Gena Showalter - Twisted

A DEN S TONE STARED DOWN at the girl sleeping on the rocky dais. Long hair the color of a wintry midnight, dark yet glimmering like the moonlight on snow, spilled over slender shoulders. Spiky black lashes cast shadows over high, model-sharp cheekbones. Lush pink lips glistened with a sheen of moisture.

Hed watched her lick those lips several times, and he knew. Even lost to slumber as she was, she scented something delicious and craved a taste.

Taste Yes

Her skin was snow-white yet constantly flushed a deep rose in all the right places. Not one flaw did she possess. Not a single line or wrinkleeven though she was over eighty years old.

Young, for her kind.

She wore a tattered black robe that draped from just under her arms to the tips of her toes. Or would have, if she hadnt rucked the material up one of her legs. The slender limb was bent and angled outward. A feast for his gaze, perhaps even an I-want-you-to-drink-from-the-vein-in-my-thigh invitation.

He should resist.

He couldnt resist.

She was the most beautiful female hed ever seen. Fragile-looking, dainty. Like a priceless piece of art in the one and only museum hed ever toured. The curator had slapped his hand for trying to touch something he shouldnt.

No need to guard this one, he thought with a small smile. She could protect herself, snapping a mans neck with a single twist of her wrist.

She was a vampire. His vampire. His sickness and his cure.

Aden placed one of his knees on the makeshift bed. The T-shirt that stretched underneath the girl, cushioning her ever so slightly, snagged underneath his weight and pulled tight, rolling her in his direction. She didnt moan or utter a breathy sigh as a human might have done. She was quiet, eerily so. Her expression remained the same: serene, innocenttrusting.

You shouldnt do this.

He was going to do this.

He wore a pair of ripped, bloodstained jeans. The same jeans hed worn the night of their first date. The night his entire world changed. She wore the robe and nothing else. Sometimes their clothing was the only thing that kept them from doing more than drinking from each other.

Drinking from each other. Or feeding. So mild a word for what happened. He would never purposely hurt her, but when the madness came upon himhell, when the madness came upon her affection was forgotten. They became animals.

You shouldnt do this, what was left of his conscience repeated.

One more drink, and Ill leave her alone.

Thats what you said last time. And the time before that. And the time before that.

Yeah, but I mean it this time. He hoped.

Once, he would have been talking to the three souls trapped inside his head. But they werent inside his head anymore, they were inside hers, and hed reverted to talking to himself. At least until the monster awoke. An honest to God monster, prowling through his conscious, roaring, desperate for blood. The monster the sleeping girl had inadvertently given him, the monster responsible for his new favorite sportjugular tapping. Then he didnt talk to anyone at all.

Downdown Aden leaned until his chest flattened against the vampires. He placed his hands at her temples and balanced his weight. The tips of their noses were a mere whisper apart, yet he wanted to be closer to her. Always closer.

He applied more pressure to his left hand, the soft strands of her hair pulling as tight as the T-shirt had done, causing her head to loll in that direction and exposing the elegant length of her neck. At the base, her pulse thumped steadily.

Unlike the bloodsuckers of myth, she was not dead. She was a living, breathing being, born rather than created, and more alive than anyone hed ever met. Unless he accidently killed her, of course.

I wont.

You might. Dont do this.

Just a sip

His mouth watered. He inhaledand felt as if he were breathing for the very first time. Everything was so new, wondroushe held the breathheldcould almost taste the sweetness of her blood alreadyslowly released. No relief was forthcoming, just an increased awareness of that ever-present hunger. He ran his tongue over his teeth, his aching gums. He didnt have fangs, but, oh, he wanted to bite her. Wanted to drink her down. Savor, drink again. Drink, drink, drink.

Even without fangs, he could bite her. And, if she were human, he could drain her dry. But because she was vampire, her skin was as hard and smooth as polished ivory. Reaching a vein with his teeth was impossible. He needed je la nune, the only substance capable of burning through that ivory. Problem was, theyd run out. Now, there was only one way to get what he wanted.

Victoria, he rasped.

She must not have recovered from their last interlude, because she gave no indication that she heard him. A flicker of guilt pierced his hunger. He should get up, move away from her. Let her rest, recover. Shed fed him so much blood over the past few daysweeks? years?she couldnt have much left.

Victoria. He couldnt stop her name from rolling off his tongue. The hungertruly, it never left him. Only grew, slithering around him, clamping down on his soul. Still. Hed take just a drop, the taste hed promised himself, and then he would at last leave her alone. She could go back to sleep.

Until he needed more.

You wont take any more, remember? This is the last time.

Wake up for me, sweetheart. He pressed their lips together, harder than hed intended. A kiss for his Sleeping Beauty.

Like the girl in the fairy tale, Victoria blinked open her lids, the length of her lashes separating, connecting, separating for good. Then he was peering into eyes of the purest crystal. Deep, fathomless. Glazed with a hunger of their own.

Aden? She stretched like a kitten, her arms rising above her head, her back arching. A purr rumbled from her throat. Is it bad again?

The robe gaped over her chest, just a little, but enough, and he caught a glimpse of the tattoo etched above her heart. A faded blacksoon to disappear altogether, just as her others had donewith multiple circles swirling into each other and connecting in the middle. Not just a pretty decoration, but a ward, a spell inked into her skin to protect her against death, and the only thing that had saved her life as shed poured most of her blood down his throat that first time.