Scarlet Night (Limited Edition) by Megan Parker Page B

appetite for death and destruction rather than sating it.
    And now he had the added stress of Gregori’s wayward daughter and his power-abusing bastard of a son. The whole mess was enough to make him want to hand the reigns over to what writhed within him and take a little vacation in the back of his own mind; anything to rid him of the incessant burning in his skin and the burden of thought and responsibility! As the fumes of his rage made clear thoughts hazy, his tattoos continued to burn with their toxic inferno and driving him deeper into a place he knew he shouldn’t go. Pulling his sleeves down in an effort to hide the cursed ink from both himself and the bar’s patrons, he reflected more on the memories of the previous night.
    To what lengths would the beast have gone if Zoey hadn’t been there to stop him…
    Groaning, he took a long, hard pull from the bottle and shook his head.
    “Fuck me sideways!” he muttered to himself, “What a mess!”
    An undetermined length of time passed as he focused on not thinking about everything that was happening and putting as much of the supernaturally-spiked liquor into his system as possible. Finally, as he struggled to read the blurred label of a bottle behind the bar and wondering if the fat, old woman on the other side of the bar would be up for a quickie in the bathroom, he discovered that the bottle was empty and that he was officially and utterly wasted. Staring apprehensively at it, he was distantly aware of a lanky woman that was standing over him. He looked up at her, trying to focus past his foggy vision and an over-abundance of perfume. Between the sickeningly sweet floral stench, the dizzying effects of his cocktail, and his spinning head, he considered it a miracle that he wasn’t already sick, but something in the woman’s scent seemed to entice the beast and he realized that he might be able to bargain with it further if he gave it what it wanted.
    “Care to join me outside?” She purred and leaned down, giving him a clear view of her assets through her V-neck and getting her painted lips dangerously close to his ear, to whisper “I know what you are, and I’m not afraid.”
    “Oh? You’re not afraid, huh?” he scoffed and shook his head, noticing the bartender already glaring at him, “Then you obviously have no idea what I am!” He turned away from the old man and smirked. His body was alert and responding to the potential for both sex and blood, and he knew that his eyes had already begun to glow. As he grinned, he felt his canines extend and allowed them to show slightly through parted lips.
    Cooing at the show, she stepped back and playfully covered her mouth mock-surprise. “Oh my! You look parched! Perhaps I should give you a drink.” She tapped her index finger against her throat and winked at him, “I know exactly what you’re thirsty for, and I’ll give you what you want.”
    “Ah! I get it! You’re some kind of a pervert, right? You’ve got some kind of fucking feeder-fetish, or something?” He grumbled and looked away, disregarding his body’s complaints over how long it had it been since he’d had real blood and not some synthetic crap that Zoey made in a lab. Though every fiber of his body was urging him to take her up on the offer, he remained seated; sneering at the idea of taking this bitch’s charity just so she could get her rocks off. The whole notion was fucking disgusting, and the reality that some humans not only knew about them but actually sought them out posed a threat to their secrecy and opened the floodgates for the potential for careless second-generation sangs to inadvertently put countless numbers of freaks on the streets, and an army of mindless, insatiable.
    Those ravenous third-generation vampires were nothing short of Hell on earth for any living thing in their path.
    Like he didn’t have enough problems already!
    Zane growled and turned back to the woman to deny her the feed.
    He was a split-second