Read Online Blood Curse (Pulse #8) by Kailin Gow - Free Book Online Page B

louder than ever now; it felt like thunder breaking through the morning sky. She'd killed vampires before, she knew, hundreds of them by now. But something felt different this time. The act of killing had boiled her blood in a new way. She felt happy, tired, but more than that, she felt a strange rush of adrenaline coursing through her, a strange joy. As if...she had enjoyed it. Enjoyed the killing, not merely as something that needed to be done, for the common good but as something in its own right, an act of power, an act of vanquishing, that gave her a bizarre kind of strength.
              Kalina shivered. Could Nereti's influence be stronger even than she thought? Strong enough for her to enjoy slaughter?
              “No,” she said aloud. “No – that can't be.”
              “What is it, Kal?” Jaegar rushed to her side.
              “It...feels good, doesn't it?” Kalina swallowed hard. “Killing.”
              “Sometimes,” Jaegar admitted. A shadow flitted across his face, and Kalina knew that he was thinking of all the innocents he had killed, back in the old days, back in his days of evil. “Sometimes it felt too good.”
              “I can't stop shaking...” Kalina said. “It's...invigorating...”
              “No,” Uzo took a step forward. “No, it must not be that way. Not for a true warrior.”
              Samson nodded. “Human, vampire alike – I must learn to despise what I do. For only when I look upon the true horror of death can I kill with honor. Octavius taught me that.”
              Octavius! Kalina felt another pang, a strong one, at the mention of his name. Had he really been the one to wreak such devastation on the caves? Had he really been the one to send Nereti's forces to this South African tribe?
              Octavius !
              No sooner had she thought the name than she saw him once again in her mind's eye – a vision so strong that it blocked out her human eyes and left her blind and reeling. Before her was Octavius, naked and glistening, his stomach taut, his muscles chiseled, his expression full of darkness and rage. And rage, too, seemed to course through her, an infernal and primal anger that manifested itself in a wailing, furious scream that almost deafened her.
              “No!” Nereti was shouting. “No!” It was the scream of a queen whose will had never once been defied, whose demands had never once been question. A scream of ancient, evil power mingled with the all too human note of disbelief.
              “How can this be?” Nereti was shouting at Octavius. “Who was it that betrayed us? Surely they must have had advance notice – that is the only excuse for this travesty. One among us is a betrayer. I will find him. I will torture him. I will slaughter him. I will destroy him utterly. ”
              “We shall torture him for centuries, my Queen,” Octavius promised, kissing Nereti deeply and roughly. Kalina moaned slightly at the sweet, tantalizing taste of him. “He has led to the deaths of many of your finest soldiers.”
              “Do you think I care about my warriors? Carrion, they are. Mere machines, fit only for death – theirs or those of another. No, it is the diamonds I care for! We needed those diamonds...”
              Immediately Kalina remembered what Perseus had said. We will find them. What was it that they were looking for? What were these diamonds?
              “Diamonds,” she said aloud, flashing back to her surroundings. Uzo and Jaegar were standing over her, looking worried.
              “Kalina, what happened?” Jaegar took her hand.
              “What are these diamonds that Nereti was looking for?” Kalina asked Uzo. “Why did she want them?”
              Uzo sighed heavily. “We have been keeping that secret for many centuries,” he