Beloved Vampire by Joey W. Hill Read Free Book Online Page B

him with two marks. The first mark had allowed him to locate her wherever she was, and the second let him into her head, where he could read every thought she had, invade at any time to speak and command her there.
    Despite that, she’d tried to escape, again and again. Failed every time, been punished every time. Eventually, she’d realized he let her try only to give himself the pleasure of extinguishing her hope, indulging his fascination with whether she had the fortitude to strike it back to life again.
    When she was befriended by two women in his household, she thought she was being offered comfort from fellow inmates. They asked about her life before, about Jack, her fiancé. It was the last time she made the mistake of trusting anyone. At first she wondered why he didn’t lift the information from her mind, but later she realized it was more of his games, intended to underscore how alone she was now.
    After her sixth escape attempt, Raithe told her she would not fully accept his ownership until she realized her old life was gone to her. So he found, captured and killed her fiancé in front of her. He broke Jack’s spine, crushed his rib cage so it punctured his lungs, his heart, then wouldn’t allow her to touch him as he wheezed his last. His uncomprehending eyes clung to her, his numb hand outstretched, trying to reach hers.
    As Jack’s body had been dragged away, Raithe told her if she tried to kill herself, he’d find her family and do the same to each one of them, only make it last longer. When he deemed her training complete, her mind malleable enough, he intended to give her the third mark. As she curled in a ball of grief on the floor at his feet, he explained in a gentle, even tone that this would be a gift. An honor. She’d be his fully bonded servant then, with the privilege of an enhanced mortal life span, perhaps as much as three hundred years, give or take a decade.
    So life went on. It took a while for her to be as malleable as he demanded. Then, the night he finally decided to do it, vampire hunters attacked. Before he could complete her third mark, one hunter wounded him severely, but Raithe managed to get away, dragging her with him. When they reached a narrow dark alley, he’d stumbled, fallen, overcome by his wounds. Since he was still grasping her wrist, refusing to let go, it drove her to her knees. Her hand landed on a sharpened survey stake, discarded with construction trash.
    For so long, she’d been numb, her mind beaten into complete submission, a cringing dog who had no thoughts other than what her Master would next inflict upon her and how to endure or avoid it. In hindsight, she knew that had been her best protection, because deep down where neither Raithe nor even she could go, the part of her that had waited for this one rare moment of vulnerability had hovered, beyond his reach. When the roaring compulsion came slamming back into her body, she reacted on instinct.
    Now.
    She seized his hair, yanked him off the ground and drove the stake into him. Wounded and dazed as he was, he didn’t have a chance. There’d been countless times she’d huddled on the floor during his daylight sleep, chained to the foot of his bed, and felt her own ribs, figuring out exactly where the heart was located. Figuring out the angle she’d have to use, how strong she’d have to be. Whenever he heard such thoughts, the punishments were brutal, but that night, the knowledge came surging up, as if that unconscious part of her had been practicing, over and over. She did it as smoothly as a veteran vampire hunter, and his aborted third mark gave her the necessary surge of strength.
    Divine intervention? Maybe. Or the luck of a dumb, savage animal who’d wanted to survive.
    She’d stood in a frozen stupor for quite some time after, looking at his dead body. Only the sound of approaching feet stirred her.
    She knew hunters enough to know they’d consider her his ally, and kill her. Even if they