Bound by Sin: The Beginning of a Prophecy (Prophecy #3) (15 page)

Constance

Chapter Eighteen

I looked up as we walked into the airport. The only words that registered with me were Venice, Italy. The small airport was teeming with people smiling, laughing, hugging; they were completely oblivious to the reality I’d recently come to know.

The
fluorescent bulbs burned my eyes. Squinting, I tried to diminish the light penetrating my pupils. I felt slightly drugged, and my senses were alive in a way I’d never experienced. The warm, moist breath from the stranger several feet away from me enveloped me like a blanket; it was almost like it clung to my skin. Smells invaded my nostrils, strong succulent scents that forced a hunger pain to radiate through me. My heart beat slow and hard, and every so often it would stall and contract as my body attempted to regulate itself to this new state of normalcy.

Jared grabbed my elbow, jerking my body
close to his. He bowed his head and scanned the crowd of people as he spoke to me. “You’re gonna have to learn to control those urges. Got it?”

Yanking my arm free, I said,
“What are you talking about?”

The words hadn’
t yet finished coming from my mouth when a woman trotted by me. The smell of her made my nerves tingle. My vision honed in on her and I could hear her heart beating. The rhythm of it was steady; the sound of the blood being pushed through it made my mouth water. My tongue crept to the edges of my mouth to wet my lips.

Grabbing me again,
Jared’s grip on me tightened. “
Those
urges,” he whispered.

What the hell had I let him do to me? I was still perfectly conscious of who I was, had been – of what I’d begged him to give me in a moment of weakness and fear.

He glanced back at me and a deep, mischievous smile shaped his lips. “There’s freedom now because the agreement’s been broken – you can take from whoever you want. You won’t have to worry too much about controlling it, but…” Reaching back, he grabbed onto me. “But, your first one’s special. I want it to be memorable, doll.”

I followed
him out of the airport, sweat forming on my forehead from the restraint I was being forced to discover. Relief washed over me when a taxi pulled up. Jared tossed our bags into the back seat, then climbed in, sliding across the seat until his body was against me. I tugged my seatbelt across my lap and he laughed. “Why bother?” he asked. “It’s not like you can die.”

Releasing my
grip on the buckle, the belt retracted into the side of the car. Jared placed his hand on my knee and I glanced down, watching as the lights reflected from his silver thumb ring. Jared’s hand tapped my leg softly and his face leaned toward mine. His fingers drew circles on my thigh. “Don’t worry, your conscience is the last thing to die. It’ll get easier. I promise.”

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“Venice.”

“Is that where they are?”

Jared shook his head. “I don’t know where they are. I’m going to get somebody.” Inhaling, he said, “We’ll have to take a water taxi to the island.”

I leaned my head b
ack against the seat of the car and stared out the window, trying to ignore the screams that echoed inside my head. The way I felt – I should have chosen death!

Jared’s hand reached for mine as I stepped onto the dock
. My legs felt weightless beneath me; my entire body was so weak and cold.

“Let’s go
,” he said.

Pigeons covered the open courtyard, not budging or at all phased by the people almost stepping on them.
We maneuvered through the mass of people – many were tourists stopping to take pictures – and with each person I was forced to pass, the want welled inside of me, quickly turning into a full-blown rage. My mouth was watering and my pulse was beating hard and uneven in my chest. I let go of Jared’s hand and moved my hand to his back, bunching up the thin material of his shirt in my palm, twisting it in an effort to release some of the tension building inside me.

Jared stopped, pulling my bag from my shoulder to carry
it for me. “Almost there,” he said, walking faster, weaving in and out of the people and birds littering the streets.

The loud sound of church bells echoed
from the tall buildings just as Jared came to a worn wooden door. He pushed it open and we stepped inside a tiny bar. Glasses were stacked on lopsided shelves and a small stained glass window was centered on the side wall.

The woman behind the bar looked up as she continued to wipe the bar top off. Her lips pulled up and she tossed the cloth into a sink beside her.

Her smile deepened. “What a surprise!” She had a thick, old world accent. “No one’s seen
you
for a while.” She hesitated, narrowing her eyes as she stared at him. “What should we call you now?”

“Jared.”

One side of her mouth lifted. “Very American. Fits the accent you’ve acquired.” She glared at me and stiffly crossed her arms in front of her chest. “And her? Yours, I assume?”

Jared nodded. “I need to take her back.”

The woman lifted up a portion of the wooden bar top and stood to the side of it. Walking behind the bar, he put our bags down.

“Come on
, doll.”

I
followed him through the doorway to the right of the bar and down a narrow bricked hallway, stopping in front of a door with a bolt on the outside. Jared slid the metal out of the lock and twisted the handle, pausing just as the door began to open. Grabbing my hair, he pulled my ponytail away from my neck. His fingers grazed over the place he’d bitten me. “Such a pretty little mark.”

My hand felt along my neck trying to feel a gash, but there was nothing.

“The mark of the departed is beautiful on you,” he whispered, and pressed his lips against my neck. A low growl ran from his lips and over my skin.

“What mark?”

“The mark I gave you when I turned you. The venom concentrates heaviest where you were bitten. The tissue dies and leaves the mark of a white butterfly.”

“What?” I scrunched my face up as I continued to run my hand over my neck, confused at how and why a mark like that would be left.

“They signify a departed soul.” Jared’s fingers traced down my jaw and rested on my arm. “Pale white wings to symbolize the blood being drained from you. The skin’s almost transparent and you can see the faintest hint of the blood coursing through your veins. Looks as though the butterfly itself has blood surging through its frail wings.”

A sinister laugh pushed out of his lips and he slung the door open.
The air was stale and damp. The room was small and dark. My eyes focused and I saw a woman lying on a cot to the far side of the door. Jared slammed the door shut and the woman’s entire body jumped.

“Rise and shin
e, sweetheart,” Jared said as he approached the cot. “You here by choice, right?” He released a short laugh before mumbling, “Not that it matters now.”

The woman nodded.

“You speak English?”

The woman nodded
again and Jared sat down next to her, the springs creaking under his weight. I watched his hand fondle the side of her face as he leaned over to kiss her. Jared cut his eyes back over at me and his voice deepened; his thick southern drawl vanished and that same heavy, soothing accent the strange man at Brooke’s funeral had possessed overtook Jared’s speech. “Now, I don’t need you becoming jealous. You understand? I don’t belong to you, but
you
belong to
me
…” Reaching over, his hand disappeared underneath the woman’s wrinkled shirt. He smiled back at me. “And you’ll do as I tell you,” he hissed.

Swallowing
back the anger I felt growing, I watched him touch the woman. She locked her gaze on me over Jared’s shoulder. Her head tilted back as his hand skimmed down her leg and slid between her thighs.

Jared glanced back a
t me. “Come here,” he said before burying his face into the woman’s neck.

Approaching them, I
could hear the frantic pace of the woman’s heart. The closer I came, the louder it became. A strong desire shot through me; I could only compare the sensation to arousal, but it was much more intense than that.

Jared’s hand was still beneath the woman’s skirt and
I could see the muscles in his forearm contracting as he moved his fingers back and forth inside her. Reaching up with his other hand, he wound her hair around his wrist and yanked her head to the side. She let out a soft moan and her eyes closed.

“Take her,
” he growled.

My lip
s shook and my breath burned my lungs. My eyes concentrated on her neck. The movement from Jared’s arm became faster and her pulse matched his movements.

“Fucking take her
, Constance!” he demanded again, excitement tinting his tone.

Releasing
the woman’s hair, he grabbed my arm and pulled me to him. He reached around to the nape of my neck and shoved me toward her. My hand fell onto the woman’s partially exposed breast and I quickly moved it away from her. Jared forced my neck down, pushing me to her until my mouth met the warmth of her neck. Her pulse radiated through my lips.

“Bite h
er!” Jared whispered. “Open your mouth and bite down.
Own
what you begged for.”

His hand left my neck
. The woman’s head jerked violently to the side as he pulled her hair down toward his lap. The force he’d used could have easily snapped her neck. Jared moved from the cot, kneeling down on the floor beside us, one hand coaxing pleasure from her while the other held her head to the side for me. I glanced down at his face and his stare was possessed. His brow twitched slowly and he hissed out the words, “Fucking do it – now!” The evil undertone bounced from the walls, echoing in my ears.

Opening
my mouth, my tongue traced over the vein in her neck. My breath quickened, my pulse accelerated, and my teeth carved into her flesh, liquid exploding into my mouth. The woman let out a loud moan and my teeth sunk deeper into her flesh. Warm fluid began to flow into over my tongue and the taste of it was the most satisfying thing I’d ever experienced. My hands, acting as though they were no longer controlled by me, reached up and grabbed onto the woman’s head. I felt her hand rake across my back and her nails claw into my shoulder as I greedily gulped down the blood now gushing into my mouth. I felt life spreading through me, warming me. My entire being was lit on fire and this woman was like water that I couldn’t get enough of to quench this morbid thirst.

Jared’s lips
fell to my neck, kissing me hard before he sucked my skin into his mouth. His hand wandered up my stomach and to my breast, squeezing it to the point of pain. Moments later, he shoved his hand beneath the waist of my jeans and his finger searched underneath my panties.

I continued to drink from the woman unt
il her grip on my back weakened.

Jared laughed under his breath
and I felt him rise to his feet. Opening my eyes, I saw him licking the woman from one of his hands, and then me from the other as he glared down at me with a satisfied grin plastered to his face.

“That’s enough
, doll. Let her go.”

Pulling
away from the woman, I looked down at her neck. Deep puncture wounds with whelps around them adorned her pale skin. She laid back on the cot and her chest heaved. Her lips were parted and air rushed from them. Her eyelashes fluttered as she fought to open her eyes.

Jared bent down and lifted her arm in th
e air. When he released it, it fell to her side, her fingers curling into her palm and then flexing out straight.

“You damn near kill
ed her,” Jared smiled proudly, turning back to examine the woman.

“I – I…
” I ran my tongue over my lips in an effort to savor any remaining blood.

Jared leaned down
and pressed his mouth to me. His tongue tangled with mine and he licked across my lips as he backed away from my face. “Greedy. I like that in my women.”

He picked
the woman’s legs up from the side of the cot and flung them carelessly onto the mattress before making his way to the door.