Page 21 of Fated In Blood (Nocturne Vampire Clan #1)

21

EVANGELINE

L ooked like I was fighting a vampire tonight.

In the basement of Valentine’s.

And not any vampire. One who was well trained, strong enough to take on an entire army and be the only one to walk off the battlefield. Or in this case, Valentine’s basement.

My heart thrashed in my chest, a sliver of fear cutting my thoughts short when he gave me the coldest, cruelest smile I’d ever seen. He was roughly handsome, with dark, shaggy hair that looked like he cut it himself, a shadow of stubble on his square jaw.

His worn leather jacket must not have had any sentimental value, because he was still wearing it when he broke through the crowd and stalked toward me, blackness bleeding through the whites of his eyes.

I blinked and yeah, they stayed like that.

Not a trick of the light.

Vincent carried on with his usual blah blah blah introduction, but all I wanted to know was this asshole’s name. “And tonight, Collum takes on our very own Evie.”

The crowd went wild as Collum lifted his arms over his head and pumped his fist in the air like he was in the WWE. His leering grin widened. “Can’t wait to taste you. You smell delicious.”

“Ew. That’s gross. I don’t even know you.” I wrinkled my nose and pretended to be offended, even though Collum was smelling pretty delicious himself. I was literally starving, and a girl had to eat, right?

I bounced from one foot to the other, my skin prickling from the smoke, from hunger, from all this fucking adrenaline coursing through me. My entire body was a live wire and anticipation mixed with mind-numbing fear was a bad, bad combination.

I sucked in a breath and ran the tip of my tongue over the points of my fangs.

I couldn’t lose control.

Not here, not in front of a roomful of humans.

I didn’t know if Vincent somehow heard I’d been turned—he did have his sources—or if this was his idea of evening the score, but whatever his motives, I had to lose tonight’s match, not out myself as a bloodsucker, and somehow survive, which was a lot of multitasking. From the wicked smile creeping over Collum’s face, I doubted any of those scenarios were a given.

From the corner of my eye, Vincent dropped his hand, and Collum became a blur.

Time stopped. I barely saw his outline; he was moving so fast the humans were left staring at the empty spot he’d been, mouths half open, drinks sloshing in their glasses.

I spun out of the way, but not fast enough. The bastard’s nails sliced four deep furrows in my upper arm, the pain catching up with me a second later. I slammed into the rough stone wall, driving the air out of my lungs.

Okay. New plan. Losing wasn’t going to be the problem, walking out of here would.

“Little baby vampire. I still smell the human on you, you’re so fresh.”

“And you reek like an undead corpse,” I countered, positioning myself for his next attack. I’d always incapacitated my targets with silver and wolfsbane. How I wished I had my knives right now.

I’d been an absolute fool to leave the house without them.

He attacked a second time and again, I was too slow, barely able to evade his crushing assault, ending up flat on my back with a bruised kidney. Then came the gash on my cheek, another strike leaving me with two broken fingers.

My left hand, thankfully, but they hurt like a motherfucker.

The now-quiet crowd shifted on their feet, some of them escaping up the steps to safety, only to be turned away by the twins.

Idiots. Number one rule of fight club. Nobody leaves until it’s over, especially not the paying customers.

I was blindsided by Collum’s next attack, too, taking a shoulder to the chest, knocking the air out of my lungs, spittle exploding out of my mouth. He landed on top of me, and I was almost too slow to wrap my good hand around his jaw to keep him from tearing out my throat with those long, vicious fangs.

By now the floor was coated in blood, the crowd plastered against the walls, keeping as far away from this shitshow as they humanly could.

“You are going to taste so fucking good.” His tongue wriggled out like a writhing snake between those fangs. “I couldn’t believe my luck when Vincent called me tonight and told me he had a newly turned vamp in the ring. My lucky night, I suppose.”

I squeezed my fingers together and shoved him back another inch, his breath washing over my face in fetid waves that left me gagging. “Fucking hell. What do you eat? Spoiled meat?”

He dragged his fingers down my face, but instead of nails, sharp claws rasped down my cheek, leaving a burn in their wake. “You, in another few minutes. You can’t beat me. You just went through the change, so you’re too weak. Give up now and I’ll kill you quickly.”

“In front of all these good people? Whatever will they think when they see what you really are? They have cell phones. Cameras. We’ll be on the evening news.”

“They’ve seen it all before,” he said dismissively, pressing forward, regaining the scant inch I’d gained, fangs gleaming. “So have you. You served drinks down here, right? I remember you.”

My mind scrambled over what he was saying and desperation gave me the strength to shove him further away. “Liar. I’ve never seen you before in my life.”

“You always wear those stilettos. Great legs. Maybe I won’t make this quick after all.” He slipped out of my grasp like water and ended up ten feet away, the panicked crowd scattering.

I climbed to my feet, wiping blood from my face. He was lying. I’d never seen Collum before.

Never heard of vampires fighting at Valentine’s.

I spit a mouthful of blood on the floor, risking a glance at Vincent. He didn’t look at all put out by the fangs or the claws or the fact a six-and-a-half-foot tall vampire stalked toward one of his customers, a pretty girl with bleach blond hair, trapped in the corner all alone as her friends scattered.

She cowered down into a ball and Collum licked his lips, grinning.

“Wait.” My voice rang loudly against the cinderblock walls. “I do remember you. You’re the pussy who can’t take a fucking punch.” I edged closer to a group of faux-gothy college boys in all black, heavy skull rings decorating every finger. “Collum the Cocksucker. Yeah, that was what Vincent called you.”

Across the room, the color drained from Vince’s face. Good. I hoped the fucker was pissing his pants right about now. Collum ignored me and cornered the sobbing blond. Nobody helped her; nobody tried to intervene.

I grabbed goth guy’s arm and stuck out my hand.

“Give me your goddamn rings, or I’ll rip your fingers off and take them myself.”

They all stripped their fingers clean, and when they dropped those rings into my palm… this felt like catching chunks of glowing lava . But I grit my teeth against the pain and slid the enormous things on my good hand, tendrils of actual smoke curling out from where the metal touched my skin.

Okay, now that I was experiencing this for myself, silver hurt like a motherfucker.

But the silver might just work. It had better, or I was dead.

“Hey there, limp dick. Why don’t you come back here and fight instead of terrorizing the locals?” The petrified girl hiccuped out a sob when he turned my way, tears streaking down her pale face.

“That’s it, shit for brains. I’m way more fun anyway.”

Not only was I ready, the bastard was predictable, leading with his right shoulder, all two hundred fifty pounds of muscle propelled straight toward me, backed up by a shit ton of momentum. I plowed my ring-encrusted fist into his face, feeling a burst of satisfaction when the silver met his mouth. It was the perfect punch, backed up by my newfound power. Blood spurted. Things broke.

A fang flew through the air and the splintered shard of bone landed on the disgusting floor as I stripped off the silver rings, cradling my burned hand.

Baby vampire, my ass.

I’d been pitted against bigger and meaner opponents my whole life, and this smug, pompous creep wasn’t taking me out. Collum looked dazed when he pushed up on his elbows, hand pressed to his mouth while blood gushed between his fingers, coating his chin and pooling on the floor.

He made a helpless sound and reached out…trying to pick up his broken fang.

Never one to waste an opportunity, I stomped on his hand and shattered every finger, then his shin, breaking his fibula in half. Another well-placed blow and his femur shattered.

God, I was strong.

I had to get faster, though, if I was going to keep up.

“I’m killing you slowly, you little bitch.” Blood bubbled out like a fountain, his eyes tinged with red. “Days. Weeks. Maybe months before I let you die.”

Despite being down to one fang, Collum’s face was already healing. He had to be old, then, older than Ambrose and Spencer.

He climbed laboriously to his feet, balancing on his good leg, but I had no doubt those broken bones were already knitting back together. The silver rings had bought me time and drawn him away from that innocent girl, but at this rate, he’d be back to normal in a minute, maybe less.

“We’ll see. I think I’m getting the hang of this vampire thing.”

Vincent watched wide-eyed from halfway across the room, the twins forming a wall of muscle in front of him. The paranoid bastard was never unarmed. He always stowed a knife in his right cowboy boot, and even in his own club, kept a gun in an ankle holster on his left.

Firing a gun down here was too unpredictable. One mistake and someone could die. Someone who wasn’t Collum. I was better with a knife anyway.

I simply thought about getting across the room, thought about appearing in front of Vincent, and the world blurred, light and shadow smearing together until I hit the twins with enough force to send them flying backward, wiping out a group of spectators before skidding on their asses and crashing into the stone wall.

A confused Vincent tried to crawl away, but I was already ripping the knife out of his boot. By the time I turned, Collum was up and moving, filled with enough rage to make up for any of his injuries.

“Come on, then,” I urged, hiding the knife in my sleeve. “Get on with the killing, if you can.” Collum wouldn’t make another mistake. This time when he came for me, he’d take me down, and once that happened, I’d be dead.

My only advantage before was rage had shoved rationale to the side.

And timing really was everything.

He charged like a bull while I pivoted on the balls of my feet and swung the knife up in a perfect arc. My blow was a thing of beauty, and the bastard presented the perfect opening. I laid his throat wide open, carving a deep crescent through his pale skin, blood splattering me, Vincent, and everyone in the vicinity as he collapsed at my feet.

I took a deep inhale, the knife falling from my shaking hand.

God, that smell was potent. Intoxicating.

I fell to my knees and rolled Collum over onto his back, straddling him, using my weight to trap him against the linoleum floor. My fangs throbbed painfully in response to the crimson river flooding out of that deep gash. So much blood was mesmerizing, and the more the big vampire struggled, the faster the wellspring flowed.

I pinned down his hands, chest heaving. The wound was already closing. I could see the edges knit back together, the blood flow beginning to slow. Collum glared up at me with so much hatred his eyes burned, his mouth working, but nothing coming out since I’d severed his vocal cords.

Even bucking and writhing, he couldn’t budge me, and I threw back my head, reveling in all this glorious strength.

But…I could hardly think around my cravings, my entire body shaking with need.

I was on the verge of losing control. I should leave .

Escape this place while I still could.

Except then I was feasting, fangs sunk in deep, pulling in mouthfuls of blood and swallowing as fast as I could. I didn’t care who the source of this delicious sustenance was, only that I wanted to glut myself.

I vaguely heard shouting, the concrete floor beneath me trembling.

I was probably killing him. I didn’t care.

Collum was an asshole and he deserved to die, but he tasted so damn good I couldn’t stop if I wanted to. And I definitely didn’t want to. Every potent mouthful made me more ravenous, blood flowing down my throat like a river, pooling in my stomach, power crashing through me like lightning bolts searing across the sky.

I was energized, reborn, stronger than I’d ever dreamed. My broken fingers knit back together, blistered palm healed, and torn and bruised muscles mended. I sensed every minuscule change on a cellular level, a flare of realization that surprised me, though it shouldn’t.

I should be beyond being surprised at this point.

My fingers dug into his chest as I drank, fangs sunk so deep if I tore them out, I’d take chunks of flesh with me. A shiver of repulsion went through me at the familiarity of this scene.

This was how I’d fed from Blake. But with Collum, there was none of the sexual desire, none of the craving, none of the want , thank God. This was only hunger, pure and simple, and understanding settled into place within me, a calm acceptance I didn’t take the time to examine.

Not yet.

Not when Collum’s body went limp beneath me, his hands splayed out, no longer resisting my grasp. I opened my eyes. We were both drenched in his blood, painted red from head to toe. God, the entire basement looked like a Jackson Pollock painting.

Weeping humans were flattened around the perimeter walls, Vincent blanching when I met his gaze and licked my lips.

“Are we even now, boss?”

Vincent whimpered, his breaths sobbing. I was drunk on all this power, high from taking too much of Collum’s blood too fast. With every blink, sparks flashed on the backs of my eyelids, my sensitive skin burning beneath the fluorescent lighting.

“Say we’re done, Vincent, and we’ll go our separate ways.” I grinned through a mask of blood. “Or try to stop me and see how that goes. I offered to walk away, so all of this is on you.”

“We’re done,” he whispered, his voice hollowed out by fear.

“Speak up so everyone in the room can hear you. Call me jaded, but I don’t trust your slimy ass.”

“We’re finished, Evie. You never have to fight for me again. Ever.”

“Good, because I’d hate to have to come back here, Vincent. I’d really hate it.”

I ran my finger down through the blood coating Collum’s throat, the smell so overwhelming I sucked in a deep inhale. I wanted more. Needed more.

My hunger demanded I drink every drop from Collum, and fresh blood flowed from the wounds, practically begging me to dip my head and take what I wanted.

I lifted my head and a feral growl rumbled in my chest as I raked my gaze over the humans stampeding toward the steps.

Nobody here could stop me.

So I dropped my head and took what I wanted.