Read Online A Wicked Hunger (Creatures of Darkness 1) by Kiersten Fay - Free Book Online Page B

other leg was bent, her foot resting on the peg. One of her hands gripped the back rest, angling her torso toward Mason. All in all, it made for a pose that reminded her of those biker babe magazines, but Cora was anything but sexy. She probably looked more like a drowned rat with her hair still wet from the shower.
    And Mace was laughing at her.
    She scowled at him. He snapped another picture, then slipped his phone back in his pocket and mounted the bike.
    “Hold on,” he ordered.
    Grudgingly, she obeyed, and he fired up the engine. The motorcycle sprang forward with unexpected speed. Cora flexed her arms tighter around Mace, fixing her torso flat against his back. Over the roar of the engine she couldn’t hear it, but she could swear he chuckled at her.
    Several hours later they were still winding through tight, nearly abandoned mountain roads. She would have been bored out of her mind if it wasn’t for the brilliant scenery. The dead burned landscape had given way to lush green forest, blanketing endless hills and valleys that were only broken up by steep stony mountains.
    Winston had never entertained the idea of visiting the countryside. This part of the world was inhabited by what he would call “crazies.” Whether that was true or not, they preferred to live alone, or in small groups, surviving off the land. She’d heard that those types of people, the kind that lived in camouflaged huts and flossed with bark, were reclusive, often paranoid, and could be violently territorial. Anyone who ventured this far without proper protection risked, well, everything.
    Most of the time, the rest of the world left them alone.
    Maybe that wasn’t such a terrible way to live, she thought, considering the struggles of her own life.
    Then again, who knew what kind of existence that would mean, especially for someone like her. In life—whether in the slums, or a high-rise, apparently—the strong preyed on the weak, and she was about as weak as they came…
    Before Winston, she’d only just been capable of protecting herself, mostly by keeping her head down and making herself as unassuming as humanly possible.
    That tactic had worked for her on occasion, though, not always. She eyed the back of Mason’s head—case in point.
    Suffice it to say, unstable mountain folk would eat her for breakfast if they had the chance. It was dangerous just to be out here on the road in plain view where anyone could be tracking their movement from a high summit.
    Yet, miraculously, she wasn’t worried.
    A frightening thought popped into her head: she wasn’t afraid of the crazies because nothing matched the savagery of a territorial vampire. Nothing would get her while she was in his custody.
    Nothing but him.
    She shivered, and he eased off the gas, giving her his profile. “Do you need a break?”
    “I’m fine,” she replied.
    He slowed and halted the bike on a narrow pull-off by the side of the road that was cut short by a small cliff. Below was a wide bank hugging a slow, winding river. The surrounding overgrowth was thick with trees, man-sized bushes, and other unkempt shrubbery.
    “I’m old enough to know that when a woman says she’s fine, it usually means the opposite.” He toed down the kickstand, making it final.
    The instant she dismounted the bike, her legs nearly gave out from the strange jelly sensation.
    Mace reached out to steady her, and she flinched away. “I’m fine, really.”
    He frowned. “I hoped you’d be less skittish toward me today.”
    She wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so she said nothing as she walked around to stretch her legs. A light breeze carried the scent of fresh soil in the air. It wasn’t a smell often found in the city, where pungent exhaust and trash perfumed the streets.
    Out here the air felt new, fresh, and unsullied, almost giving the illusion of freedom.
    Almost.
     
     
    Mace watched Cora come to a halt several feet from the edge of the short cliff and wrap her arms around