Page 9 of Club Blood
I thrashed against Narcissa’s hold on me, determined to reach the door and run for my life. My throat burned as I called out for someone to come and save me, and then I felt it.
The red hot, burning pain of something piercing my skin.
Narcissa bit into my skin, sinking her canines into me, silencing my scream. Pain scorched through my veins, making my very being wish for death. I glanced over to the windows, searching for Laura in the sea of shadows as my vision darkened.
And then everything went black.
6
MERCY
His blood tasted like fire.
In the same way that it felt to swallow molten lava, his blood slid down my throat uncomfortably, scorching each and every bit of soft tissue it could find. I gargled and forced myself to swallow, to stifle the venomous bile that rose to meet it. I couldn’t look away. I couldn’t peel away. My tender fangs slid deeper still, my tongue smoothing over the wound and capturing each and every drop. Agony washed over me but I couldn’t stop— the sickening combination of desire and absolute torture paralyzing me.
It put my own beating heart into a frenzy, the crazed look in my eye beginning to rise as my predator took over. Nathaniel was once a mentor, a colleague, and—despite my current situation—at one point he was my friend. He taught me about this life, and showed me the path that he’d promised would lead me to my Kingdom. He was the one that taught me to never let my guard down. It was a shame he didn’t follow his own advice. And now that thing inside of me, the disease, theKnown. . . it didn’t see the old friend in front of me. All it saw was prey.
My venom flooded his bloodstream, causing that erratic beating of his heart to still. He wasn’t dead, not yet. While it would take a redblood minutes to die from our bite, it would take one of the Known a few hours. Our strength could’t outmatch the parasite that sat in our veins, waiting to strike. He slunk in my grasp, waiting for me to finish. It was as if his body was giving me the permission I didn’t know I needed. What I did know, though, was that I wanted absolutely nothing left of him to survive. He had grown into something terrible, something that shouldn’t be allowed to live. And honestly? Nate had just been standing in my way for too long.
It took a second before I came back to the moment, and when I did my eyes creased at the corners in a wince. The girl’s scream bounced off the walls— loud and startling. It was painful; it was grief and agony, trauma and hurt, it was a sound that pinched my ears and struck deep in my chest. A sound unlike I’ve ever experienced in my eternal life. I couldn’t think and I could barely remember how to breathe. She needed to stop so I couldbreathe.
“Narcissa, grab the girl and shut her the fuck up! I need to finish this before his guards even notice he’s not back downstairs.”
Anything to stop that toe curling scream of hers. The minute it was out of my mouth I wanted to take it back. Narcissa could take that anyway she wanted to. Would she kill her? Snap that pretty little neck of hers? She was her own terrible type of creature. I felt my heart tugged in her direction, my eyes blurring. My teeth snapped together to keep myself grounded but I just had to look. I had to see those eyes again before they went lifeless. I wanted her to stop but I don’t think I wanted her dead. Right? She was here at the wrong place and the wrong time, she didn’t deserve to die. Even in this body, even with my teeth several inches into the flesh of someone I once admired, I was still weak.
My head swung over my shoulder. I could feel the blood slide off my lips and down my chin. She wasn’t dead. Narcissa had a tight grip on her and I think the moment her eyes found mine a new kind of horror flooded her face, but she wasn’t dead.
“I’m sorry you had to witness this. You should never have been here.”Again, the words were tumbling out of my mouth before I could stop them.
It might have been the first time I had ever said those words aloud but truthfully, Iwassorry. At the discovery of Nate’s incoming guest, my immediate assumption was that he had found and coerced another donor in my club. It wouldn’t have been the first time he’s asked to swap— but it didn’t make sense. I had never seenherbefore, and after personally sifting through each contract I knew their faces better than I knew my own. She wasn’t a donor, not someone that looked like her.
It was only for a moment, and I doubted she could have seen it— time moved differently for her kind—but my eyes could only focus on her the moment she walked in on Tusker’s arm. There was something about that girl that made me stir, an unnatural fear in her eyes that I couldn’t shake. Donors at my club were always nervous, but there was an edge of excitement vibrating throughout their bodies. This girl had panic laced in every feature. Her face was an open canvas, and she let me explore each and every feeling that crossed it.
She was never meant to see something like this. So why was she even here?
It was naive of me to think that all of Nate’s companions were consenting. He was a slimy, conniving piece of shit, and I wouldn’t put it past him to think he owned everything that stood on two legs. No woman, human or otherwise, would be without free will inmyclub, though. If he so much as stepped up to the front doors with a redblood on his arm, he wasn’t coming in. I’m sure he hated me for it, most men did. But those were the rules.My rules.
I always made sureAmbrosiawas secure for women, and I swear to God if he thought he was going to hurt her,here…
He would never take what wasn’t willingly given, not under my watch. I turned back to face him and frowned. Rage was building again, and I could feel the animal in me fighting against its cage. The bars bent like a stiff rubber, it was becoming so easy for me to let go.
“You motherfucker.” I breathed in a whisper, just low enough that no one could hear it and then I drove my hand into his flesh. I watched it tear easily at the touch of my nails, as easy as ripping paper. When Nate collapsed onto the floor in that disjointed way only our kind could, I heard her scream again. I was far more prepared for it this time, and it didn’t have the same effect on me as it did before.
Nate’s heart slipped from my fingers and dropped onto his dead chest. I crouched and snapped my fingers, a small and tiny flame appearing at my fingertips. They lowered to his heart, and a wide smile crawled across my face as I watched it catch fire. The relief was palpable when I was met with the crackle of the flames.
“Narcissa, grab a fire extinguisher. I’m going to need someone to clean this up so we can leave.” No response.
“Narcissa?” My head turned away from Nathaniel for the last time, and my eyes widened in shock when I took in the view behind me. The girl was still struggling, Narcissa claiming her with a mouth on her collarbone. A hiss escaped me.
“Heel,” I said, the growl evident in the command. I watched as her body stiffened, but she didn’t lift her head from the girl’s chest. I should have just let her finish, I was the one that told her she could have the girl.
But that was before I saw her.
“I said,heel, Cissa.”
Blood dripped from her face when she raised it, her eyes meeting mine in a swift, passionate glare. The girl slumped in her grasp. Seeing her like that made my lips curl up over my teeth.
“Clean this up,” I tossed my head in the general direction of the tiny flames. She looked like she was about to protest, but thought better of it in the end. Good, I didn’t have time to find a new second anyway.