Bad Vampire by Lauren Dawes (read aloud books txt) 📕

panic to bloom and flood my nervous system with all those great human physiological reactions to fear.

“What are you doing?”

My question was chased by the sound of the other cuff closing around my wrist. And that was when I hit my limit. I yanked at the cuffs, the sharp, cold edges cutting into more than just my skin.

“I have no idea how you think you’re going to get me out of here without anyone noticing me screaming—”

She threw her hand over my mouth, tutting me when I tried to bite her palm. “Don’t you worry about a thing,” she crooned into my ear, rimming the shell of my ear with her freakishly long tongue. I jerked away as far as I could, causing her to laugh. Yeah, I was a regular comedian. “Come on. Draco is waiting for you.”

She unlocked the bathroom, and I opened my mouth to start screaming. Just as the words were about to come out of my mouth, it felt like a gag was placed between my teeth, even though Faline hadn’t put one there.

“A muzzle to keep you quiet,” she purred, dragging me down the hallway. When we stepped into the club, I searched frantically for Sawyer, praying what the bitch had told me about him wasn’t true. I stumbled to a stop when I found him fucking some random female up against a wall, while a line of more women waited their turn.

“I told you. He needs to exhaust himself, and I knew that spell would work on him. This…” She motioned to Sawyer, but I hadn’t taken my eyes off him. “This is what his true nature is.”

He was fucking the female he was with but staring at the next one in line. He beckoned her closer and burrowed his free hand up her short dress. A second later, the female’s head tilted back against the wall as she shuddered with ecstasy. A pang of longing, regret, and anger went through me, the strange combination of emotions making me feel physically ill.

She dragged me away, through the doors, and outside into the pouring rain. I shivered at the change in temperature, then froze when the vampire Faline was serving stepped from the shadows.

He approached me, wearing his black suit and tie like it was a second skin. His dark hair was slicked back from his face, and I wasn’t sure if it was the rain that had done that, or whether it was his regular style. He looked me up and down with dark as pitch eyes, his cruel mouth turning into a sneer at his eyes returned to my face.

“I expected more,” he said dismissively, “especially given who your parents were.”

I lunged for him, biting back the hiss when Faline yanked back on my wrists. My elbows and recovering dislocated shoulder screamed with the pressure, and I eased back a step. “Don’t speak a word about my parents,” I snarled.

My statement made him laugh. “Why shouldn’t I? I was there when they both died…by my hand.”

I blinked at him just as the opal around my neck pulsed with heat. It wasn’t glowing though, so the thing was malfunctioning, or it didn’t work as I thought it did. Either way, I was fucked.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Why would I tell you?” he shot back. “You think I’m going to reveal all my secrets like some bad Bond villain?”

“I was hoping you would, yes.”

He cupped my cheek, making me jerk away with a hiss. His hands were ice-cold. “You have much to learn, Cat McKenzie.”

He walked to a town car and popped open the rear door. “Get her in and let’s go.”

Faline unceremoniously shoved me into the back seat, then slammed the door. I shuffled along uncomfortably, the position of my arms behind my back preventing me from even a sliver of comfort. My shoulder was aching now, and I cursed myself for going out without the sling.

“Someone really should put my seatbelt on,” I said when Faline got into the driver’s seat and Count Fuckula got in the other side. He turned around to look at me.

“I don’t care if you get injured in a car accident, but be a dear and sit behind Faline. A trip through the windshield wouldn’t be pleasant.”

Grumbling, I slid over. A) because I wasn’t stupid, and B) because I had to keep an eye on the bigger threat.

The car glided smoothly over road as the backstabbing succubus navigated away from downtown and out into the wealthier suburbs that had shot up over the last couple of years. Mansions perched on man-made hills, each neighbor trying to outdo the other both in grandiosity and positioning. Really, it was just a very expensive dick measuring contest.

And why was I not surprised when Faline pulled into the driveway of a house that looked like it was the biggest badass on the block?

“I think you could’ve made it bigger,” I told Draco. He glared at me, and I tipped my chin in the direction of the house. “You know, all this is how big my cock is kind of thing. Oh! And then added a giant neon sign that reads ‘Vampire Sleeps Here.’”

His glare became arctic—not figuratively, but literally. Ice formed on the inside of the windows and on the seats.

“Touchy.”

“Shut it, McKenzie,” Faline snarled.

I shook my head. “Nope. Sorry. You don’t get to have a say in anything I do anymore, Faline. You are on my shit list.”

She snarled softly under her breath but didn’t take her eyes off the task at hand, which was landing this motherfucking car like it was a jet. Did she think she was driving a truck?

“What’s the turning radius like on this thing?” I asked before I was slammed back in my seat forcefully. My head rocked as my brain splashed back in the cranial fluid. My mouth throbbed, and I tongued a cut on my bottom lip. Faline was shaking out her hand. The bitch had hit me, but I hadn’t even seen