When the lion above me fled into the woods, I sat up and stumbled to my feet to reach Christian in time. The lion had him pinned on his stomach and was about to take his head.
I flashed at him with impossible speed and grabbed one of the lion’s fangs. With a hard yank, I broke his tooth at the root. The unexpected attack gave Christian enough time to turn and punch the animal in the face.
The lion crumpled to the ground and shook his head. His long tongue lapped at the blood dripping from his mouth, and his face wrinkled in anger.
Spying the dagger on the ground by a tree, I jogged around the animal. My foot skidded down an uneven patch of earth, and I fell on my side.
Dammit, I missed the city. I missed concrete and level floors. I missed electricity and makeshift weapons found in alleyways. I missed fire escapes.
“Come here, you blundering little shitebag.” Christian stalked toward the lion in the moonlight, but the feline kept his distance. “Jaysus wept.Can we move this to the shadows?”
I crawled over to the dagger and gripped the muddy handle. Blood stained the blade, matching the crimson on the back of the lion’s neck. A switch had flipped inside me that took me from Raven Black to the Shadow, back to the days when I used to trap criminals and kill them for sport. That part of my life was so ingrained in me that I didn’t think I’d ever be able to erase it from my DNA.
In that moment, I didn’t care about dying or even living. I only cared about winning.
When the lion catapulted toward me, I flipped through the air and landed beside him. Our movements were a blur of blood and moonlight. I continually dodged his attacks without using my flashing ability, as if the Mage inside me was gone and all that remained was a Vampire. Attuned to the sound of his body pivoting, I countered the attack each and every time, wearing him out as he struggled to catch me. I hadn’t even realized my fangs were out until I jumped onto his back and drove them into his neck.
My thighs clenched tight against his thrashing body, and my fingers gripped his mane. With the dagger still in my hand, I reached below his neck and sliced his throat. Warm liquid spilled onto my hand. The lion crumpled beneath me as he surrendered to death. The compulsive need to drink gripped me in the same way the need to breathe does when deprived of oxygen. I didn’t dare crawl beneath him while he was still conscious, so I ripped a large gash in his thick coat to get to his blood. Only then did I sample a taste of pure Shifter in animal form.
Blood used to always repulse me. The more evil the man, the more vile the taste. Only Christian’s had ever coated my palate like ambrosia, and that probably had to do with his being a Vampire. After recently feeding from Christian, it must have changed how I experienced things. Or maybe it was the fact that I’d never tasted blood from a Shifter in animal form.
In any case, that blood was so sinfully delicious that I crushed him in my arms.
More. I need more.
“Raven!”
My instinct to hold on to my prey kicked in when Christian attempted to pry us apart.
“Raven, not when he’s dead.” Christian hauled me off the lion and held me in his iron grip with my back against his chest. “Neverdrink from the dead.”
“Why?” I rasped.
“You’ll get sick. Some go mad. Dead blood is unpredictable.”
I went limp in his arms. “Where’s the other lion?”
“Long gone.”
“We should go after him,” I said drunkenly, the back of my head resting against his shoulder.
“You were magnificent,” he said, putting a shiver up my spine. “That’syour Vampire nature, Raven. When you fight like a Mage, you think too much. When you fight like a Vampire, you don’t have to think at all. You just… feel.”
When my feet touched the ground, I turned and looked up at him.
Christian cast his dark eyes on mine. “What do you feel now?”
“His power. His anger.”
Christian ran his finger across my lower lip. “Consider this your first day of school.”
“University of the damned?”
“Focus, Raven. Not all Vampires are good at this. Someone should measure your skills. Tell me everything you can read in his blood.”
I ran my tongue around my mouth and licked up every drop. “It’s different than anything I’ve had before. It was like… like I could live in his skin. I wasn’t thinking like a human anymore. I could taste his life like a curse on my tongue, but I’ve had darker. And…”
“What?”
