Page 103 of House of Crimson Kisses
RED
Octavia is panting by the time I’ve finished coming and released her out of the broken restraints. Her eyes are harried rivers. They flow with a torrent of tumultuous emotion.
She’s pissed and aroused in equal measure, and for the first time since she tried to take my memories, I’m less resentful towards her.
Who knew an eye for an eye has some merit after all. She rubs at her wrists, there’s a patch of skin so raw I’m amazed it didn’t break.
It must have, though; she heals fast enough for the wrist to be fixed already. She must have found it exceptionally hard to watch me take instruction from another. And that thought makes another smile spread across my lips. Perhaps I’m more of a sadist than I realised. Something ruffles against my skin. I hesitate as I unclip the broken ankle cuff. My finger hovers over her calf.
“What’s wrong?” Octavia says, her voice strained.
I frown, looking up at her. “Do you feel everything a little... well, more, now?”
“It’s because of the bond, I think,” she replies.
“I see.” I close my eyes and concentrate until I can sense more of her, more of us. I think I’d been so cross I was trying to block it out. But in this focussed state, I detect another heartbeat under my skin. It’s an alien sensation, like a splinter, but it fits so naturally, the same way the last puzzle piece slides into the picture. And there’s something else. Further away, separate. Like it’s in the air.
I stand up and grip her arm.
“Red...?” Octavia asks, her tone dropping into a warning.
“Don’t you sense that? There’s something wrong. Like a tension in the atmosphere. It’s electric but not the good kind. I can’t explain it.”
I release her arm but wobble on my feet as I get dressed.
“You’re hungry again?” she asks.
“No.”
“Verity,” she snaps. “I know you’re hungry, you can’t hide it from me. Besides, your skin has paled.”
“I mean, yes, I am. But we don’t have time, I’ll eat later,” I say, turning to the room to locate the anomaly.
I scan the dim crowd, but my vision isn’t as good at Octavia’s and it’s really dark in here. My body starts moving without me consciously controlling it.
“Red,” Octavia barks. She must throw on her clothes behind me because she speeds up to me in a rush.
She scans the crowd and then a hiss escapes her lips. “Shit. I sense it now, too. Front door.”
She rushes off ahead of me to try to handle the situation. When I catch up to her, I see it’s a scuffle and some of the tension I was holding drops out of my shoulders.
“Find them!” a human shouts.
My head whips around as I process what he said. Who is he looking for?
“Mike’s got one of them outside,” another man shouts.
Prickles run up my arms. Something tells me this isn’t a club fight. Whispers ripple around me. Layers and layers of words rushing and whistling until I find the kernel at the heart of the hubbub.
“Get the dhampir before the vampires claim her.”
My blood runs cold.
Octavia has disappeared into the ruckus by the front door, and I’m suddenly very aware that I’m all on my own. I have to get out, I want to make sure Lincoln and the other two are okay. I sweep around to the other side of the club, through the staff corridors and out the back exit.
But the Whisper Club is either not on my side today or it’s distracted with what’s happening at its other entrance because it deposits me in the main fucking market area.
I bang on the door, and Broodmire appears. He grimaces at me.
