He growled and snapped but didn’t pull away. I rested my hand against his forehead, bracing against the onslaught of energy pouring from him like an angry wave. He was on his knees before me, our eyes locked.
There was a roar of white noise in my ears. Pushing through the attack of emotion and pain in his energy, I concentrated on the wolf straining to break free. Coby’s wolf was strong and desperate, anxious to give in to instinct and break free from the prison of his human form.
Everything around me fell away. The park, Shaz and Arys, all of it faded to black. All I saw was Coby. I grasped the energy of his wolf and forced it to bend to my will. I envisioned it lying quiet inside him.
Power went out from me, and Coby fell back on his ass gasping. When he looked up at me again, the fangs and wolf eyes were gone. The hand I’d touched him with shook slightly, and I was mildly breathless.
He gaped up at me, astonished. Extending a hand, I pulled him to his feet. Calling the power to manipulate his wolf had brought forth the hungers of that vampiric power. I released him quickly and stepped back.
Coby watched me with a strange expression, like he was wary. Then I realized he was looking past me to Shaz who was reacting to the power I’d called like a junkie hurting for a fix.
Shaz’s eyes were wolf, frozen on me in a look of wonder and desire. His own energy grew frazzled. Not everyone could feel energy like this. Some were more tuned into it than others. However, this was a case of addiction on overdrive. Put someone who had never used drugs before in the presence of a powerful narcotic, and it would have little effect on them. Stick an addict in there, and they’ll come undone.
I stared at Shaz in stunned silence. The glimmer in his eyes revealed something I had never seen before, the dangerous lust of the smitten blood whore. I watched as my worst fear for Shaz came to life. He eyed me like a pet waiting eagerly for attention, aching so desperately for it. I could have told him to get on his knees and worship me like a slave, and he would have done it if it meant riding the high he sought.
“Shaz?” I heard the hesitance in my voice, fear that this was about to get weird.
“Lex.” He spoke softly, so low I barely heard it. He moved toward me with a staggered step.
“Are you alright?”
His hands were hot on my skin as he slid them up my arms, over my shoulders, finally burying his fingers in my tresses. Leaning in close he breathed deeply of my scent and sighed. “I’m afraid I’m losing my mind.”
Desperate passion laced his touch. He kissed me with a drowning hunger. The bloodlust burst inside me, testing my control. With a groan, I tried to push him away, but he held tight. I didn’t want it to be this way between us. It wasn’t right.
Shaz pressed closer. I was quickly overwhelmed by his scent, so deliciously wolf and thrumming with that heady crimson. I couldn’t do this. I wanted to bite into the soft flesh of his throat and bleed him so badly I ached, and knowing he wanted it too made the urge almost impossible to resist.
“Shaz, stop. I don’t want to hurt you.”
With both hands on his chest, I shoved. He stood his ground, refusing to budge. My precarious hold on control was slipping. Shaz was intent on seducing me. His mouth moved on mine with a feverish hunger.
“But, I want you to. I need it.” He shoved his hands beneath the hem of my top to caress my bare belly.
I was humming with built up energy. I had everything Shaz wanted: the need for his blood and the power capable to take him to heights most could never dream of visiting. We were both slaves to our own personal drug of choice; in a horrific twist of fate, we were also just what the other desired.
Seeking a fix from one another was not only dangerous, but it was also stupid. We would find no saving grace in that; it could never repair what we had destroyed. That path only lead to the senseless pursuit of gratification until it consumed us. Arys’s darkness threatened to devour not only me, but Shaz as well.
I could hear the beat of his heart, rapid and strong. It would take such little effort to spill his blood. Just one bite. The cold power of the undead swelled inside me. Shaz taunted my senses. He was all I could feel, see and smell. I wanted to taste him.
Shaz pulled back to meet my eyes, a challenge shining in his. In a foolishly bold move, he held my gaze and bared his neck in invitation. A growl cut the silence. I zoned in on the pulsing vein in Shaz’s throat, and nothing else existed in that moment. I moved fast, my lips against his neck, fangs ready.
Before I could sink my teeth into my white wolf, I was violently jerked away. It was sudden and disorienting.
Arys’s shout snapped me back to reality. “Alexa, don’t.”
My pulse thundered in my ears. Shock gave way to dismay. Shaz shook his head, his expression one of confusion and remorse.