Читать книгу Dead Sexy - Amanda Ashley - Страница 9

The vampire paused at the edge of the lake, his preternatural senses testing the night air. He had fed earlier, and fed well, but lately the hunger would not be appeased.

He glanced at the burlap bag in his hand, then flung the bag and its contents into the center of the lake, watching impassively as the blood-crusted organs floated on the water before slowly sinking out of sight.

He didn’t know who was killing the people inside You Bet Your Life Park, and he didn’t care. It provided the perfect cover for his own crimes, although he found ripping out hearts and livers a rather nasty business.

He grunted softly. He didn’t know why he found it so odious. He had done far worse things without a qualm.

Turning away from the lake, he walked down the narrow, twisting path that led to the street and the park beyond. It amused him to know that the foolish mortals believed the vampires were confined to the park. Of course, it was true that most of the Undead couldn’t cross the force field—but he wasn’t one of them.

He was almost to the park when he paused. It was hours until dawn, plenty of time to make another kill.

He was stalking a voluptuous young woman wearing a silver spandex tank top and a black leather miniskirt when he sensed the presence of another of his kind.

The vampire stopped, all thoughts of the woman forgotten. He had not felt fear in over two hundred years, but he felt it now. It was a sudden chill snaking down his spine, a clammy hand clawing at his vitals.

“Karl.”

The voice came out of the shadows, as cold and unforgiving as death itself.

The vampire peered into the darkness. “Leave me alone, Santiago. You hear? Go away and leave me alone!”

“You have broken my law. You have killed on my turf.”

“You’re not the master of the city anymore,” Karl said, his voice rising. “You’re no better than the rest of us!”

“Am I not?”

Karl muttered a vile oath as Santiago materialized in front of him, his appearance so fast and unexpected that it came as a complete, and unwelcome, surprise.

Karl gasped as Santiago’s hand curled around his throat.

“You have violated my law,” Santiago repeated. “The tenuous peace we have achieved is at risk because you cannot control your thirst.”

Karl stared into merciless blue eyes, his fear increasing as Santiago’s voice grew softer and more deadly.

“I might have forgiven you for the others,” the master of the city said. “But tonight you killed children. It is the one sin I will not forgive.”

“I…I didn’t…mean…to kill them,” Karl said.

The other vampire snorted derisively. “One kill might be an accident. But two?” He shook his head.

Karl watched in horror as the master of the city lifted his free hand, the long fingers flexing, then curving into claws. He tried to scream as that hand moved slowly, resolutely, toward his chest, but terror trapped the sound in his throat. He thrashed wildly, his fear rising as he stared certain death in the face.

There was a blinding hot pain in his chest as his heart was torn from his body.

And then nothing at all.