“We should get going.” I clear my throat around the sudden onslaught of arousal that floods my system.
Cal pulls away, lips wet and swollen from Barret’s kisses, and turns towards me slowly. “Did you like watching me kiss him, Vi?”
Barret’s eyes immediately smolder, turning heated, as he glances between me and his friend with curiosity.
Honestly, I have no idea how I’m feeling right now. A part of me is jealous…mainly because I want to be in between them while they’re kissing. Like the vampire meat in a sexy sandwich. At the same time, those thoughts are dangerous to have. Extremely dangerous. Cal and Barret are two of my closest friends, and the last thing I want or need is my attraction getting in the way of that.
“Let’s go,” I squeak, flames entering my face. Cal laughs heartily, patting Barret on the shoulder as the gentle giant steps up beside me. Pink dots both his cheeks as he wraps his pinkie around my own.
“You okay, Cheese Curd?” he asks softly, eyes focused straight ahead.
“I’m just peachy.” My eyes automatically flicker to his cock, which is still hard from Cal’s kisses. “Super duper peachy.” Did I sound like a strangled hyena? Fuck me.
“You’re prettier than a peach,” Barret says, his blush deepening. “Cal is more in the peach category.”
“I heard that!” the man in question exclaims immediately. “And I’m offended. What—or who—is prettier than me?”
“Violet,” Barret answers automatically, and god help me, but I swear I melt into a puddle of goo right then and there.
“Y’all are good for my ego,” I tease, releasing Barret’s hand to face them both. Walking backwards—and trusting they would stop me before I tripped over anything—I point first at Barret and then at Cal. “But keep talking. Boost my ego. Make me fly.”
“Make you fly?” Cal asks with a snort. “Really, Violet?”
“What? Isn’t that a saying?”
“You’re saying it, so yes,” Barret pipes in helpfully, and when I flash him a grateful smile, he positively preens. Cal merely pinches the bridge of his nose.
“It is not a saying. No one says shit like that.”
“Violet just did,” Barret points out, and I could kiss him. But I don’t, of course. Because we’re buddies and nothing more. Absolutely nothing. With a capital N. And a capital O. And a capital T. And a capital—
“Violet!” Cal screams abruptly, and I turn just in time to see Alex’s father point a dagger at my neck. His black eyes are swimming with pure, unrelenting darkness, like the deepest depths of the ocean. Pure madness and hatred reflect back at me. Alex stands behind his father, looking small and shaken with his pasty skin and tousled black hair. I can’t help but note that his mother doesn’t appear to be with them, and I feel a pang of sadness for the woman who has no doubt lost her life to these games.
“Hello, vampire bitch.” The man smiles, revealing a row of perfectly white teeth.
“Don’t touch her.” Instead of enraged like I would’ve expected, Cal’s voice is a low and seductive purr, curling around me and dampening my panties. Immediately, I realize that he’s fighting Alex’s dad in his own way—through pure seduction.
Hunger momentarily blazes in the man’s dark gaze before he shakes his head vigorously.
“Your seduction isn’t going to work on me,” he hisses menacingly, still holding that damn blade to my neck. One look confirms it’s a god-blessed dagger. Because why the fuck not? It’s been almost an hour since someone tried to kill me. I consider that a pretty good run.
“Let her go,” Cal hisses, any and all pretenses diminishing. I can feel his presence behind me, but I don’t dare look over my shoulder. I know he won’t do anything to put me in danger, including step closer.
Out of my peripheral, I spot Barret standing there with a perplexed expression on his face. He isn’t looking at me, however, but at Alex, the skin between his eyes crinkled.
Fuck, I can’t let this man hurt Cal or Barret. I need to keep him distracted long enough for them to sneak away—if they can get their heads out of their protective asses for more than a minute and realize that leaving me is their only chance at survival.
“Why do you hate me so much?” I ask bluntly. “And shouldn’t I get the name of my potential murderer?”
He laughs humorlessly, the noise scratching at my heart. “You don’t deserve my name, pathetic bitch.”
Okay, Bitch it is, then.
“Bitch” continues to glare at me with unveiled animosity. He looks as if he wants to shove the dagger into both of my eyes, then up my nostrils, then in my mouth, and finally end the night with some kinky anal knife play.
“You killed my brother,” Alex answers when it becomes apparent that Bitch isn’t going to.
“What?” I screech. Yeah, I killed a few people throughout my life, but most of them have been hunters sent to kill me. Tit for tat, or however that saying goes.
“You didn’t even have the decency to bring his body back to his family,” Bitch hisses, spittle flying in my face. “Instead, you kept his head like some demented trophy.”
Kept his head…?
Oh, fuck.
“Bob?” I squeak, remembering the severed head I preserved and kept in my bedroom. He was the first man I’d ever killed—and for a just reason.
“His name was Patrick,” Bitch bites out, his face crumpling with pain. “And you killed him.”
“You don’t understand,” I plead, lifting my hands in surrender. “He tried to rape me.”
Bitch doesn’t stop his relentless pursuit, but I notice Alex’s inscrutable expression tense. The hand holding the knife lowers marginally.
“What?” he gasps, staring at me as if he doesn’t quite recognize me.
“I was younger, maybe thirteen or fourteen. He cornered me in an alleyway and slapped a hand over my mouth. He began to pull down my pants.” I tremble at the memory. I remember how scared I was, how small I felt, as his cock pressed against my ass.
“Don’t scream, little one.”
And I hadn’t. Instead, I had spun around and sank my teeth into his neck, pulling away skin until blood bubbled out. He died instantly.
“My son would never do that, you lying whore!” Bitch screams.
Alex is shaking his head vehemently, denial clear on his face. His eyes harden suddenly as he steps around his father, his blade raised.
“You’re going to die for what you did to my family,” he growls, pulling his arm back.
“No!” Barret races forward, shoving me away just as Alex plunges his blade into the man’s heart. Barret’s face creases in confusion as he stares at the dagger protruding from his chest, sickly green blood pooling around him. Genuine fear flashes in his unfathomable eyes as he glances helplessly at me and then Cal before crumpling to the ground.
“No!” Cal screams in anguish, charging towards Alex and his dad. Before he can capture them, they dematerialize in a cloud of black smoke. “No!”
“Barret?” I ask, dropping to my knees beside the giant man. Blood bubbles from his lips as he opens his mouth to say something, his eyes pleading with my own. “Barret?” I whisper again. Tears begin to trail down my cheeks as I stare at my best friend lying in a puddle of his own blood.