Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 112849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
There’s no blood anywhere but I spy two holes on their necks, most likely sampled by Saara. It’s then that I notice their legs. Both their ankles are smashed in, flattened, so they can’t walk or escape. If it wasn’t for the heavy stench of death and decay in this place, I would have noticed the adrenaline and horror flowing from them.
“Who are they?” I ask Saara, trying not to meet their fearful eyes.
“They are your gift,” Aleksi says. “An apology dinner from us. Come now, feast.” He gives me an eerie grin, breathing in deep. “I can smell how hungry you are.”
I shake my head. “No. No, this isn’t right. You won’t hold me back if I get carried away.”
“You have your friend here to mind you,” Saara says, placing her hand on my shoulder and leaning into my ear. “I already had a taste of them,” she whispers. “Their fear is the sweetest I’ve ever had. You should be so honored to get your fill from them.”
I close my eyes. “But who are they?”
She pauses for a moment, her nails digging sharply into my leather jacket for a moment. “It doesn’t matter who they are. Young adults separated from their church group. I don’t know. They’re here now. No one will ever find them here, probably no one will notice them being gone.” She pulls back and frowns at me. “I’m starting to think you aren’t appreciating my gesture.”
Remember to play nice, I remind myself, though this is making it quite hard.
“Brother,” she snaps at Aleksi, while still looking at me. “Bring me the girl. She at least has nice tits he can eat.”
“Saara,” I warn her, but Aleksi picks the girl up by her throat and lifts her with his supernatural strength so that her broken ankles are dangling above the floor, then brings her over to me.
The girl pleads with her eyes, bright blue eyes, for me not to hurt her. She knows now we are vampires, she knows what’s going to happen to her. Even if I refuse to feed from her, she won’t be getting out of here alive.
“Valtu,” Bitrus says from behind me. “You don’t have to do this. I know you’re hungry, man, but we can go back to the Red Room.”
I open my mouth to agree, I get ready to turn away, but suddenly Saara takes a knife and slices the woman’s throat wide open, right below the jaw.
Her scream gurgles as the blood rushes out like a waterfall. The sight of the crimson river, the sharp scent of horror-filled blood, combined with the deep hunger inside me, flips a switch.
“Drink her before she goes to waste,” Saara says. “Suck her dry.”
I watch as it splashes all over her tits, over her belly, down to the floor where it splatters and for a moment I think of Dahlia and I think about all the times I wanted to feed from her, wanted to taste her blood and didn’t, and I guess there’s only so much restraint a vampire can stand.
I let the monster inside me take over.
I grab the girl, my mouth at her neck, and I drink and drink, losing myself to the pure frenzy of it, letting myself be the creature of darkness that I am. For once I don’t have to hold back. She’s already dead and dying and I can just let myself go.
But the hunger only spurs on more hunger. When she’s bled out, all her blood coursing through my system, I set my sights on the man. I don’t see that tears are streaming down his face, I don’t see the pain in his eyes, I just see another meal.
I’ll put him out of his misery.
I lunge for him, leaping on top of him like a panther and then I’m tearing into his jugular, ripping out flesh and muscles and arteries, and I am just gnashing teeth and claws and everything bad and dangerous in this world. Humans foolishly pride themselves on thinking they are the deadliest predators on earth, but if they knew at all that vampires exist, they’d be quickly put in their place.
Soon I’m as satiated as I’ve ever been. I can’t remember being so full of blood, it would have been the last time I enjoyed murdering someone. And while I don’t want to say I enjoyed what I just did, it does feel good to feel satisfied for once. It feels part of my nature.
I look up, dazed. I’m sitting on the ground, my clothes drenched in blood, beside the body of the dead man, barely recognizable now from what I did to him. The woman is a few feet away where I left her as a molted heap on the ground. Saara and Aleksi are standing behind her, Saara with a book in her hands, and Bitrus is nowhere to be seen.