Zodiac Academy Fated Throne - Caroline Peckham Page 0,215

with all of our combined power holding this shield up, I knew it wasn't going to remain in place forever. And I wasn't sure I liked our chances against the Reaper Hounds once it broke.

M y mind was clouded by bloodlust as I hunted the blue haired girl through a sea of stone statues, the call of her blood like nothing I’d ever known. I needed it. I had to have it, rip into her veins and drink every last drop. There was a thundering noise in my head drowning out all sounds of her, but she had to be close. I could sense her here, hiding in the dark.

I shot around the room as fast as I could and finally my gaze fell on her huddled behind a statue.

I grabbed her off of the floor and she screamed as I threw her against the statue to try and pin her in place. It toppled backwards from the force I used, smashing into pieces and I snarled as I lost my grip on her. She hit the floor among the rubble and scrambled away, casting a ring of blue and red fire around herself to keep me back. But nothing could. I’d burn for her, I knew that in the remnants of my sanity. I’d stand in the flames of hell and die for this girl’s blood, but first I’d sate this thirst in me that devoured me from the inside out.

“No! Lance – stop!” she cried as I dove through the flames, pinning her beneath my weight on the ground.

The scent of my own burned flesh slid under my nose as her hands pressed against my arms to try and keep me away, her skin blazing with the heat of the sun but I refused to flinch away from the pain of it.

Her blue hair fanned out around her and I gazed at the thrumming pulse at the base of her neck, knowing with absolute certainty that I was going to drink. My fangs pricked my tongue and her hands clawed at me as she tried to stop me, but I was one of the strongest creatures in this world. She couldn’t escape. She’d have to kill me first.

“Lance!” she screamed and I growled against the pain of the burns she left on my arms.

I captured her chin, forcing her head sideways to expose her throat and dropped my mouth to her flesh. The vein in her neck was pulsing with the rapid beat of her heart, desperate for me to sink my teeth into it, but the scent of her made me pause.

She was the sweetest thing. Honey and sugar and all things good. She reminded me of a fairground, a school, a secret.

Another growl raked against my throat as the beast in me begged me to bite, but a different part of my soul was holding me back.

I saw memories scrolling through my mind of this girl. Her standing before me for the first time, her hair dipped in blue, her eyes wide and curious. Then her sitting in my class, me stealing looks at her I had no right to steal. The taste of her lips against mine for the first time, hidden at the bottom of a pool, then the way she’d looked dripping wet outside my front door with a single word on her lips. A word that meant everything to me. Because it meant her. My girl. My queen.

“Blue,” I groaned, releasing her chin so she turned her head to look at me with fear in her deep green eyes.

I couldn’t bear her looking at me like that and in the haze of my mind, I leaned down without really making the decision as a thread of fate seemed to drag me toward her. I pressed my mouth to hers, transfixed.

Her hand slammed into my cheek and I grunted as my head wheeled sideways.

“What the hell?” she demanded, panting as she tried to shove me back.

The spell finally let go of me fully, the power in the air dissolving, freeing me, returning my mind to me. And clarity was a bitch.

“Shit.” I kneeled back, pulling her up to sit and anxiously checking her over for injuries, snarling at the bruises I found.

“Did I hurt you?” I asked in a panic, a weight crushing my chest at what I’d just done.

She gaped at me then shook her head. “Are you…you again?”

“Yeah,” I growled. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

“It’s alright. But what the hell happened?” she