Born in Blood Collection Volume 1 - Cora Reilly Page 0,30

could even get outside before he caught up with me, but I’d never make it off the premises. He turned around and removed his vest, revealing a black knife and gun holster. His fingers closed around the handle of the knife, his knuckles already turning red from the impact with the wall, and he pulled it out. The blade was curved like a claw: short, sharp and deadly. It was black like the handle, so it couldn’t easily be seen in the dark. A karambit knife for close combat. Who knew Fabiano’s obsession with knives would ever be of use to me? Now I could at least identify the knife that would cut me open. Hysteric laughter wanted to fight its way out of my throat, but I swallowed it.

Luca stared intently at the blade. Was he trying to decide which part of me to slice open first?

Beg him. But I knew it wouldn’t save me. People probably begged him all the time, and from what I heard it never saved them. Luca didn’t show mercy. He would become the next Capo dei Capi in New York, and he would rule with cold brutality.

Luca came toward me and I flinched. A dark smile curled his lips. He pressed the sharp tip of the knife into the soft skin below the crook of his arm, drawing blood. My lips parted in surprise. He put the knife down on the small table between the two armchairs, grabbed a glass and held his wound over it, then watched his blood drip down without a flicker of emotion before finally disappearing in the adjoining bathroom.

I heard water running and then he returned into the bedroom. The mix of water and blood in the glass had a light red color. He approached the bed, dipped his fingers into the liquid and then smeared it onto the center of the sheet. My cheeks flushed with realization. I approached him slowly and stopped when I was still out of arm’s reach, not that it would do me much good. I stared down at the stained sheets. “What are you doing?” I whispered.

“They want blood. They get blood.”

“Why the water?”

“Blood doesn’t always look the same.” He would know.

“Is it enough blood?”

“Did you expect a bloodbath?” He gave me a sardonic smile. “It’s sex, not a knife fight.”

He will fuck you bloody. The words were burnt into my brain, but I didn’t repeat them.

Just how many virgins have you taken to know about this? And how many of them came willingly into your bed? The words lay on the tip of my tongue, but I wasn’t suicidal.

“Won’t they know that it’s your blood?”

“No.” He walked back over to the table and poured Scotch into the glass with the remaining water and blood. His eyes held mine as he downed it in one gulp. I couldn’t help but wrinkle my nose in disgust. Was he trying to intimidate me? Drinking blood really wasn’t necessary for that. I’d been terrified of him before I’d ever met him. I’d probably still be terrified of him when I bowed my head over his open casket.

“What about a DNA test?”

He laughed. It wasn’t exactly a joyful sound. “They will take me by my word. Nobody will doubt that I’ve taken your virginity the moment we were alone. They won’t because I am who I am.”

Yes, you are. Then why did you spare me? Another thought to never leave my lips. But Luca must have been thinking the same because his dark brows drew together as his eyes roamed the length of my body.

I stiffened and took a step back.

“No,” he said in a low voice. I froze. “That is the fifth time you shied back from me tonight.” He set down the glass and took the knife in his hand. Then he advanced on me. “Did your father never teach you to hide your fear from monsters? They give chase if you run.”

Maybe he expected me to contradict his claim to be a monster, but I wasn’t that good a liar. If there were monsters, the men in my world were among them. When he arrived in front of me, I had to tilt my head back to look him in the face.

“That blood on the sheets needs a story,” he said simply as he brought the knife up. I flinched and he murmured, “That’s six times.”

He hooked the blade under the edge of the bodice of my wedding dress and slowly moved the