Page 62 of All Your Bloody Lies

“I heard you, Xera. You were about to say cinnamon.” His voice is barely above a whisper, too subdued, as if he doesn’t want to raise his voice at me. As though he sees me as some delicate princess, fragile and easily hurt. But I’m not. I’m no damn baby doll. I’m ademon. A creature of the night. I prey on the men and women that see me as weak, and drain them dry for daring even to think I am.

“Do you know where that word came from?”

He already knows the answer to the question, and I’m glad he understands that it is rhetorical, and doesn’t respond.

“Ever since you came into my life, Kai, you’ve made me weak,” I declare, watching his eyes widen with a mix of surprise and protest. But I refuse to give him the chance to interject. “I’ve been fighting for ten years, six of which I’ve had the strength to inflict the pain that was once inflicted upon me. Then you showed up... and fucked everything up for me.”

His eyes are darting between mine, and I know this is going to hurt him, but I don’t care.

I do care—and that is what scares me.

“If you had not been there, anywhere in my life, the word ‘cinnamon’ wouldn’t exist. I wouldn’t have been thinking of wanting anyone to save me from what Dominic was about to do to me again. In that moment, yes, I was absolutely terrified. Sick to my stomach knowing that he and his brother were going to do whatever they wanted to in that place. But, at some point, I would have got them in private. Whether it would have been through slipping my blood into their system, or just by giving them the best and last fuck of their lives.”

The set in his jaw accompanied his balled-up fists. This obsession for him, it is dangerous. I’m not worth this anger he has, I need him to see that.

“I would have been able to kill two of the five men that took my life from me, Kai, and you stripped that from me.”

He shakes his head without saying anything, allowing me to speak until he decides it’s his turn. “Then, youclaimingme in front of them. As if I am your mate. Your property.Yours. Do you understand that you have taken the only power I have?” I shrug my shoulders and throw my head back, “Telling them not to touch me when that is how I can get close enough to manipulate and kill them, is like pulling the fangs from a Vampire.”

“They would grow back,” he says with contempt in his tone.

“As will our distance.” His laugh surprises me, and I cock an eyebrow, “What is so funny?”

The smilethat spreads across his face clearly tells me I am wrong. “Break-ups aren’t really my thing, little demon,” he says, his words catching me off guard. What the Beyond? We aren’t even together, what is he even talking about? “If you think for a minute—now—I’m going to be leaving you alone, you’ve really lost your mind.”

I step back, “You really are delusional.”

He sucks air in through his teeth and places his hands into his pockets, pulling slightly on the pants that were already dangerously low on his hips. “Actually, I think it is you that is delusional. What did I tell you about telling me what I won’t do? I sure as shit am not ‘distancing’ myself from you.”

“Do we really have to go back to trying to kill each other?” I’m exhausted by this conversation, “Because, Kai, I will kill you if you make me.”

He smiles, “No you won’t.”

My nostrils flare, “You are infuriating! I will kill—” Before I can finish my sentence, I find myself flat on my back, the unforgiving hardwood floor sending a jolt of pain through me. I wince, but before I can react further, his fangs sink deep into my shoulder, and I let out a scream. One of his arms wraps around my neck, while the other pins my wrist down, leaving me utterly immobilized.

Realization hits me like a tidal wave as I grasp the fact that he is feeding on me.

Actually feeding on me.

The draw of my blood through my veins makes me twitch and my eyes roll back. It’s pure euphoria, a sensation that lifts me out of my skin. As it courses through him, I can feel its journey, an electrifying flow surging through every part of his being, breathing life into him. The experience is akin to a dreamlike state where I become utterly lost and never want to wake up.

They say that being fed on by a Vampire will turn you on, and they were not wrong. My entire core throbs with such need that my hips rise to meet his. As though I were some animal in heat, the moment I feel his hard cock against my thigh I grind myself against it.

His shoulders tremble as he pushes his groin against mine, and the anger and pain that had been tearing me out of this apartment turns to lust and need.

As though painful for him, he releases my neck and grabs my jaw, forcing me to look at him, “Kill me, Xera. I just drank enough ofyour blood for you to tear my entire body apart, including my head.” His breathing is heavy, and I can feel him fighting the ache to go for more.

Fucking Belial himself.

“You are insane, Kai!” I grit through my teeth.

He puts his lips to the crook of my neck, his fangs press against my skin, “Kill me now, little demon, because I will never stop. You are my obsession and will be until I fucking die.” He pierces right at the vein in my neck, and my free hand grips at his hair, the initial pain of the bite melting into absolute pleasure that wraps around me.

My body trembles as he pulls more from me until my eyes roll into the back of my head and my thighs are soaked. I am so lost in the ecstasy that it brings me, I hadn’t realized that I came, drenching the floor below us.

He groans, wrenching himself away from my neck. His forehead presses against my chest, his breaths heavy and labored. “Kill me.” He leans up, and takes the back of my head into his hand and lifts me to look at him. His eyes are now consumed by a haunting shade of red, with only the pupils remaining as a trace of their former selves. “End your suffering since you hate me so much.”

With veiled eyes, I clench my teeth together so hard I can feel them begin to ache.

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