His grin broadens, his sharp fangs glinting in the silver moonlight. "I'm wondering if maybe I shouldn't tell you just yet; drag the anticipation out for a while until you're ready to beg." He whisks forward, getting in my face before I can even take my next blink. "I know he'd like to make you beg for a lot of things … But maybe I'll take that chance away from him."
"Who's he?" I ask as I start to step back.
"Someone I thought wouldn't be stupid enough to let you wander around here alone. Or maybe you just ran off." The way he looks at me, as if all my secrets are carved across my skin, makes me shudder.
With a pleased grin on his face, he darts his hand out, his thin but surprisingly strong fingers wrapping around my throat. "Now, no more talking. Not until I get to taste your blood and see if you're the one."
My heart plummets to my stomach as he lifts me up until my feet no longer touch the ground. The one? Does he know I might be the queen? If so, why is he trying to hurt me?
"But you're an emperor. You took a vow never to hurt an innocent vampire." I gasp as his fingers constrict.
Panic flares through me as my ability to breathe is ripped away. Sure, he can't kill me by strangulation, but not being able to breathe is painful for a vampire. And, if he grips my neck tightly enough to snap the bones, it'll take me months to heal.
"I stopped caring about that vow the day they kicked me out," he growls in my face. "The day he stabbed me in the back." He leans back, only to dip his lips toward my neck. "Fuck, you smell good. Innocent. Pure." He lifts his head to glance at me. "Have you ever been bitten before?"
"Leave … me … alone," I growl out through my ragged breathing.
His sinister grin makes my stomach clench. "Yeah, you're definitely a virgin biter." He wets his blood-stained lips with his tongue and then lowers his head to my neck again. "Don't worry; I'll be gentle."
No! Not like this!
I let out a roaring scream that echoes through the night as I swing my leg forward, the tip of my shoe colliding with his manly parts. He cries out in pain, his hand slipping from my neck.
I drop to the ground hard, but quickly stumble to my feet, preparing to run. But the other vampires close in on me, growling, their eyes glowing yellow …
I blink. Then blink again.
Since when do vampires' eyes glow yellow? That's usually a demon or werewolf trait. But I can sense their blood is connected to mine and their sharp fangs mark them as vampires, so they must be vampires …
Aren't they?
"There's nowhere to run." Red eyes moves up behind me. "The rebellion is coming whether you run or not." He grabs me by the back of my neck and jerks me back lightning quick, his fangs grazing my skin enough that a drop of blood trickles out. He tenses, sniffing me. "You're different … "
Does he know?
He tightens his fingers around my neck, his palm scorching my skin, burning my flesh, sending blinding pain through my body. I don't know what's happening, but I refuse to back down.
I ball my hands into fists and start to lift my foot to knee him in the balls again when a shadowy figure zips by me at an alarming speed, even in vampire terms. A cry pierces against the silence of the night as three vampires vanish from the circle around me.
"What the … ?" red eyes whispers from behind me. His grip loosens, the blazing pain extinguishing from my body.
Seizing the distraction, I whirl around and kick him between the legs. I repeat the movement again, and then go in for a third kick, when he catches my foot.
"Nice try," he growls, kinking my leg into an awkward angle.
The sounds of bones snapping shatter the darkness as pain splinters up my leg.
Red eyes laughs darkly, leaning over me as I fall to the ground. "Think you could get away from me? News flash: I always get what I want. And now that I know what I want … " He opens his mouth, fangs out, ready to plunge into my flesh …
The shadowy figure zooms out of nowhere and knocks him to the concrete.
I blink and the figure gradually comes into focus. Then I blink again, more out of shock of the male vampire standing in front of me.
Rhyland is the shadowy figure? Rhyland can move that swiftly?
Rhyland crouches down and pins red eyes to the ground, his fingers wrapped around his throat. "You have no right to put your filthy hands on her."
Red eyes lets out a choking laugh. "I see nothing's changed. Still trying to protect everyone."
Rhyland leans in toward red eyes, his low tone deathly chilling. "Not trying. Doing." He reaches into his jacket, retrieves a gun, and aims the barrel at red eyes' forehead. "Ever tasted demon's venom, Gabe?"