Page 9 of Bite The Terror That Feeds

He walked inside and I followed, and once we entered the pub, I realized it was a place to get a different kind of drink. The place was lit by low-burning candles, so the room was dark, the corners full of shadows. To my right, a woman was pressed up against the wall, a man sunk deep into her neck, her fingers firmly in the back of his hair. Like I was witnessing an intimate moment, I looked away, only to see it in a different corner…and another corner. They were all enthusiasts, sacrificing their blood to a superior race. It was impossible not to think of Kingsnake, the nights when he’d fed from me and everything that happened afterward.

Viper passed everyone in the corners and headed to the stairs to go to the next landing. We passed doors on either side, quiet moans audible from time to time. It felt like a brothel, but you got a meal along with a lay.

He stopped at one door and knocked.

“Come in.” It was a woman’s voice.

He opened the door, and I wished he hadn’t.

It was a bare room, just a bed and a rug, nothing else. A woman was propped against the bed, naked from the waist up, the rest of her body tucked underneath the sheet. She didn’t care what Viper saw, like he’d seen it before. A glass of wine was in her hand, and she sipped it, beautiful dark hair covering her shoulders, with eyes shaped like a cat’s. “Where is he?”

“He’ll be here soon. Got caught up at the palace.”

Her eyes glanced to me and hovered for only an instant before she looked at him again. “Tell him to hurry.”

I was frozen to the bone, my blood gone cold, and I could hardly move. Just taking a breath was too much. Then a heat flushed my skin, the heat that came with a heavy sickness. I was the first one to leave and return to the hallway, but the image of her naked and waiting for him was still burned into my brain. “Why is she naked?”

“Because she wants to be.” He stood beside me, looking down at me with the same judgmental eyes as his brother. “You only have a few minutes to reconsider your decision.”

* * *

Viper knocked on the door.

It took nearly a minute for Kingsnake to answer, and when he did, he was in his casual attire, like he intended to walk down to the pub and join her under the sheets. He would take off his shirt, because he preferred to feed bare-chested, and she would enjoy all the things I used to enjoy exclusively. Anger flushed my skin even though nothing had happened, and nothing would ever happen if I wanted.

As we walked in, his eyes ignored his brother and focused on me instead. His skin was so pale. With every passing minute, he looked weaker, like he literally had hours to live. No emotion emitted from him, like he didn’t even have the energy to feel anything. Or he expected the worst. “Tried to escape?”

“No.” Viper walked out and shut the door behind him.

It was just the two of us, Kingsnake’s eyes focused and steady, his tight features hard, almost angry.

I didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know how to explain my change of heart.

He continued to wait, his posture still strong despite the fatigue in his eyes.

I pulled my hair to the side and tugged on the neck of my shirt, revealing the flesh that no longer had scars from his fangs because it’d been so long since he’d bitten me.

His eyes immediately dropped at the invitation—and then the room filled with an explosion of desire—unlike anything I’d ever felt before. He moved in, hooked his arm around my waist, and tugged me close. “Are you sure?” His fingers dug into my back, and I could feel his erection against my stomach. He blanketed me in his cloud of desire, and the air was so thick I could hardly breathe.

“Better me than her…”

The corner of his mouth lifted in a subtle smile before he dipped his head and pierced my flesh with his sharp fangs.

I inhaled a deep breath and gave a gasp at the painful intrusion, but then it was immediately mitigated by a surge of pleasure. My eyes closed as my fingers dug into the back of his hair, and I let his powerful arms hold me.

He held the back of my head as he fed, his desire squeezing me tight, cocooning me in his invisible affection. Without ever telling me what I meant to him, he made me feel like the only woman who mattered. The sensation was addictive…as addictive as the taste of my blood.

He backed me up to the bed and laid me down without withdrawing his fangs, and then our bodies came together, my ankles locking around his waist to claim him as mine. I couldn’t get that naked goddess out of my mind, and I wanted him nowhere near her ever again. In a fit of jealous rage, I’d done something I didn’t want to do, but it was better than the alternative.

It was better than sharing him with anyone else.

I felt my mind begin to slip. Felt the weakness take hold. “Kingsnake…”

He hesitated but continued to feed, like he couldn’t stop.

“Kingsnake.”

The second time he heard his name, he withdrew, each fang having a drop of blood at the tip. His eyes were green. His arms were thicker. A blush moved into his pale cheeks. Within a few minutes, he looked like a new man, the King of Vampires. He leaned over me, his hand underneath my shirt and across my stomach. He breathed deeply, looking at me like he wanted to continue, but an invisible restraint kept him back. “I’m sorry… It’s been so long.”

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