Page 43 of A Game of Love and Betrayal

She was becoming a creature of the night, through and through.

Brynleigh struggled to hang onto the thin strands of her control. At war with herself, she barely paid attention to her surroundings.

Someone shoved a bag of blood in her direction. The guard loosened his grip just enough so she could drink. It wasn’t enough.

Her hunger was a steep cliff, and she teetered on the edge. Dancing between sanity and forever losing herself to the monster within her, she panted and growled.

That smell remained.

Another red bag was thrust in her direction.

She drank that, too.

It still wasn’t enough.

Closer and closer, she danced to the ledge.

“Get a fucking grip!” someone screamed in her face.

Maybe she could bite them? They seemed angry. She wouldn’t kill them. She just needed a little blood.

Brynleigh moved towards them, but that iron grip returned, this time around her waist.

“She’s too young,” the guard holding her said. “Little more than a Fledgling.”

Shaking her head, Brynleigh tried to clear the fire in her fangs. If only she could shove this need aside, she could tell them it was fine. She was here for a reason. She couldn’t lose control. Not yet.

But she was slipping, slipping, slipping away.

“I knew this bloodsucker would be a problem from the first day I met her,” Valentina snarled.

Even through the bloodlust, Brynleigh recognized the horrible fae’s voice.

Brynleigh’s nostrils flared. She spun, growling and gnashing her teeth at the fire fae. “I’ll kill you, bitch.”

She’d have no remorse about it, either.

A flame appeared in Valentina’s hand. “I’d like to see you try.”

A snarl.

Someone kicked the back of Brynleigh’s legs. She fell to the ground. A knee pressed into her back, forcing her to the ground.

Heartbeats.

So many gods-damned heartbeats. They got louder and louder until they were drums pounding painfully in Brynleigh’s ears.

All these people had blood in them. Forget the dying ones outside. She could get what she needed here. She’d kill them all, starting with the one glaring at her with malice.

Deep inside, Brynleigh recognized this was a monumentally bad idea, but she couldn’t remember why.

Feed.

The word echoed through her mind. Her body. Her spirit.

Feed, feed, feed.

People kept talking, but their voices were hard to hear beneath the pounding of the life-giving organs surrounding her.

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