AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Some mad part of me obeyed, opening my mouth for his bloodied fingers. It was sharp like iron but bizarrely sweet, and it made a shudder run through my entire body.
“More,” I whispered, and he tweaked an eyebrow, shifting slightly. The slight shift was all I needed. “More!” I wrenched my hand free, plunging the knife toward him. He didn’t even try to dodge me. He let the blade slice through his shirt down to his chest, opening up a fresh red line across his tattooed flesh.
But I was still pinned, and it was all too easy for him to take back the control of my arm.
“Oh, fuck, yes.” He moaned from between clenched teeth, and held my arm still as he licked his blood from my knife. “That’s my girl.”
I strained so hard against him that every muscle ached. “I’m...not...yours!” I bit out every word like a curse, trying to buck up my hips to throw him off. He let me go, leaping back from me with unnatural speed, but it wasn’t because I’d won my struggle.
He wanted to play with me a little longer.
He tugged off his torn shirt and tossed it to the forest floor, rolling his shoulders. His chest was a canvas of tattooed art, the detail of the black and white pieces astounding. The lines and shadows, the stunningly realistic faces, were mesmerizing — even more so with his blood smeared across them.
He opened his arms, smirking. “More, little wolf? You want more? Then come get it. Hurt me.”
I went at him with everything I had left. As if my life depended on it. As if I could actually win. But like running in a dream, my every movement was too slow. He dodged around me like my attacks were nothing more than child’s play. He leaped to the side, then behind, and laughed as he shoved my back and sent me down to my knees.
“Come on, little wolf. Bite harder.”
My mind was racing, but not with fear. This was a release of every pent-up terror inside me. Most days, I forced myself to silence my own screams, to hold back the desire to fight and the wild urges to run. But not tonight. Tonight, I set myself free. Those knotted memories holding me so tightly had been loosened.
He wanted me to bite harder? Then I’d fucking bite harder.
I swung the knife as he came near me again, and the blade sunk deep into his side. A little wince of pain flickered across his face, and I gasped, jerking back, shocked for a moment that he’d let mestabhim.
“Now, there’s a good bite. Fuck,yes.”
I’d been a fool to think I’d hurt him. He seized me, my hair knotted in his hand, and forced me to stay there on my knees as he tugged the blade from his flesh. He groaned as he looked at it, but it wasn’t with pain; it was with pleasure. He held the blade up to my lips, golden eyes bright in the dark, and hissed, “Go on. Taste your handiwork.”
I really was sick to want it. I was sick to feel the heat stir inside me at that, to look at the wound I’d left him with and feel turned-on as hell. I ran my tongue along the metal as he watched, and the muscle in his arm jumped as I licked my lips and gazed up at him.
“How does it taste?” he said.
“Like your pain,” I said. “And it’s pretty damn good.”
“Fuck, that’s my girl.”
He wrenched me aside, and I had to catch myself with my hands in the mud. His grip loosened, but only so he could press his boot down between my shoulder blades before I could stand. Harder — harder — he crushed me down against the dirt. He knelt beside me, his boot still on my back, grinning, as I glared at him with my cheek in the mud.
“You fought hard, little wolf,” he said. The cut across his face was already healing. Little more than a slim red line remained in its place now. The wound in his side would soon follow. “Now it’s my turn to make you bleed.”
11
The moment she knew the fight was over, the tension went out of her. She sighed beneath me, the rain catching on her eyelashes like glittering jewels as she peered up at me. Not in submission, no, not at all. Her dark eyes were hard with pride, utterly unafraid, but they were calm. The quiet after the storm, the gentle exhale as the chaos passed.
I’d hunted hundreds of humans over the centuries, only to be so often disappointed when they couldn’t rise to my challenges. Warriors, murderers, criminals, killers from all walks of life — I hunted them for the challenge, because I didn’t want prey who gave up when there was still a fight to be had.
I wanted those souls who got out of bed and went to war against the world, those humans who raged against the futility of their small, insignificant lives.Thosewere the souls I would bring to Hell, those were the souls I would lay my claim to.
Juniper was all of that. I felt electric as I knelt over her, and I couldn’t recall the last time I’d experienced such a rush outside of Hell itself. She was vicious, brave, a wild little thing.
And for some reason, when I’d seen the pain in her memories rise to the surface, all I’d wanted to do was take it away.
That wasn’t part of the deal. Vicious jealousy had rushed over me when I realized the God still had Its tentacles wrapped around her mind. Her soul was mine —mine. Nothing else, no other creature, was allowed to torment what was mine.
I’d never been one for jealousy, but it would make claiming her even more satisfying.
The wound in my side stung as it healed. I wanted to slow its healing if only to feel the thrill of it a little longer. When she stabbed me, fuck, I nearly came then and there. I didn’t want to stop, truly I didn’t, but if there was one thing I’d learned of this vicious human, it was that she’d exhaust herself before she gave up. So I had to call the end, and seeing the relief on her face stirred up a strange feeling in my chest.
