Read Online Bloodshot by Cherie Priest - Free Book Online

game of tug-of-war. Back and forth we went, me gaining ground, and him losing it.
    Out to the stairs we bumbled, and I threw him down them, which took the edge right off him. After that, he was slower and easier to haul. We had one more flight of stairs to the basement, and he took them the hard way, too. At the bottom I half dragged, half kicked him around the nearest corner with a door so I could close it and make sure we were alone.
    It’s more than being a secretive eater. It’s a matter of practicality (easier to force him down than up), and consideration for others (Pepper, who frankly did
not
need to see it), and ease of cleanup (concrete floor with a slightly sinking foundation).
    Down in the basement it was so dark that even I could barely see, but I didn’t mind so I didn’t do anything to correct the situation.
    My quarry was starting to babble. I don’t usually like to start up conversations with people I intend to nosh on, but I wanted to know what this paramilitary freak was doing on my premises, and it was either ask him now or figure it out later.
    I planted my boot in his back somewhere near his kidney.
    He groaned, and I demanded, “What are you doing here?”
    He groaned some more, so I swung my foot into his ribs some more until he answered, “Looking around. Just looking around.”
    I could smell blood when he talked. His face must’ve met the corner of a stair. Good. Or rather, good for me. Bad for him. Between the salt-and-vinegar tang of his sweat and the rich, metallicscent of bleeding, he needed to talk fast. He had less time left in this world than he knew.
    “Bullshit,” I told him. The word came out funny. I was salivating to a degree that could best be described as embarrassing.
    He fumbled around, reaching for something. I didn’t want him to retrieve any weapons or get a good handle on anything potentially defensive that might be lying around on the floor, so I pounced down on him, rolled him over, and pinned him spread-eagle. I tried not to drool all over him when I said, “Tell me what you’re doing here, or you’re never leaving this room alive.”
    “Just looking!” he almost wailed. “And climbing … climbing around,” he added.
    I didn’t believe him.
    Nobody dresses so thoroughly in special-ops garb just to take a stroll through an old building. But he didn’t sound like he was ready to spill any good beans, and the smell of him had me so starved that before I could even make the conscious decision to bite, my hand was over his mouth and my teeth were in his throat.
    He struggled and whimpered, but not for long. Going headfirst down the stairs had really softened him up, and I filed the information away for future reference. Violent trip down the stairs equals bruised-up victim who doesn’t fight hard and doesn’t lose too much extra blood ahead of time.
    My dad once told me that the old mob boys used bags of oranges to beat the snot out of people. I’d always thought it was strange before. Now it made a little more sense, at least from a vampiric standpoint.
    I took my time feeding on the trespasser.
    It’s rare that I take human meals—or any meals at all, anymore. Mostly I do what other vampires do and settle for whatever I can nab from a sympathetic butcher’s shop—or else bribe a blood-bank worker to slip you a little on the side (my personal preference, in apinch). Only sometimes do I ever pick off a real, live person. I don’t need to feed like I once did. When I was first turned I needed it every night—or else. But the older I get, the less necessary it is. I suppose it’s like newlywed sex. The first few years, you get busy anytime, anywhere, baby. But after a few anniversaries, you’d rather stay up and watch Leno.
    Still, every time I’m facedown in a gushing artery, I swear to God it feels like the first time all over again—and I wonder how on earth I’ve gone so long without it. The hot, sticky taste of rust and salt goes down so