Page 24 of Midlife Vampire Unexpected

“I don’t have a crush on a werewolf. Last time I checked vampires and werewolves are supposed to hate each other.” I pointed out.

Bianca grabbed me in a thick hug “I don’t hate you.”

“It’s different. We are bound by a blood pact with the pendant,” I said.

Bianca raised her nose in the air, sniffing at the wind.

“Do you smell prey?” I asked, salivating for blood.

“Come on.” She grinned mischievously at me. “Try to keep up.”

In seconds she had transformed into a giant red wolf. She let out a series of small yips and then went racing through the forest. I stayed on her heels following her over the hill and down the other side.

In minutes we came to a large flat pasture with a river running through the middle of it. A large herd of elk slept standing in the dark field. We stood on the edge of the pasture, watching them, knowing they were sniffing the air and could tell we were in their vicinity.

We were the predators.

The creatures were magnificent even in the dark and rainy night. Their massive necks looking almost like a lion’s mane.

“I’m going in,” I said. “If you plan on killing one of these things, please don’t ever let me see that.”

I looked across at Bianca and raised my chin.

But already I could feel the hunger in my veins calling to me as I was enveloped in the pulsing heavyset heartbeats of the elk standing in the rain.

I loved my new ability to move faster than I had ever dreamed possible. I remembered as a child I’d discovered how fast a cheetah could run and I had always been jealous. I was pretty sure I could easily overtake a cheetah now.

The elk sniffed the air. It looked like they were going to make a run for it, but I was faster. In seconds I was near one of them and had it on its side. I knew the venom in my fangs would soothe the animal and allow me to feed on it. I went for the lower part of its neck, near the front of its chest. Sinking my teeth into it, I felt the skin pierce, and blood began to flow. The copper ecstasy fueled me. I lost myself in the pumping blood as it flowed into my mouth and nourished my dead body.

Chapter 16

“What the hell are you doing,” I was ripped off the side of the elk and thrown to the ground.

I bared my teeth, bursting to my feet. ‘the elk blood dripped warm from my mouth, down my neck and across my chest. Antonio was glaring at me as I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

“You almost killed it,” he said.

I choked, looking at the large elk panting on its side in the field. “Shit,” I muttered. “Is it going to be okay?”

“Yeah, now you’ve stopped feeding on it. It still has enough blood. It’ll be fine,” Antonio said.

“I was about to stop her.” Bianca came up next to us.

Antonio whirled on her. “You shouldn’t be out of the estate.”

“You’re not my keeper,” Bianca said. “I needed to come out and go for a run. I thought you of all people would understand.”

“I understand a lot more things than you give me credit for,” Antonio said. “In this case, you have no idea what’s going on. The minute you leave the estate, people can get a signature on you. The minute you left, which at this stage, I think was about an hour ago, headhunter alarms everywhere started going off.”

“What the fuck?” I asked, turning to look at Bianca. “Did you know this was going to happen?”

“No, of course I didn’t know.” She looked at Antonio. “How did you know this was going to happen?” She slowly backed up. I felt the razor-sharp points of my teeth, ready to sink them into his throat if I suspected he was.

He practically rolled his eyes. “Do you really think I would be out here trying to protect your ass if I was trying to collect the bounty. You guys are so naïve. I could’ve taken you in without even thinking about it.”

“Nice way to rub it in,” I said with a smirk.

“Regardless, we’ve got to get you back to the estate.”

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