Doing It To Death

By Kaia Bennett

I savor my life of blood and power and I’ve never wanted more.
Until the night a witch forced her pathetic human needs into my mind.
My prey made me want her, made me relish her pain, and ensnared me with pleasure. Made me want things I didn’t understand.
I couldn’t break her. I failed to kill her.
Now, I can't hunt, can't feed, and can't sleep for the bitch whispering in my head.
Did baby witch cast a spell on me? My stomach howls with the answer.
The only way to break this curse is to kill the witch who cast it.
I'm coming for you, baby.
This time, I'm gonna do you to death.

Author’s Note:

The light at the bottom of this rabbit hole is tinted obsidian, and I put the characters in this story through the ringer. Not for the faint-hearted, this read explores the dark side of obsession, in all its forms. Adults only from this point. Strap in and buckle up. Keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times. Because the teeth lurking ahead are razor sharp and the blood they seek might be yours. Please, do not attempt to exert your human morals on the fictional beasts you will meet. They'll just laugh while they rip you to shreds.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kaia Bennett
• Release date: Aug 9, 2018
• ISBN: 9780986203664

Kaia Bennett

Kaia Bennett is a New Jersey native, U.S. Army veteran, and martial artist who holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Rowan University and is working on her Master of Fine Arts at Fairleigh Dickinson University. When she’s not geeking out over music, movies, astrology, tattoos, or art, she can be found in front of her laptop, reminding herself not to bite her nails while she agonizes over a turn of phrase. Kaia is a lover of all genres, a voracious reader, and a great believer that the journey is just as important as the destination. She’s an erotic author who aims to write stories with diversity, depth, realism, and viscerally hot encounters, revealing the taboo and tender sides of her characters and readers alike. Subscribe to Kaia’s Newsletter for notifications on new books, freebies, and more! http://eepurl.com/bnZDST Reach Kaia at: http://kaiabennett.com [e-mail]

Book preview

1

Idragged my feet down the stairs leading to the basement. Despite the freezing lake water saturating my clothes, I felt nothing. Moments before I’d felt everything—through Evie, a whole world of pain. I’d begged for mercy with her lips, drowned with her lungs. I’d held us both down with my own hands and killed her, along with a piece of me .

I knew my knees bent. I heard the thud of my boots on the steps. Under the numbness of my fingertips, the fortified walls bracketing the stairwell barely contrasted the buttons of the keypad as I tapped in the code. An echo of Evie’s voice howled in my chest like the wind I’d just escaped outside the house. The ghost of her fingernails still dug into my arms. But I felt nothing. Just an empty space I hadn’t expected.

I’ll be waiting for you in hell, Jesse.

She’d promised I’d never be free of her. I wanted to laugh at her accuracy.

I’m already in Hell. You’re dead, but you’re still in me.

A dose of venom released by my fangs in a moment of delirium might’ve let her deliver on her vow, but the second she stopped struggling, I felt the fight go out of me, too. I’d been stupid.

She drowned. I walked away.

I think I drowned us both.

What’s the verdict, then? Cai’s question shook me from my reverie. I tossed a look over my shoulder to where my father’s errand boy lingered in the doorway I’d failed to close. I returned my attention to Vaughn’s brutalized body without an answer.

One brother gone, dead at my hands before he could succumb to disease.

Then the witch, who’d gotten so far under my skin I could still feel her last breath caged in my lungs.

Finally, in this torture chamber, glowing white and red, lay my last brother. A decision waiting to be made. I wanted nothing more than to shut off my brain, but staring at Vaughn stirred something restless within me. I latched on to that crawling sensation, relieved to feel anything at all as I stared at Vaughn’s lifeless form.

Evie had carved Vaughn’s throat up like a turkey. She hadn’t spared an ounce of her hatred on his chest, either. If she were still alive, I’d have to give her props for getting over on a sadist with a knife. Mid-fuck too, judging from Vaughn’s naked state and his jeans tossed a few feet away from the bloody mess she’d made of him.

A vague smile twisted my lips. If Cai hadn’t been standing behind me, if the prick hadn’t forced me to kill my toy, I’d have dragged her down to this room. I’d have stood behind her, laughing.

And, if she’d been alive, I’d have told her she’d been close to killing my brother, but not close enough.

She’d stopped short of severing his spine and tearing his brain stem from his body forever. He’d live. If I didn’t kill him myself. I’d have told Evie as much. I’d have fucked her raw and made her tell me everything my brother had done, and how she’d overpowered him. I was curious about how she’d managed to get inside his head when he’d been so singularly focused on fucking her to death.

Then, I’d have told her, while making her come on my cock, how she’d failed. I would’ve let her live. I would’ve made Vaughn wish he was dead when I finally decided to revive him.

Between the stab wounds and his open throat, he’d lost too much blood to heal more than a cut or two on his chest, even hours later. At this rate, he’d be limping towards a full recovery in a month. A lifetime of healing for even a turned vampire like Vaughn. He’d be too helpless to hunt and starving the entire time. But, he could live—if I decided I wanted him to.

Unlike her. Unlike the girl floating in the lake with my useless venom in her veins. I’d wanted her alive a little longer. I wanted my toy.

Just a toy, huh? Just a witch?

I’m full of shit….

She hadn’t been a toy. She’d been my pet. I could admit that much. I could admit I’d wanted to play with her just a little longer before I killed her.

Right. Because we always cry over pets and try to turn them.

Evie’d stared up at me beneath the surface of the water just moments ago, daring me to leave her there, when all I’d wanted to do was drag her out. Pull her close. Make her cough up the water flooding her lungs. Our lungs. Using prey for companionship wasn’t how I’d treated the few pets I’d had before I grew bored. At the end, I’d treated Evie more like how I treated my brothers. Someone I cared enough about to joyride with.

Might as well put him out of his misery. Cai glided up beside me and took a deep whiff of the room. His flared nostrils suggested he smelled what I did. Witch. Vaughn. Come. The other vampire slid his hands into his pants pockets and shrugged. There’s worse ways to die. Better one last fuck and feed than V-Sep. Nasty business, from what I’m told.

I could’ve sworn I heard a hint of laughter in his voice. I hadn’t mentioned Liam, but he must’ve known. I’d had to call in clean-up for my little brother’s body. Cai had been keeping track of my footprints across the country for the last fifty years or so. A long leash, plenty of distance, but still a leash nonetheless.

I’ve never seen how V-Sep works up close. His words sliced me with a surgical flourish Vaughn would’ve appreciated. I hear your insides become your outsides. Is that true?

My lips curled, making room for fangs that itched to extend. My chest rose and fell as I took a deep, calming breath. Liam’s body, oozing black blood, and his last screams filled my mind.

Please! I’m so hungry! I’m starving, Jesse! I’m starving!

I shifted, and drove my fist so deep into Cai’s gut, he spat blood onto my shirt. He lifted his arm to block my punch to his face and struck me square in the nose with his palm. I felt the gush of blood down my lip, but could barely taste the substance or register the broken cartilage. Only Cai’s laughter penetrated the haze in my mind, the ringing in my ears that faded into the rush of water.

Touchy. But that’s my bad. I forgot all about Liam’s untimely end.

You didn’t forget a fucking thing.

He didn’t bother to defend himself. Instead, Cai rubbed a hand over his belly and licked his red lips clean. Hmm. You’re right. I don’t forget much. All your favorites are dropping like flies. If you’re feeling sentimental, I suppose we could keep Vaughn around—

"We aren’t doing anything. I swiped my hand across my mouth and turned away from him. What should’ve been a persistent throb as my nose healed faded to a muted sting. You’re squatting in my house, but you’re not welcome here. Not in my home and not in my business."

Your father begs to differ, kid. I’m hungry and it’s been a long journey. I turned in time to see the back of Cai’s white shirt disappearing up the steps. Don’t suppose you’ll be joining me for dinner?

What do you think, motherfucker? I spun and flung out my arms. I glowered at his eyes, two shining points refracting in the darkness of the stairwell. Do I look like I’m in the mood for company? Especially yours?

That’s right, you’re probably full of witch blood. He grinned, playing obtuse. I wondered how much trouble I’d get into if I killed him next. Dad had been pissed about the witch, but I took care of that. Maybe I could risk his displeasure again? Let’s do breakfast tomorrow before I leave, Jesse. We’ll figure out when your free run is coming to an end and when you have to meet with your father about an exciting new venture of his. It involves one of your favorite things, you know? Witches.

I gritted my teeth and slammed the door on his smug grin, loud enough to shake the walls. He’d decided to stay the night. I couldn’t kick him out, and despite the twist of foreboding and curiosity in my gut, I couldn’t bring myself to ask what Cai meant. Freedom would be gone soon, just like Evie. By the end of the year, I’d be my father’s heir in full. I’d have work to do.

With witches? What could he possibly want with me when it comes to witches? He just had me kill one to avoid getting close.

Just thinking about Evie made me want to go outside and find her. Even if I was desperate and dumb enough to do so, Cai would be here until the morning. He’d be watching me like a hawk.

I felt strangely mortal and helpless, which in my two-hundred plus years, had to be a first. I clenched and unclenched my fists and rested my forehead against the cool metal door.

Helpless. I could almost feel my father digging his fingers into my shoulders, directing me, turning me like a puppet toward his fucking visions for me and his territory. Shit I didn’t give a damn about. Everything I cared about had died at this point. Except….

Vaughn.

There was something I could control, something I could change—or not—as I saw fit.

Right now, I wanted nothing more than to kill him. I wanted to tear down the whole world around us and scream until my ears bled, but I stood, unmoving, except for a tremor under my skin I couldn’t shake. I wanted to blame my shivers on the cold, but I didn’t get cold enough to shiver. I’d had too much blood, too much perfect witch blood recently to even entertain a chill.

I want to go back in the lake and fish her out.

If I killed Cai, I could indulge my whim. I could figure out a place to hide her until I decided I was done with the witch. I didn’t have to let this stand.

I clenched my teeth against the urge. My muscles tensed for a fight. My heart ratcheted up a beat. Grab a knife from the wall. Open the door. Sprint up the steps. I could take Cai. I could rip his fucking spine out, and then, rush out into the cold I couldn’t feel. I could sink under the water. I could lap the lake until I found her.

It’s not too late. I could heal her with my blood if not with my venom. It’s not too late. It’s not too late.

I rubbed my forehead against the door, back and forth. The white metal warmed against my overheated forehead and my crazy plan cooled in my mind.

Helpless. If I killed Cai, my father would know why. He’d hunt for her. He’d find her. If I let Cai live, Evie would die. By the time Cai left, she’d be too far gone to revive with my blood. Healing her would be a long shot even now.

I scraped my teeth against my bottom lip. I tasted her, and instantly found my mind transported to the lake, stuck on a loop she wouldn’t let me escape from.

In that last moment, nothing else mattered but her scent. A rush of venom had flooded my mouth, stinging between my lips and flowing into her. I’d thought to be quick and gentle, but that last bite had been unexpected cruelty. Nothing crueler than hope when the truth had been made clear. I couldn’t keep her.

Now that I’d escaped the delirious spell she’d cast on me, I knew I couldn’t turn her. She’d never been anything but prey I’d kept past her expiration date. I chuckled at that. If I’d done what I was supposed to do when one of my kind finds a lost witch, if I’d only fucked and killed her, or turned her into some checkpoint for sale, she might still be alive. She’d probably be in some other vampire’s bed right now, wishing I’d killed her. Some ironic shit to ponder.

I need to break something. Kill something. Tear something apart. Badly.

I took a deep breath, deciding I’d do just that. I didn’t want to fuck up the door by punching a hole in in the metal. I still had use for this house and this room for what came next.

You dumb fuck. I turned my attention to Vaughn.

Vaughn couldn’t be blamed for my father’s hold over me, or for Cai waiting in the wings to watch me kill Evie.

But Vaughn could be blamed for disobeying my orders. He could be blamed for trying to kill Evie when I’d made up my mind to keep her a little while longer.

I’d make him suffer, and then, I guessed he’d have to die. Killing Vaughn would be simple. A crunch and a pop. I’d existed just fine before Liam and Vaughn, my free run would end by the new year, anyway.

Another part of me vibrated with a dull ache, a surprising clench in my chest, despite my numbness. Sadness, I guessed, the kind that stung just behind my eyes when I’d realized Liam had been infected. I wanted to hurt Vaughn, but did I really want to kill another young vampire? I’d been forced to kill so many over the years, so many diseased, weeping messes, dying in slow agony because of that human-made virus.

I recalled the first time I met the blond terror, that first stupid, bloody grin over a kill he could take his time with. The first race through the woods to catch prey after he’d left New York City for the first time in his life. I almost beat your old ass! he’d roared, laughter echoing in the night along with that first girl’s screams. He hadn’t known what freedom meant till I showed him. He’d been fighting for scraps not long after his maker abandoned him.

Memories don’t often stick like this for my kind. Sometimes I think it’s a blessing alongside the curse of the bloodlust. How would we live as long as we do if we dwelled on every little thing? No. We live day to day. We fuck, we kill, we laugh. The thirst is an ever-present hand clenching our gut, twisting and whispering feed!. But over time, the memories and the people that do count stick with us, saturated with Technicolor in a black and white world. Even Vaughn’s pale ass. For better or worse, he wouldn’t ever fade for me. Especially if I killed him now. That pissed me off even more. Sentimentality. Weakness. Same shit, different word.

How’d we get here, huh?

A little over a week ago, Vaughn and I would’ve killed the witch together, taking turns cutting her up. Now, the bitch was dead and she still sat like a wedge between us.

I kicked off my boots and walked to his mostly-dead body, my wet jeans and feet squeaking against the plastic floor until I stood over Vaughn. I sat cross-legged beside him, sweeping my hair away when the length threatened to sprawl and cling to him. I begrudgingly peeled Vaughn’s head out of the sticky mass of his blood and into my lap, then tried to bite into my wrist.

The soft scrape of blunt teeth over my wrist made me pull back with a scowl.

Not even a scratch? What the fuck?

I frowned and ran my tongue over my teeth, scraping my fangs against my tongue. Sharp, but still retracted. I’d never had to think about extending them before now. I had to force the points out of my gums.

Something’s wrong. I haven’t been right since I came out of the water.

I bit into my wrist and dribbled the liquid past Vaughn’s unmoving lips. His blue eyes stared up at me, beyond me. Only a trained eye would be able to see the minute tick of life, an ember of consciousness glowing in the deep recesses of his pupils. Soon he’d be able to hear, then see. Long before he could move, he’d be awake.

I watched him slowly absorb my blood, uncoiling minute by minute from his coma. When he finally woke enough to understand me, he looked shocked and then relieved. Amazing what a stare can tell you. I knew him and he knew me. When I smiled, all of that relief melted under pure terror. He didn’t even have the strength to blink fully. But I knew terror on his face well.

I’m gonna beat the ever-living fuck out of you, as soon as you can take it.

His pupils shuddered. I cooed at him like a baby. Yes I am. I’m gonna break every bone in your body, Vaughn. Bones you didn’t know you had.

I gave him a vicious grin and a little more of my blood.

I’m gonna make you bleed for me. And when I’m done, you can tell me why I shouldn’t finish what Evie started.

When I licked my teeth clean of my own blood, my fangs had already retracted.

Something’s wrong.

I couldn’t seem to get past the numbness to figure out what ‘wrong’ meant, but I knew I felt like Vaughn—like the walking, breathing dead.

2

The doorbell rang upstairs, not long after Vaughn woke. Cai’s food must’ve arrived, reminding me not to waste too much of my blood on my brother .

In truth, a bucket of the stuff wouldn’t heal him as fast as prey would. We’re not designed to feed on our own kind. It’d be like dying of starvation and expecting a tongue kiss to ease the hunger pangs. I’d started the ball rolling, but he needed something to slake the bloodlust. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone.

Shit. I sighed and stared up at the ceiling. Of course my cell would be useless now, soaked through. I got up, walked over to where Vaughn must have kicked his jeans free and rifled through his pockets. I found his phone, and a token of affection—of weakness—I didn’t expect. Evie’s necklace. The feather I’d placed around her neck when I called her mine shimmered in the white light of the room.

I stared at my brother’s kill trophy, and for a second I remembered how I felt when I placed the golden chain around her throat. I’d let my fingers linger over the creamy expanse of skin covering her narcotic blood, waiting for my blood to heal her.

I clenched the jagged edge of the charm in my palm. I don’t care. She’s dead and it’s a cheap necklace. I wanted to drop the useless gold trinket, but I swallowed and shoved the chain into my pocket instead.

I dialed a number I knew by heart on Vaughn’s phone and got the housekeeper.

Hello, Jesse. What can I do for you?

Always the same greeting in the same chipper voice, no matter who picked up the phone. I’d counted maybe six different voices over the years since phones were invented. I figured they were vampires or packless wolves who took turns manning the desk, replaced only when they died. They ran this safe house, put food in the fridge for the witch, kept things clean and had prey ready for delivery when I hit Austin during my travels.

All were strangers, not like in the good old days, when we had live-in maids and manservants, and people couldn’t track me down with these electronic leashes called cell phones. A free run isn’t so free when you can get a text any minute from your dad. Plus, feeding on the help used to be a fun way to piss off the old man, before witch fiascos apparently became my thing.

I need…. I gave my brother a quick assessment. Vaughn would need at least two helpings of super healthy human to heal his wounds and another to make him more than a bloodthirsty zombie. Let’s start with three meals. Two medium, one small.

I didn’t have an appetite, which caused me silent alarm. No stirring in my cock, no tingle in my fangs, nor pangs in my stomach.

I had witch blood not too long ago. I swallowed, tried and failed, to forget the taste of her. I hadn’t fucked anyone—anything—since the witch fed me the blood in her womb. I should want to feed, if only to clear my head and let off steam.

Still, I skipped a meal for myself.

Very good, sir. We’ll leave maid service on standby for you.

I eyed Vaughn’s throat. He still looked like a Pez dispenser, but his eyes were very much alive now. His gaze slithered in my direction, wary even in his weakened state. I gave him my best grin. Despite my retracted fangs, the corners of his eyes creased and Vaughn rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. If he could’ve, I bet he’d have gulped.

I need a new phone, too. I hung up and went upstairs to wait. Fifteen minutes later, the doorbell rang.

I opened the door to find two wolves in human form crowding my prey. Two big guys about my size, one black with long wavy hair on top and shorn on the sides, and one ambiguously tan. Arab maybe, or Latino. The little guy looked like he could’ve been Vaughn’s younger brother except for his brown eyes. The black man and the little guy were dressed for the club or the bar, but their nice clothes were disheveled, marked by fear, sweat, and dim cologne. The ambiguous one looked like a pro. He smiled at me with a hint of confusion, and I realized with frustration I’d tried and failed to hear his thoughts.

Three hearts raced with panic and aggression, but their emotions were closed to me. No voices in my head to heighten the feeding this time. Only the rush of blood in the veins and the dumb muscles in their chests thumping. Only an empath could render prime prey like this boring.

I gave the guards a nod and they pushed my meals inside the foyer before shutting the door behind them. The door locked.

The black man said, Look man, I don’t know what kinda twisted shit you got going on here, but they were supposed to take me home. I never got my phone call—

I grabbed Vaughn’s talkative first meal by the collar of his jacket, and when he struggled, I snapped the back of my hand across his face. He sprawled onto the floor of the wide foyer and thumped against the wall. Blood spilled from his mouth. The little one scrambled for the front door.

Holy shit! Holy fuck! The other big guy retreated when I gave him a lopsided grin. He rubbed a nervous hand over his goatee. My agency didn’t say anything about me getting roughed up like that. Keep your money and open the door.

Sometimes the meals come willingly, like the escort that didn’t realize this would be his last stop. Sometimes they get detained by ‘cops’ who never book them and never take them home. I got a mixed bag tonight.

Somewhere upstairs, I heard a girl squeal in terror or ecstasy. Or both, maybe. Cai laughed. The steady rhythm of flesh pounding flesh reached my ears, if not my groin. The blood, the smell of fear, the sound of fucking. The once-heady cocktail of feeding swirled around my senses like perfume, but I couldn’t inhale.

I’d lost the fire in my blood, but I shook this off, determined to strike a fucking match.

I grabbed meal number one by his wavy hair and dragged him to a standing position.

Be good boys and wait here. I snarled my command to the other two, but they were busy screaming for help. When I left them with The Big One in tow to pull open the basement door, they scrambled to find other exits.

I pushed Vaughn’s meal down the stairs. He stumbled down the first half, then righted himself and ran the rest of the way.

So predictable. I took the steps one at a time, dragging out my prey’s torment. You’re all like roaches scuttling for a dark crevice when the lights come on. It’s a waste of time.

When he reached the door at the bottom and realized the only way out was up, he whirled and broke his wrist landing a right hook on my chin. I subdued him easily while he screamed in agony, spun him around, and peeled off his jacket. His T-shirt tore like paper, revealing the wide expanse of his back. Endless hours in the gym and preening in front of the mirror, just to end up a near-dead vampire’s snack.

I wanted to laugh, but taunting him summoned a strange emotion, something that usually followed a good hunt. Exhaustion. Only then did I realize he’d been yelling, pushing against my easy hold on the nape of his neck.

Fucking get off me!

He roared the command, but his voice cracked. That delicious panic would’ve gotten me hard as a rock yesterday. Prey acknowledging that first true flush of dread felt almost as good as a tongue swiping the sweet spot just under the head of my dick. No way out and faced with inhuman strength. A few days ago, I would’ve played with him, maybe fucked him before I fed him to Vaughn, or fucked him in front of my brother just to torture them both. A few days ago, I’d have ordered enough prey for Vaughn and myself in the first place.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

I tapped in the code with my free hand, pushed open the door, and walked The Big One inside. He screamed. I rolled my eyes and kicked the door closed behind me as he swung his fists. The blows pounded my chest like a cheerleader’s pompoms.

What the fuck! Let me out! Let! Me! Out!

Yeah, yeah, I get it. ‘No, stop’. ‘Please, don’t’. I huffed out a breath. Not even a mild stirring of excitement. I ran my tongue over my fangs and felt only the retracted enamel.

Let’s get this shit over with.

I dragged him, kicking and wriggling, to Vaughn’s prone body. Only Vaughn’s eyes could move, but the hunger there, the sheer force of his bloodlust, startled me into recognition.

I should be starving, but I’m not. A corpse has more hunger than I do.

Even if Vaughn hadn’t been carved up like confetti, he’d have been foaming at the mouth. I should’ve been, too, but I hadn’t been hungry the way I used to be since….

Since I killed Liam. Not since I drank from Evie on the forest floor. That sweet nectar between her thighs had filled me in ways I’d never been full before. I experienced only a phantom stirring, thinking about that moment in the woods, but I still hungered more for the memory than I did for live prey before me.

Panic later. First I gotta feed this dumb shit.

I leaned the struggling man over Vaughn’s salivating mouth. The blond vampire couldn’t move, but his entire body vibrated with tension. Slowly, so slowly, I lowered The Big One’s neck over Vaughn. Go ahead, take a bite.

He strained to comply. I thought I heard a faint gargling whimper under the prey’s screams. The Big One’s fat tears splattered Vaughn’s bloody face. The parched, cracked flesh of my brother’s lips trembled. I yanked the appetizer into the air and heard the beginnings of a relieved breath, which broke off into a scream when I ripped into his throat with my teeth.

Not my fangs.

The fuckers still wouldn’t come out to play, not even with a fresh artery pumping against my tongue and my mind screaming for my fangs to extend. Doesn’t take much pressure to rip through the skin and meat of a human, but I growled in frustration at my loss of control.

Please, stop! Why are you doing this?

I pulled away from his throat, and though his blood coated my tongue, I couldn’t taste him. I swallowed and felt ill. The rest of the blood cascaded from my open mouth to splatter against Vaughn’s chest like drool. While the man struggled in my grip, I held his bleeding throat against Vaughn’s lips.

Vaughn’s mouth filled, overflowed. After about thirty seconds, he could swallow the flood healing his throat. Vaughn quivered his lips against the prey’s wounded throat, trying to cup them to the open artery. Then, my brother let out a desperate shriek of relief and closed his eyes as he drew in the first voluntary draw.

Vaughn’s eyes fluttered open again. They’d bloomed black as ink, still dull, but gaining their sheen with every draught from the dying man’s throat. He tried to grab the prey’s body, but Vaughn could only manage to arch his neck and tug at the limp arm cradling him as the man fell into unconsciousness.

The swallowing and suckling sounds became more urgent, damn near sexual, like all our feedings become. Still, I wiped fresh blood from my own lips and spit out the rest. Vaughn watched me with a covetous gaze. Hatred deepened the ebony eyes.

Aw, poor baby. You mad I’m wasting what you crave?

I tossed The Big One’s empty shell into the corner, the same corner where I’d found Evie huddled in shock. Not long after I’d left her alone Vaughn had dragged her down here. She’d been sitting beside his comatose body for hours and I tracked the ghost of her movements. Her handprints and footprints mingled with the dull scarlet streaks on the walls and floor. The Big One’s limbs twisted at odd angles, like an abandoned marionette, before he bounced and slumped to the floor. His milky, hooded eyes stared through me with an accusation—like Evie’s.

A throaty groan exited Vaughn’s lips, tugging me away from my staring contest with a corpse and a ghost. My brother’s breathing sped up as the pain of his healing tissue tingled to life. He managed to raise his hands a few inches before they fell limply to the plastic floor. His throat had taken the brunt of the blood and had begun in earnest to thread together. Even his heart would play second fiddle to the mending bone and sinew that would protect his spine and help him swallow more blood.

You want another one?

A mucous-filled groan hit the air, so like Liam’s coughs when he got sick. Vaughn shuddered, the muscles moving, stretching, reviving from the rigor of his half death.

Nothing would be real to him until he’d had enough blood. No speech would penetrate the bloodlust, no reason. His cock jerked, trying desperately to participate in the feeding, but lacked blood to harden.

It’d be a few hours before Vaughn could consume his next meal on his own. I trudged up the steps. I didn’t feel like playing with the food, but, dammit, I’d left them free to roam. Their escape attempts had given Cai some inspiration, judging by the energetic screams floating from his bedroom. I felt less inspired.

Should’ve knocked them out or tied them up.

The Pro hammered a bar stool against the impenetrable glass overlooking the lake. Cai had made sure the windows were set to the opaque tint my kind use when prey roams around the house. Even if the windows weren’t tinted, the property was well guarded with trees. No one would witness the last moments of the desperate men and woman who found their way through my door.

C’mon, hand it over.

I gestured for the man to hand over the stool. The backwards hand wave turned into a grab when he swung the damn thing at me. Plucking the wood easily from his hands, I snatched him by the neck. His already-wide eyes rounded like a wild tarsier on speed, but he still kicked and struggled. He’d fight, too. I smiled, thinking about Vaughn trying to wrestle this one to the ground in his weakened state. The Little One hid in one of the closets. I could hear the third heart beating, the sobs muffled by a shaking hand. Smart, not like the other two.

I set The Pro down, then jostled him toward the basement. I hadn’t bothered to close the door, so after a shove to his back, all I had to do was funnel him into the basement and close us in. Vaughn clawed his way to a standing position, while his second meal screamed. Vaughn’s prey stared between the two of us at the blood everywhere. The tan-skinned escort’s future lay in a dead, bloodless heap in the corner.

I crossed my arms over my chest and watched the other vampire thaw like frozen meat, zombie limbs struggling towards strength. Soaked in blood, and scenting prey. Vaughn staggered with speed I didn’t think he had in him toward The Pro, just missing his main course. The escort scrambled and slipped in a pool of Vaughn’s blood.

Why are you doing this?! He screamed at me over and over, his terror reaching a fever pitch.

Why are you doing this? Why are you hurting me? Questions I’d always had fun answering.

I didn’t answer now. I stared into him, through him, wondering why I saw a man when I should see prey, why when I licked my lips I didn’t taste nourishment where the blood still lingered. I tasted liquid ash. Nothingness.

Vaughn’s hunger, plus his growing strength, meant he stumbled less, but he still looked like a newborn colt. He threw himself from one wall to the next trying to capture his meal. I laughed when he tripped over the first dead body.

Vaughn let out a furious growl and launched himself at the human’s abdomen. The Pro slipped out of Vaughn’s grip but Vaughn caught his ankle. The pathetic tug Vaughn managed made me laugh again, but the main course went down, thanks to a puddle of clotting blood. He smeared his hand over one of Evie’s footprints and pleaded as Vaughn turned him onto his back and climbed up his body like a vine. The blond vampire bit and clawed exposed flesh where he could, but his destination lay at the throat of his prey.

Stop! Plea— The man’s voice caught in a gargling scream, fingernails breaking against the floor and digging into Vaughn’s blanched skin. The rosy glow under the paleness of my brother began to return. His throat looked all but closed and the cuts on his chest, shoulders, and stomach were knitting shut. His hips pumped against the dying man’s, his cock returning to life with every draught of healing blood.

When Vaughn finally released his dead prey, he gasped in a lungful of air and exhaled a roar of life that echoed in the torture room. Muscles flexed and strained. His feral face held something other than bloodlust now. A faint inkling of Vaughn returned with a crazed grin. His semi-hard cock strained between him and the dead man, searching for something living to penetrate.

I smiled, but without mirth. He thought his last meal meant healing, release, and then business as usual. He might’ve forgotten my promise, but I hadn’t.

And I hadn’t forgotten the strange truth itching in my mind where hunger used to be.

I knew I should be starving. Distantly, I felt the first true twist of hunger in my gut. Vaughn had reminded me of my true nature, what hunger looked and felt like. But when I swiped my tongue against my lips, I tasted nothing. No sweetness. No desire.

Liquid ash. Death.

What happens when I need to feed?

By the time Vaughn finished his final meal, he’d begun to remember how he got in this mess in the first place.

And my promise.

I, to my relief, began to feel the first stirrings of something beyond numbness. Not hunger exactly, but a desire to kill. Maybe I just need to build up an appetite.

How ya feelin’, man?

Vaughn swallowed audibly and dropped the corpse he’d been cradling like a cat toying with a long-dead mouse. He’d fucked and sucked his dessert dry several minutes ago, but he knew what waited for him. I peeled off my shirt and tossed the garment atop Vaughn’s jeans.

It was a joke, Jesse. Vaughn’s gaze drifted left and he gulped. I smiled, ticking off all the gestures that revealed his lies. His old wounds were mostly healed. Bruising around the knife wounds and a body covered in blood were the only signs he’d suffered so much damage.

Funny.

My fears that the witch had fucked me up powered my swing. Vaughn’s jawbone shattered under my knuckles like dead wood beneath a boot. While he bent and cradled his weak bones, I picked up the dead body and tossed the remains of Dessert in the pile with the other two. Nothing in my way now.

I wasn’t—

I grabbed him by the top of his platinum head and buried my fist in his face, grinning when he gulped down a gush of his own blood, peppered with teeth. The next blow shattered the bones surrounding his eyes. I sighed in satisfaction. I had to stop and savor the feeling with a shudder of relief. Not dead after all. I could still feel this. I could still imagine the cracks in Vaughn’s bones like shattering ice, mending and melting. He’d feel every fissure re-blending just before I cracked the bones again.

Jesse, c’mon man!

Jesse! The witch screamed inside my mind, her voice threading with Vaughn’s like a twisted chorus.

I drove my fists into his knitting bones over and over, until all I could hear were muffled groans lodged in a throat full of his own blood. He flopped onto his belly to crawl away when I dropped him and popped my knuckles. Vaughn tried to get on his feet but he swayed and fell. The corner had been his destination. I grabbed his knife, the one Evie had abandoned in that pool of blood, and waited for him to look at me.

He stared over his shoulder, and then slumped when he saw me tapping the flat of the blade against my bicep.

C’mon, man. Not again. I just got my mind right. He spit out a mouthful of blood and teeth and shook his head like he was trying to clear an etch-a-sketch. The sweet music of grinding bones healing inside him tickled my ears. The healing slowed again. I smiled and nodded.

Good. Now we can get started.

3

My shadow fell across Vaughn. He closed his eyes just before I grabbed his ankle. I flipped him on his back as he fought to get free, and started in on his chest, prying open each and every wound with his own knife. Slowly .

Every time his body limped toward stitching him into one piece, I sliced through a layer of fresh, weak skin and tissue. Without more blood, his body would keep healing until he became starved again. Sweat beaded on his brow and upper lip. When he slapped my arms away, I gripped his throat in my hand.

You either stay still, or I cut off your hands next.

He gritted his new mouthful of teeth when I twisted the knife in one of the wounds. I’d pissed him off. Good.

You tryna turn me on, or what?

Another joke, huh? What do you think, Vaughn? My steady grimace drew a flinch. I slid the knife down the center of his chest, tucking the blade under his bottom rib. His breathing quickened as he braced himself. Then, he screamed when I slid the knife in deep as a virgin cock, slow and steady, under the rib. Tickling him from the inside out. Every scrape of the blade drew a shudder.

Fine, okay! I’m sorry! I! Apologize! He gasped before I could puncture an organ. I should’ve listened to you.

I wriggled the knife.

I wasn’t really gonna kill her! I was just scaring her! A cut here and there, throw a quick fuck in her. Then a little blood and she’d be good as new. Just a joke, like I said.

I laughed, pulled the knife out, and licked the sharp edge clean. Nothing. Air or ashes would have more flavor. I knew better, had tasted this blood enough times to know my tongue had stopped working. Vaughn’s blood tasted sharp as his knives. Bittersweet, just like him.

"You know what’s really funny?"

My brother scooted as much as he could, but slipped in his own blood and fell flat on his back. He gave up, heaving and staring at the ceiling like a dejected starfish. The shallow test cuts I’d made along his chest and stomach were healing at a glacial pace. Despite his boast, I knew none of what I had planned would feel good, even for Vaughn.

"What’s funny is, I can smell her blood and your come. You and I both know blood and come mean death when you’re involved. You don’t have enough control to just scare someone. But I do, little brother. I do."

I thought of how he must’ve smiled down at Evie as he emptied inside that perfect pussy. My perfect witch. She’d been mine to give and mine to take away, not Vaughn’s. Not my fucking father’s! I slid my knife into his mouth, the razor-sharp edge poised at the hinge of his jaw.

It was a joke, right? Why aren’t you laughing, Vaughn?

Vaughn’s groans of agony echoed through me and bounced off every wall. I grinned while I opened him from jaw to the edge where his lips joined. He huffed in shallow breaths to stop himself splitting the cut on his right cheek further. His Adam’s apple bobbed against my palm while I held him down and finished slicing a Chelsea grin on the left side. Tears swam in his eyes and the splash of blood against his pale skin made me hungry, wild and hungry and full of rage. I almost felt relieved to be so full of emotion when I’d been afraid of being emptied.

I’ve got control and a pretty good sense of humor, Vaughn. Which is why your spine isn’t in my fucking hands right now. Every time I get mad that you disobeyed me, all I can think is how you brought her down here, figuring you had us both beat… and woke up a day later with a second pair of lips under your chin.

I chuckled, then leaned close enough to inhale his breathe. My smile died on my lips.

I had plans for the witch. Plans to keep her around just a little bit longer, you know? You took that from me. You and Cai and my dad. You all get to take and take, and I’m just supposed to give, right? I’m supposed to bend and break, and if I want a little something just for me, that’s too much. How is it I’m in charge but everyone else thinks they get to make up rules for me?

Vaughn swallowed another mouthful of his own blood and blinked. I distracted myself by watching the skin on his cheeks knit together in the lazy patterns of a blood-starved vampire.

Jesse? His voice came out clipped as he struggled not to move his lips too much and re-tear his flesh. Who’s Cai? Who’s…?

Vaughn’s pale eyes widened as realization dawned, then narrowed.

True born?

The mention of a dad gave up the ghost.

You never asked, I never told.

He and Liam had assumed I’d been turned. I’d been older, sure. Stronger. But it never occurred to them I could be anything else. What true born would run with turned vampires? No, I had to be older, with money stashed here and there, not a true born slumming.

Turned vampires don’t have fathers, they have makers. And, as of a decade ago, turning humans had been sanctioned so their population didn’t get out of hand.

True born vampires, like Vaughn’s twisted maker, might take a special liking to a human and give them venom, but unlike us, the turned can’t breed and they can’t turn a human. They’re mules to our stallions, so generally we don’t mix with our neutered brothers and sisters for long stretches of time. We have prime real