Blood and Kisses - By Karin Shah Page 0,37

that do him? He had made sure that even at top strength he could not break the chains. He was at her mercy.

Fury raged within him, overturning the scrap of sanity brought by wakefulness, and the monster screamed. The sound echoed through the house like the cry of a raptor against steep canyon walls.

She had abandoned him. Left him alone to wallow in pain.

He would have his revenge.

The image of her lifeless body that had haunted him since they’d met, returned. He’d thought her a victim of the rogue, but perhaps he was the culprit. Maybe he was responsible for the barren husk he saw in his mind’s eye, drained of its poisonous blood. Like an infection, madness consumed him. He surrendered to it. He would get free and when he did, he would hunt her down and tear her limb from limb.

A noise pierced the fevered haze of lunacy. He could hear a car pulling up the driveway. He recognized the unique purr of his Jaguar. She had returned. Excellent.

He cloaked the demon. Hiding him just out of reach.

Thalia. He made his mental voice soft, weak. The demon stifled a gleeful laugh.

Gideon? Are you all right? She was worried about him. He would give her something to worry about. He was Gideon Damek, after all. Warlord. Warrior. Vampire. Not some tame lapdog leaping to do her bidding.

Come quickly. I must feed. He smiled into the dark room, as he lured her with the truth.

He followed her progress through the house. The front door closed behind her. The stairs protested her slight weight as she raced up them. Her heart was beating fast, her pulse running a rapid course through her healthy young veins. She had been exerting herself.

Good. Very good. She would be weak. Easy pickings.

Thalia hesitated outside Gideon’s door, her hand on the button that would release the steel bars. A strange presentiment hovered over her. Something wasn’t right. From what he had told her of the bloodlust, he should be almost crazy with hunger by now. He sounded so calm, so rational.

Too rational.

She shuddered. His groans and shouts had been frightening, but this cold manipulative creature was terrifying.

She invoked the reserve of power she had stored for this occasion, surrounding herself with a shield of protection. She prayed it would be enough and opened the door.

Gideon smiled at her weakly from the bed without showing his teeth. In the light from the hall, his face gleamed with sweat. His hands were fisted in the bedclothes.

Fisted against the pain? Or concealing claws he was too far-gone to retract?

Chapter 12

Thalia hesitated at the threshold.

The fragile veil of control Gideon wore snapped. “Come and release me,” Gideon demanded, his voice half human, half lion’s roar, eyes glowing red with hunger and rage, fangs sharp and white in the dim light.

Thalia took a deep breath. As he’d warned her, the hunger had become a kind of madness. The man she had known had become a monster. He strained against the chains, growling. He’d rubbed his wrists and ankles raw, and precious blood spilled onto the bedclothes in wine-dark rivers.

He would try to drain her if he could, no matter that it would mean both their deaths. But if she left him here...

If she left him here, he would starve. He was near starving now.

Thalia summoned every scrap of strength she possessed and was about to funnel it into her protection spell when she realized the absolute futility of it all. If she released him now, she could prevent him from killing her, but she would forfeit the life of the first unfortunate he met, along with his soul, as he succumbed to the addictive lure of the Claiming. He would become just as dangerous as the villain who had murdered Lily.

Thalia closed her eyes and prayed. Somehow, she would have to reach some remnant of the man beneath the monster on the bed in front of her. But was it already too late?

She diverted the energy she had gathered and began to slowly feed it to Gideon, desperately hoping to give him the strength to bind the hunger and free the man.

The room was drenched in blood. Crimson spatters decorated the dirty cream walls like some vile faux painting technique. Flies buzzed, knocking against the filthy windows as if trying to get out.

Detective Cole covered her mouth with her hand, choking back the bile that threatened to erupt. It was perhaps the most gruesome thing she had ever seen, but the