Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 65066 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65066 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
“If she wanted to stop, she’d safe out.” The vampire motions impatiently, and a waiter offers him a drink. Augustine drinks greedily, wiping water from his lips. He doesn’t offer any to his punished submissive.
The redhead is limp, her eyes half closed. I peer into her face, gently raise an eyelid to check her blown pupils. “She’s too far gone to give a safe word.” I may not be into this stuff, but I know how endorphins work. Load after load drops until the submissive is too drugged to even speak.
“She likes it.” The vampire goes to a table and picks up a riding crop. I step between him and the redhead. Between the vampire and his prey. It’s probably the first time anyone’s told this vampire no.
Augustine looks shocked. It’s a good look for him.
“I said stop.”
“Very well. It’s time to eat, anyway.” With a flick of his fingers, he orders another club servant to come forward and loosen the rope around the young woman’s wrists.
She slumps, a cascade of red hair falling over her freckled face. Her head rolls on her neck. She’s totally blissed out from endorphins. Another sweetblood. A submissive, willing vampire victim.
It’s not my business. I shouldn’t get involved. But the redhead’s lips part and she turns toward me and I catch her scent…
And suddenly I know why she caught my interest.
I lean forward. This one is a shifter. Not a wolf or bear, but something close. Fox, maybe. That would match her red hair. I glance between her thighs. She’s mostly shaved but for a small groomed patch. Natural redhead. Definitely a fox.
How did I not notice her animal before? Probably because it’s shy, submissive. Plus all the cloying smells of vampires in the club. Prey animals don’t make themselves known like dominant ones. And this one is sweet as can be. My bear is fighting to burst forth and carry her off to a safe, dark place where he can protect her.
My instincts war a moment. But I have to remember why I’m here. I swallow and step back and act disinterested. A bouncer more concerned with the club’s reputation than protecting a willing sweetblood. “Frangelico know you’re feasting on a shifter?”
“She belongs to me.”
“Shifters don’t belong to vampires.”
“Says the king’s guard bear.”
Technically the vampire king and I have a partnership, but I don’t correct the vampire.
With a wicked smile, Augustine snaps his fingers. A minute later, club servants have provided a seat and handed over Augustine’s submissive. He shifts her in his arms, almost tenderly arranging her limp body as I watch. My fists clench as Augustine’s fingers spear the auburn hair, tugging the woman’s head back to bare her neck. Without ceremony or gentleness, he strikes like a viper, burying his fangs in her neck. Her body convulses but the blissed out look on her face turns to ecstasy.
Fuck this. I pivot and head back to the throne in the center of the room.
“We can make them like it, you know,” Frangelico says. He’s holding a goblet filled with a red liquid. A nice show, but it’s just wine.
A gasp makes me turn again. The redhead thrashes in her vampire master’s arms, ecstasy turning to anguish. Augustine shoots me a nasty look. He’s making it hurt on purpose. The redhead’s hands beat at his suit. Her blood stains her pale skin, his shirt collar. He’s making a mess.
Her cries sharpen, growing frantic.
“Leave her alone,” I growl.
“Augustine,” Frangelico calls softly before I can stomp back over there. The younger vampire turns with a snarl, but lowers his eyes. “Enough,” orders the king, and Augustine bows his head and motions to a club employee to take her away.
“You can’t save them all from my sired’s sadism,” Frangelico murmurs as I watch the redhead disappear behind a curtain of a private alcove. She’s safe now. For the next hour, she’ll be wrapped in a blanket, given orange juice and chocolate and whatever else she needs to come safely down. For a moment, I toy with the idea of shoving aside the curtain, kicking out the club employee, and caring for her myself. I reject the thought as soon as it surfaces. The redhead is cute, but she’s none of my business.
My bear bellows in protest.
When I turn back, the vampire king is watching me closely. I shake my head. “Not gonna save them. Like you said, they like it.”
The king regards me over steepled fingers. “This club caters to all sorts of desires. Some desire pleasure mixed with pain. We have a word for them. Sweetbloods.”
“Yeah, I know.” The vampires love masochists. The pain releases endorphins that make the blood taste sweeter, or some shit. I’m about to tell Frangelico where he can shove his sadism, when a new scent hits my nose. Wolf.
“Frangelico,” a female voice calls. A leather clad she-wolf strides forward, followed by a huge wolf with a pierced eyebrow. Sheridan and Trey. I give Trey my full attention. He and I don’t get along. I used to be a bouncer at his Fight Club but when he found out I also work here, things went sour. Fast.