Page 146 of Lured By Shadows

My hand gripped tighter, and I pulled accidentally, ripping the small cock clean off the human’s body.

“Oops,” Rupert echoed my inner monologue, a grin spreading across his face.

I held the bloodied meat in my hand, the warmth of it still slick and wet, then flickered my gaze up to Carter, who was now screaming to the point of losing consciousness.

“Keep him awake,” I growled.

Rupert sent shadows inside to keep the mind alive while I held the small, severed piece to his face. “Open wide,” I chuckled cynically.

He tried shaking his head, so I used my mind on him. “Cease your movement.”

He immediately obeyed, his body stiffening under my command. I shoved my hand so far down his throat I felt the convulsive gagging, hearing the wet, choking sounds emerge from him. “Taste it, mongrel. You know you enjoy choking on your own cock.”

Rupert giggled, watching the show with gleeful delight. He did quite enjoy a good entertaining spectacle. It had been some time since we had indulged ourselves as such, time that passed in a blur of ceaseless tedium, but tonight was a reprieve.

This is quite fun. Rupert hummed in my head, and I only rolled my eyes at his comment.

I had definitely torn through Carter’s body, and he was going to die soon. Before that, I had to declare it. I removed my hand, and his throat made a wet, strange sound. Tears and blood spilled from his eyes and wet his cheeks; blood splattered on the floor from where his cock had been ripped off, pooling in a dark stain. His eyes rolled to either side, and I wasn’t quite sure he could even see me, but I knew he could hear me… for now.

“The only worthwhile thing your pathetic life ever amounted to was touching my beloved, though even that became your ruin. I was prepared to spare you. She asked it of me, and for her, I was willing to endure the insult of your continued existence. But you mistook mercy for weakness. You sank your hands deeper into something that was never yours to reach for, using her for your own selfish gain. So now you will die for it. All because you lacked the restraint to leave my little lamb untouched. My Ira.”

I spoke the final sentence, and he slumped down slowly before his face plummeted onto the carpet, a wet thud echoing through the room.

“Gods, humans are delightful when they die,” Rupert swirled excitedly. “Oh—are we going to kill the others?”

“Yes, but we must make haste. Ira will wake soon, and I want to be by her side.”

Rupert sighed dramatically, but he nodded. “Fine, but let me kill them! I want to string their bodies at the police station! Ah, that will be delicious!”

I had to endure the rest of his ceaseless imaginings for the next three hours. After we had completed our fun, I rushed back to Ira. She needed me more than ever, and I had hoped she hadn’t awakened.

My body moved quickly through the halls, and I caught the pitter-patter of her human heart. It still had traces of the drugs running through it, but at a normal pace. That alleviated some of my worries, but I was now upset that she had awakened. Not only that, but she had awakened alone, and I had not been there for her.

My eyes narrowed, and I opened the door to find her halfway off the bed.

I inhaled slightly, and the smell of her delectable blood flooded my senses: the warm, honeyed scent of her cycle and the intimate musk of her arousal still clinging to her skin. I had been smelling blood all night, but hers sent a ripple of intense carnal desire rushing through me, hardening my cock and making my mouth water with need.

Shit.

I had forgotten she was due for her cycle, and I had to walk in on her when I was at my most vulnerable. Slaughtering those humans had brought out the most animalistic side of me, and her blood only made it so much worse. It was making it nearly impossible not to fly across the room and feed on her, to taste her life on my tongue and drink from the very source of her pleasure. To feed on every aspect of her.

My cock strained painfully in my pants, and my fangs stretched out without permission, aching to sink into her flesh, to feel her pulse against my lips.

There was no way I was going to be able to just walk away.

I was going to lose all my senses and show her exactly who I was. What I was.

37

There were things I knew about Culver now. Truths that had settled into my chest with the heaviness of something permanent. I had been brought here unknowingly, against my will, but I wasn’t sure what to do with all the information. The way I felt about him hadn’t deteriorated. If anything, it showed me just how different he was. I had always wanted a man who wouldn’t leave, and now that I had one, he was obsessive and a stalker. He had seen every part of me, and instead of running from that, he wanted even closer.

Why?

It was a strange question, but I needed the answer.

A dull ache twisted through my lower belly and yanked me back to the surface with slow, viscous clarity. I blinked against the soft blur of waking, swallowing hard as sensation rushed back in pieces. The fog I’d blamed on trauma or whatever I’d been given the previous days wasn’t that at all. The pain pulsing low and raw inside me was familiar in another way.

I had started my period. Cruel timing, but somehow fitting.