Sunset to Sunrise (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #7.5)

Sunset to Sunrise (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #7.5)
Trina M. Lee



Chapter One

Nothing felt quite as good as knowing I was feared. That first shriek, the first horrified gasp, it never ceased to bring a smile to my face. Yet, the appetizing scent of fear and sex taunted me. It wasn’t enough. I needed more.

Gazing down at the pretty brunette in my bed, I considered the many ways I could kill her. In a nasty mood, the only thing that would satisfy me was blood and death. And maybe a little more sex in between.

“Kale?” My name was barely a whisper, as if she were afraid to speak. So she should be. I had no intention of allowing her to leave here alive. Not this time.

With a finger on her lips, I shushed her. She peered at me with wide brown eyes. I was growing tired of the game. Still, her warm, naked body felt good against mine. The softness of her skin invited me to take her one more time.

I licked the blood that spilled from the wound in her neck. This was my third encounter with her, and I still didn’t know her name. I was sure she had told me. I just didn’t care enough to remember.

She spread her legs in offering, inviting me to take her places no one else ever could. Even as I slipped inside her welcoming warmth, it was somebody else I thought of.

My mind was far from present. It replayed a conversation from just hours earlier. There was no way in hell I was going to beg Alexa to stay. Her choice to run off to Las Vegas was stupid, but there was only one way she would learn. It would serve her right if she died there.

I thrust hard into the brunette. Her moans fed my appetite. The blood hunger dominated and with it, the need for the kill.

We shared no love here. No polite terms could describe the act we engaged in. I grabbed her hips, holding her still while I f*cked her like the animal I saw her to be. Prey. That’s all she was. A source of satisfaction for all of my hungers… well, most of them anyway.

Unaware of my intent, she grabbed for me, making a clumsy attempt at turning it into something more, something affectionate. What a fool she was to have come here again.

Staring down at her, watching her face grow flushed as I used her body, I felt the slightest semblance of shame. Then it was gone. Those brief moments of guilt and reconsideration were becoming fewer and farther between. I would be happy when they ceased to afflict me at all.

She was just a body, a means to an end. I focused on seeing her, smelling her, and still my mind tried to take me back to another time with another woman. That had been different though.

Bitterness consumed me as Alexa once again invaded my thoughts. She tainted the moment, reducing my pleasure to a mound of ashes. “Why never a blonde?” she’d asked me. The nerve. Where the hell did Alexa get off taunting me like that? She should know better by now.

The more I thought about our last conversation, the angrier I became. The woman beneath me was going to pay for Alexa’s mistakes. Like so many before her had.

The rage-fueled bloodlust commanded me. Conscious thought faded, consumed by an angry black void that could never be filled. The need to cause pain was fierce.

A scream rang out as my victim thrashed and fought in a sudden and desperate struggle to get away. My laughter joined her shrieks, a harmonious sound that encouraged me.

I grabbed her around the throat and forced her to meet my eyes. In the dim lamplight, I saw the terror I longed for. She fought hard now, realizing that my intent was deadly. I loved it when they fought. It was a disappointment when they gave in too quickly. A fighter was always a good kill.

“Sorry, sweetheart,” I said with a chuckle. “It’s been a blast, but I’m bored now.”

I grasped her wrist and bit deep. As I drank the blood that welled up, I drew on her fear, intoxicated by it. Several of her blows landed as she sought to free herself. It was admirable but ultimately pointless. Nothing she could do would hurt me.

“Keep screaming, baby. That’s just how I like it.” Another bite on her opposing wrist got her blood pumping fast. It flowed from the wounds like a scarlet fountain in a blood-drenched paradise.

“Please, don’t kill me,” she screamed, her words strangled as she gasped for breath. “I have a family. They need me. Please.”

I rolled my eyes. Like I hadn’t heard that countless times before. How utterly boring.

“You should have thought about that before you walked in here.” I aggressively shoved her head to the side and descended upon her bared throat. My fangs plunged through the delicate skin to create another crimson well.

I had been a creature of sympathy once. The long nights of caging my hungers so as not to bring harm to innocents had been hell, a torture I was glad to be rid of. My past played a strong role in who I have become, yet perhaps not as much as she has. Alexa. The wolf destined to be a vampire though never meant to be mine. Circumstance is a f*cking bitch.

It has certainly occurred to me that this was some much-deserved punishment. God, Fate, whatever name the powers-that-be answer to, it has made no secret of its intent to destroy me from the inside out. I didn’t doubt that this punishment was just.

My victim’s strangled cries grew hoarse as her blood flowed. She weakened quickly. Too quickly for my liking. Ah well. Not every kill can be the big one that leaves me walking on clouds for three days. Too bad.

I held her close, draining her of life and finding renewal in that. Her blood filled my mouth, tangy and gratifying. Her energy grew frail as it became part of me. I fed on her as thoroughly as one can. With her final screams echoing in my ears, I pierced the carotid and finished her off.