Bane's Choice (Vampire Motorcycle Club #1) - Alyssa Day Page 0,19
his brain quit working.
“Maybe, before we get naked, we should stop talking and start kissing,” she whispered. “Because if you’re a lousy kisser, the deal is off. I can’t put up with another lousy kisser, after—”
Having no desire at all to hear about whoever the soon-to-be-dead man was who’d been a lousy kisser, Bane simply decided to shut her up.
With his mouth.
He’d show her that…
Show her the…
Show her how…
Hell. He didn’t know what he was trying to show her.
It was hard to show anybody anything when his entire world was exploding.
So, instead, he just kissed her. He kissed her, and light and sound and color disappeared into a maelstrom of touch and feeling and pure, primal sensation.
He kissed her, and she made soft little moaning noises, and his body hardened beyond want, beyond need, beyond desire, to a place he’d never been before and never wanted to leave.
He kissed her, and suddenly he could hear and see and smell the blood, the sweet, intoxicating blood rushing through her veins, and he wanted her, needed her, must have her in all possible ways, blood and sex and possession and belonging and forever and ever and…
BANE! BANE, WHERE ARE YOU? WE NEED YOU NOW! THE HUMAN IS WAKING UP AND FIGHTING THE TURN!
When Meara’s voice blasted into his mind, it snapped Bane back out of the blood frenzy, but it was too late, too late, far too late, because the first thing he realized was that his fangs were already in Ryan’s neck.
The second thing he realized was that her blood was already in his mouth, and the taste of it sparkled inside him like the finest champagne. Like dreams made liquid and distilled into ambrosia. Like…like even her blood glowed.
But—
The final thing he realized was that she was dead.
And he was the one who’d killed her.
He fell to his knees, still holding her body to him, and he roared out his anguish and despair. “No, no, not now, not her, please, no.”
And then she stuttered out a breath.
No, it was…a snore.
She was snoring.
He hadn’t killed her at all.
He’d put her to sleep.
Literally to sleep.
He started to laugh.
BANE! WE NEED YOU NOW!
He stood, still holding Ryan, but so carefully, as if she were so fragile—so vulnerable.
As if she were the most important person in his world.
And then, pushing the thought aside to analyze and deny later, he called again to the Shadows and stepped back into the Between, this time carrying a sleeping human.
Only to arrive back at the mansion just in time to see Hunter, who was somehow—impossibly—awake, slam Meara into a wall.
And then, from clear across the room, Bane heard the sound of his sister’s spine breaking.
Chapter Ten
Luckily for Hunter, a broken neck didn’t kill a vampire, so Bane wouldn’t have to destroy him for it.
Unluckily for Hunter, Edge wasn’t feeling anywhere near as generous.
“Take her,” Bane shouted, tossing Ryan over to where Luke stood, six feet away.
Luke caught her and shot Bane a look. “What the fuck is going on?”
But Bane didn’t have time to chat, because he had to stop one of his brothers from killing another. He raced across the room in time to punch Hunter in the head, knocking him out, and then he caught Edge’s arm and twisted it up and behind his back before Edge could strike a killing blow on Hunter.
Edge whirled to face Bane, his eyes wild with pain and fury. “He hurt her, and I’ll destroy him,” he snarled. “It is my right.”
Behind Edge’s back, a popping noise signaled them both that Meara had healed her spine.
“I think,” she rasped out, “that if it’s anybody’s right, it’s mine.”
Edge leapt away from Bane and landed next to Meara in a crouching position that looked very far from human. “Did you just make a joke?” His voice was a harsh rasp. “He could have killed you.”
“But he didn’t, did he?” She put a hand on Edge’s arm, but he flinched away from her.
This time, Bane would have sworn that a flash of hurt crossed behind Meara’s eyes, but it was gone so fast he’d probably been mistaken.
“Nobody’s destroying anyone,” Bane said, putting his shirt, which had been draped around his neck, back on. “Help me get him back to the table, and this time we’ll tie him down. I’ve never seen anybody react like this, but I’ve heard about it. It’s rare but not unknown.”