much that she often “forgot” to feed. “What have you been doing to the bottles of blood that are delivered to you?”
Holly jerked her chin, but he wasn’t about to let go. Reaching out, he used his thumb to wipe away that smear of blood she’d created deliberately as a distraction. With another woman, he might’ve sucked his thumb into his mouth, turned the act sensual. But this wasn’t another woman. “Answer the question or we’ll be here all night.”
Smiling that sweet fake smile, she said, “Why drink bottled blood when I can have it fresh from the vein?”
“You haven’t fed in at least three months.” Most vampires couldn’t go that long—but Holly wasn’t quite a vampire. “And you just went into bloodlust.”
She blinked, frown lines forming on her forehead. “No, I didn’t. That was . . . the other thing.”
Uram’s taint. “Trust me, Holly. I know bloodlust when I see it.” His voice turned cold, like the blood of the vipers who’d been part of his Making. “If I wasn’t here to stop the bloodlust before it took full hold, you could’ve ripped out multiple throats today. And humans don’t come back from the dead.”
Her skin went pale. “I’m going to be sick.”
Releasing her, he reached over and pushed open the passenger door. “Do it outside.”
But though she hung out the side and retched in harsh pulses, nothing came out. Her body had been too parched for the blood to reject it. Finally slumping back in her seat with the passenger door open to the cool night air, Holly said, “I hate the taste of blood.”
“You liked mine just fine.” If he’d let her, she’d have gorged herself into a purring stupor—and fuck, that image of her lushly sated looked too good in his mind.
Her shoulders grew tight. “Like you said, I’d starved myself. I didn’t taste it.”
That might even be true. “Why would you risk going into bloodlust?” he asked in the viper’s tone that was as much a part of him as his eyes. “You want to become your Maker?”
“Fuck you,” she said again, but her hands were fisted and her voice trembled.
Reaching across to pull the passenger door shut, Venom began to drive. He went straight to the Tower garage. Once there, he got out and went around to pull open her door. Uncharacteristically, she’d stayed inside. “Let’s go.”
A grim-eyed look. “Are you going to turn me in to Dmitri?”
“I don’t tattle, kitty.” Holly had always been his to train—but he’d been reassigned to the Refuge because his duties to the Tower came first. He’d only had a single session with Holly per week—and that had been long-distance, making it difficult for him to gauge her development. That was no longer an issue. And it was becoming clear to him that, regardless of their skill and affection for Holly, the people who’d trained her on a day-to-day basis hadn’t understood what it was they were training.
She got out, her heels making click-clack sounds on the floor as they walked to the elevator. He pressed the button for his floor. When Holly went to press the button for the much lower floor where she had a room, he stopped her. “We’re not done yet.”
Her small hand fisted again, her body all but vibrating next to his.
He knew the only reason she wasn’t defying him was that she understood how bad things could’ve gone tonight: Holly was terrified of herself. That had always been part of the problem. She wasn’t like that bouncer at the club. For him, fear would save his life. For Holly, fear could either cripple her—or turn her into a deadly threat who had to be executed.
They rode up in silence, exited in silence. He got lucky that no one else was up on the floor right then. Venom took Holly straight into his apartment—a massive sprawl with floor-to-ceiling windows and a large empty space in the center of his sitting area. There was no carpet there, only a square of highly polished stone that appeared to be a design feature that echoed the electric fire set into the opposing wall.
Shutting the door behind him, he locked it, then took off his suit jacket. Holly had gone motionless on entering, seemed to be taking in the apartment. He could tell it wasn’t what she’d expected. But she could have the tour later. “Take off your shoes.” He pulled away her clutch and threw it on a nearby chair.