Page 13 of Resurrecting His Soul
Ricardo sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Melina flexed her fingers, wishing she could see what it was like to slide her fingers through his beautiful, dark hair just once. But she could already see this new chick was going to be a problem. She wasn’t like any other girl Ricardo just hooked up with along the way. Something was different. Something big enough to make him completely change who he was. She was going to have to do something to get this girl out of their lives—for Ricardo. He didn’t need this new girl. No. Melina would take care of him and love him for the monster he was deep down inside. She could play nice for a while. Figure out the best way to get rid of this chick. Then when Ricardo was upset about the loss of his new conquest, she would be there with open, loving arms. Yeah, she would play this out until she wound up with exactly what she wanted. Ricardo in her bed. Sharing his life with her. His true, monstrous self. The vampire she had fallen in love with.
“Melina, what we were doing was not good in any way. I was too angry to see that before, but I do now. I had given up on who I was and let the vampire take over. I’d like the chance to show you a better life. I made you what you are today. You are my only progeny. I don’t want to just kick you out of my life. I owe it to you to show you a better life. But I have to know that Lisandra is safe around you.”
“Not your only progeny anymore,” she grumbled. He didn’t say anything, but his silence said so much more. Clearly he didn’t see this Lisandra as a progeny. Probably didn’t want to think of her that way, and that just made Melina’s blood boil even more. Melina finally got right in his face. “She just tried to kill me and you’re in here lecturing me about not hurting her. Are you serious?”
Ricardo rolled his eyes. “A broken neck won’t kill you.”
“Yeah, but I have a feeling she didn’t know that when she did it. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Ricardo didn’t respond immediately, and Melina knew she was right. She crossed her arms and stared him down, refusing to say another word or agree to anything until he acknowledged what she already knew to be true. This Lisandra heifer had tried to kill her.
After a couple minutes, Ricardo blew out a loud breath. “No, she didn’t know it wouldn’t kill you, but she is new to all this. The impulses and amplified emotions are something it takes time to learn to control, and she is still learning.”
“Oh, so when she has the impulse to kill it’s okay, but if you or I feel the need to kill someone to feed, it’s bad? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.”
“No, the difference is once she came out of her rage and realized what she did, she felt remorse, not pleasure, for the pain she had caused you. She is still devastated that she hurt you even though I explained to her you would be fine—and even knowing that you are the one who tried to kill her.” Anger flashed in his eyes again and she took a step back.
Melina sighed. She couldn’t argue with him because she had most definitely planned to drink the bitch dry. Then she was just going to dump her body and move onto the next available blood bag, because that’s all they were. Humans were blood bags, and she was superior to them in every way. She wasn’t going to say that to Ricardo though, not now. It was clear this girl had him confused somehow. She just needed to fake it long enough to find a way to get rid of this new infatuation of his. Then it would just be the two of them again and they could go back to the way things used to be. The way they should be.
“Fine. I guess we can call it even then,” she said. “I still don’t understand why we are suddenly not killing anymore. I’ve never heard you give a damn about human lives before.”
“I did a very good job of turning off any of the humanity that had been left in me long before I ever met you. I think it is time we both let that side of ourselves back into the light.”
“We have to feed, or we die.”
“I never said we don’t have to feed. We just don’t have to feed directly from humans.”
Melina crossed her arms. “I’m not drinking from animals. No fucking way.”
Ricardo reached into his back pocket and tossed something at her. She could smell it even through the thick plastic bag. Blood.
“I never said we were moving onto drinking from animals. That isn’t an option, anyway. Instead of using humans as blood bags, we will drink from actual blood bags to survive. It’s just as nourishing as drinking from the vein.”
Melina snarled. “But not nearly as fresh.” Ricardo narrowed his eyes at her and she held her hands up in surrender. “Fine. Fine. I’ll try it, but we both know this will never be as good as taking it straight from the supplier.”
“It will have to do.”
Melina just nodded. She’d drink from these bags when she was home, but what he didn’t know when she went out alone wouldn’t hurt him. Besides, this was only going to be a temporary situation. She would make sure of that, no matter what it took. She wasn’t going to let some hussy come between her and what she considered hers… Ricardo.
ChapterNine
Lisandra
Lisandra couldn’t believe what she’d done. Even if that woman, girl really, had tried to kill her for her blood, it didn’t make what she did any better. Ricardo probably thought she was some self-righteous brat. She’d practically begged him not to kill, then she turned around and tried to kill his progeny the first chance she got. She wasn’t human, but that didn’t make what Lisandra had done much better. When she saw Melina and the memory of her ripping into her throat hit her, all of Lisandra’s willpower left her immediately and all she could think about was ripping Melina’s head off. No. That wasn’t entirely true. She felt the urge to hurt the woman as soon as her shrill voice cut through the haze that Ricardo’s kiss had her under. She’d been pissed off that someone interrupted that amazing moment, and if she were completely honest with herself, there was a bit of jealousy thrown into the mixture of emotions that coursed through her when she saw who it was because she knew that Ricardo had been the one to turn the other woman into a vampire too. Thank goodness the woman was a vampire and breaking her neck was apparently not an effective way to kill her. Still, she couldn’t deny feeling a little smug knowing she’d overpowered the girl so easily, and a part of her hoped that even though she hadn’t killed her, Melina would feel the sting of the pain that Lisandra caused her for some time. Just because she didn’t want to become a killer didn’t mean she was a saint, and that bitch had wanted to kill her before and likely wouldn’t have felt a moment’s sympathy had she succeeded.
One thing was for sure. Melina was seriously jealous. Lisandra could swear she almost smelt the anger and jealousy rolling off her when she interrupted Ricardo and her kissing. That would be a problem she’d face another day. Today, too much was already going on. First her failure in defending herself during training, then that kiss… man that was amazing and unexpected, and then the final showdown where she tried to rip off Melina’s head. To top off all of that, Allison hadn’t stopped pacing across Lisandra’s room, mumbling curse words and swinging her hands around. Her face was fire red with anger too.
“Allison, come sit down before you work a hole in the carpet with your pacing,” Lisandra said.
Allison turned on her with her hands planted on her hips and her teeth clenched. “That was the bitch who nearly killed you, wasn’t it?”
Lisandra’s eyebrows raised and her mouth dropped. She’d hoped that Allison didn’t remember anything from the carnival, but clearly she’d remembered plenty.
When she continued to hesitate, Allison stepped closer and pointed her finger in Lisandra’s face. “Don’t you even try to act like you don’t remember. With your vampire instincts, I imagine you remember a lot more than me. But I know that woman’s face. I’ll never forget the face of the woman who tried to kill my best friend in front of me. The woman I watched tear into your neck and nearly bleed you dry. What the hell is she doing here, Lisandra?”
Lisandra ran her hands over her face and sighed. “I don’t know, Allison. I didn’t exactly have a meet and greet with her, did I?”
“Oh, don’t be a smart ass. I know you know something.”
