Page 108 of Their Blood Rite

To prove my point, I grab one of the human guards who watches my approach hungrily and slam my mouth onto his. I grab his hands and press them onto my breasts. He doesn’t hesitate and grabs them before sticking his tongue down my throat.

Iown my body. I will not be punished for touching someone else when they were minutes away from screwing some human bitch brought to them as payment.

The human is pulled off me. Shaw grabs his hands and snaps them all the way back. The sound of crunching bone and tearing flesh echoes all around me, followed by the agonising cry of the guy who falls to his knees screaming. Shaw keeps twisting, his face contorted in utter rage as I stagger back, looking on in horror as bone starts poking through flesh.

‘STOP!’ I scream.

He keeps twisting until, with a blood-curdling cry and a stomach-turning snap and squelch, he tears his hands off completely.

As the guard’s mouth remains open in a harrowing scream that will haunt me long after this night, Dorian reaches in and tears the man’s tongue clean out of his head before tossing it to the horrified spectators.

‘Anyone who touches her ends up like him!’ Shaw roars, dropping the severed hands to the floor and looking at the many, many eyes on him. ‘She. Belongs. To us! Does anyone have a problem with that?’

Everyone shakes their head and steps away.

Then, all three men look at me.

They’re furious.

And all that anger is aimed straight at me. My mouth is dropped in horror. They've torn a man apart, and no one is doing anything about it! No one is defending him or screaming for justice.

‘Come here,’ Shaw growls, pointing to the spot before his feet.

I shuffle back.

‘Don’t you dare,’ he warns. ‘If you run, you won’t like it when we catch you. Come. Here. Pixie.’

Fuck that. I turn on my heel, and I fucking run.

Chapter 15

Icrash through anyone in my way, barging past them as I run with all my might towards the woods.

Run. That’s all I can think.

Run!

Before I can reach the trees, one of the human guards blocks my path. Skidding to a stop before I collide with his chest, I divert. At every turn, I’m blocked by Shaw’s people. Those with scales. With tails. With horns. Every one of them looks at me with amusement as I try to escape their wrath.

I have nowhere else to go but the castle. They’re right behind me. I know it, but don’t dare look.

Inside, I run harder, slamming into doorframes, sprinting through rooms and tripping up the stairs. All three of them shout my name and get angrier and angrier the more I refuse to stop.

I hurtle into the bedroom and slam the door shut behind me. It doesn’t close before it’s thrown open, and I’m tossed backwards onto the floor, landing on my backside.

Looking up, Shaw’s the first to step inside. Archie next. When Dorian steps through, he closes and locks the door behind him.

‘Nowhere left to run now,’ Dorian growls.

I turn and drag myself to the safety of the underside of the bed.

‘NO!’ I scream as they grab my ankles and pull. My fingernails claw at the wooden floor as they pull me back. ‘NO! GET THE FUCK OFF ME!’

Shaw hoists me to my feet and pins me, still thrashing, to his body.

I slap his face and scream in rage.

His blood doesn’t boil, and he’s entirely unaffected by my attempts to use blood magic against him.

---