Read Online Twice Dead by Kalayna Price - Free Book Online

hadn’t been controlling my body, she would have died. That was a frightening thought. My trembling ratcheted up to near violence, like I could shake the thoughts and memories loose. Nathanial held me tighter and brushed a kiss into my hair. I wasn’t the only one shaking.
    “Stop coddling her,” Tatius said.
    Nathanial’s body jerked as the larger man grabbed his shoulder, turning us both.
    “Release her,” Tatius commanded.
    For a single heartbeat, Nathanial’s arms tightened, pressing me against his chest hard enough to hurt. Then his hands fell from me, his arms hanging limp by his sides. He stepped back. He was only an arm’s length away, but I was alone. Exposed.
    I hugged myself, willing my trembling to cease. I didn’t look up, didn’t meet Tatius’s eyes, though I could feel his gaze boring into my skin. His hand appeared in my peripheral, but I concentrated on the toes of my sneakers.
    “I think you’ll do what I ask now, won’t you?” The threat was clear in his voice.
    Without looking up, I laid the tips of two fingers in his palm. His hand closed around my fingers like a Venus fly trap, and he tugged me forward. I let him.
    His free hand shot out, swiping the neckline of my sweater off my shoulder. I jumped. I couldn’t help it. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but him attacking my clothes wasn’t on the list. He leaned down, staring at the lacerations from the hare. I rocked onto my heels, not stepping away, but putting a little more distance between us.
    His hand moved to my collarbone, and I flinched, expecting pain, but his touch was gentle. “A human would have needed stitches.”
    “I’ve never been human.”
    He grinned at that. “True.”
    He was close enough I could feel his breath on my skin with the word, and I squeezed my eyes closed. I had a sinking suspicion I knew what he planned to do. Another warm breath gliding over my collarbone confirmed my suspicions a second before his tongue ran over the jagged skin.
    He was gentle, so remarkably gentle my eyes flew open to confirm it was truly the same vampire who’d taunted and threatened me only moments before. It was. Despite Tatius’s care, my skin still burned as his tongue dipped deeper into the wound. The pain only lasted a few heartbeats, then a tingling warmth spread around his mouth as his saliva closed the wound. Then even that ceased, and I knew the wound was sealed. Healed.
    Tatius’s lips trailed from where the jagged scratches had been and crawled along my collarbone. Feather light, his lips traveled up my shoulder, toward my throat. I stepped back, I couldn’t help it—I probably should have tried harder. His fingers curled in my hair, and he forced my head to the side, baring my neck.
    I expected him to bite me, expected pain, but one moment his breath touched my throat, and the next he was gone. I hadn’t realized I’d closed my eyes, but I must have because I had to open them. Nathanial stood directly behind Tatius, his hand on the other vampire’s arm, his knuckles white.
    Tatius craned his head around but didn’t release me.
    “You’re the one who decided not to leave, Hermit.”
    The skin over Nathanial’s knuckles stretched as his grip tightened. His fangs were exposed, bearing into his lower lip with the force of his clenched jaw, but his eyes held uncertainty. There was no hope for me to latch onto in those eyes. I swallowed hard, my neck aching where Tatius still bared my throat.
    “Nathanial,” Tatius said. It was the first time I’d heard any of the vampires use his real name.
    Nathanial blinked, his gaze dropping from mine. His hand fell from Tatius’s arm.
    “Good. Now sit down or get out,” Tatius said. Then he turned back to me. “Where were we?”
    He leaned forward, his mouth parted. A fluttering sensation erupted in my stomach, not all of it fear. His breath danced over my pulse, and the flutters turned frantic—I wanted him to bite me.
    No.
    What was I thinking? I didn’t