Page 13 of Blood Owed (Blood Mafia 1)
“I’m not.” I am, I totally am. Furrowing my eyebrows together, I wipe my psychotic smile from my face and scowl at him.
“You’re cute when you’re mad.”
For freak’s sake, he needs to stop being so goddamned charming. This isn’t normal. None of this is normal. Not me feeling somewhat excited. Not the adrenaline bursting through my veins, urging me to stab him. Not the heated way his gaze swoops over me.
Is he checking me out?
“Come here, tiger.”
My first reaction is to growl but that’d give him too much satisfaction. Realizing I can’t escape him by staying cornered, I do the exact opposite of what I’ve been doing—running—and step toward him.
His eyes widen slightly and delight flashes across his face. “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.”
“I’m going to stab you.”
He licks his lips. “I can’t wait.”
Finally giving into the demented side, I tilt my head and smirk at him. “You’re crazy.” The knife is still firmly gripped in my hand. He won’t take me without a very bloody fight.
Those ocean blue eyes meet mine. “So are you.”
Then he moves fast as lightning. Before I can stab him, his fingers are wrapped around my wrist and his other hand strikes my arm hard, making my fist open of its own accord. He uses the grip on my arm to spin me to the side and away from the falling knife which sticks into the wooden floor with a thunk.
His eyes flash with something I don’t understand, and he grabs my leg, pulling it up as my body slams into his. It’s almost like we’re dancing, except he’s here to kill me, and I’m turned on despite this fact.
When he stares down at my knee, which is still covered in blood, my heart thumps against my chest. Blood Mafia members are notorious for being the most dangerous and deadly supes. The ones you don’t want to run into in an alley late at night.
Wolves are deadly and dangerous, but they’re flies compared to vampires. Vampires like blood. My knee is covered in blood. My killer is still staring at my red skin. He swipes his finger over a bead of blood and places it in his mouth, closing his eyes as he savors the flavor.
Gross.
Fighting isn’t going to save me, but I can’t stop trying to escape. He’s distracted so I lean in and bite the stupid vampire’s neck as hard as my pathetic blunt human teeth let me. He stiffens and groans. Those strong hands squeeze me closer to him, and I feel his cock grow hard in those ridiculously hot sweatpants.
This is not the reaction I expect, so I jerk my mouth. When he grunts, I tug on his skin harder and use my nails to gouge his arms. He still doesn’t release me. A deep rumbling in his chest, a sound more terrifying than a growl of a wolf, has me freezing in terror.
Now I’ve pissed him off.
“Stop fighting.”
I should feel every ounce of resistance in my body disappearing. Vampire compulsion is strong enough to make a person forget their own name. Funny thing is, I don’t feel anything. Not only do I not melt into a puddle at his feet, I get even angrier at him for trying to use compulsion on me.
The rational side of my brain is screaming at me to do something, anything, to make him think he’s got the upper hand. With no other ideas, I decide wrapping my legs around his waist and burying my face against his neck is enough to make me seem complicit.
While I’m breathing in his masculine and musky scent, I frantically try to remember what I learned in school about the different supernatural beings. I shouldn’t have screwed around so much during class, but when my teacher taught us about all the crazy things supes can do and how easy it would be for them to slaughter us all, focusing became hard.
Vampires. Sunlight does affect them, though they won’t shrivel up and turn to ash. An extreme sunburn and weakened powers are about as drastic as it gets for them. Most stay indoors for those reasons. Buffy’s stake, garlic and silver won’t deter them for long. You can stab a vampire in the heart, but the body will heal itself in about fifteen minutes. To truly kill a vampire, you’d have to sever the head from the body and burn both in different locations. For a human to be able to have a chance of doing that before the supernatural healing kicked in, well, it would take a miracle.
Their brains are superior due to an extended life cycle and supernatural mutations. Hence the compulsion. Right, compulsion. When a vampire compels a human, they become a puppet. Doing whatever is asked of them. I shiver when I think of all the nefarious things this stranger might ask me to do. Of course, I won’t do those things since I’m not under his spell, but I’ll have to put on a show until I have a chance to escape.
His palm burns against my skin when he slips his hand under my shirt. When he rubs up my spine, I bite my lip and bury my head deeper against his neck. This is ridiculously embarrassing. He’s trying to compel me, scratch that,kill me, and I’m two seconds away from grinding my hips into his.
“Much better, little tiger. The easy way is always less fun, but I don’t want to hurt you.”
That’s the biggest lie I’ve ever heard.
I keep my mouth pressed into a firm line, holding back every stupid thing I want to say. Letting my tongue loose will only result in a quick death. I’m not ready to die.
His fingers float over my skin. This time the shiver makes me squirm, and I hear him chuckle.
