AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I blinked past the lust associated with my brutality. “Of course he is.”
Marko lowered me and I gripped just above his elbow as he led me toward our tunnel. Aetas was leaned just outside of it, with Hunter at his side. The glare Hunter held had my own lids lowering. I was still ready to fight. To kill. I had barely tapped into a quarter of what I knew I was capable of and I was dying to test my skills at a much grander scale. Hunter wasn’t it. Not yet.
“Bravo.” Aetas’ clapped, sarcastically. “But just as boring as Hunter. I’ve already seen you do that. I was hoping to catch something new. Something … worthy of a leader. Marko on the other hand impressed me. Perhaps I should train him.”
I suppressed the need to hiss and snarl at him. My vampire was out of control. I could already feel the darkness covering my vision. She was ready to provoke if need be, and that’s exactly what she was doing to Aetas.
“What should I have done, turned this room to an inferno? A death bomb with a shock wave of poison to wipe them all out in one single blow? What sort of leader would I have been if I would have done that? I would have kept all the fun to myself. My people need the challenge and hunt. It does them good. They can only be contained so much. They rarely get to go out now as it is. It’s not safe for our kind on the streets.”
“Surely you could have thought of something a little more creative than what you just did.”
My eyes flickered over to Hunter’s. His jaw was set tight and he was staring at me. Slowly, I cocked my head to the side, reading his energy.
“You need to feed again. You wish you could have joined my people in their fight when they came to protect me.”
Pale blue eyes cut over to Aetas before he nodded. “Yes, Princess.”
“Aetas told you no?”
Again, he nodded, but kept quiet. Pressure pushed against my back and I turned, watching Marie approached with her head down. I could feel her anger at Hunter.
“Princess, I wish to make rounds and gather up the members if it is alright with you. I think after tonight we should have shifts. We can plan them and take it from here if you wish to give your blessing.”
Her eyes lifted, flicking with anger as they went from Hunter to me.
“I approve. Come to me if anything else happens.”
She nodded, spinning to hurry away from us.
“Who is that?” Hunter asked quietly.
“No one worthy enough for you to bother with.” Aetas pushed from the wall. “Time to feed you again.”
Hardness tightened Hunter’s features and I stepped back, giving my own greeting of goodbye to Aetas. When I turned to follow Marko toward the tunnel, my body jolted. I was ripped back so fast that before I could process the movement, fire burned into the side of my neck. I gasped through the sting and poison that pushed its way into my vein.
Marko’s roar internally and throughout the large room deafened me to anything else. My wide eyes were locked on his face and his expression was of rage that I’d never seen before. He was beating against the shield, but it wasn’t me who had placed it. A buzzing began to register just as my body exploded to life with lust. Still, Hunter fed from me, biting down viciously as he held my arms pinned.
“Let her go!” Aetas yelled. “Do you know what you have done? Marko could kill you right now and he’d have every right. I could kill you,” he growled, lifting his hand to face his palm toward us. “She. Is. Not. Yours!”
Aetas’ eyes were getting darker as his gaze stayed on Hunter.
“You will let go of her right now or so help me, you’re going to regret it.”
Already Hunter’s bite was easing, but his hold wasn’t. He turned, putting his back to the wall as he kept his arms tightly around me. My shoulders twisted, rocking to try to break his hold. Regardless that his bite turned me on, it didn’t have nearly the power Marko’s did. After the initial shock, my blood quickly put a stop to his poison.
“Hunter,” I whispered. “You have to stop. You’re hurting me. You don’t want to hurt me, do you?”
His grip loosened, but not fast enough. Aetas’ energy spiked to unbelievable heights and I watched as his face turn emotionless. He looked like nothing but a shell before me, and it only took a few seconds for me to piece it all together. That’s exactly what he was. He had Hunter locked within his own mind, just as Aetas had done with me on more than one occasion.
Hunter’s body was rigid, but I easily pried his arms off enough for me to break free of them. Marko’s eyes were wild as he pressed his hands into the barrier between us. He looked on the verge of some sort of breakdown—torn between fear and fury.
“I’m okay.” My hand lifted to try to calm him, but he rammed his fist repeatedly into the wall while he tore into it with his nails. When a yell escaped his mouth, I somehow managed to catch his gaze with mine. “I’m alright. Breathe.”
“I’m trying not to kill him, ma minette. I’m trying so hard for you, but I cannot bear this. What he did … I want …” He paused, throwing his shoulder into the shield once again. “I’ve never wanted to hurt someone as much as I want to hurt him. He has to go. He has to leave here right now, or forgive me, but I do not think I can resist these urges he brings out in me.”
“You will resist,” I hissed within my mind. “You have to. If something happens to you, we’re both dead. Do you understand me?”
I looked over my shoulder, taking in my leader and Hunter. I could kill them right now. I could …
