Read Online Monsters Within by Victoria Knight - Free Book Online

Kara Humphrey had brought out in him earlier in the day. He could tell that Nikki was skinny under that sweatshirt, but he still badly wanted to see her naked. He hadn’t felt such cravings in a very long time and he was growing angry with these two stupid women for putting him such a predicament.
    “It’s dumb,” she said finally. “But I’m guessing either a demon of some kind or a vampire. But if you’re a vampire, you’re a genuine evil as hell creature of the night and not one of those sparkly fruity ones.”
    Saul smiled, not giving her an answer one way or the other. His mind was in other places, trying to figure out a way to prevent any trouble.
    “So what do you want? What do you want me to do to ensure you don’t show anyone that video?”
    He knew he was on sketchy ground here. He had still not come out and admitted to what he was. But he had to come close or at least play along so he could get as much information about this other creature as he could. Part of him worried that he might be placing her in danger. But that wasn’t his concern . Sh e had come here to him so that opened her up to danger as far as he was concerned.
    “Not much, really,” Nikki said. “I just want you to tell me your story. I want to know what you are, why you are, and why you’re in Red Creek.”
    “I don’t have a story,” he said. “Because I’m not a vampire.”
    Nikki sighed. He saw something flicker in her yes, maybe a steeled sort of stubbornness. It came and went so fast that he couldn’t tell. She removed the object from the pouch of her sweatshirt and Saul saw that it was a knife, as he had suspected.
    He took a step towards her, prepared to ward her off gently if she attacked him. But instead, she took the knife to her arm and slashed across. She drew blood instantly. It welled up and streamed down her arm. She hissed at the quick bite of pain but extended her arm.
    The action took him off guard and he wasn’t able to catch the instincts of that other self that rose to the surface at the sight of that crimson gold. He felt his other self take control for a few moments—maybe a bit longer than he had allowed it to surface while confronting Lester Dobbs in this same room the night before.
    Nikki gasped and took a step back. “Oh my God, you are…,”
    “No,” he said, but he knew it was useless. He had felt the other part of him rise up. He knew his eyes had gone that peculiar shade of red and that his facial features had contorted for only the briefest of a moment.
    He’d been found out. He’d been fooled by this stupid girl.
    Saul pushed the urges back when he realized that his calf muscles were primed and ready to launch his body at her, to suck her blood until she was nothing more than a shell. He pushed it down hard, so hard that he felt it die in his guts like a worm on a hot sidewalk.
    “Damn you,” Saul said.
    “So you are,” she said, the fear evident in her voice now. Still, she held out her cut arm. The wound was shallow but the blood ran all the same. He watched as a single drop fell from her pale skin and hit the floor.
    “Say it,” she told him.
    “Yes,” he said indignantly. “But I did not kill any damned cows.”
    “I saw it and—,”
    “I said it wasn’t me, you brat!”
    She looked like she had been slapped. But instead of leaving, she sat back down on the couch.
    Acting without thinking, Saul walked into the adjoining kitchen and grabbed the roll of paper towels from the counter. He threw them at her without looking.
    “Please clean that up. I’ve worked too hard on restraint to let your foolishness destroy me.”
    She took off a handful of paper towels and began to blot at the cut.
    “So what do you want from me?” Saul asked.
    “Nothing,” she said. “I just wanted to know.”
    “Well what can we do so that this stays between us? You can’t spread this around town.”
    “It’ll be no worse than the ignorant shit that’s already circulating about