Page 106 of Fated In Blood

“You taste sweet, little slayer. I can see why they’re so reluctant to let you go.”

“Who the fuck are you?”

He tutted, some of the amusement draining from his face. “Well, at least you aren’t boring. No need to be rude when I just saved you. You can call me Mal. I’m a friend of Blake’s.”

No…there was something about this male that told me he didn’t have anything as mundane asfriends. An air of reckless danger hung around him, tinged with enough malice my heart stuttered as I realized it was just the two of us.

Yet I couldn’t stop my snort at his ridiculous claim, fighting the aftermath of his blood coursing through my body like ghostly hands running clever fingers over my hot, aroused skin. “I highly doubt that.”

Mal shrugged, his eyes never leaving my face. “What you believe matters not to me.”

“Where are we?” Now that my head was clearing, I had the presence of mind to survey the deep, rocky ravine rising around us with the thin waterfall spilling over the edge rimmed by pines.

We weren’t anywhere close to White Chapel.

In fact, I doubted we were still in Virginia, and this looked like the perfect place to hide a body.

“Nowhere important,” Mal deflected. “What is important is this. I saved your life. Now, according to vampire law, you owe me a favor to be called in at a time of my choosing.”

“First, I don’t give a shit about vampire law, and second, that sounds like a load of bullshit.” I huffed. “I was hardly even dead. Practically only half dead from what I remember. That’s worth half a favor, at most.”

He shot me a dangerous, razor-edged smile that sent me back a step.Or did I want to take a step forward?Desire surged like hot, sticky syrup, my body caught in a tug of war between fear and lust. My nose flared when a breeze saturated with his rich scent drifted by and my entire body reacted, arching toward him like there was a tether connecting us.

What did this sneaky bastard do to me?

I was all too familiar with the symbiotic connection between feeding and sex, but I’d only had a few mouthfuls of his blood and my body was already a throbbing, needy mess. When those piercing brown eyes dragged slowly down my body, I tried not to imagine what his fingers would feel like, plunging up into me.

“We could fuck. Or I can take my blood back,” he said conversationally, as if he’d read my mind. “We can start all over, if that’s how you want to play this, little slayer. Renegotiate terms and all that.”

Dread shivered through me at his soft threat, but I managed to stand my ground, hands fisted, wishing for a weapon. “The terms are this. I don’t owe you squat. You took advantage when I was half conscious.”

The charged air around me gathered, like lightning was about to strike, the hair on my arms standing up on end. When another flare of heat curled through me, I retreated, my thighs rubbing together and smearing wetness all over.

This was so, so wrong.

Fear and need shouldn’t ever get this mixed up together.

“I’ve been on my very best behavior, but here we are, all alone, out in the middle of nowhere. You’re still a few days away from completing your transition, do you really want to try my patience,Evangeline?”

“Not particularly, but I don’t much like bullies, either.Mal.”

His entire body tensed then a spectral mist formed around him, like he was bending the world to his will. Wisps of spun shadow reached out and caressed my face, forming ice crystals in their wake, melting onto my sunburned skin.

“You have no idea what I am, Evangeline. No idea at all.”

I’m dying here.

Because I don’t know when to shut up.

Those were my last thoughts before he sprang.

43

RIORDAN

“Get the fuck away from her.” Malachi was inches away when I materialized in front of Evangeline, arms spread, a growl ripping up my throat.

“Run,” I snarled, barely getting the order out before Malachi slammed into me, wrapped in a cloak of his goddamn misty glamour, hard enough to drive the air from my lungs and crack a rib.

---