Lost Paradise by Tara Fox Hall Read Free Book Online Page B

pulled me against him hard, his arms going around me, grinding
his hips into me. I let out a moan, then reached down for his
zipper.
    Lash exploded into action. Without warning,
he yanked his fangs out of me, shoved me aside, and sank them into
Kevin’s neck. Kevin shrieked, trying to push him away. I was
painfully wrenched back towards them, my hair caught in Kev’s belt.
Lash gave me another push, tearing me free. Kev shrieked loudly
over and over in absolute terror as I rolled to lay on the ballroom
floor, dazed.
    Pushing myself up with my arms, I saw Lash
let go of Kevin. The werebear slumped to the floor, his eyes
rolling up as he convulsed. His mouth was agape, drooling as he
jerked spastically. Vince was screaming over and over, his eyes
wide with fear, as he tried to crawl away from Kev and Lash. Lash
went for him next. With a hard snap, he broke his neck and Vince’s
scream cut off. He fell to the floor to lie in a pile of bloody
arms and legs.
    “He healed,” I murmured. “There’s new skin
showing through the hole in his shirt.”
    Lash left them where they lay and walked
over. He put his hand gently on my shoulder. “Are you all right?”
he hissed softly.
    “Yes,” I said brokenly, and began to cry.
    Lash took my hand, and pulled me to my feet.
“Come.” He took me into the nearest bedroom down the hall and shut
the door.
    I looked about me at the red walls, dazed.
“This is the flame room.”
    “Sit for a moment.”
    I sat. It was good to sit.
    Lash went to the bathroom sink and washed out
his mouth, taking something from his pocket, and mixing it with
water. He did this several times, spitting whatever it was into the
sink. After, he came back over to me. “Do you want me to call Dev
or not? He can come here—”
    It seemed hard to think. Why couldn’t I
understand his words ? “What were you doing?”
    “The poison I shot Kev up with won’t kill
him, but he won’t be able to move for the better part of a day. It
would have killed a human.” He looked at me intently. “I needed to
get any traces of poison that were left out of my mouth, just in
case you were still in the mood.”
    My terror eclipsed my outrage. “You said that
your bite was only poisonous in snake form!” I said shrilly. “You
lied to me!”
    “My fangs don’t change,” Lash said blatantly.
“If they went back to human teeth, that would be true.”
    I shrank back from him. “So any time you
drank from me, you could have killed me—”
    Lash’s hand shot out to grip my face hard. “I
won’t hurt you,” he hissed, his flat eyes staring into mine. “I
promised Dev I’d keep you safe. I can bite without injecting
poison, as you well know.”
    I curled up into a ball, making myself small.
“Why’d you lie to me?”
    “That night I said that I wanted your blood.
You wouldn’t have let me
    if—”
    “You scared me.”
    “I had to,” Lash hissed. “I had to make Kev
believe that I was going along with their plan to get close to him.
He was right, he could have cut your throat before I could stop
him. Titus is too far away to save you. You would have bled to
death.”
    “No, I wasn’t scared then,” I whispered. “I
was scared of you before, but not now. I trusted you to save
me.”
    He let go of my face. “I saw that you did in
your eyes, before The Lust came.”
    I wanted to tell him that it meant something
that he had had me there in his power and he hadn’t taken
advantage. Right now he was probably regretting he
hadn’t… Embarrassed at my unkind thought, my face flushed.
    “Why were you in there anyway?” Lash hissed.
“You said you were coming to meet me for lunch. How am I supposed
to keep you safe if you don’t do what you say you will?”
    “I went looking for you,” I replied, coloring
further. “Kev lied to me, told me you were there.” I sank down to
the floor, sitting cross-legged.
    Lash eased himself down beside me. “But you
don’t want me now, right?”
    While Lash had made