“Blood.” Alex pointed at my t-shirt. “Curious.” He searched the room. “Who exactly did you feed on at the grocery store? Some poor soccer mom trying to get last-minute dinner? A college student buying Top Ramen? A child?”
The more he spoke the worse I felt. The rage on his face wasn’t for show.
“Me,” Mason said, jerking everyone’s attention to him. “She fed on me… but not before I fed on her.”
MASON
I regretted the words as soon as they’d left my mouth. Hell, I’d even regretted them as I was saying them. Still didn’t stop me from acting like an ass or stop everyone else from staring at me like I’d just grown an extra fang and tried to bite off Alex’s head.
“What?” I shrugged, trying to appear calm when there was a tumultuous storm of emotion raging inside, fighting for dominance, pulsing with every pump of Serenity’s blood. My mouth watered for her blood, for her taste. Could she tell? Could my family? Was it possible to see the need so etched within my soul that I was having a hard time concentrating?
I wanted to take her again and again.
My wolf wanted its mate.
Whatever vampire part of me just wanted blood.
And the other?
Well, that was the part I was afraid would awaken if I took more blood, if I actually had sex with Serenity — if the mating process was followed through to the end.
I’d already bitten her.
Twice.
If I was a vampire, we’d be well on our way to being mated; then again, she wasn’t human — ergo, she wouldn’t die without my blood.
And yet, I could see the thirst in her eyes when she’d suddenly glanced at my neck with such longing I wanted to fall to my knees and beg her to suck me dry.
“You—” Ethan jabbed a finger in my direction then frowned. “—not only let her feed off you, but… you fed…” He seemed to struggle with getting the word fed out. “…off her?”
“Monster. Monster. Monster.” A voice inside me chanted.
It was wrong.
Something was wrong with me.
I gave a jerky nod.
“Was this before or after you guys did it in the produce aisle?” Alex asked in a bored tone.
I shot him a glare. “We didn’t do it next to the produce.”
“Oh, so the cereal then?” he asked.
“Alex!” Cassius’ booming voice shook the house; his eyes darted to me. “The only way for you to have any breath of vampire DNA in your body would be if it was mixed with an angel’s.”
I gulped.
And then my mind raged as dark laughter filled my head.
An angel.
A fallen.
“Gadreel,” a voice had whispered.
The room chilled as Stephanie entered. She looked between me and Cassius and then stopped. Her chest heaved with exertion as Cassius started speaking in an angelic tongue my wolf didn’t — couldn’t — understand.