Page 35 of Our Sins in Blood (Coven of Sin 1)

With his other hand, he dug into his pants pocket and extracted two familiar-looking pills, offering them up to me. “Here, take these. They’ll make you a little less hangry.”

I swallowed the pills down without argument. Their effect, along with his tender words and affectionate gesture, immediately calmed me. Suddenly I felt very weak. Uncoiling my hands from his throat, I collapsed against his chest. “I’m sorry I…”

“Shh, it’s alright, Red. You’ve had a pretty weird day.” His arms banded around me to pull me close to his muscular chest. It was the first time I can remember anyone ever holding me like this.

It felt good to be in his embrace. I felt safe. I wondered if I could trust it. Was he being affectionate with me just because he hoped I would pick him as my mate? Was this just part of the game?

No matter his motives, I didn’t care. It was intoxicating being this close to him.

“You smell so good.”

His chest rumbled beneath me with a chuckle. “Yeah, I bet I do. You’re probably starving. Sterling and Vincent should be staked for sending you to bed without anything to eat. I’d let you bite me if we had the time.”

I sat up on my heels, looking down at the male I straddled on the bed. The ravenous hunger inside me was building by the second, and I was afraid I’d explode like a volcano. The mere mention of biting the vampire caused an odd sensation inside my mouth as if my fangs might punch out of my gums at any moment. I wouldn’t even know how to bite him, and that was if it even worked the same for half-bloods.

But damn it, did I want to bite him. I wanted to bite himbad.

The texted conversation we shared in the car came rushing back. I wanted to feed, but not if it meant tying myself down to Corry.

“If I were to bite you, would that mean I’d be choosing you as my mate?”

His chest rumbled beneath me with a chuckle. “No. Vampires drinking from other vampires is serious business, but not so serious if it’s just a bite and nothing more.” He propped himself up on his elbows, his smile slipping into a suggestive smirk. “If you were to bite me, the entire coven would be able to scent my blood inside you. It sticks in your veins longer than human blood. The claiming bite is when you fuck someonewhileyou feed from them. There’s nothing like marking your mate by pumping them full of your bloodandcum. Though, picking someone to pop that cherry of yours and letting one of us claim you can be two different things entirely.”

My cheeks burned with a blush. “Are you saying you guys would actually be okay with me sleeping with all of you?”

He shrugged one shoulder. “All I’m saying is the game isn’t over until you pick a king. You’re free to do what and who you please until then. But you’ll want to be careful, Red. This will get pretty dicey, say if you end up hate fucking Vin, then you end up picking me as king. Or if you let Deathwish touch you at all, Vin and Sterling will probably go into conniptions.”

I scrambled off the bed, my mind in a daze. “But I don’t even know Deathwish. I don’t know any of you.”

Corry waved his hand dismissively. “He’s a psychotic bastard. I guess all of us are on a different level. Just be careful. This can end badly in a lot of ways. We’re not super competitive, but jealousy is inevitable when you’ve got everything to win.”

This was insanity. It was already a dangerous game. Vincent had warned me about this in the Walgreen’s bathroom. There would be fights for the throne, my blood, my freaking virginity.

I had to get out of here. But first I needed something to eat.

“I need to eat something, Corry… The pills aren’t enough. I need food. I don’t have to feed on livestock, do I?” I suppressed a shudder at the idea.

“Nah, that’s just my punishment for the accident that Vin decided to tell you all about in the car. Besides, you probably aren’t going to be able to bite anything until you figure out how to drop your fangs. Usually, that happens under pressure or extreme hunger, so it may not happen for a while yet. In the meantime, I’d thought I’d take you out for some fast food burgers.”

Burgers didn’t sound half as good as blood, but I still perked at the idea. For years I’d watched fast food commercials on TV, and sometimes Mom would bring me some on the way home from work to push under the door. But I’d never been through a drive-thru, as God intended.

Sensing my eagerness, Corry clasped my hand and led me out of the room.

“Will you get in trouble?” I asked in a hushed voice as we hurried down the corridor toward the stairs, passing door after door.

“Absolutely. Probably means more dinners spent out in the barn. But hey…” He glanced back over his shoulder at me, winking. “I’m sure there’s some way you can thank me for busting you out of jail.”

A nervous flutter of butterflies tickled my stomach, then turned to angry hornets in the next breath when the door just before us ripped open, and out ran a woman, crying. Human by the pound of her heart and the sweet honey scent of her blood that laced the air.

“Fuckingbastard,” she sobbed.

Everything inside my body seemed to still for a second when I registered several punctures in her neck and chest, fresh and glistening red. She smelled so damn good; it was intoxicating. My mouth began to water as I watched her fling herself into another room.

For several thunderous heartbeats, I watched the door she disappeared behind, my chest tight with a myriad of emotions. I didn’t like the little nagging voice in the back of my head telling me to follow the girl, her scent still lingering in the air like tracks leading to prey.

Corry jerked on my arm, tugging me along. “We have to go.”

I stumbled after him, the urgency in his voice spurring my feet forward. But his hand was ripped out of mine when a second person came stomping out the room from where the girl had fled. I slammed into the newcomer, his brick-wall-like build knocking all the air from my lungs.

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