Bitten Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 3)

A lot more.

“You’re ignoring me. What are you thinking about?” she muses.

How much I want to watch you bleed out in front of me.

Since another bond is lying, I look up to meet her eyes, deciding I won’t answer unless she forces me to. Lying is just as painful of a bond to break.

To keep her from forcing an answer, I stand and walk over to her, and she claps like she’s giddy. She grabs the back of my neck, pulling me closer.

“There’s my boy.”

One day… One day…

Beware of the quiet ones, for they carry the darkest fury.

“You really need to calm down,” Thad says as the sun starts to rise. He grabs my shoulder just as I finish slamming my fist into another fucker’s face.

“He’s just a damn scavenger, Zee. Let him have the dead ones,” Thad snarls, pulling me back when I try to snap the neck of the bottom-feeder.

“I think fifty-seven ‘missing’ in one night after random chaos has definitely drawn attention,” Roslyn sighs as she appears.

The scavenger runs off, looking over his shoulder like he’s worried I’ll come after him. Why can’t the anointed chase the ones like that? Or the ones like the blood-starved night stalkers?

“You did good, babe,” Thad tells her, kissing her forehead.

Everyone needs to be thanking Roslyn for reversing the red jinn magic, but I’m too focused on the blind need that’s controlling me. Leah seems to have vanished into thin-fucking-air, and my skin is crawling to find her.

“This isn’t good,” Chaz grumbles, handing a bullet to Kane as he walks around some of the corpses we’ve veiled from sight.

“Son of a bitch. The anointed are definitely modernizing,” Kane groans. “This is an anointed mark. One of ten I’ve seen so far.”

“How many bloodlines are we looking at?” I ask, even though it’s just to distract me.

Ella walks up, eyeing me curiously as the sun rises even higher. She knows I need blood, but it’s not like I can drink it right out of her arm. I’d have to use dragon’s breath venom or poison’s kiss. I’m not putting her in pain or fucking her, so both options are out.

“There have been a lot of conflicting points on that so far,” Kane says, glancing around to make sure we’re alone. The humans pass on the street, oblivious to all the dead bodies we’ve piled in the alley to burn. No one can see us through the veil. “Some legends say twenty, some say fifteen, some say more. But I think it’s closer to ten true bloodlines with actual strength who can form their own weapons. The others can just use the old weapons already forged. However, just because they can forge weapons, it doesn’t mean they have the knowledge to do so. It’s not as simple as it sounds.”

“What’s that mark from?” Chaz asks him.

“The second strongest family line. Then they were called the Domingas. Not sure what they are by now. Most of the family trees were stopped from being recorded. A lot of adoptions went on with all the families so they could ensure their children survived and one day had a chance at killing us all again.”

“How many of our kind did they kill last night?” I ask. “I know him,” I add, pointing to one of the men with four bullet holes through his heart. The last thing we need to worry about are bullets. It’s never been a fear of ours until now. “He was a decent guy. He came in the club a lot and didn’t even have a kill record at all. His self-control from his formative years was astounding. If they killed him, then they don’t care who we are. They just want blood.”

Kane nods. “I don’t know how many of them are us. Dice said Karma isn’t feeling well at all, so she can’t help us. She’s gotten worse. Alyssa is with her now, but she’s so weak herself. Dray can’t seem to do anything at all for Karma either.”

“I can scent several night stalkers,” Roslyn says. “And numerous other types of fey. It’s just a little overwhelming though, because all the blood has mingled. It’s hard to tell who is what.”

“We should get back and try to help Karma,” Ella says, vanishing before anyone can argue.

“We should do something about these and worry about the bigger threat out there. Maybe we can set the new flock of anointed killers onto the red jinns’ trail. There’s definitely more than one in town,” Roslyn states while throwing her hand out at the bodies.

They incinerate within a blink, and all that is left behind is ashes. It’d be nice if she could do that to the live ones so easily. Life itself would be easier.

“I can’t believe they’re not all extinct,” Chaz says more to himself than anyone. “They could feed on magic without doing this and without killing anyone. They’d have to know this would put someone on their trail to chase. Why do it?”

He looks genuinely pissed off, but he doesn’t say anything else before also vanishing.

Gage appears, and before I can think about what I’m doing, my fist slams into his face. Blood spews from his nose as he staggers backward.