“No, I’m no one! Please, please leave me be!” Her voice carried a note of hysteria and her body had started to tremble.
All witches he had met had been haughty with confidence in their abilities—at least until his fangs punctured their skin. This wretched little thing exhibited none of the usual self-assurance of someone who was accustomed to power.
But if she wasn’t a witch, then why was she resisting his Compulsion?
“Come here!” Warin reached out again, putting all his power behind the command.
Thea’s only reaction was to whimper.
Puzzlement aside, the girl’s lack of obedience wasn’t sitting well with his need to soothe his ravening hunger. With an irritated growl he flipped the solid table over, exposing her.
“Come to me,” he repeated, daring her to resist him with a narrowing of his eyes.
Thea breathed shallowly, quickly glancing from his face to the door, clearly calculating her chances of escaping—and arriving at the conclusion that she had no chance of making it.
Her tongue flicked out to moisten her dry lips, momentarily distracting his focus. “Are you going to hurt me?”
It was a ridiculous question. Even if she had yet to understand what he was, she undoubtedly knew that a raider who had broken into her home was not there for anything pleasant. Warin stared into her wide eyes, feeling oddly hesitant about confirming her fears.
Normally, he delighted in his prey’s terror and went to great lengths to ensure they knew they would die at his hands, even as they surrendered to his Compulsion. This time, something inside him resisted the idea of hurting her. He wanted… Warin frowned, not entirely sure what he wanted. His fangs and throbbing cock were still aching to be buried in her, but he didn’t want her to look and smell so frightened while he indulged himself.
It was supremely frustrating.
As far back as his memories would allow him to recall, he had always known exactly what his instincts demanded of him and had reveled in following them, even as he knew they would never be satisfied. This time, everything was different, and he didn’t understand why. He just knew that he didn’t want this Thea to be scared of him.
“I won’t hurt you,” he said. “Come.”
She moved then, though hesitantly. His eyes followed her as she slowly unfolded from her curled up position until she was on her feet, hands still clutching her skirt. She didn’t come to him, but at least she wasn’t cowering anymore.
“What do you want?” she asked. “If you really won’t hurt me, what do you want from me? I don’t have any valuables.”
“You.” The word flowed easily from his lips, loosening the coil of confusion in his chest. Yes, that was exactly what he wanted, no matter the confusing emotions swirling in his mind. It was the only thing that was truly clear to him. “I want you.”
Thea squeaked and stumbled back against the wall when he surged forward, but he caught her easily around the waist before she could fall. Her skin was so warm against his. Warm and soft. Ignoring her panting breath and the rapid drumming of her heart, he bent his head to her neck and inhaled deeply.
Her scent filled his lungs, tainted by the tart notes of her fear, but still rich and irresistible like nothing else he had experienced. His fangs burst forth, lengthening with almost painful speed rather than their usual, slow descent, aching to be buried in her creamy neck.
Warin groaned and clutched her closer. Yes, just a taste…
He nibbled at her throat, savoring the salty taste of her skin and the sensation of her pulse against his lips, but when his fangs scraped against her neck, preparing to puncture her skin, a sudden, loud thwack followed by a mild stinging in his cheek made him pause, bewildered.
It took him two full seconds to realize that the girl had slapped him.
“Don’t you dare! Demon!” Her voice was filled with more than just fear now. She was angry, he realized when he pulled his head back to look at her. Her face was blotchy and her eyes darkened with fury.
Without releasing his hold on her squirming form, he touched his cheek where her hand had connected with his face. Her puny, human strength had not been enough for the mild pain to linger, but the sheer audacity of the assault stunned him.
She had struck him. A human had struck him.
Anger swept over him, replacing the bewilderment. No one raised their hand to him and lived—not even this disconcerting little female.
When he growled deeply, displaying his fangs fully as the animal part of him took over, the fury in her gaze died, replaced by pure terror. In her eyes he saw his own reflection, saw the monster within him burst forth to claim her life as it had thousands before her.
Only this time, rather than the usual euphoria, its demand for blood brought him only pain.
Chapter 2
Warin
“Why are you sitting here, sulking like a petulant child?”
His brother’s lighthearted tone didn’t make Warin look up from the green sea below the cliff he was perched on, dangling his feet over the abyss. The salty wind felt good against his face and masked the smell of burned wood and stale blood from the village behind him. He was in no mood to deal with a playful Aleric.
“Aw, didn’t you find a playmate?” The tall, auburn-haired warrior flopped down easily by his side, ignoring Warin’s warning growl. “I keep telling you, just eat the men and bed the women—keep it simple. As much as you enjoy your sick little games, a nice fuck is just as satisfying and quite a bit easier to come by.”
Instead of the swift punishment he usually dealt out when his younger brother overstepped, Warin just pressed his lips tightly together and stared at the frothy emerald waves underneath them. A heavy press of something he hadn’t felt in centuries was lodged inside his chest. Despair. Thick, gray, mind-numbing despair.
Aleric seemed to finally catch on to the absence of Warin’s usual temper. Warin could sense the long-limbed man turn fully toward him, a worried noise making its way up his throat.
“Brother? What’s wrong?”
There was no one other than Aleric—the only being still walking this Earth who truly knew him—who he would ever have allowed to see this moment of weakness.
“I’m a monster.” His voice was as dull as the weight in his chest when he turned to look at the only true companion he had ever had.
Aleric blinked, surprise warring with the worried frown on his angular face. “Come again?”
“I’m a monster,” he repeated, his voice flat and lifeless even to his own ears. “I am Death. Destruction.”