Standing behind the torches set into the rocky ledge above them, she couldn’t make out any of their features, but their eagerness was palpable on the air. Her mind flashed back to her ancient history textbooks to the Coliseum and gladiator fights.
Was that why they were here? Were they supposed to battle each other to the death? Because if that was the case, they were going to be extremely disappointed. She wouldn’t allow these freaks to turn her into a monster for their entertainment.
But what if one of these women attacked her? She’d have no choice but to defend herself then. She didn’t want to be what these people were trying to turn her into, but she wouldn’t let them kill her without a fight either.
The hair on her nape rose as she became aware of another presence in the arena. Her mouth went dry, and a primal fear, unlike any she’d ever known, crept through her.
She became fully aware of what the term fight or flight meant as adrenaline spiked her heart rate. A cold sweat broke out on her body as she lowered her gaze from the spectators and turned her attention to the other side of the pit.
She instantly recognized her mistake. They weren’t the predators; they were the prey.
On the other side of the pit stood a man so covered in filth and dried blood on his arms and shoulders that she couldn’t tell what color his hair was or see any clean spots on his flesh. A scruffy, dirt-choked mustache and beard covered his face. His broad shoulders spoke of strength, but his visible rib bones and protruding collarbone belied that image.
The jeans hanging low on his waist revealed the sharp edge of his hip bones. She suspected they once fit perfectly, but now a tug would pull them free. Multiple punctures marred his shoulders and upper arms. Fresh blood trickled from some of the wounds, while dried blood caked around a few others.
No chains bound his ankles, but manacles encased his wrists. The chain between the manacles gave him at least a foot of space to move his hands as he flexed and unflexed them into fists.
However, it was not the man’s chains or his battered and filthy countenance that caused a scream to lodge in her throat. It was not even the way his shoulders heaved, his nostrils flared, or the murderous look on his face that gave her pause.
No, it was the burning red of his eyes that made the world lurch and her sanity come into question.
She suddenly no longer wanted to know why they’d taken her. Not having an answer seemed far preferable than the one staring at her. It wasn’t an answer staring her in the face; it was death.
Death was locked into this pit with her, and it would not stop until it destroyed every last piece of her.
There was nowhere to go, but everything in her screamed to run and never look back. She was about to turn and flee when the man burst into motion and flew across the pit.
Chapter Three
Lucien experienced a moment of lucid thinking as he took in his surroundings. Then they shoved five women into the pit with him, and all sense of reason vanished. They were five human women who all had delicious, life-saving blood pumping through them.
Fire burned through his veins and tore through his insides as hunger clawed at his stomach. Like a rat trying to flee a flame, it gnawed and clawed and tore at his intestines as it shredded what remained of his sanity, caused his head to spin, and almost knocked him to his knees.
If he went to his knees, he couldn’t feed, and he so badly needed to feed.
He hadn’t known it was possible to be so starved yet still live. He hadn’t known it was possible to be so mad with hunger yet also so coherent and focused on one thing… assuaging that hunger with those women.
Their blood and lives would sate the ravenous appetite that had taken control of him so many days, weeks, months ago. He had no concept of time anymore or any idea how long he’d been like this.
He’d once been a man, a good one too, but he could barely recall that man, and he no longer gave a shit about anything other than feeding and making the insanity stop.
Lucien didn’t realize he was moving or hear the rattle of his chains as he raced across the pit. He didn’t know he’d reached the first woman until the softness of her flesh rubbed his palms as he gripped her upper arms.
He didn’t know he was striking until he sank his fangs into her throat. Animalistic sounds issued from him, but he couldn’t stifle them as the sweetest blood he’d ever tasted filled his mouth. Dimly, in the back corner of his mind, he realized they’d turned him into a monster, but he didn’t care.
The second the creature’s fangs pierced her flesh, it felt like someone had taken a fork, stabbed into her neck, and released acid into her system. With every beat of her heart, that acid ate away at her insides until it melted her muscles and liquidated her bones.
The only reason she didn’t scream was that every part of her froze. She couldn’t move to push this monstrous, foul-smelling beast away from her.
Inwardly, the scream grew until it became an echoing cacophony in her head. She tried willing herself to lift her hands and shove him away, but her muscles had become encased in a block of ice as the acid tore at her insides and burned away everything she was.
He was taking his second pull of her wondrous blood when pain exploded inside his head. More of her blood filled his mouth, and he was desperate to keep feeding, but the hammer battering against his skull made it impossible.
Desperate to sate his thirst for blood, but unable to take any more of the pain, he retracted his fangs and staggered back. He blinked against the light as he tried to focus on her. Something inside him screamed to kill her for causing him such agony, but something else surged to the forefront.
And that something else was ferocious in its need to protect her. A brief clarity pierced through the haze of his insanity as he took in hair the color of a crow’s wings and eyes the color of cognac.
The sweetness of her blood burned itself onto his tongue and into his cells. He craved more, but as he stepped toward her again, the alarm in her eyes stopped him.
Eat. Feed. Blood. Blood. Blood. Make it stop. Kill her!
The incessant urges pounded at his brain, but he couldn’t bring himself to feast on her again. He didn’t understand any of this. He was starving; how could he deny himself the wonder of her blood when he’d just discovered it?
But even as he thought that he couldn’t hurt her again, he reached for her. She recoiled and staggered away, which only made him more determined to hunt her. She’s mine, and she’ll learn where she belongs.
He had no idea where the thought or the conviction behind it came from, but once it hit him, it wouldn’t let go. He lunged forward and seized her upper arms again. The squeak she emitted pierced through his overwhelming impulse to make her his.
With the pain fading, Callie’s senses were coming back, and all of them screamed at her to run. Her brain lumbered to process this information as the creature pulled her forward and tossed her over his shoulder.
Lucien gazed wildly around the pit for some way out of it. When his eyes fell on the women closest to him, they scampered away from him like cockroaches from the light. Above him, a murmur went through the crowd, but they seemed more confused than upset by his actions.
They weren’t the only ones confused. He had no idea what he was doing or what was propelling him, but he had to get her out of here.
His hunger still churned like a tumultuous sea inside him, but getting her to safety was what propelled him now. He just didn’t know where to go to accomplish his mission.