Read Online Almost Human by Secret Cravings Publishing - Free Book Online

himself on his forearms
over me. “Are you okay? I was a little crazed.”
    “I’m…God, how much did you take?
I’m laying down, and I’m still dizzy.”
    His eyebrows came together and he
frowned. “I took more than I should have, but you’ll be fine. Stay
still. I don’t want you to be sick.”
    “No problems there. I think if I
sat up, I’d pass out.”
    “I’m so sorry. I waited too long
to feed. And you came in here, smelling good and afraid. I was
angry that you had come back, but glad at the same time, and I
snapped.”
    Glad? He’d been glad to see me? I
frowned at the giddy, girly feeling I got. “How long did you go
without feeding?”
    “A month. There’s been so much
going on lately. I haven’t had time, or been in the
mood.”
    A month? Holy crap. “I’ve never
heard of a vampire going more than two weeks without feeding. By
then they’re like rabid animals, and they usually kill their
victims.” A chill went down my spine. How close had I come to death
this day?
    “Yeah, but have you met that many
over a hundred? I’m like eight hundred. I have control. I would
have more if I deprived myself more often to test my limits, but
I’ve gotten spoiled. It’s a lot easier to find willing victims in
the twenty-first century than it was in my time.”
    The light bounced off something
metal behind Alaric’s head. I braced my hands on his shoulders and
shoved, rolling with him.
    “What the fu—”
    The double-sided axe bit into the
bed. Before the zombie could lift it out, I kicked her in the
stomach. She flew into the wall with enough force to dent the sheet
rock.
    This had to be Sherra. She looked
pretty good for a zombie. Mother must have poured a lot of magic
into her. But you could still tell she was a corpse. Her skin was
almost grey and stretched taut across her bones. Her limp hair hung
well past her shoulders and a small patch was missing on the side
of her head. Thinned lips pulled back from her rotting teeth and
the stench of her was enough to make me gag. She must have been
cloaked in magic for Alaric not to have noticed it well before I
spotted her.
    Stuffing flew as I yanked the axe
out of the bed. I shoved myself off Alaric and spun around. I swung
the heavy axe at Sherra’s head with all I had. She ducked, and the
blade struck the wall.
    She kicked me in the stomach and I
tumbled across the bed and onto the floor on the other side. I lay
there for a second, relearning how to breathe. Nausea swelled up in
my gut. Oh gees, not now. I didn’t want to be vomiting up
everything I’d ever eaten when this bitch decapitated
me.
    There was pounding on the door and
the doorknob rattled. “Alaric!”
    “Can you hear us? What’s going
on?”
    “We can’t break down the
door.”
    Jet black, pointy-toed boots came
into view. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and looked up
at the evil dead.
    She stared down at me with solid
white eyes and I felt her disgust. Her lip curled back from her
teeth. “Why do you defend this creature, daughter? You’re of my
line. You should be hunting it.”
    She seized a hand full of my hair
and yanked me off the ground. “This one killed me. You should
avenge your ancestors, and instead you feed it. Do you fuck it,
too?”
    She punched me in the jaw and sent me spinning, face
first, into the wall. My vision fuzzed out for a second. She had
one hell of a right hook.
    She moved toward Alaric. “You will
die, vampire. You turned one of mine, and her mother called me back
to kill you.”
    Alaric shook his head. He looked
even paler than usual. “You’re dead.”
    She took another step toward him.
“Yes, you killed me. Did you know that blood bonding me to you
would kill me slowly, and painfully?”
    He flinched. “No, I swear. I only
meant to control you, so you wouldn’t kill any of my brothers or
me.”
    “You deserve to die,” she
screeched. “You’re evil.”
    I banged my fist on the wall, and
Alaric’s distant gaze jerked away from