Page 49 of Club Blood

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I waitedin the car after it stopped, letting the driver attend to Warren and the staff just inside my home. Instead my own attention was focused on Cece, and on the hand I was now trying to bandage. I’d found some fresh gauze in the medical kit on hand, and wrapped it slowly, trying hard not to wake her.

Unfortunately, it was a much harder task than I originally anticipated. She whimpered in pain as I tightened the wrap, and her eyes opened in a grimace.

“Ow,” she whispered as I kept wrapping. I could feel her gaze boring into me, but I refused to look back. I had been the cause of this, and seeing the pain in her face was too hard to bear. Soon she tired, instead refocusing on the blood that drenched the bottom of the backseat.

“I made your car a mess.”

“That’s what the staff is for,” I said, finishing up. “Hold your hand upright and to your chest. I’ll have it attended to in a second.”

“What do you mean?”

“You need…a vial,” I hesitated, “and stitches.”

She didn’t seem to like the sound of that, but said nothing more. I held out my hand after I exited the limousine, and she took it with her free one, hobbling out.

It was eerily quiet, and my senses were on full alert. I could count on one hand how many times my home was this silent, with no Known in sight. It put me on edge, the goosebumps pimpling across my arms. Cecelia seemed to notice it too, and drifted closer to me as we walked through the garden towards the home.

I caught no notice of anyone, not even the guards.

“Will Warren be here?” Cecelia asked.

“I…believe so,” I answered honestly, “there should be others here, but I don’t see them. It’s unlike them to keep the grounds unguarded.” Specifically after my order to Warren.

My breath hitched as we moved on. Soon, I found myself shoving Cece behind me, my nails out and sharp, my fangs glistening in the moonlight. As we rounded the corner towards the estate, I could see him.

He was poised over the body of another, his lips around the neck of someone I’d known briefly. Every hair on my body stood on edge as I approached him slowly, as if he were a rabid dog. I shoved Cece further behind me and I crouched over, bending at my knees and moving forward slowly, agonizingly so, until I was only twenty feet from the vampire at my doors.

I’d had little thought in my mind of how Cece saw me at this moment. I was frightening, a vampire at the peak of my hunt. My mouth salivated with each step.

When the vampire turned around to look at us, mouth shining and dripping in blood, I snapped.

I lunged straight toward his throat.

28

MERCY

There wassomething to be said about the parasite and its hold over us. The switch could happen so quickly, even our kind could not register it.

I sprang forward, covering the twenty feet in mere seconds and wrapped my hands around his throat. I hissed loudly, and his hand swung around and hit me square in my jaw. It loosened my hold on him, and the vampire screeched, clawing at my face with his long nails. I could feel my face break from the sheer intensity of his power, my blood now dripping down the side of my face.

I didn’t take time to ask any questions, instead letting the rage take hold of me. It allowed me to stretch my fingers and catch his ear with my next swing. I could hear Cecelia’s cry ring out in the night, and my focus was momentarily lost from my looking at her.

He used that moment to grab me roughly. This vampire was strong, pinning both of my arms to my sides and slamming my body toward the hard earth. As my head bounced off the gravel I saw stars, the impact rocking my vision and impairing me. He took his chance to take two perfectly pointed teeth and slammed them down into my throat. I choked out in pain.

He took several long drinks from me and my world was spinning. I hated how pathetic I felt, trapped under another man at my home, weak as he took what he wanted from me. I couldn’t hear Cecelia, but I knew she was there. I could only imagine the look of pure horror that spread across those beautiful features.

My human life was a world away now, but memories still assaulted me. Moments when I was pinned, and when the choice I never wanted to make was made for me. It was the reason for my immortal life, and as this Known vampire relished in having his way with me now, he was entirely unaware of the promise I made to myself all those years ago.

I would never be put in that position again for as long as I lived.

Using all of my strength, I broke his grip, gaining control by grabbing his wrists and ripping them from his body. Blood sprouted from his torn limbs, waterfalling in both directions as the vampire rolled off of me, covering me in it. I was up quick as lightning, grabbing the vampire and holding his back against my chest, my nails placed delicately at his collarbone and ready to slice.

He was no danger any longer, with two limbs less and wailing like I’d torn off his balls instead.

“Who thefucksent you? I whispered close to his ear.

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