Smashed (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #8.5)

“Not like that.” I gestured for Jenner to have his way with her. I certainly wouldn’t stop him.

“You seriously only fuck one woman?” Jenner shook his head as if he couldn’t possibly wrap his mind around that concept. “Alexa must be a hell of a lay.”

A frown creased my brow. I knew he didn’t mean any harm, but his flippant remark carried more weight than he realized. “It’s not about fucking one woman, Jenner. It’s about belonging with one woman. No one has ever made me feel the way Alexa does.” Talking about her made me think about her, which was dangerous for many reasons.

Jenner ran a hand down Brandy’s body to her thigh. Her attempts to please him grew more frenzied. The very human scent of her was enticing. The more he touched her, the greater her desire grew. It washed over me like a wave, and I enjoyed the potent sensation of it.

“Well, seeing as I don’t have a great love to pine after, I’m going to fuck this chick senseless. Unless you have a problem with that.” Jenner’s words ended on a groan.

“Not at all.”

We traded places. I was happy to nuzzle her neck while Jenner positioned himself between her legs. In search of encouragement, he got her talking, telling him how much she needed him inside her. It was all part of his act. Jenner had to be the star of the show.

It was fine with me. I hadn’t been the one to seek out this encounter. Though now that I was here, I was going to take what I could from it.

Jenner made a big display of pleasing her. His hand disappeared beneath her skirt, and right away she was purring like a kitten. It took much effort to refrain from piercing her jugular. I needed her to bleed.

“I’ve gotta say, the women here are eager, aren’t they?” Blood stained Jenner’s face from a nip he’d taken of her inner thigh. Running his tongue over the smear, he laughed. “I could get used to this.”

“Don’t,” I chuckled. “You’ve already overstayed your welcome.”

While manually guiding Brandy to greater pleasure, Jenner studied me with a knowing grin. “Do you remember Paris? Those people were fucking amazing.”

“I couldn’t forget Paris if I wanted to.” The years I’d spent in Paris were among some of the best. Together, Harley, Jenner, and I had dined on the city’s finest folks. Some of my best work had been done in that city.

“Sometimes I still rub one out while thinking back on those days. We had some good times.”

“We sure did.” I wasn’t surprised by his blatant confession. “You’re so obsessed with yourself, Jenner. It’s ludicrous.”

With pupils so large that his eyes were black, Jenner shrugged. “What can I say? I know what I like.”

Not bothering to await my response, he busied himself with the victim writhing between us. With the right touch and a few whispered promises of things to come, he had her begging.

Brandy clutched at me, trying to get me to kiss her. I avoided her greedy advances by seeking out her jugular. I wasn’t in the mood to draw this out.

I couldn’t do it. My fangs grazed her skin, and she shuddered. But I couldn’t bring myself to bite into her neck. Being so close, ready but unable, it flashed me back to the best and worst moment of my existence. The moment I killed Alexa.

No kill had ever been so satisfying and no kill ever would be again. There was no word to describe how it felt to be one with her in that delicate place between life and death. She was mine as fully as one could be. It was wonderful.

And then it was absolute misery. Death stole her from me, severing the tie that joined us. It was like having a piece of myself torn away, ripped from my very soul. For a time, I thought I would die too. Then she came back and we were whole again. If that’s what this was.

The memories were fresh, always lurking, ready to blindside me again. I had waited for a century to have it all happen in just a few minutes. Never would I forget the way she’d pleaded for me to do it. I kept waiting for it to wash me clean of the guilt. It hadn’t so far.

It should have been a relief to know that Alexa was still here on this earth with me. If I hadn’t blood bonded her, she’d just be dead now. Perhaps it would have been better that way. A creature like her should never have to be what I am.

Alexa dominated my thoughts. It led me down that mental pathway that joined us, plunging me into her mind. It was sudden and disorienting. Then I was seeing through her eyes, an unwelcome visitor in her head.

It was dark. A cold fall breeze blew her long blonde hair about in a mess of tangles. The hunger drove her, guiding her actions. Her focus was on the couple engaged in an intimate embrace on a park bench. Together with Kale Sinclair at her side, the two of them slaughtered the lovers.

I tasted the blood in Alexa’s mouth. The screams echoed in the stillness, silenced quickly by Sinclair. While he feasted on the fear of one victim, she drove the other into a sexual frenzy.