Bitten Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 3)

Tomorrow, life will be better. It has to be. It sure as hell can’t be worse.

The chains on my wrists rattle as I try to stand up, and a small cry of pain escapes me when I realize both of my ankles are broken. There’s no way I can stand. What did they do to me?

Too much pain almost makes me sick. Blood is in my mouth, and I feel it dripping from the top of my head. Before I passed out, I remember suffocating. However, I don’t remember getting broken.

Right now, I almost feel drunk and numb, as though someone has drugged me.

“You have to go slower or she’ll die too soon,” I hear a voice hiss.

“Shut up, Xavier. It’s not the first time I’ve fed, you stupid fuck.”

“You almost killed the other one. Her bones broke. We have to drain every last drop of magic from them, or it won’t be enough.”

My vision is still blurry, but I finally manage to make out the images across the room. Ella is on a table, and she’s unconscious. Her body is bound and strung out. Her clothes are ripped and tattered, most likely from the wreck. And they’re sucking something from her mouth… A white energy-type thing.

It’s similar to what I saw Kya do, but different at the same time.

“It’s my turn, Duncan,” the one called Xavier hisses.

Duncan snarls and growls, acting like a dog protecting a prime piece of meat. Ella looks pale and weak. Her arm looks broken, and I watch in horror as he starts draining her again. Something snaps, and I watch as her hand curls back, bones crunching and breaking.

“You’re doing it too fast!” Xavier barks again.

Something loud crashes, and my head whips over just as a door flies off its hinges. My heart jumps with hope, only to crash back down to my toes when I see who steps in.

“Slade,” they both hiss in unison, stepping in front of Ella like they’re trying to hide her.

Slade’s face is an impassive mask, but I can see the anger in his silver eyes. His scars tell the tale of a lot of agony, but he’s as cold as a killer instead of timid like a victim.

“I believe I specifically told you to only take the Aquarius,” he says mildly, acting disinterested in the scene in front of him.

They glance over their shoulders then look back at him. Their dark hair is buzzed to be almost bald, and they look sickly instead of alluring like the rest of the immortals I’ve seen.

“We needed more power. They took too much from us, starved us for too long, Slade. The one just wasn’t enough. But this one…” Duncan’s voice trails off as he turns to face Ella, and his eyes look on her with awe. “She’s enough. The two of them will restore us completely.”

Slade’s jaw ticks when his eyes finally get to see Ella’s bruised and broken appearance. A flicker of fury is pronounced when his eyes narrow to slits.

“So you disobeyed me?” he asks calmly, but there’s a volatile eruption on the brink.

“She was with the Aquarius,” Duncan seethes. “She’s too strong to ignore. I can taste her power. Feel it. Need it. What do you fucking care about one pampered immortal? We spent centuries next to each other until they moved the demon girl beside you. You know how they starved us. We need this.”

Slade relaxes his features again, as though he’s doing all he can not to show any emotion whatsoever. “You can’t have her.”

They both tense, and their eyes glow a dangerously weird black and red color mixed with something else.

“You don’t want to make us use our power on you. You know the two of us combined are too much. They taught us a lot of things.”

Slade smirks then he throws his hand out. A bloodcurdling scream erupts into the air as Duncan drops to the floor, and his scream slowly fades into a garble as blood rushes from his eyes, nose, and mouth.

“That’s why I’ll only deal with one,” Slade says coldly, letting his eyes turn toward Xavier, who swallows hard while paling.

“You killed him. He was your friend,” Xavier whispers, taking a shaky step back.

“He pissed me off. If I wanted the princess dead, I’d have killed her myself. Understood?”

Xavier nods his head emphatically, and Slade kicks the dead body of his friend out of the way as he breaks open the chains on Ella’s hands.

“How did you break them?” Xavier gasps. “They’re warded against creature gods.”