I pressed the pedal a little harder.
I didn’t know what was going on in my father’s head, but I knew I didn’t like it.
* * *
Haley’s panic rushed through our bond, just as I had a bonus orgasm from her halfway to the house. Mere minutes before we could be there, her panic had taken over.
As soon as I slid the car into the driveway, I knew we were too late. The lights were on in too many rooms, and the two security guards at the front were face down on the stairs, bleeding out. Utter waste.
I ran up the stairs without even turning off the car. I followed the panic that plowed through my brain, grateful for the massive amounts of blood I’d taken. I wouldn’t have been able to hold back the emotion from the connection otherwise.
But this was helpful as I was able to find her in the house right away.
It wasn’t what I wanted to discover, though.
The vampire was already there and had Ginter by the neck with his fangs buried deep into his neck. Eyes rolled back, blood dripping out of the vein, sucking every last drop of life out of the man. Haley was frozen in terror on the bed, covered in the blood of a fight between Ginter and this vampire.
My claws unleashed, and I drove them into the vampire’s spine.
His high shriek pierced the night air as he let go of Ginter’s neck, dropping the man to the floor, not quite dead.
The vampire turned to me…and it was a female.
A female vampire I didn’t know. One I had never seen before. She smellednew.
Hissing at me, she tried to spin away off my claws.
I shoved them in harder and drove my fangs into her neck, ripping the flesh open.
She screamed and desperately tried to crawl away from me.
I pulled on her blood, trying to pry her memories from her. If she were new, it wouldn’t be hard, but I couldn’t find them. She was holding onto them desperately, pushing them back from her blood again and again.
If she wasn’t going to let me have them, she wasn’t going to live.
I was going to be hungover from all the blood I’d taken tonight. But I didn’t mind. I drained her, using a single claw from my other hand to slice the matching vein on the other side. I didn’t even care if it was wasteful at this point. She just needed to die.
The last of her blood crossed my tongue, but she wasn’t dead yet. With her fresh intake of blood, she could still survive. I reached behind me and yanked out my sword.
My blood-red lips pressed against her ear. “Keep your memories then. Your life is mine.”
In an easy move, I stepped back, retracting my claws from her back as my other hand, wielding the sword, swung in an easy arc. Her head hit the floor and rolled a half dozen times before her body joined it. I snarled and turned to where Ginter lay dying at my feet.
Nial was in the doorway. I motioned to the terrified woman on the bed. “Take her. She’s yours.”
He struck instantly, grabbing her in Thrall.
Much to my chagrin, she had yet another orgasm as he drained her.
I was going to turn to jelly with all this climaxing and feeding.
Kneeling next to Ginter, he was just as handsome as his picture. A shame. I would have liked to keep him awhile to drink from before killing him or sending him to the dungeons for others to use.
“This will be fast. If I had known using you against Cato’s plan was an option, I would have. Your little machinations in your human arena mean nothing—not when it comes to the vampires. But we will not let him wipe you out. You’re too much fun to taste and chase.”
I yanked him into Thrall and took the last of his blood, which wasn’t much really.
A quart, maybe. He had been very close to dead.
