PrimEVAl Sacrifice Read online

  “Her blood is mine. She is mine.” Darius warns, and I can’t help but to moan in approval at the sound of his animalistic voice. Suddenly, it seems like the whole world around us fades to black.

  Gods help us, we can’t keep our hands from touching each other. I can’t help my skin from seeking him, my claws sink into his thigh while I angle my ass to rub up against his shaft.

  Darius licks my ear, taking my earlobe between his teeth, and I can feel myself getting so wet for him again as my breaths escape in fast bursts.

  Brunos signs his fate with his next actions.

  Looking at me, he pushes my knee, to open further for his view. Untying his pants, he says, “I won’t tell Eros anything. It will be our dirty little secret, My Queen. I’ll even let you fuck him in front of me after I have my turn with you. Then, when you have what you wish, I’ll cut the fucker’s throat myself.”

  Darius wrestles to get me behind him, but I easily use his body weight against him, wrenching him back. He roars in anger and tries to spring for me, but only manages to struggle to the ground.

  I don’t let him go down. I smile, pushing my ex to sit behind me and out of the way on the leather bench, and sweetly say, “You would do that for me, Brunos?” Placing an angelic mask of submission, I slowly make my way towards him, flashing him my body, so he doesn’t put any mind to my hand slipping towards my dagger. I climb over Brunos, looking so enamored by me, right before I violently slice my knife through tendons and bone, all the way clean to decapitate the scumbag.

  Something inside me snaps at the sight of all the blood. As the head rolls off the table from the force of my strike to thud loudly on the ground, I look around.

  I’m out of control, there’s no denying the truth.

  I see it in Darius’s heavy lidded eyes when I turn to look at him. This space suddenly feels too crowded for me, and it’s a furnace in here.

  It smells of sex and blood, and I need more of both when I think about what my next move will be.

  Darius is looking at me as if I suddenly grew horns and a tail to match.

  “At least it wasn’t your head.” I say, hoping this kill is enough, but instinctively, I know it has only created a bigger craving within me.

  “Come here, I’ll help you fight off the venom.” He orders, placing his hand to grip the long outline of his very hard cock.

  I smile bitterly at his solution for my bad little habit—a crimson tide has come over me, and I know I can’t kick out from under it.

  Darius’s quick fix is he wants to drown me in marathon sex. That will only work for so long.

  “Rain check, baby. Wait for me upstairs. Unfortunately, I can’t be near you right now.” My voice shatters at the end of my statement from the effort it takes to make myself walk underneath the curtains and step away from him.

  Using the mindlink, I call someone I think I can trust. She’s a witch sent to aid me should I need further assistance. I can feel her rushing through the crowded wedding, hearing the desperation in my voice. I stop her and tell her to get the groom. He owes me a huge favor since the child his bride carries is partly alive because of me. Both the mother and child are.

  Without a moment to spare, or even a glance over my shoulder at what I want more than anything, I leave and don’t wait for them. I can’t with the way I both look and smell. Vampires have heightened senses, and I smell of Darius and sex.

  After I give her strict instructions for the groom to put Darius in a suite, and for her to oversee it all gets done safely, I think of where to go that will lead me far away from Darius. I want Darius tied to the bed when I get back, once I’ve taken care of my need for blood. She knows to use whatever means necessary to accomplish it. And to clean up my mess before this wedding turns into a riot.

  It seems Eros’s venom directs me to be in two states alone. Murderous or sex enslaved.

  So now, while I realize the cruel existence I’ve been dealt as everything feels wrong, I grab my cloak by the entrance to the now empty bar and right when I’m about to vanish into the dangerous night, I tell Zoraya to seal my guards in the building because I need to be alone.

  I keep my guard up for some miles until I know for sure she’s listened, and when I’m sure not one of Eros’s men have followed me. Only then, hidden by shadow, do I look for a hunt to satisfy my craving.

  Nearly blind with rage, I find myself sifting to the seediest part of the city. My main goal is to court death. Dressed as I am with my cloak blowing open by the wind—I’ve caused with my powers to kick up in strength–it really isn’t difficult to find key players in this deadly masquerade.

  I bask in the glory of planning all of the ways to satisfy my hunger, sauntering into dark alleys. Strutting my curves like that of a courtesan, using my best assets to lay my trap. It doesn’t take long for three sets of steps to begin echoing against cobblestone behind me as cold focus falls over me.

  I won’t take a life that doesn’t deserve it. That’s not what I’m here for. I’m here to relieve two fundamental things. First and foremost my all consuming need to kill—what the venom causes within me to deal with, giving me no choice. My second reason having a direct impact on why I chose this infested area of town. To get rid of what this world can do without. The monsters that get by under the radar. Thankfully for everyone else, I’ll find the darkest souls.

  In doing so, I walk myself into a dead end. Sleek high industrial walls are trapping me all around. I turn with contrived fear clearly painted on my innocent face. Looking like a terrified little mouse for the three snakes that are incoming.

  Chapter_: A Call to Arms

  Darius

  I could hardly keep my eyes open when I saw the panicked desperation in Emma’s eyes after she killed her guard. Even if I rejoiced knowing she’d done it for me, I recognized how his betrayal ate at her. I fought with heavy limbs against the fog I felt weighing me down, wishing to comfort her, but she was gone before I even had the chance to try.

  At what feels like a snail's pace, I can’t even keep up with being dragged and thrown on a soft bed. The room is no longer filled with blood. The blood I had hoped to reach, to help clear the black wall that descended once the bullet struck—keeping my mind trapped, but I must have passed out.

  The heavy thickness in my tongue makes it impossible to call out for Emma; nonetheless, I try to jerk free—worried about what could be happening to her among Eros’s people.

  “Lie still,” a male orders when I immediately try to snap at his neck as he lifts my arms.

  I can sense the heavy weight of magic circling my forearms and wrists, tangled to strap over my ankles and pull in a tight vise. I can feel my hands and legs strung up like an animal would be before a feast.

  “He won’t get free. Leave him with two guards posted outside the door and strip him. Our queen wishes to play with him before she kills him.” The sound of a woman’s laughter swims in my mind while I hear her footsteps grow fainter as she’s walking away to enter the bathroom. Distantly, I hear her restocking the room and find her blurred form placing a nightgown behind the door for Emma.

  I ignore his alcohol-laced breath when he yanks my shirt open, but can’t ignore the punch in my gut when he says, “Her fuckboy smells incredible—what is he?”

  “None of your business, she doesn’t want him touched. You should get back to your guests.” She says it while walking to the door to hold it open for him.

  It’s Emma’s scent drowning out mine, but there’s no way I’m clarifying that she’d rubbed her desire over my stomach because I don’t need another desperate male out of his mind looking for her.

  Trying to focus on the prick, I growl through my fangs, “Get the fuck away before this shit wears off and I kill you. I’ll kill all of you! If you’re smart, you’ll get your wife and go.”

  When he doesn’t move away, only closer to where her scent is strongest, my claws lengthen to tear at the groom. I’ll serve his chopped-up body parts as liver pâté hors
d'oeuvres at his own wedding.

  The more I fight and snarl to get free, the faster the room spins around me, but I can’t help that my protective instincts kick into high gear when it comes to her. I’m considering gnawing at my arms just to get free.

  My struggles are enough to send him tracing to the door, leaving my clothes on. The door slams shut, alerting the female she’s on her own. He’s a smart one, after all–for a leech. I’ve had to burn my fair share of them once they’ve scented Emma.

  When I feel the bed dip with added weight, I know it’s the girl. She seems like a bossy pain in the ass. I can hear her chanting as my clothes begin to slowly slide off. Secret hands grip me, pulling and turning as they strip me, undoing my bowtie to let the satin strips lie over my chest. My jacket floats to the floor where I can no longer see it. I keep thinking I need to get my clothes back, so I can go after Emma. Usually, with just a thought of magic I would be dressing, but of course, none of it happens.

  My mind is too muddled to fight. I try to keep my eyes open, but my lids feel like they are made of lead, and I fall into an anxious sleep until I hear her sharp intake of breath.

  I can feel my pants pulled down to pile over my thighs when she says, “My . . . my, you certainly came packing. You’re not even aroused, and you’re not like any I’ve seen before. No wonder she can’t say goodbye.”

  The drugs used on me can’t drown out her interest. If she even guesses what I am and tries to kiss me, she’ll never leave this room.

  “Leave, or Emma will kill you.” I snarl it without a point steady enough to focus on while I weave in and out of consciousness.

  I can still hear her, but don’t know if my reality has seeped into a dream.

  “No, I think her highness would want you cleaned. I’d better get some wet sponges and wash you myself. I think you would like that since you seem to have a fever. You’re so . . . so hot, I can feel it just from sitting next to you.”

  “All I need is to find her. Where the fuck is she?” I growl, furtively trying to focus. I ignore my sweat-drenched body, hoping she’ll do the same, so I can convince her to loosen the rope.

  She runs her hands from my neck to my stomach, tracing wet lines over my contracting muscles. Her breaths come heavier with every word, “What are you? Your eyes are magnificent—a pale-blue luminescent shade I’ve never seen before, and your body looks carved of stone.”

  I don’t want this. I only want Emma.

  I hear my head fall back against the headboard with a resounding thud that echoes painfully in my mind. Taking deep breaths that do nothing to ease my building anger, I begin tugging at the bonds when unexpectedly, I say Marcus’s name because I don’t want anyone touching me, unless it’s to undo my bonds.

  Chapter_: Made to Bleed

  Marcus

  Even though I’d rather be killed before admitting to it, when Darius calls through our bloodlink, I come running.

  You see, Darius and I share a long history.

  A history that spans centuries of being brothers-in-arms in brutal wars against lycans and any other zealous king and their armies greedy enough to want to wage war against the richest kingdom.

  The fight I joined into because Emma’s father was the wealthiest king in all the realms, and I lived to impress him.

  A difficult task since he hated vampires as much as the lycans—always trying to close in on his territory, and he already had two sons who were his prodigies. Sons gifted by the gods and whom could do no wrong. Everyone took notice of the boys when they grew into adulthood, the kingdom loved them because they defeated every rival they faced. They were so strong, oftentimes they overcame death; even when it seemed impossible. A rumor began throughout the kingdoms. The only logical explanation for it was the boys were blessed by the gods. It was one of the reasons King Emmerson married the widow, mother of those two boys, who was said to be the most powerful witch known throughout the realms. He made the dark-haired beauty his queen and adopted her sons—saying the princes were the ones commanded by the gods to be next in line. The other reason was guilt. Guilt because it was his fault the boys’ father, his second in command and most trusted friend had died.

  The truth is, it’s all about visualization and self purpose, more so than even fate and yes, the gods. So, I made it my mission to make it harder on the prodigal sons, challenging them many times. I am ancient compared to them and had a lot to prove to Emma’s father foremost and then the now reigning gods, too, would be made wiser.

  I was driven to build my army while intercepting any threat before it reached his lands. After several conquests, my reputation preceded me. It was only a matter of time before I sent word and offered my army to help bring back the king’s long lost daughter. Afterward, he decided to keep a close watch over me by joining our armies, and Darius and I became inseparable on the battlefield.

  It began with Darius and Andresahn showing off and trying to get me killed, in a way that I would appear to be just another casualty of war. But as more time passed, and it was obvious I wasn’t going anywhere, loyalties formed. There was one battle in particular where it became clear I would not fall back even as the sun was rising. I would not relent to their enemy, pushing back the line further into the swarming crowd. When Darius realized I saw their enemies as mine and that I was willing to give my miserable life in a last effort to save their hides, he set the battlefield in flames miraculously sparing me. It was the first time he relinquished his blood to me, and I was at that moment saved from the rays of the sun. Soon after, the objective shifted and it became solely about leading our armies towards territory closer to Emma’s mother’s kingdom, and my brother.

  Of course, I never breathed a word to my brother since he was so far away from the battlefield. It was easy to keep my secret. I just made sure to kill anyone who would take the information back to him.

  So, when Darius’s voice strikes through the silence of the docks while I stand with Daniel, my business associate, awaiting a very important cargo in the form of a mummified lycan king and the dagger that keeps him from rising, I say, “Take care of it. Something's come up.”

  He looks shocked to see me go, but I don’t even wait for his reply, rushing to pull on the chain of where the bloodlink leads me. Darius rarely calls on the chain of connection. The chain is formed only for those who regularly feed off one another, and he only calls when he needs information of Emma’s whereabouts, but even I haven’t known where to find her. My brother vanished with Emma and didn’t tell a soul.

  Tonight, I noticed something different in his call. There was a desperate urgency that came through the chain to me.

  When I reach him, I take in the unexpected scene before me. Darius’s heavy brows are drawn together in rage, his lips a flatline of sealed displeasure, and I know he’s avoiding the girl’s sloppy kisses over his lips. Just as I’m about to verbally pummel him for getting caught up in whatever the hell this is, my nostrils flare, and I scent her.

  “Emma, she’s here . . . I can smell her. Where?” I can hear the rough violence in my voice when the girl squeaks, jumping out of the bed to turn and face me. Inching back one frightened step at a time.

  I ignore the open horror in her brown wide-eyed gaze as she tries to run out of the room, but I can’t let her leave. My hand shoots out to grip her neck because the distinct scent of magic is in the air.

  I knew she was a witch from the moment I entered the room, and I’m going to need her to remove whatever spells this place has because its signature is stifling the air.

  I lean in over Darius, my nostrils flaring wider when I take a deep inhale of Emma’s arousal all over him. “What the fuck did you do?” I growl, pulling the witch after me.

  Darius’s eyelashes flutter, but he can barely lift his lids wider than two slivers of pale-blue while slurring his words. The closer I am to losing control, the tighter I rein in my emotions. My heart can’t break any further, so I take a look at the bigger picture.

  Dariu
s is obviously not going to be of any use to me—other than his blood, so I turn to the young witch first. Grabbing a hold of her small face, my fingers dig into soft flesh, turning the girl to see her frightened eyes shoot up to look into mine. In a flash my lips take to her neck. I drink eagerly and begin to see everything, working my way into her mind. She’s so panicked she offers no resistance.

  I pull away, hissing for the damage that’s been done to Emma while I struggle to control my temper.

  Terrified, she tries to persuade me not to hurt her. “Eros, My King . . . please, Emmaley will kill him tonight. She just needs closure. I swear this is all that’s happened here.”

  I don’t correct her that I’m not my twin. “You will tell me everything I need to know about the spells being used here, and afterward, you will wait for the princess and let her know I’m expecting her. Is this clear?”

  Relieved for the respite she believes I’m giving her, the girl’s head begins bobbing anxiously, and her answer comes quickly, “Yes, I’ll do just as you’ve stated. You won’t hurt her, will you?”

  “You’re faithful to your lady?” I ask.

  Darius groans in protest as his hips thrash, trying to break free from the ropes tying him. Offering his own view on the girl’s loyalty, but he has no idea—similarly as to why Emma doesn’t realize her affect on people. However, no one can resist to being drawn to both her and Darius . . . so I don’t fault the witless girl. The witch seems to be terrified of me.

  She blushes deeply, sneaking a quick look at his body, “Yes, I would die for her. He was only a distraction. Will you harm her?” Hesitant to use magic in front of me, she says the words that finish stripping Darius of his pants and lays the sheet over his torso, giving me enough time should I want to stop her.

  I smile because she has no idea how dangerous the distraction is. “No, I love her. She’s my mate.”

  Darius croaks Emma’s name, and I feel his wrenching pain because she is gone. I don’t tell him Emma won’t be gone for long. All I need is his blood to find her, and I will. There will be no place for Emma to hide from me tonight. But I’ll fucking make him pay first.