“And I want you.” Yeah, she wanted him all right. Wanted him rolling about on the floor in agony.
She reached up and stroked her fingers over the rough skin of his cheek, then curled her hand around his neck and pulled him toward her. Her mouth opened for his kiss, and his tongue thrust inside. His lips hardened on hers, deepening the kiss. For a few seconds, she allowed herself to relax against him. Then she took his lower lip between her teeth and bit down hard. The warm, metallic taste of blood flooded her mouth. Callum made to pull away, but she held him tight with the hand at the back of his neck, while she pumped him full of the venom from the glands at the base of her incisors.
He went still, and then the first spasm racked his body. Tannis released her hold and shoved him away. He stumbled as she leaned against the wall to observe. She’d never seen the full effects of her venom before, and she watched with interest.
“What have you—” He broke off as another spasm ran through his body. Swaying, he put out a hand, then stumbled again and gripped onto the back of a nearby chair. His face leached of color, his legs buckled, and he crashed to the floor, dragging the chair with him. He landed on his wings and rolled so he came up on all fours.
His head hung down and he retched, vomiting up a mixture of blood and his stomach contents, and she grimaced.
“Nasty,” she said. “You see, that’s why I didn’t want to go to my room.”
He continued to vomit until nothing further came out, then he collapsed to the floor on his belly and lay still.
Tannis waited a couple of minutes, but when he didn’t move, she stepped closer and nudged him in the ribs with the tip of her boot.
His head rolled to the side, and he peered up at her out of half-closed eyes. “Why?”
“Maybe I was very jealous. Don’t worry—I’ll send your friend in—she can mop your fevered brow.”
A faint sheen of sweat glossed his skin. Shivers ran through his body and his huge wings fluttered feebly. Finally, he closed his eyes, and the tension went out of him. Presumably, he’d lost consciousness. Pity—she would have preferred the pain to go on a little longer.
For long moments, she stood looking down at him, and then she drew the scrap of material from her pocket and tossed it to the floor by his nose. She whirled around and stalked from the room. Rico was waiting outside; he peered in through the door as she exited.
“What did you do to him?”
“I bit him.”
“Really? He doesn’t look too good.”
“He’ll live. More’s the pity.” One more thing she wanted to do. She pressed the comm unit on her wrist. “Daisy, there’s a woman in the central conference room. Can you pick her up and show her to Callum’s cabin?”
She leaned against the wall, her hands clenched at her side, and tried to ignore Rico while she waited.
Daisy appeared with Venna in tow a couple of minutes later. The blonde had a pleasant—if entirely insincere—smile plastered on her angel face. That would soon go.
Tannis waited until Venna was level with her, then she straightened, drew back her fist and punched her right in that smile.
“That’s for the fucking chocolate,” she snarled and stalked away.
Chapter Nine
For the first time in his life, Callum wished he wasn’t immortal, and he could just die quietly and the pain would stop. He lay very still, because if he moved, he hurt. His wings hurt, his arms and legs ached, his stomach felt like he’d been disemboweled and the hollow filled with molten metal. His head thumped, his mouth tasted disgusting, and a thick, sour stench filled his nostrils.
He would have liked to whimper but that would involve moving, and he really didn’t want to do that yet. Maybe not ever.
“Callum?”
He opened one eye at the urgently spoken word. Then closed it again.
“Callum?” The tone was sharper this time.
“What?” He pushed the word out through his torn lips. He must have bitten through them, because they hurt as well.
“Are you all right?”
Stupid fucking woman.
The words sounded loud in his head, but he decided to keep them to himself. He suspected he was going to need her help any minute now, when he finally got the nerve to try and get up. No point in alienating her completely. He settled for a, “No.”
“Oh. Because we have to get out of here. That woman is crazy.”
What woman? And what was Venna doing here anyway? In fact, where was here? And what the hell had happened? He opened his eye again—the one that wasn’t glued to the floor—and peered around the room. His room.
It came back to him slowly. He’d come here with Tannis. She’d kissed him, then she’d…
Bloody hell—she’d bitten him. On the mouth. That’s what was wrong with his lip; the sadistic bitch had bitten him, then injected him with some sort of poison.
But why?
A pair of legs came into his vision, high heels, and slender ankles. Then Venna crouched so her face appeared in his line of vision. Her nose wrinkled in an expression of disgust. “Ugh.”