Page 4 of Knave

A warm body, smelling of cigarettes and luscious blood, sank down beside her on the stairs. The rows of steps stretched across the back wall in the dance room, and at the top rested a stage with several tables and chairs. On some nights, bands would play up there but tonight it was couples drinking, kissing, and groping.

Mouse ignored the mortal, but the brazen male shifted closer so his arm was pressed to hers. She again inhaled his intoxicating scent buried within his flesh when he finally spoke, “What’s a pretty girl like you doing here?”

“I’ve come to satisfy my appetite,” she said, not meeting his gaze.

His index finger brushed her hand, delicately stroking, and the urge to rip it off flowed through her. Bold, touchy mortals didn’t sit well with her. Not since that day long ago when a mortal man forced Mouse against a library shelf, hiked up her skirts, and had his way with her. Even after fighting against him, she’d been silent through it all, until she’d gotten home and finally cried, truly screamed.

“You look a little young to be here,” the man purred in her ear.

Mouse clenched her jaw as she met his dark irises. He wasn’t unattractive—his chestnut hair was parted on the side and his chiseled cheeks were sharp under the lights. He wore a black fishnet shirt and dark trousers with too many buckles. She’d been twenty when she was turned, but the majority of humans believed she was much younger.

“Do youlikeyoung girls?” she cooed, then bit her lip, setting the trap.

He grinned, wolfish, his white teeth shining too brightly. “That depends.”

“I’m sixteen,” she lied, waiting to see if he took the bait.

“That’s older than I’m used to.”

Rage filled Mouse, her veins throbbing hot. She wanted to rip off this mortal’s head, tear out his heart, break him into pieces, lap up all his blood. “Follow me to the back alley,” she said softly, calmly, “and I’ll do anything you’d like.”

“Maybe you should get my name first.” He licked his lower lip. “I’m Liam.”

“I’m Margo.” She used her real name most of the time with humans because she didn’t want them to have the one that felt more like her.

Liam stood and Mouse led the way through the dancing crowd toward the back door. She tried not to breathe too much as the bodies pressed against her, begging her to taste them.

Outside, lamps along the building lit up the area. Several people lingered, smoking and laughing. Mouse glanced over her shoulder when Liam’s hand clasped her arm. Her rage only intensified at his touch. Since having her virginity ripped away, she hadn’t allowed a male or female to get close to her in a sexual sense, not even a kiss besides pressing her lips to a throat, a wrist, a thigh, to sink her teeth into their flesh to sate her appetite.

They walked to the side of the building and entered a dark, damp alley that reeked of the rubbish bin.

“You said you would do anything I like?” Liam’s breath was hot on Mouse’s neck as he backed her into the brick wall while unbuckling his trousers. “Suck my dick.”

Mouse blinked and pressed her lips into a tight line. “Bollocks, I changed my mind.” She leapt forward, slamming his back against the opposite wall. Her fangs dropped and she pierced his throat as he sucked in a sharp breath. Before he could feel any pleasure from her bite, she tore out his throat and drank. The thick liquid against her tongue tasted like the richest of heavens. So good, sogood. Mouse couldn’t stop, not even to rip out his heart and drink that dry too. She wanted more and more, andmore. Wanted it to block outeverythingthat had happened at the Ruby Heart Palace…

After every speck of the mortal’s blood was inside her, she dropped his body, letting it collapse against the ground. Another murder that would go unsolved. A well-deserved one.

Her pocket wiggled once more, and Mouse sighed, taking out her blue and yellow caterpillar. Des, head tilted to the side, peered up at Mouse with beady black eyes.

“He deserved it, and I think you agree because you didn’t try to stop me as you did in the donor building.”

The caterpillar wrapped her body around Mouse’s index finger, giving it a hug.

Mouse glanced down at herself, soaked in scarlet. She needed to stop making a mess out of her meals, but she wanted it to hurt. However, now she couldn’t very well go traipsing into the club looking like an axe murderer.

Placing Des back into her pocket, Mouse darted out from the alley and away from the club, using her immortal speed. Rav’s old portal was the nearest one, but she hadn’t been back to Scarlet since her escape. Chess was there, preparing for the new palace that he and Ever would share on the border between Scarlet and Ivory. The construction had already begun, yet it would still be a while before they all moved in.

Gripping the skirts of her dress, Mouse bolted into the woods. She ran through the night, unable to ignore her unwanted thoughts that always managed to slip in. In that blasted Queen of Hearts’ palace, every weapon imaginable had pierced Mouse’s heart. Numerous blades had carved bloody smiles across her throat. Thorned whips had flogged her back, tearing her flesh over and over again. Her head shoved into a bucket full of water, in and out, in and out, until she drowned. Bled dry with Rav’s scientific contraptions. After tortures such as those, a vampire needed fresh human blood to fully heal on the inside, but Mouse had never been given any. Only the same cold blood bags day in and day out. It caused her cravings to intensify, and the effects lingered. Maddie couldn’t know—Mouse didn’t want her sister to feel any more guilt. The Hatter had been through enough.

Mouse had always been a bit vicious when it came to her appetite. Unlike Maddie, she had killed some of her prey. Liked it.Loved it. But those humans had deserved it, just as her mortal abuser had when Maddie slowly killed him with hatpins and knives. Regret still haunted Mouse that she hadn’t been the one to break him apart all those years ago.

Instead, she’d recently killed the twenty donors.

Rav had created a monster.

Her.

Mouse shoved that day away, the humans’ screams, the way her teeth had plunged into their throats, shredding them, how she’d sucked every drop of their blood from her fingertips.

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