Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
“I was just—”
“Snooping. I’m aware.” He stares down at me, the shine in his eyes particularly predatory. “You’ve scoured a few floors so far. Find an escape yet, little rabbit?” He smirks.
“Let go.” I step back from him, but not too far. Not enough that I’m in the pool of darkness. “No one said I couldn’t come down here.”
“No one told you not to jump off the balcony either. The danger there is obvious, just as it is here.”
“Shouldn’t you be out doing mass murder?” I flinch at my own words.
“I’ve just returned from a nice trip to Philadelphia. The humans there raised a decent resistance.” He shrugs. “I wiped them out all the same.”
I glare up at him. The hate must show on my face because his smirk only deepens. “Does your heart bleed for them? For all the people your sister betrayed?”
“Don’t talk about my sister.” I fist my hands, rage blotting out my reason, my logic, my fear.
“Don’t talk about the one who started all this?”
“You started this!” I fire back. “You came to her, remember? You offered her a deal. You—” The headache slices through my skull again, piercing me like an arrow. “Fuck!” I press my palm to my temple.
“Don’t overwork your pitiful human mind.” He takes my elbow and pulls me along beside him, leading me from the dark corridor. “It wouldn’t do for you to fall apart before I’m done with you.” He turns quickly, his hands at my shoulders, pinning me to the wall. “Speaking of—”
“Hey!” I shove at his hard chest.
He strikes at my throat so quickly that I don’t know it’s happening until I feel the sting, the crush of his lips against my skin.
“Stop!” I’m paralyzed, my skin heating as he pulls from me. I grip his shirt, fisting it as I shove against him. I may as well try to push the ocean away from the shore. He doesn’t let go, doesn’t give me even a hint of softness, of kindness. He only takes. I whimper, a stolen sound that passes my lips. The burning rage that flares inside me turns into something languid, something that swirls lower in my belly and turns me liquid. Shame mixes with my fear, and I tremble at the desire he’s forced into my veins.
He pulls away, then swipes his thumb across his fangs and onto my wounds.
“Don’t.” The only word I can gasp out.
“Don’t what?” he taunts, eyes shining. “Don’t take what I want from you?” He inhales, his lips twitching into a cold half smile. “You betray yourself. Your cunt is slick for me right now.”
“Stop.” I shudder, the truth of his words cutting to my core. “You did this. Y-your bite is—”
“Poison.” He finishes for me. “One you mortals succumb to every time. One bite, and your body opens for me, your thighs spreading, your cunt weeping.” He inhales again, his eyelids fluttering. “I can taste you, little rabbit.” Leaning closer, he’s all around me. Caging me. Keeping me in his predatory gaze. “I could take it all, and you’d let me. I could fuck you raw, right here, right now, and you’d come harder than you ever have in your pathetic human life. Is that what you want?” He looms over me, his words burning me in licks of flame. “Do you want me to make you scream?” He glances at my lips, then his gaze slides lower along my body.
“Leave me alone.” My voice is weak and trembling. I can’t catch my breath.
His eyes go cold, his sneer returning. “And if I don’t?” His gaze flickers to my mouth again.
I have no answer, no way of stopping him. And that part of me his bite has charmed—that part of me wants him to take me, to shove me against the wall and plunge inside me. It wants his cock, his fangs. Tears spring into my eyes at my own betrayal.
“Going to cry for me?” He grins.
“I hate you.” I force the words out between my clenched teeth.
“Liar,” he coos, his voice sultry. “Never forget what you are. You are available to me at all times. Your blood is mine. Your body is mine.” He backs away from me, the sneer in his voice like spikes in my skin. “Now return to your room like a good little rabbit.” The compulsion takes hold, forcing my limbs into motion.
I want to fight, to scratch his eyes out, to do something, anything to take back even the smallest scrap of what he just stole from me. Instead, my body carries me away from him, his presence receding behind me as I mindlessly climb the stairs. My tears fall in silence, my heart numb, my soul in ribbons.
8
Recovered Journal of Dr. Georgia Clark
April 13, Year 1, Emergence Era
Blood. All my hopes rest in it. I’ve studied it for as long as I can remember. I fell off the swings when I was still little, crimson welling from a cut in my palm. I ran home to Juno who was home from college. She went to the bathroom for a Band-Aid. By the time she got back, I’d swiped my blood onto her microscope—didn’t even use a slide—and was trying to get it into focus. I just had to see what was inside me, to know what I was made of.