Read Online Blood Lust by Zoe Winters - Free Book Online Page A

My IQ might have dropped several points the first time you rolled in playing the temptress, but I’ve grown as a person since then.”
    Jaden smirked. “I’m sure.”
    “I think she’s perfectly safe. And if she isn’t, what do I care?”
    “What, indeed.” She shrugged and stretched out on the couch. “It’s your call. But she’ll be sacrificed as soon as the sun sets.”
    Dayne was momentarily stunned by the sunlight streaming through the windows. He shook his head and pointed at the door.
    “Leave.”
    “I know you care for her. Help me.”
    He was annoyed by how well she could still read him. “Why would you give her my address in the first place?”
    Jaden looked at the ground, the confident facade falling around her feet. “Because I knew you could keep her safe.”
    “You didn’t think sending her here might endanger her?”
    “It’s not in your nature to harm an innocent. You know you never felt that way about me.”
    One side of Dayne’s mouth inched up in a grin. “Because you weren’t, in fact, an innocent.”
    “True enough.” Jaden withdrew a thin lady’s cigarette out of a red leather pouch and placed it between her lips. Her eyes remained on his as she lit the tip and inhaled the nicotine.
    Playing the seductress had become her full-time role, Dayne mused. She didn’t seem aware she was doing it. Or if she was, she was barking up the wrong tree. She’d folded her legs underneath her, and now she unfolded them, crossing them primly to allow one thigh to peek out of the dress.
    Goddammit. He was going to let Jaden lead him into a trap again. This time he was killing her. The shapeshifter was far too dangerous to be left alive.
    “Very well,” he said, finally. “I’m sure Greta shed some fur around the house.” He’d need it for the spell to find her. “And Jaden, if this is a double-cross like the last time, you die. Don’t expect old sentiments to keep you safe. If you’re fucking with me this is your last chance to leave quietly.”
    Jaden was already looking for cat fur.
    ***
    “Wakey. Wakey.”
    Greta opened her eyes to see Simon grinning down at her. She was in a steel cage, with barely enough room to turn around. Her wrists were tied in front of her with coarse rope.
    She looked down to find herself dressed in a flowing white gown, right out of a Cleopatra movie. She would have felt somewhat ridiculous if it weren’t for the mind-numbing fear.
    Even with her new level of control, she should have shifted by now. But she knew she’d never shift again. Greta mourned the loss of the grass and the hunt and the stars that used to blur overhead as she ran. She felt sluggish as the drugs flowed through her veins, dampening everything. Her keen sense of smell, vision, hearing, her ability to scent emotions. It was all gone. She felt . . . human.
    She’d spent a great deal of time passing for human, spending more time with them than her own tribe. Trying to blend. She no longer wanted to blend; she just wanted her powers back. A tear slid down her cheek.
    “Oh, don’t cry. You won’t be pretty for the sacrifice. No one wants running mascara in a sacrifice. Least of all, me.”
    “The gods won’t honor this.”
    Simon laughed, less a villain laugh and more a that’s the funniest joke I’ve heard in ages laugh. “You’re adorably naive, Greta. There are no gods.”
    “Then, why?”
    “I want Dayne dead. I’ve been studying magic for ages. Your power will allow me to defeat him. Then I can run this town with no threat of challenge.”
    “Except for the wolves.” They were notoriously hard to keep in line.
    He waved a hand in dismissal, “The wolves will be dealt with.”
    “And the vampires,” she said, not sure why she was still arguing with him.
    “The vampires and I share the same agenda.”
    A sick feeling lodged in her stomach. “I thought Dayne was involved with the ritual.”
    Again Simon laughed. “I think he played that rep of his a little too well.