Page 9 of House of Crimson Hearts
“Yes, she’s a superior being now. You hunters are all the same. Just because we feed on your life source, you think us monsters. But you’re the hypocrites. You kill us frivolously with flimsy reasoning and yet you’re the one indulging in a little backdoor blood. At least we’re open about our consumption…”
“You’re twisted,” I spit.
“And yet, I’m not the one whose heart rate is elevated or pupils are blown. And I’m not the one who's aroused by the smell of my blood… No, if anything, I’d say you’re the sick one, darling… Because you want to fuck me again, for real this time. I’d bet the only thought running through your head is what my cold little cunt tastes like.”
My teeth grind against each other, but I have no comeback.
Her eyes lower to my crotch, the shredded fabric. “You hate me, you gut me, cut me… and yet, you still want to fuck me. Interesting.”
A sick smile peels across her mouth. Two perfectly white, perfectly sharp fangs peeking out from her smile.
Heat floods my face. “What just happened… That was… I would nev?—”
“—Really?” She shifts right up to me. Her knee pressing against my swollen cunt. Shock freezes me in place. She leans into my neck, inhales the scent of me. “I beg to differ.”
But this time she faces me, her pupils are as wide as mine, and that gives me a smug sense of satisfaction.
I sneer. “Looks like I’m not the only one who wants to fuck,” I say.
I hate where this conversation is going. She’s wrong. I have zero desire to fuck her. What happened was purely the blood in my system. That was the mistake—allowing myself to taste her.
This is unbridled rage. It has to be. I shift on the spot, the prickly shrub leaves poking my back. Unfortunately, her leather trousers stick to my pussy in a way that implies it’s more than rage. What the fuck is wrong with me? Vampires repulse me. I shrug it off. They’re designed this way. To be alluring. It’s part of their ‘charm’. It’s not real, and she fucking knows it. She’s just saying shit to wind me up. This will go away. Once she’s seen Amelia through that first month of the change, she’ll grow bored with torturing me. She’ll find another human to turn and she’ll leave me alone.
Someone meanders through the park, a woman. Two in fact, drunk and wobbling. Octavia speeds across the pebbled path as one of the women takes a tumble. Octavia catches her before her head crunches into a giant rock.
She saved her life.
The woman rights herself, takes one look at Octavia and screams the kind of night-splitting shriek reserved for murderers and horror shows.
“GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME, FREAK!” she screams. The women run, fleeing Octavia’s presence.
I’ll confess, there is a moment where I feel the injustice of this. I’d heard of Octavia’s reputation, the fact the city hates her. I hadn’t seen it in action though.
Octavia returns to me, her cheeks aflame. I open my mouth to apologise for their behaviour, but she merely continues as if it never happened.
“What I want to know,” she starts again, “is why a hunter like you would sink themselves to the level of dosing. Hmm?”
I open my mouth, genuinely about to justify myself to her. And promptly shut it.
“Goodbye, Octavia. Hope you fall on a stake.” I shift to the side, push off the bush and walk off. I shrug my jumper off and tie it around my hips, hiding my shredded trousers. She gets out of the way, sitting herself on the garden bench, draping her arms over the back of it.
She sniffs a laugh out. “Tell the Chief I said thanks for the blood bags.”
So that’s where Roman and Marcel went. I wondered who the Chief gave them to. My bestie lives in another city, New Imperium, and she had a load of trouble with her old mentor, Roman. I helped her out of a patch of trouble a few months ago. Their princess, Morrigan, banished the culprits, and I offered to bring them to our city to serve as donors until the vamps got bored and drained them dry.
“Tell her yourself. When you tell her about me buying blood... I’m sure that’s your plan now, isn’t it? To ruin me?”
Octavia raises an eyebrow, she pouts, “Oh, I’m going to ruin you alright. But I’ll give you a free pass on the blood this evening. I figure you owe me, though.”
I shake my head, the audacity. She’s an idiot if she thinks I endure going to the Whisper Club for any reason other than the fact I know what I do stays private.
“How gracious of you. But I don’t owe you shit.”
“Oh? And what makes you think that?”
And this is how I win. “I only buy inside your club. Your mansion keeps the secret for me. Isn’t that why it’s called the Whisper Club?”
Her expression narrows. She knows I’ve won. Her nose twitches like she’s suppressing the irritation.
