Read Online Dark Cravings by Madeline Pryce - Free Book Online Page B

sensation, feeling he encountered, his anger
mounted.
    Put your shields up, Ella, I cannot control this ,Julian
ordered but I couldn’t. It was too late.
    I saw the first time I’d met him. Experienced through his perspective
the stupefied look on my face as I gazed into his very blue eyes over my father’s
closed oak casket. It was the day his obsession began. The memories shifted.
His cock thrust into me for the very first time and I felt the stinging
pleasure of him taking my virginity. I remembered the feral look on his face,
the gleam of his fangs as he thrust. He’d been brutal and rough and I’d begged
for more. Flash forward, another memory.
    I was dying. I lay in a dark, slimy sewage tunnel. My body
was broken, bleeding. As if I was there, the stench of stagnant, rotting water
filled my nose. After the pack of red-skinned demons nearly beat me to death,
they thought it would be fun to leave me for the rabid vampires. A little
snack, they’d said. The rats found me first.
    I wished they’d finished me off.
    Before I’d gotten the chance to die, Julian had swooped in
like a black knight and turned me. The memories grew jumbled. Blood. Pain.
Writhing. Julian wiping sweat from my brow. Cool water sponged over my seizing
body. Regret shadowed his love. He’d known then that he would have to leave me
in order to protect me. By saving my life, he forfeited any chance to be with
me.
    His roar filled my head and I couldn’t hear anything else.
Not the shower, not my whimpers. The connection between us warbled, as if he
were trying to break free but couldn’t. We were both trapped. I wrapped my arms
around my head and tried to force my sire out. Images of Micah and me shuffled
through my mind. Through Julian’s eyes I saw the rapture on Micah’s face while
he thrust into me. I saw the beautiful way our sweat-slicked bodies moved
tirelessly against one another. On the right side of our bodies, the crimson
tattoos glowed and pulsed with energy. Through Julian, I saw Micah claiming me,
stealing me away from my sire.
    His rage consumed me. Bright red spots of blood ran from my
nose and plopped to the white porcelain beneath me. One drop at a time, the
shower whisked it away like a dirty secret.
    “Stop,” I cried. “Please.”
    Julian pushed his will harder until the sobs of pain and
anguish consumed me. In those next moments he stripped everything from me. It
felt like the very skin on my bones had been cut away. I would have done
anything, given anything, to make him stop.
    Long minutes passed before the pain faded and I felt Julian’s
withdrawal from my mind. Blessed, sweet relief. The only thing left between us
was a deep sense of sorrow.
    Weak and unable to make my limbs obey my commands, it took me
several attempts to shut off the water. It took even longer to find my legs. I
crawled more than walked out of the tub and into a towel I pulled from the
rack.
    I didn’t dare look in the mirror. No, I wrapped myself up
and exited the bathroom. Using the wall for support, I found my bedroom and
stumbled into it.
    Clothes were not the first thing I thought of. I needed a
weapon. Even as a child, weapons had given me a sense of security. What
boogeyman hiding under the bed could withstand a black Brimstone blade between
its eyes? I pulled out the knife and sheath I kept stashed under my pillow. After
strapping the leather harness around my wrist, I turned to the closet. I piled
on clothes. Underwear, pants and a long-sleeved sweater to cover the knife.
    These days my wardrobe consisted of one color—black. My
clothes were easy to mix and match and blood didn’t show up as easily. Before
my life had changed forever, I would have spent thirty minutes picking out the
perfect outfit, the perfect shade of lip gloss to go with it. Back then, I
would have chosen snug blue jeans and a cute blue shirt, to match Julian’s
eyes.
    I hate blue.

Chapter Four
     
    I forced myself to walk, not run, into the emergency