Blood & Honey #1

*Chapter Twelve*

Kinley's hair gets tousled and blown by the quickness of my vamp speed as I carry her down the stairs. By the time I set her down in front of the black four-door luxury car with tinted windows, the expression on her face makes me think she feels like she just teleported.

"Get in." I open the back door to the car, holding back a smug grin.

Kinley turns and looks at the condo complex behind us. Her shoulders stoop forward. She drops her head so that her dark curls shield her face and climbs in, keeping her gaze cast down as she slides across the seat.

She flinches at the sound of me shutting the car door. She instantly feels trapped, only now I bet she feels trapped in every sense. Her mind by fear, her body by this car and me, and her heart back there with her friend Maya. The only thing left for me to trap is her soul.

Good thing the day is still young.

The car rolls into motion, the partition up as it always is when using Shadow Enterprise. It's the only organization in my kinds world that is readily available to the masses. It's global. Shadow Enterprise does everything: transportation, clean up, and damage control. You can only get so far with compulsion in the twenty-first century. Mainly they come in handy for overseas trips.

We are ten minutes in and Kinley's hands haven't left her lap once. Her sandwich didn't survive the trip down the stairs.

She stays very still, probably afraid I will be triggered to attack if she moves the slightest bit. It's amusing to watch until it isn't. My jaw clenches automatically when Kinley sweeps her hair behind her ear, revealing her neck to me.

I know she's not thinking about what she just did. She's becoming more nervous as time lapses. The scrutiny of my stare is making her fidgety.

My attention moves from the hammering pulse I can see jumping underneath her skin to the movement of her legs as she presses her knees tightly together. It's like she is trying to gather all of her nervous energy and keep it smashed between her knees.

The rhythmic thump, thump in her chest, pulls me back to the ticking pulse in her neck. They run in harmony.

First, there is the heart. Lud-dub, lud-dub, lud-dub. Its chambers squeezing her sweet blood through before it fans out with a swooshing sound. Next, there is the thump, thump of her pulse, followed by Kinley's unsteady shallow breaths. I can't concentrate on anything else but these four sounds, listening to the way they form a quartette.

Soon there is nothing else but Kinley's throbbing pulse. No car, no lights, no me.

Heat. Blazing heat shoots up from somewhere inside of me I can't place. A pain I have never experienced before follows.

The beast inside me is trying to rip me apart. He desires for me to let him out. He wants Kinley, and he wants her now.

"Stop the car." I grab onto the door handle, keeping my face down as I can feel the black veins spreading as if they are on a mission to consume me.

"Stop the car!" I shout, my voice coming out more like a growl possessed by something much darker than myself.

The driver takes the first exit off the highway. I hunch over as searing heat pulsates through me in time with Kinley's heartbeat. Expletives leave my mouth as I attempt to fight off a beast inside me I am unfamiliar with. He's thirsty, so thirsty. He desires for too much. It would be foolish of me to let him out.

What the hell is happening to me?

The moment the tires stop, I bolt from the car, leaving a petrified Kinley plastered against the other door. I make it to the backside of the gas station the driver pulled into before doubling over.