Page 48 of This Blood That Breaks Us (This Blood That Binds Us, #3)

Forty

Zach

The girl was drop-dead gorgeous, with warm-tan skin and long black hair that went to her ass, and I wanted her. No, I needed her on my lap, whispering in my ear. I wanted her under me screaming my name, but more than that, I wanted to bite her.

I was full of blood, but a yearning bubbled in my chest since drinking the queen’s blood. Then I could go back to the castle and play house, but I wanted warm flowing blood in my throat first.

I’d have gone right over and taken her if Luke wasn’t looking at some random girl like that. With the puppy dog eyes and the longing. In his defense, she was the spitting image of Sarah. I didn’t believe in doppelg?nger shit, but the resemblance was uncanny, and she was surrounded by girls laughing and giggling. Sarah was always surrounded because she was magnetic like that. Not in the way people talk about dead people like they were the fucking second coming of Christ. No. Sarah had that same magic gene Luke had that brought people to her.

I tried to focus on my best memories of Sarah. All those days in homeroom and watching her cheer. Glancing behind me at Luke and her giggling in the back of the classroom. But all that was coming to mind was the image of her sobbing in the basement before she was killed. I chugged my drink at the memory resurfacing. If I drank heavy and long enough, could I permanently erase that memory? Only one way to find out.

It occurred to me suddenly, I should have been on my ass with pain. My own and Luke’s from seeing the girl, yet I felt nothing. Comfortably numb. I wasn’t even a drink in. The alcohol numbed the pain from the bond, but not that much. She hadn’t been lying about everything. Ascension changed something.

We stood there drinking for a few minutes while I soaked in every curve of my girl’s body. I was a certified asshole now. If I wanted to eye-fuck a girl in the bar, why shouldn’t I?

I didn’t like biting women, but I was confident that I wouldn’t hurt her, and I might even get her to enjoy it. It was all reckless, but I was riding a high I hoped would never let me come down. Nothing could stop me. Not that guy trying to keep her pinned down in his lap or any of his buddies either.

She’d seen me too, and she wasn’t looking away. She wanted me to come over. Not to rescue her. Oh no. She wasn’t a damsel. She’d laugh in my face as I got my ass kicked by these guys. But she’d want me to try. At least that’s what that hungry look in her eye told me. Her hands moved down the guy’s legs and into his lap, and she whispered something in his ear, all while staring at me.

I needed the taste of the queen out of my mouth, then I could think straight. Despite the barrage of drinks, I felt Her, and this girl wasn’t drunk. She was a bitch even when sober, and I liked it. I let that word sit in my head a bit. Bitch. I could call girls anything I wanted now. With no mom to lecture me and conscience to speak of, I was turning a corner. A new fuck-boy corner.

I hadn’t tried to be intimate with a girl since the Halloween party, and that went to shit.

I was certain if I took this girl to a hotel, I wouldn’t have the same problem as I had at the party. Back then, I was like a burning exposed nerve. I felt so far away from that version of myself. Which was the way it should be. One day when my brain had rotted to hell with The Family, I’d forget them completely. I’d forget all about how it felt to be a big brother. I’d forget their names.

Luke and I could talk about it all like a bad memory. “Remember when we used to be the shittiest big brothers ever and ruined the lives of everyone we came in contact with? Thank god that’s over.”

We’d have a few laughs. Shoot the shit at how long it took us to come to the genius conclusion that we didn’t belong there. We’d get new names. The name of Zach and Luke Calem would die, and the whole world would be better off for it. It was better this way. Fate was better than anything I’d ever had in Blackheart.

I turned my attention back to the girl. I wanted to feel her blood in my veins so bad I was swaying, and she wanted me to fuck her into the headboard. Seriously, what was stopping me? I caught her eyeline again. Sitting on the guy’s lap, she sipped on a martini and popped the olive into her mouth.

Luke would be fine. I wasn’t his keeper.

“Don’t wait up for me,” I called to Luke as I left him at the bar and made my way over to them.

“Can I help ya?” A man with a thick accent stared up at me, pulling her closer to him.

“No. Not really.” I reached my hand out to her and leaned next to her ear where he could hear. “But you can. Dance with me.”

He tightened his grip on her waist.

“I’d take your arm off her if you want to keep it.”

Though he and all his buddies looked like they wanted to try and beat the shit out of me, they didn’t. In fact, none of them even mumbled a word of protest. Everyone in this town looked at me like the boogeyman. I could get used to that.

I pulled her closer on the dance floor filled with mostly drunk girls, and wasted no time grabbing her hips and digging my fingers into them. She smelled of expensive perfume. We danced with her ass on my dick, and I moved her hair so I could feel the pulse in her neck.

“You’re a good dancer,” she said, leaning back into me.

I was not a good dancer, but making a girl want to fuck me was an easy task.

“Is that your boyfriend?”

She wrapped her arms around my neck, and I made sure he got a good view as I grabbed her ass.

“No. Yes. It’s complicated.”

“I’m good with complicated.”

I pressed her back against the pillar, and her eyes widened. With a smile, I went for her neck, nipping her skin and barely holding myself back from biting her in a room full of people. It wouldn’t matter if I did. If they all went screaming for the door, someone would stop them. It would be quick for them all. I pulled away, wondering if I’d truly contemplated mass murder to drink one girl.

Give into it, Darling.

My body stilled. I’d heard the queen in my head before, but never like that. Not without praying.

“What’s wrong? Do you prefer a girl that likes to hurt you?” she said as she pulled at my hair. Hard. I pushed her into the pillar with my hips.

Drain her. Show everyone who you are.

Fuck. I couldn’t wait anymore. As I led her to the hallway, the muffled sound of my boots hitting the hardwood was barely audible with the music. I wasted no time pushing her to the wall and kissing her. She was so hot I couldn’t wait.

I traced the pulse on her neck with my tongue, but I hesitated. I didn’t want her to panic or scream. I wanted her to feel good. Safe.

Ah fuck.

“I’m going to bite you. But it won’t hurt. Does that freak you out?”

“Everyone who lives on this island knows the rumors of this place. Men coming from that castle that need blood. It doesn’t scare me.”

“You like dangerous guys.”

She laughed. “Honey, you aren’t dangerous. And I know many. They don’t ask before they put marks on me.”

I scoffed. “You don’t know the type of person I am”

“I know every man in this place turned on a dime as you walked through that door. You’re important. What are you? Some prince?”

“I’m not a prince,” I growled. Kissing her neck again, I bared my teeth as I went to bite. She gasped in fear.

I froze. “What?”

Her laugh echoed in the empty hall. “I told you.”

“You’re fucking with me.”

“Proving my point.”

I pulled at the hair on the back of her neck and brought her neck to my lips. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

I sank my teeth into the pulse at her neck. The pressure was the most euphoric, but I couldn’t drink for long. I savored the taste, hoping to drown in her, but no matter how long I drank, I only tasted my queen.

Drain her, Darling. Then come home to me.

Leave me alone.

I couldn’t believe the queen was in my head, and I couldn’t believe I was talking to Her. More than that, I couldn’t believe I wanted to. I did want to go home to Her. The night was young and there was nothing holding me back from having Her anymore.

I pulled away. “Are you too drunk to go to a hotel with me?”

“No. And we can go to my place. I assume yours is off-limits.”

“Yeah, something like that.”

My queen would not be happy about it. I don’t know why I wanted to do it.

As soon as I opened the door to go back into the main part of the bar, Connell appeared beside me.

“Connell, what the fuck are you doing?”

“I’ve been instructed to follow you.”

“Fine, but you have to stay outside.”

I passed by Luke who was giving heart eyes to Sarah’s doppelg?nger. Luke was grown. He didn’t need me to tell him what to do. He could sort it out.

We stepped out into the cold and walked toward her car parked in the lot. I couldn’t help but overhear a scuffle.

“You hear me, bitch?” American accent. A man towered over a woman with his hand raised to strike. “Answer me.”

At the first sound of her cry, I was there. My body moved on its own. I stopped his hand, and pushed him away from her. It took all my restraint not to crush his head in one swipe. No more brothers around to give me the puppy eyes or the “be good” speech. I wasn’t good, and he should be scared.

I slammed his teeth into the car door.

“How does that fucking feel?”

That’s it. Show them who they should fear.

Connell watched like he was about to jump in front of a bullet for me. Next to him, a girl sobbed into her hands.

I twisted his arm back until I heard a satisfying crack. “That’s for making her cry.”

My blood pumped in my ears, and every cry and scream that came from him sent me further into a frenzy. He should suffer. He should have cried out and asked for help, because no one would come for him. No one who could stop me.

Another twist at the elbow, and his bones cracked again. “That’s for being a fucking asshole. You’re lucky I don’t kill you right now.”

Kill him. Make him suffer.

I grabbed his other arm and placed it in the crack of the door and slammed it shut. His screams carried into the night. He deserved worse.

“Please stop. Please,” the man whimpered in a pathetic puddle on the ground.

“Tell her you’re sorry.”

“I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

“You live with this asshole?” I turned to her.

She nodded.

“If you so much as a mumble in her direction, I will personally come and gouge your fucking eyes out before I have your head. Do you understand?”

“Yes, yes!”

“Good. Because you’re moving out. You’re giving her the place and all the stuff.” I kicked his kneecap, and he collapsed. He wouldn’t be walking anytime soon. “Understand?”

“Yes,” he moaned.

There was a high to satisfying the need to release the anger boiling in my blood. I’d almost forgotten why I’d ventured outside.

My Darling, you’re magnificent.

The queen was tugging on my heartstrings, beckoning me home, but I wasn’t done running.

“Connell, make sure this guy is watched.”

He nodded with a big smile.

I looked back at the girl from the bar. She was paler than before as she eyed me with her car keys in hand.

“You scared?”

She hesitated longer than I expected her to.

“Get in.”