Page 147

The backhand I give Asher feels righteous as I remember all the times he tried to use young hip slang with me.

Asher’s face whips to the side and he’s instantly out of his seat.

Fury brimming in his eyes, he shouts, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Raphael?!”

From the living room, Ambrose laughs at us. “I see my brother has finally paid you back, Father.”

Pointing to the rest of the family, I say, “Alena’s power is her beauty. All of you are fixated except for Ambrose.”

Turning his head to the rest of the family in the kitchen, a large smirk crosses his features, as if he finds it amusing.

But when he looks back to me, he frowns. “So you decided the best way to snap me out of it was to hit me?”

Shrugging my shoulders at Asher, I walk back to Alena. She stares at everyone, but otherwise doesn’t move from the spot I left her in.

She has a vague sense of family and that they’re safe to be near, but she’s trying to figure out how she knows these people.

“It’s payback for talking about our mother when you turned her,” I say to Asher, and start herding Alena toward the pantry. “You get to decide how to wake the twins.”

“Ah, well, what can I say…” Asher laughs and then I hear two slaps go off simultaneously.

Loud cussing quickly follows.

I start moving the humans standing in the pantry around until I find a young woman. Stepping close to her, I smell the side of her neck.

She’s healthy and very clean.

Pulling the woman out of the group, I usher her and a growling Alena back into the kitchen.

Alena wants blood, and she’s fighting my need for her to wait.

Everyone’s aware of Alena’s power now when we reappear. All their mental walls are up to ward off her power.

Even those aren’t necessarily enough to stop them from watching her very closely.

“Mother, Father, brothers,” I say. “Alena is still quite hungry…”

“Food, dick,” Alena snaps at me, then tries to get to the human I’m keeping away from her.

“You’ve no doubt noticed her power of enchanting beauty…” I smirk at Asher, and he flips me the bird. “But I noticed something else. Something I’m not sure what to make of.”

I stare into the human’s glazed gaze and snap my fingers to get her attention. “Wake from your slumber.”

The woman’s eyes widen with terror as she takes in all the vampires surrounding her.

Pulling back from the human, I release Alena.

It’s fucking exhilarating and terrifying to watch Alena approach the woman. She doesn’t glamour her. No, she moves like a natural-born predator, sleek and full of grace.

Grabbing the woman by the shoulders, Alena tilts her head to the side and latches onto the human’s neck. There’s no pain or suffering. Only pure ecstasy as Alena begins to drain the woman of her life source.

Just like the man downstairs, Alena brings the woman to multiple orgasms before her heart stops cold.

Alena drops the body to the floor and turns to me.

Wiping her mouth off on her forearm, she says, “Dick.”

“Did she just…” Andrei coughs, trying to suppress a laugh. “Did she just make that woman orgasm to death?”