A Wicked Hunger (Creatures of Darkness 1) by Kiersten Fay Page B

that cannot be compelled. He’d never come across one before. Of course his first would have to be Cora! “Dammit all to hell.”
    Although she seemed to be calming, weighing his reaction—which told him she knew about her natural resistance—the look in her eye said she would run from him at the first opportunity.
    How could she be so upset after the blissful, mind-rocking experience they’d just shared? Religions were built around such things. His masculine pride took a pile-drive to the gut.
    He glanced at the clock. It was nearly midnight.
    “We’ll talk about this in the morning.” Maybe then he could muster up an authentic apology. Right now it would seem insincere to her ears, especially because it would be. “We have a ways to go tomorrow, and we both need to get some sleep.”
    He released her and pointed to the bed.
    She looked at it and mumbled, “I’ll sleep on the floor.”
    His mood darkened even more. “I don’t think so. You’ll just try to run when I fall asleep.”
    “No, I won’t.” She lied so easily.
    “I’m not taking the chance.” He guided her by the elbow to the bed.
    Thankfully, she appeared to be out of defiance for the moment. She crawled onto the mattress and pulled the covers around her like a cocoon, then placed a pillow in the middle of the bed as a barrier between them.
    After shutting off the light and claiming the opposite side of the bed, he snatched her faux wall and disgruntledly shoved it under his head. Then he reached under her refuge of blankets, hooked his arm around her waist to pull her flush against him.
    “What are you doing?” She brazenly swatted at his arm and bowed away from him.
    “It’s either this, or I tie you up for the night. Your choice.”
    “I prefer to be tied up, then.”
    “I lied. It’s my choice. Go to sleep.”
     
     
    Cora cosigned herself to Mace’s arms and settled in. She didn’t have much of a choice. She was just glad this was the only retaliation for her attempted escape, which had been spurred by his powerfully erotic snuffing of her lust. She had been too surprised to think straight.
    Humans had once thought of vampires as cold, undead creatures, who required blood to survive. Mason was anything but cold at the moment. The warmth of his body seeped into her back, as did his pulse, which was noticeably slower than hers—adrenaline still spiked wildly in her veins.
    No, vampires were flesh and blood, same as humans. Whether evolved or otherworldly was debatable, but definitely top of the food chain.
    Currently, she was on the bottom, right underneath krill.
    As for needing blood to survive? That part was all too true.
    As Cora lay there, immersed in one of her greatest nightmares, she evaluated the end of her life as she knew it. Mace now knew she could not be compelled by him or, as far as she could tell, any other vampire. She could not be made to forget the salacious act they’d just shared, the location of wherever it was he intended to take her, or this whole illegal vampire blood business.
    She’d been inclined to hope for a swift and immediate death when this fiasco was over…but now? Now he would claim her, take her to his clan and demand to keep her, just as Edgar had.
    For the sole purpose of being cruel, Edgar had explained in gory detail what happened to lone humans amongst vampires. And it all started with a bite.
    Well, Mace had bitten her.
    And once her brain had pushed past the unexpected and consuming pleasure of it, the realization had made her rash. She couldn’t believe she tried to run from him—the stupidest thing one could do in the presence of a vampire. They were animalistic by nature. Running only invoked their urge to chase, to hunt.
    Edgar had explained that as well, which was why she’d been too scared to attempt an escape, and she’d been too scared to run the instant his commander had told her to go, directly after having killed Edgar.
    That fear may have actually saved her life that