Page 21 of Ruthlessly Mated
The side of my head explodes with the blow from the vampire’s fist. He pulls his punch enough to ensure his hand doesn’t go right through my skull. This guy is being careful. It must suck, to be able to hurt people and not ever be able to hurt them to nearly the limit of your abilities.
“I bet you prefer hitting vampires,” I grunt as my head rings.
“I do, actually.”
“Yes. Of course. You can hit them harder.”
“Exactly. It’s a pity I’m going to torture you to death. You seem like a more entertaining creature than the obsequious rat who barely tolerated even a hint of pain. But I think he will be a better scent hound for the girl. More obedient. You don’t have a submissive bone in your body.”
“I don’t.”
“You would have made a good general in my army,” he says. “But I would have had you killed too, I think. Too much of a tactical threat.”
“Do you want to suck my dick, or…”
Bam!Another hard blow jolts me in the other direction.
“I am going to enjoy killing you,” Alexander says. “You’re lucky I am in a hurry, or I would be drawing this out for weeks. Now tell me where she went.”
“I’ve told you a hundred times. I don’t know where she went. She ran away. We fucked once. Well, twice. She hated us, especially me, and she was gone before you got here. She was tipped off the same way everyone else was. News of your ship travels fast.”
“But you mated her. You have the bond.”
“It’s not like a vampire thing. The bond doesn’t tell me where she is. The bond doesn’t mean anything at all if she doesn’t want it to mean something. It’s a connection, not a tool.”
Alexander kneels in front of me, pressing a silver dagger into my gut, piercing the skin, threatening to take an organ. I have no doubt that he would slit me open to prove a point. He is hoping I will prove to be useful before he does that.
“If I wanted to, I could force you into your wolf form and make you hunt her down, and if you did not, I could torture you until you die like a dog. Your friend is already well on his way.”
This creature is cruel and cold. I used to think I wanted the kind of authority he has, but now that I am exposed to it, I am starting to see that it is not strength or power. In many ways it is the complete absence of both. He is dark and he is empty. There is no empathy behind his eyes. His cruelty is calculated and deliberate.
“You could force me into my wolf form, and I could run my paws bloody in her wake, and you would still not catch her.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because she is smarter than both of us combined,” I say. “She’s using us both now to make good her escape. Every second you spend fucking with me is another second she gets further away.”
I am wrong about that, as it turns out.
As wrong as I could possibly be.
There’s so much noise in a burning port. The sound of explosions as barrels of gunpowder and liquor go up has made my ears ring so much I can barely hear the vampire’s threats, not to mention the head trauma from the beating. I can hear horror upon horror, and in the middle of it all, something chugging and roaring, andaccelerating?
Alexander hears it too. He stands up and looks in the direction of the oncoming sound.
Bam!
Even the most ancient of vampires cannot withstand being hit full force with a truck. I am sure he will reconstitute over time, but right now the great immortal Alexander is a smear in the radiator, and that is going to inconvenience him.
Kita throws the door open.
“Get in. Shut up. Don’t act grateful.”
I don’t know whether I want to kiss her or whip her ass. Both.
I grab Tailor and pull him in. Some quick seat changes and Damon shoves the truck into reverse and hauls out of the burning port like someone who knows how to drive very, very well. I have underestimated this girl. I have been doing that from the beginning.
“Is he alive?” She asks the question while jerking her thumb toward the rear of the cab. “There’s a bed back behind the seats, and a med kit.”
