Page 10 of A Bond Beyond Blood

My dead dog.

All dead things.

Vampires are dead.

Vinny is a vampire.

Vinny is—

A breeze fluttered the tendrils of hair hanging around my face.

Standing in front of me now.

Too close.

Too dangerous.

I breathed deeply and braced myself.Then I opened my eyes to his, nearly crimson now and mere inches away from my own.

His fangs were extended, just the tips of them exposed where they rested against his full bottom lip.

Fangs.Because he is a monster, Jacqueline.

Regardless of how beautiful he was—with those strong arms and that dark brown hair trimmed close to his head, those intense Italian brown eyes—

Dammit, Jack, focus!

Vincenzo Ricci was a monster.Amonster.

I swallowed hard and he smirked.His gaze flicked to my throat, zeroed in on the rapid beat of my pulse.He bit down on that full bottom lip and a spot of blood pooled beneath the tip of his fang.

The desire to lick that spot of blood should have terrified me, but only worked to make me want him more.

“Have you changed your mind about me?”he asked, his voice low and threatening, but somehow still stoking that flame of desire between my legs.

Shaking my head, I took a step back and he tilted his head inhumanly slowly.“Don’t run from me, little Fiorino.”

Not a request but a warning.

Do not run.

All running would do was inspire the monster’s need to hunt.

And once that happened, I’d have no chance of survival.

He’d explained that at the very beginning of our training sessions and had hammered it into my brain countless times.“Face your attacker head on,”he’d told me.“Fight back if you can.But never—ever—run from us.”

Us.Because he was one of them.

With a curt nod at the reminder, I took another step backwards, slowly inching away from the predator in the room.My heart drummed a million beats a minute as I edged further and further away from Vinny.Even though he’d been training me for months, I doubted I could truly take him in a fight.And, even if I could, I was currently armed to the teeth with fake fucking stakes.

A lot of good those would do me if he decided he was done training and came for me.

He watched me like a hawk, his eyes still ringed with the red of his desire—or thirst.There was no way to tell the difference, as the two were so closely related for his kind.“Same time Friday,” Vinny said, his voice tight and controlled, evidence of his restraint.

I should have said no, should have put an end to these training sessions and found some other vamp willing to teach me how to kill their kind.One who was turned when he was eighty or something so I wouldn’t always feel the need to rip his clothes off.

One who was safe.Well,safer, at least.

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