Page 4 of Cruelly Bitten

Relying on her logs from the last century grated a bit on my nerves. Fortunately, though, I could still recall most of my oldest memories, which allowed me to remember my brief acquaintance with Mira.

We’d only met once, and she’d been just a pup at the time. She certainly wasn’t the gangly teenager from three thousand years ago. Instead, she’d matured into a beautiful woman.

Alas, I found myself craving a very different blonde.

An unconscious one.

With delectable blood.

This was why theErositamating bond was dangerous to my kind—it made us infatuated with mortals. But once I’d indulged in my fill of Ismerelda’s blood and her pussy, I would be able to tame this need.

I only wanted her because I’d gone over a hundred years without her.

And if she continued to insult me the way she had yesterday when she’d tried to run up and hug me after disembarking the jet, I’d be over her far more quickly than expected.

Besides, there was an entire array of blood virgins—a group of untouched humans with a unique blood type—upstairs waiting for me to stop by for a taste. I’d move on to them just as soon as I fucked Ismerelda out of my system.

“I’m ready to announce my return,” I said, addressing both Michael and Mira. “We will be moving forward with the meeting in three days, but I’ll be leading in Lilith’s place for obvious reasons.”

Michael nodded. “Of course, my liege. I’ll go check our telecommunications connection to ensure we can reach all quadrants of the world for your announcement.” He didn’t wait for my reply, instead moving swiftly down the hall and through the door at the end in a shuffle of long legs and hurried steps.

“While he’s doing that, I’ll provide you with an update on Sota and Troph.” Mira pushed away from the door frame, her arms falling from their crossed position against her chest to hang loosely at her sides.

“Have you been to see them?” I asked as I moved toward her, my eyebrow arching up in curiosity. The two Blessed Ones were still in the process of rising, their mental states more ravenous than useful.

Fortunately, I had no memory of that part of my waking.

From what Michael had said, the feeding process hadn’t been needed for me because I’d only slept a century.

Meanwhile, Sota and Troph had been resting for several millennia.

They’d been too weak to handle the gift Nyx had given them—immortal life with immortal children. The only cost was their inability to take a long-term mate.

For some of the Blessed Ones, they couldn’t handle life without their former lovers and opted to sleep instead. But in Sota’s and Troph’s cases, they’d refused to accept their children’s need for mortal blood. And rather than support their offspring, they’d chosen to hide in their slumber.

An atrocity, really. One that marked the two of them—and several others—as unworthy of their gifts.

However, Sota and Troph had been the first to choose their misguided morals over their children’s survival.

Hence the reason we’d selected these two as our first subjects for the next phase of the trials—the ones Lilith had failed to complete during my century of rest.

“I brought them evening breakfast,” Mira replied as she stepped out of my way through the threshold and followed my lead down the adjacent hallway.

The entire complex underground was riddled with corridors. It would be easy for one to get lost in the underground, but Michael had provided me with a map upon my waking, thus allowing me to relearn my way around.

I started toward the conference area where formal communications were designed to take place. Lilith had fashioned the room to resemble the one often used in Lilith City, thus allowing her to keep this place a secret from all the royals and alphas.

That had perhaps been one of her more clever ideas.

“They’re still ravenous for anything they can get their mouths on,” Mira continued. “The intended lesson is definitely being conveyed.”

I nodded. “As it should be.” Blessed Ones didn’t require the human essence to survive, which was partly why Sota and Troph had failed to understand the needs of their children.

But that misconception would soon be rectified.

Once Sota and Troph regained enough of their mental faculties to communicate, we’d show them the human bodies they’d devoured in their state of immortal hunger. Only then would they truly grasp the concept of survival and the fate they’d left their children to endure alone.

When a being is hungry enough, he’ll consume anything to survive.Those were the words Michael had painted in blood above the mutilated corpses. And he’d been sure to write the statement in a script that the ancients would understand. We were just waiting for Sota and Troph to be cognizant enough to read it.