Page 16 of Cold-Blooded Creatures

He was good at giving head, but it wasn’t enough. Not with any of them.

“How do you feel?” Eli’s question brought me back to him spread out on my bed, my apartment, the compound I called my home, the city.

Fuck.

I reached behind his back to unbuckle the leather belt tying his wrists and collapsed on the bed beside him. Setting him free of restraints had sucked the last residue of my energy.

“You were quite wound up this time,” he remarked hoarsely, propped up on his elbow. His throat was probably sore.

Lunging at him, my teeth hooked around his bottom lip. He pushed against my chest, and I sunk my canines into the squishy flesh. Iron warmed my tongue as red bubbles formed in the curvature of my bite.

I had learned to savor the taste of blood. Desire it.

The flavor of a person’s life essence was a bit metallic, but so was I.

As cold as iron.

The door softly clicked,and I soundlessly cursed. But not a rustle sounded from inside and I slipped inside Gedeon’s bedroom, my steps silent.

Darkness drenched the space, fusing with the edges of black wooden furniture, and my vision ceased functioning. Movingalong the path I’d memorized years ago, hopping on the non-creaking hardwood floorboards, I made my way to the bed.

The white sheets were pristine, neatly spread over the mattress with two same-size rectangle pillows on top, and not hugging Gedeon’s hips as usual.

The middle of the night hadn’t pulled him under its spell.

Watching Gedeon sleep for a few hours usually calmed me down enough to doze off. He’d never noticed me hovering above him, counting the rises and falls of his chest—proof his life hadn’t expired.

His windows overlooked half of the compound, and I pressed my forehead to the glass. The chill numbed my nerves. Paralyzed them identically to that time I’d followed Gedeon out of the city and caught him frozen at the edge of the clearing in the woods. Ten feet away from me, he’d stood, staring atherin shock.

She was striking. Her skin had glowed despite the paleness, and the bend of her knees had created an illusion she was about to pounce. You’d have expected her to quiver in terror, but her smile had been vicious, like she’d found a bloody meal she desired to devour. My knife had called to me from my pocket, nagging me to offer up myself to her so she could satisfy her thirst.

I gripped the window frame. My breath fogged up the glass, erasing the view of the night outside. Every time its sky was dotted with white, I’d crawl after Gedeon to the clearing and look after them both from afar.

But tonight, clouds had claimed the sky and obliterated her last chance of escape from Ilasall. She was locked in with the security upgrade being finished.

I left his bedroom and let the restlessness driving my legs lead me to the training rings. Going through the stances was the second thing out of two that could steady me.

“So,who was the poor fellow out of luck this time? Jayla still the one?”

“Eli.” I plopped down in an ebony chair in front of the matching desk in Gedeon’s study. He had an unhealthy obsession with black wood furniture. I had no clue where he continued to find it, anyway. Most of it was long gone, lost in a different, better time, when humans freely roamed the continents, not shut in from the wild behind the few remaining cities’ walls.

“So that was why Eislyn was sulking. You locked him up in your apartment.” Gedeon leaned back in his seat behind the scuffed-up desk. “She will not get her supplies today, considering what you did to him.”

“Nothing he didn’t enjoy.”

“Wipe that smugness off your face, or I will be forced to move the compound someplace else to protect everyone from your proclivities.”

I knew his threat was empty. Everyone here was familiar with my tastes. Some got to take part in them too.

The room drowned in the early morning light, warm-hued streaks falling over the mass of notes in tidy piles lining his desk’s edges. Not a single cue that the night had been consuming the world behind the windows mere hours ago and the thin glass had served as the sole protection from the lurking evil beyond. Detestable, atrocious evil residing behind the circular wall that opened its gates only to sow ruin.

Gods, that plaything had gotten to me. I should’ve strangled him with his own entrails instead of slitting his throat.

“What’s on your mind?”

He knew something was off with me. He always did. Annoying as hell.

“Nothing.” Except I could still smell the malice on me from the Assistant to Ilasall’s Head of Military we had to take care of earlier. “Nothing of importance, anyways.”