The City Beneath by Melody Johnson

against my teeth and lips to speak them; I kept my mouth clenched tightly against their release and against Jillian’s will.
    â€œIs something the matter, Jillian darling?” Rafe asked, laughing. “I don’t hear her speaking.”
    Jillian whirled on Rafe. She simply extended her hand, and Rafe was yanked off his feet. He rushed neck first through the air as if she’d hooked him with fishing line. His neck hit her hand, and she pounded him into the ground.
    Rafe gasped a gurgling, protesting noise from between his teeth.
    â€œI don’t hear you speaking now, either,” Jillian whispered. She jabbed her sharp, claw-like fingers into his neck, fisted her hand, and tore out his throat.
    Rafe fell to the ground on his knees. His eyes were frantic and his mouth opened and closed, but without a throat, he couldn’t scream.
    Jillian tossed the meat of Rafe’s throat on the stone floor, like someone else would discard a wet paper towel.
    She slowly turned around to face me again. I focused on her, trying not to stare at the heavy, glistening chunk of blood and tissue strewn across the stone.
    â€œCassidy,” she murmured.
    My brain tuned to the timbre of her voice, and I realized that I had met her eyes. “No,” I whispered.
    â€œAh,” Jillian sighed. Her exhale trembled. “Lovely. No wonder he wants to claim you.”
    â€œWhy would he want me at all?” I asked from between my clenched teeth. I remembered what Dominic had said about feeling my thoughts and desires, and I realized that Jillian was likely feeling mine right now.
    â€œDid you prefer the fate my brothers had in store for you?” Jillian spread her arms wide to indicate the semicircle of vampires still lining the room.
    I shook my head. “Isn’t that what lies in store for me anyway, just delayed?”
    Jillian leaned closer. She wasn’t even near the cage, and I flinched away from her. “How did it feel when Dominic tasted you?”
    I felt the scorch of my blush through to my hairline.
    â€œDeath is inevitable; whether Kaden had drained you earlier tonight or young Neil had feasted on you today or time decays your body’s ability to sustain life fifty years from now, the end will come for you. Life is a delay of death. The beautiful parting moment of Dominic’s bite is what lies in store for you now, and I can guarantee that one last moment with Dominic is more life than years of living could give you.”
    â€œWhat do you know of Dominic’s bite?” I snapped, still tingling from the heat of my blush.
    â€œEverything you do.” Jillian grinned. “He is ravenous.”
    â€œThen you can keep it. I’ll take my years of living, thank you very much.” I tore my gaze away from hers with the force of my rage. I stared at the slop of Rafe’s neck and felt my temper harden. Rafe had healed. His neck was once again smooth and perfect, but the evidence of his former neck still lying on the ground sickened me. “If you’re so loyally devoted to your Master, why did you leave Dominic to die?”
    Jillian’s smile wiped clean off her face. “Excuse me?”
    â€œYou left him outside the coven to fry in the sunlight, allowed police to find the remains of your hunt before you could hide the evidence—”
    â€œThat was not my hunt,” Jillian growled.
    â€œâ€”and you allowed his gasping, dying, crispy body to be found by me . A human.”
    â€œI didn’t know that Dominic had left the coven the night before,” Jillian said, shaking. “I didn’t realize how weak he was becoming nor how strong the rebellion had grown. I didn’t think they would be able to incapacitate him and—”
    â€œ I found him, Jillian. I saved him. Is that why he’s checking your work at the crime scene? After you let his fate rest in the hands of a human , he doesn’t trust you anymore. You didn’t