Read Online Bitten by Ecstasy: 2 (Dark Judgment) by Naima Simone - Free Book Online Page A

Angel from the time of their birth.
    “The first cruxim were called pithia and they were not warriors but priestesses of Nef.” Nef, their beloved goddess, endowed the cruxim with her strength. “They worshipped and served her in the heavens and on earth. While offering sacrifice and tending one of the earthly temples, a pithia came across a vampire who lusted after her—and raped her. The young she bore as a result of the attack inherited the black wings, silver hair and eyes of its mother, but the fangs and bloodlust of the vampire. Only the young craved the blood of its sire, not human blood. Nef was outraged by the defilement of her priestess. She declared war on the vampires, nearly decimating the race from the earth.”
    “Damn,” Bastien breathed. “Remind me to never piss off a goddess.”
    “The vampire species recovered, but their hatred for Nef was as hot as hers—and the pithia’s —for them. For thousands of years our races warred, killing indiscriminately. Including innocents. Once Nef’s fury cooled, those deaths weighed heavily on both her and the pithia’s consciences. The goddess restricted hunting to rogue vampires, but we’re still enemies. While a select few of our race continue to serve Nef, from the time most of us are weaned, we are trained to hunt and kill vampires after we feed from them. It’s what we are…what we do.”
    His eyebrows veered toward his hairline. “I thought you hunted and executed all vampires. So you’re discriminate…like our Dimios.” Bastien slowly nodded then tilted his head to the side. “How do cruxim differentiate between rogue vampires and innocents?”
    “Vampires are natural predators, but they don’t have to inflict pain or kill. They can easily enthrall humans and make the feeding pleasurable. But there are those who enjoy the agony of ripping their prey apart, delight in the kill and exalt in the last life’s blood pumping from their victims’ veins. These are the rogues cruxim hunt.”
    “Like tonight,” Bastien added.
    She dipped her chin in acknowledgment. “Yes, like tonight. All vampires possess aura—a spiritual stamp of sorts—that cruxim can perceive, probably due to the ancestral blood connection our races share. A vampire’s aura should be blue, but the essences of those who have drunk a human’s last life's blood are striated with red. A bright, desperate, angry red. As if the human soul contained in the fluid is crying out for punishment, for retribution.” Her voice softened as she envisioned the profane mixture of red and blue. Of evil and virtue. Of life and death.
    She shook her head, clearing her head and refocusing on her explanation. “The taint has a slim window of eight hours before it disappears and the aura returns to blue. So the cruxim search every night—from the sky or on the ground—to locate the rogues, the killers, before they can hide their guilt behind the façade of innocence.”
    “That explains it,” he said, his green eyes lighting as if a switch had been flipped inside his head.
    “Explains what?”
    “Since I…changed, I’ve glimpsed flashes of red and blue in crowds of people. I assumed it was another effect of the bloodlust. But I was actually seeing—”
    “Vampires,” she concluded.
    “Damn,” he whispered.
    A corner of her mouth quirked at the note of wonder in his voice. But then she sobered. “Another trait we share,” she paused, her lips twisting, “or used to share.”
    A heartbeat of silence passed.
    “You miss it,” he murmured.
    Yes, damn it! her spirit cried out. But she locked the scream down, remained silent.
    He studied her, his inspection different than in the kitchen. More analytical, dissecting. As if she were photographic film depicting bones and joints instead of a flesh-and-blood female.
    “Why did you do it?” he asked. “Why did you give me your blood if you knew it would steal your immortality? Your purpose?”
    Planting her palms on the couch, she