Page 16 of Viper

Ghost folded his arms. “If the other missing humans aren’t already dead, they soon will be. And the strix will no doubt dump them near or on our properties.”

“We need to track and kill them,” said Jester. “Fucking hate strix.”

“Are we much different from them?” Viper asked. “We prey on people like parasites. We can’t survive without the life-force of others. We’re addicts for whom there is peace only in death.”

The Fallen were pariahs even among monsters. Unnatural due to their curse, they belonged on no realm. Had no ‘place’. They were not angel, demon, or vampire, but they possessed the dark qualities of all three.

Drinking from animals did nothing for them, so they didn’t have the option of sticking to what would emotionally be an easier diet to handle. Their prey had to be people—whether human or preternatural.

Dice gave him a grave look. “We don’t kill those we feed from. We don’t make our bites painful. We don’t enjoy the hunt. And wenevertouch children.”

All true. The strix, by contrast, had no self-control or humanity. Their primal appetite overwhelmed them. But when the Fallen were in bloodlust, the same could be said about them.

Bloodlust could strike them any time, whether they fed regularly or not. Mindless as they were when bloodlust struck, they had to be confined during such times. There was no avoiding it, no ‘fixing’ it, no snapping a person out of it. They just had to let it run its course.

Darko gestured at the dead human. “What do we do with him?”

“We let him be foundfarfrom here, but not in this state,” Viper replied. “Put him in either a vacant house or a car and set it alight. We don’t want anything but dental records IDing him.”More to the point, they didn’t want any preternatural evidence on his person.

“Done,” said Dice with a nod.

Ghost looked to the end of the alley and then back at Viper. “I guess we were wrong in thinking she wouldn’t get caught up in our newest issue. It’s probably best that you’ve held back. If the strix are watching us, they would see you with her.”

“You know, V, with the way she looks at you … You’resureit’s not possible that she remembers you?”

“Yes.” Though people retained memories from their past lives, they didn’t consciously have access to them—such memories were carved into their soul, not lodged in their brain. Still, they could meet a person from a past life and feel an instant familiarity with them; could feel they’d met them before, or simply be at total ease in their company.

But this couldn’t apply to Ella, because … “When those fuckers upstairs scrubbed the imprint of me from her soul, they scrubbed away the memories there as well.”

Ghost bit into the inside of his cheek. “There’s a chance they didn’t scrub hard enough.”

“They would have been thorough. They wanted no trace of me to linger on her soul.”

“Doesn’t mean they effectively erased all of those traces,” Ghost insisted. “Fragments could remain.”

Razor nodded. “You kept your distance from her, but you’ve been in her periphery. It might have shaken the memories loose. It would only have been on a subconscious level, but still.”

“She loved you, V,” said Dice. “Loved you enough that she didn’t care you’d need blood to survive—she wasallin. I personally don’t think it’d be so easy to rid a soul of every memory of someone they lovedthathard, powerful archangels on the case or not.”

A warm mouth pressed hot, damp kisses to the back of her shoulder, lulling her out of sleep. Her eyes closed, she frowned and shifted slightly.

“Morning, baby,” a deep voice breathed.

Everleigh writhed, restless, as he trailed kisses all over her back. He took his time, exploring and marking everywhere he could reach, causing her anticipation to rise and rise.

Fingertips danced down the side of her breast as his hand slid down, down, down … and dived into the back of her shorts. She bucked as one finger swiped between her folds.

“Slick for me already.” His warm breath fanned her ear as he lowered his broad body onto her. “That’s because you know you’re mine.”

Two fingers sank inside her, and she inhaled sharply. Then those fingers were moving. Swirling. Plunging. Scissoring.

A soft but guttural growl sounded in her ear as she lifted her hips to meet each thrust. “Yeah, take it,” he urged.

Moaning, she scratched at the bedsheet, loving the feel of those clever fingers slicing into her again and again. As his mouth latched onto her pulse, she tilted her head to give him better access to her neck. His tongue licked. Teeth nipped. Words of praise were whispered against her skin. The friction inside her built and built and built.

Then she came. Hard.

He hummed. “That’s my baby.” Gentling kisses were pressed to the back of her shoulder. “Now it’s my turn.”

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