Page 2 of Bleeding Love

“Can you understand what I’m saying?” I continued, curious to hear her voice. With that beautiful face and gorgeous body, her voice was likely just as divine. Maybe I’d just have a taste now and keep her alive for later. It would be a shame to kill something so pretty. “Bonjour? Hola? Salve? Zdravstvuyte? Guten Tag? Goede…”

“Be gone, vampire,” she finally spoke in a soft accent I couldn’t place, her eyes narrowing. Her voice was coarse and cold, unlike what I had expected, but it was every bit as lovely as I imagined it to be.

Yes, I was definitely going to keep her, but I wanted to taste that blood first.

“I am not in the mood for games. Leave me be or die.”

I smirked at the threat, wondering if maybe all that calmness was a facade. Witch magic didn’t work on vampires, not directly at least, so in a battle between us, she was at a disadvantage even if she wasn’t hurt and spent. The fact that she didn’t know that made me reconsider what I thought before. She was probably just a witchling, albeit a strong one.

I stepped over the closest corpse, slowly making my way toward her.

She was tall for a woman, with long legs and a curvy form, but she was still smaller than me. She couldn’t…

Her hand shot up. The object she was holding—a piece of wood barely longer than my palm—transformed in front of my eyes, growing longer, thicker, sturdier. In a single heartbeat, it turned into a staff as tall as the woman herself, the top of it burning with a blue flame that almost licked my face. I instinctively took a step back when something caught my legs. I looked down, only to realize that two of the corpses had moved, grabbing onto me to keep me still.

A necromancer? Bloody hell, what were the odds?

The flame from her staff moved, pushing closer like she planned to incinerate me on the spot. I yanked my legs free with enough force to send the dead arms flying into the branches. I retreated a couple of steps to give myself space to attack, but before I knew it, she was upon me.

Her movements were sharp, confident, her hands whipping the staff as if it were an extension of her body. I dodged her fire several more times when I realized that the rest of the corpses—even the ones with the missing hands—were all on their feet, moving to surround me.

Fire and the undead—the only two things that could work against me. She might have been young, but she wasn’t stupid, and seeing how she wielded her power, she definitely wasn’t spent.

Oh, I was definitely keeping her. She would be fun to play with.

I ducked under the flame again, coming very close to one of the reanimated hunters. I grabbed his head and tore it off, pushing the body out of my way. I dodged her staff again, this time aimed at my feet, and tore the legs of another two hunters, leaving them to writhe on the ground while trying to get up.

She was relentless, I had to give her that. But she was also mortal, and mortals were no match for a vampire.

I ducked under another attack, letting the flames pass so close that my coat almost caught on fire. Still, it was well worth it, because it allowed me to sneak behind her. I was just about to sink my fangs into her neck when her free hand appeared in my vision. Even without looking at me, she had sensed me coming—or maybe, just maybe, sheletme get this close—and she attacked. White-hot flames blossomed in her palm and blasted outward before I could even lick her.

Her magic was too fast, hitting me straight in the face and sending me stumbling backward. My eyes burst and my skin melted like a heated wax, leaving a strange, hollow sensation as I ran my fingers over my exposed skull.

My healing kicked in instantly, repairing the damage, but not fast enough. So I let my body guide me, relying on hearing alone as she attacked alongside her puppets.

I kept away from her while my face reconstructed itself, focusing on the undead instead. I took them down one after another—I couldn’t truly kill them, not with them being dead, but they couldn’t touch me if they didn’t have arms and legs. So I shredded them until the only steps I could hear were hers and my own.

When I stopped, looking around with a blurry vision, I realized I could no longer see her. Had she used my distraction to escape? I had her scent. There was nowhere for her to run. Once I healed myself, I would…

A flash of bright light and the smell of fire filled my nostrils, and I jumped back, avoiding her staff in the last possible second. She twirled the wood, preparing for another assault, when I kicked her feet from underneath her. She yelped with surprise, losing her balance and crashing to the ground. The staff slipped from her fingers, turning into a tiny stick as it rolled just out of her reach.

She tried to crawl to her weapon, but I was upon her before she touched it. Flipping her on her back, I caught her wrists in one hand and pinned them above her head. Another ball of fire started forming over her fingers, but I dug my nails into her palm, tearing the skin until she screamed. She wreathed beneath me, trying to push me off, but I was over this fight already. And I was hungry.

Our eyes met, and she gulped. A whiff of fear rose from her, making me smile victoriously. That was it, what she should be feeling. Afraid and helpless, ready to do everything I asked for mercy.

She opened her mouth, most likely to beg, but it was too early. She could beg later when my hunger was sated and my anger had subsided. She had burned me, destroyed my face, and sent dead puppets after me. She needed to pay.

Her skin broke with delightful ease, and when my fangs sunk into her neck, the world faded. Her blood was the most delicious thing I had tasted in my life. I felt the urge to cry with pleasure as it spilled into my mouth and down my throat. The magic within her resisted my invasion, but I bit harder, pressing my body against hers to keep her down. A gasp escaped her lips, then a moan that was most definitely not from pain.

I smiled, slowing down my feeding so I could savor this. It wasn’t rare for my victims to enjoy the sensation after they got over the pain, but this had been fast. And the way her body rubbed against mine, it didn’t feel like she was trying to break free. It felt like she wanted me closer.

I let my tongue run over her skin, tasting blood, both hers and not. I expected her to moan again, but instead, she stilled. When I heard her voice through the haze her blood put me in, I realized I had made a mistake.

The spell she muttered hit me—or rather, dragged me—off her, my teeth almost tearing her throat open as I tried to latch onto her. Something wrapped around my legs and arms, and this time, it wasn’t the undead. I looked down just when the root of the nearest tree crept up from my wrist to my elbow, another one sliding around my throat and pinning me down. I kicked with my legs, but more roots locked around me, replacing the ones I tore off. In just a few seconds, I couldn’t do anything but stare while she got to her wobbly feet and strode toward me.

She looked even paler now, one hand pressing on her neck where I had bitten her, but her eyes were burning with rage. The young, innocent look was gone, and the creature that glowered at me was as ancient and as powerful as myself.

She stopped next to me, one long leg on either side of my torso. Her dress was even more torn than before, but she didn’t seem to care that she was all but naked before me. She lowered herself until she was sitting on my chest, her fingers snaking around my throat and replacing the roots that obediently pulled away.

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