Page 159 of Blood Mosaic

She bolted up in bed when she realized what she was smelling.

Humans.

Her mouth grew bloody as her fangs grew long, cutting her lips and whetting her appetite. Human blood. Fresh blood. Warm, living, delectable blood.

Thoughts of contacting her mother flew from her mind, and she could only think about the blood outside her door.

Tatyana slid out of bed, clad in a pair of silk shorts and the camisole she wore to sleep. At the scent of humans, her instincts moved to the front of her mind. She barely comprehended how she came to the door, pressing her hands against the cold wood, reaching out her amnis at the scent of fresh prey.

Tatyana knew there were humans who patrolled the house during the day, but Oleg sent all of them away at night.

There shouldn’t be any humans outside her door.

Her blood hummed at the scent and the challenge.

“…wait here?” They were speaking in Russian. “When are we supposed?—”

“They’ll be awake soon.” The other voice sounded nervous. “Shouldn’t we be trying to break down the door?”

“Is the sun down? It’s early.”

“This isn’t Moscow, you idiot. We need to go innow. She might already be?—”

“Shhh! Did you hear something?”

Tatyana stared at the brass knob as she unlatched the heavy bolts securing her door.

“Fuck, she’s awake!”

“Don’t kill her. Remember what Zara?—”

“Fuck that crazy vampire.” There was a crack against the door, as if a heavy weight had been smashed against it.

Tatyana crouched down and twisted the knob so that when the crash came again, the two men fell through the doorway, both tumbling over her body crouched near the threshold.

Her heart gave a fast thump, and she leaped on the first man, tearing the black mask from his head and yanking his neck to the side to sink her teeth into the soft, scented flesh of his neck.

“Dmitri!” the other man screamed.

Something burned across her shoulder, but she ignored it, drinking like a glutton at the human’s neck.

A second burn, however, caught her attention, and she lifted her head from her kill, snarling at the wide-eyed man who was holding a gun on her.

A gun? Was that the burning sensation? She looked at her shoulder and saw a red trail scraping down her arm while a fire burned down her back.

She didn’t wait for him to fire again. The man looked like he was moving through water as Tatyana leaped on him, batting away the irritating firearm as she tackled him to the ground and straddled his chest.

She ripped away the dark mask and didn’t look at his face once she saw the racing vein at his neck.

The scent of his blood was metallic, but she didn’t care. This was hot, living elixir and she was born to prey on these animals. She yanked his shoulders up as she straddled him and sank her fangs into the base of his neck.

The man screamed, and something in her chest crowed like a rooster at dawn.

Yes, this.

Yes, this death.

Yes, this terror.

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