I Bite She Sucks Bloom, Penelope (howl and other poems TXT) 📖

stopped fucking with me. I’d sworn I’d get stronger until nobody would give my family shit one day.” He chuckled to himself sourly. “Stupid teenage stuff. Like I could’ve punched the world in the face to change its mind. But I’d snuck out beyond the town limits one morning to be with this girl I was seeing. My parents sent Kyla to come find me because it was a full moon that night and they wanted me back. That’s when the vamps came. The Coven has strict rules about hybrids. Extermination.”

I put my hand over my mouth, stomach clenching as I imagined where this was going.

“And guess what my dumbass accomplished by getting stronger and starting to clear our name? Loyalty. Nobody would say who the kids were or where they were. My parents didn’t talk. Not a single person in the town talked, so they killed everyone just to be careful. Every single werewolf in the town. Fifty-five bodies. That’s what the Coven does, Sylvie. That’s what their fucking curse brings.”

He was shaking while he talked. At some point—I couldn’t say when—I’d gotten up and put my arms around him. Riggs hugged me back, and I could feel all his vulnerability as he leaned into me.

God. I wouldn’t have imagined someone so strong could carry such a wound. But through his words and the way he was holding me, I could feel it. I could feel how damaged he was and how much he carried. It was no wonder he was the way he was.

“Kyla turned her back on them when she let herself get turned,” he said. “She turned her back on everything, including me.”

I nodded. “I’m sorry, Riggs. Nothing we do is going to make any of that right, but you see it, right? If we killed Victor, we’d be creating another line of people with just as much reason to hate as you had. It has to stop somewhere. Somebody has to eventually let go. To be strong enough to shoulder the burden.”

He pulled back from the hug, then kissed me. It surprised me, but I kissed him back. I wanted to stay in that tender moment where his lips were scorching hot against mine and his arms swallowed me up. I felt safe there, like I didn’t need to ever step outside that cocoon. But I knew what waited for us beyond this room, and I knew the others needed us.

We pulled back from the kiss and Riggs thumbed my chin with a small smile. “I could get used to that.”

“No kidding.”

30

Riggs

Our plan was as simple as I could manage. Sylvie would stay in the room just long enough for me to meet with Lazarus and find out where he was keeping the others. After that, I’d go back, get Sylvie, find a place to hide her, and then confront Victor. If things went well, I’d go get her, if not, she’d try to escape, as unlikely as that was.

I had to admit I didn’t feel great about the plan. There were too many things that could go wrong, but we didn’t exactly have the luxury of sitting around and trying to fine-tune it. The others were being held, and we had no idea how long Lazarus would wait before deciding to change his demands.

I stepped out into the darkened hallway. A group of young vampire girls in uniform passed, giving me a lingering look as they hurried off to a class somewhere in the building. It still was strange to me that they were running a boarding school out here, but I supposed it wasn’t that different from the way werewolves tended to create towns from scratch in the middle of nowhere for our kind.

I put it from my mind, heading to where I’d last seen Lazarus. I let my wolf stir, which enhanced my sense of smell and what I thought of as the eye in the back of my head. It wasn’t easy to explain the feeling, but the more control I gave to my wolf, the more I seemed to be able to sense what was about to come. It became nearly impossible to sneak up on me or surprise me.

I felt drawn to a room I hadn’t seen before. It was near the end of the long hallway of dormitories. I took a glance back toward my room. I hadn’t wanted to move too far from Sylvie, but right now, Lazarus still had no reason to target her. He thought I was going through with his plan.

The room was dark inside. Shocking. I sensed a presence. “Is that you?”

Victor stepped out of the shadows. “That depends who you were looking for.”

Shit. The first question to enter my head was to ask what the hell he was doing lurking in dark rooms. But the asshole was a vampire. Their idea of a fun weekend was probably lurking in abandoned ruins or hanging upside down in closets.

“Victor,” I said, trying to think fast. I could come clean now, but we’d have no idea where Lazarus was keeping the others. Even with Victor’s help, we might only save Sylvie and sign the death warrant of the others.

I was saved the trouble of having to figure out what to do when the door opened behind me. Lazarus walked in, then shut it behind himself. “Do it,” he said.

“Tell me where the others are,” I said.

“What is this?” Victor asked.

The door opened and two more vampires came in to flank Lazarus. Cleaners. And I sensed they weren’t the half-wits he’d sent in the car to make a show of stopping us. These guys were the real deal, and I was officially fucked if this came to blows.

I held my hand up toward Victor, hoping to shut him up long enough to get what I needed out of Lazarus.

“Patience, Riggs. Do what I’ve asked, and you’ll have them. Or are we having second thoughts?”

“Tell me where they are and I’ll do it.”

“Do what,” The Prince