Sleepless Beauties: A Rejected Mates Paranormal Romance (The Vampires Vendetta Series Book 1) by A.K. Koonce (best books under 200 pages txt) 📕

It's a lie, but it’s a damn good one though. Because it’s the one thing that always seems to shake and rattle his cage.

And this time is no different.

Then his hands are fisting into my shirt. He drags me so hard and fast that I can’t help the laughter that stumbles from my lips as he slams me into the shelves. Books tumble and break apart as they hit the tile floor with a series of fluttering thuds.

“Shut the fook up, Cardence!” Royale seethes through sharp, clenched teeth. “You don’t know what you’re fooking talking about!”

My heart nearly patters with fright. I wish it fucking would. I with the quiet thing would hammer like it used to. I wish he’d just lose control.

Attack!

Kill me already!

I smile at the reckless fear in his eyes.

He knows that I know.

Even if I don’t really know anything.

“Who’s the girl sleeping in croft six?”

“Kyra Vega.”

My head slams into his and he flinches hard as our skulls knock, but neither of us feel the pleasant pain like we once did.

But that was a long, long time ago.

It isn’t as satisfying as it should be.

Nothing really is anymore.

“Kyra Vega never said a fucking word to me. No matter how much I messed with her. She wouldn’t give me the goddamn time of day. So then who is the smart-mouthed woman in croft six?”

He hauls me up in a flash of power and slams me back down into his precious books. They tumble and fall around me like the pages of a history I’ve seen far too much of. He leans in close enough to… to kill me, really.

And yet still he doesn’t.

“Stay away from her. And stay the fook away from me.”

He releases me with too much force and just the right amount of anger to sedate my need for emotion. His rage is a soothing balm within my mind.

It’s delicious. It’s nirvana.

And now… it’s gone.

Fuck.

And I’m still left wondering about Six.

Thirteen

Kira

Warmth clings to my skin and I wake with a muddle of confusion circling in my mind. A charge like electric energy flows from my toes all the way up through my stomach and comes to rest like a hum within my heart.

“Prey?” I whisper into the darkness.

He’s still here.

Watching me, I know it. I can feel it.

“Y-yes,” he stutters oddly.

His uncertain tone isn’t even remotely hostile, and that confuses me.

What a weird little man.

“I feel… different.”

I remember his teeth sinking in. The orgasmic feel of his power still caresses my skin like a shadowy memory.

“Y-yeah,” he says on an unsteady exhale.

What the fuck is wrong with him?

His palm skims over my stomach and he holds me. My instinct is to shove him off me, but… it feels like the most natural reassuring thing in the world to have him close.

It feels good.

“Will I have a mark where you bit me? Do I need to cover it for a while?”

I think back to the things I left behind in my apartment. Concealer is in my old life. And these flawless fuckers probably can’t even fathom needing an under eye cream or even a smidge of makeup coverage.

“Hopefully fucking not.”

Ah, there’s that asshole tone I’ve grown used to hearing.

“Okay,” I whisper, turning my head this way and that, but not feeling any stiffness where his fangs pierced my skin.

Maybe vampires have a quick healing saliva or some magical shit. Maybe Prey just spits on me a little and no one will know an assistant spent the night feeding on a high council vampire.

“Can any of them read minds?” I ask, suddenly nervous. But seeing as we’re both locked up in this tomb, it feels like now is as good a time as any to vent all of my curious questions.

“No,” he says with a heavy sigh.

God, why is he suddenly acting like he has a lot of shit to do today?

He is an assistant. He probably does have a lot of shit to do.

That’s too bad for him. I need answers.

“Why is it that I’m on the council, but you’re just an assistant? What makes someone worthy of the High Council of vampires?”

This draws another annoyed sigh out of Prey.

“Power. Once you’re turned, your powers, strengths and abilities can vary greatly. You —I mean Kyra— was a very powerful vampire. She was just as strong as Rival, that’s why they got along so well.”

“And they were… mates?”

“What? No! Fuck no. If they were, he probably would have cared enough about her to protect her more.”

Ouch. Hostility is truly his forte.

Another angry breath heaves from his lungs, but he continues.

“Kyra and Rival were friends. He let people believe it was more because he knew people didn’t screw with her if he claimed her. But she wanted friends. She would never admit it to the others, but she wanted to feel like she once did when she was alive. She wanted some sense of normalcy in this undead world. And Rival saw that in her. He befriended her when she only had me.” A heavy pause drifts in between us before he speaks like a ghost of a word. “But neither of us were there for her when she needed us the most.”

My heart drops, and I hate that I can relate to the bloodthirsty monster so much right now.

I should have been there for Kyra. There were so many times I wasn’t there for my twin the way she was for me.

“What about Cardence?” I think about how he taunted me, and how I saw him act terribly with Kyra once before. He saw right through me. “Were the two of them ever more?”

Prey’s scoff fans across my skin and I find myself suddenly brushing my fingers along the back of his knuckles.

I blink at that and pull my hand away stiffly.

“Everyone hates Cardence. He’s fucking depressing. He’s unique, and a cocky prick because of it. He’s an energy vampire. Kyra hated him just as much as we all do.”

Then how did