”
“That will be the last time I come here,” heassured her. Or it would mean he’d lost control and someone likeCarha was who he would prefer having sex with. The possibility madehim shudder.
