Hex and the Single Witch (Vehicle City Vampires) by Roxanne Rhoads Page A

come back after we healed. At
least it did on the outside.
    “On the inside,
we eventually became as ugly and twisted as him. He did unimaginable things to
us…cut off body parts that would regenerate, raped us over and over…the
pain…the horror. And he let other psychotics do these things to us, too. For
money. People…and Others would pay to combine sex and death. Many did not know
we came back to life after they left. Sated, they left us dead, thinking they
had killed.”
    He stopped and
stared at me, his expression intense. I looked him straight in the eye, my
heart heavy for him. But, I wouldn’t let him see me feel sorry for him. He
already had a lifetime of pain… and after the pain, pity. I would not pity this
man...er…vampire. He was strong, a survivor. He deserved respect for making it
out alive. Well, as alive as a vampire could be.
    “I cannot
imagine the horror you endured.” He seemed relieved I had not run scared.
    “I had to live
far too long in a nightmare, Anwyn. And that was just the tip of the horrors.
After torturing us with sex and pain he starved the vampires knowing we needed
blood to heal. He let us loose on other victims… innocent victims…so we tore
them apart with our need to feed. He fed us powerful aphrodisiacs droving us
wild with lust and heightening the need for blood. I do not know if he used
spells or potions, but we lost control of ourselves. And he loved to watch
every minute of our crazed blood and sex filled feedings. His cold, cruel and
insane customers loved it too. They brought victims to us and watched us rape
and kill them while they got off on the feeding frenzy.”
    His voice filled
with anguish and remorse. I wanted to hold him, console him, let him cry on my
shoulder, but honestly we weren’t that close…yet, and this kind of intimacy
only occurred between people much closer than we were at this point. I was
shocked and appalled by the things he told me. Thinking about what he had been
forced to do made my stomach twist. No wonder people thought him capable of
killing all the women recently murdered. In the past he had done much worse.
Been forced to do it, but the truth of his past wouldn’t matter in the eyes of
the law.
    “Anwyn, the
things I have done in the past have made me not trust myself. I could not
control myself back then. I was a killer. Now the women I have been close to,
women I drank from… are dead…again. I thought the nightmare was over.” He
stopped, his gaze meeting mine and locking. “I killed my sire. I destroyed that
son of a bitch to set us all free. Now I am the only one left. The others, the
rest of his victims, killed themselves or had to be put out of their misery.
Perhaps I should be, too.”
    Tears poured
from his green eyes. Intimacy issues be damned. I stood up and put my arms
around him. He stiffened at my touch as spirals of power connected and tore
through me, through us both. Thank Goddess I didn’t receive any images from
him. Instead, I received power and yearning, an immense power made him a
survivor and an intense yearning to be normal. He shivered before his strong
arms wrapped around me. His firm embrace tightened. In his arms it felt like home.
    “Anwyn, you
cannot get close to me.”
    He struggled
with his emotions, with his fear, it settled inside me.
    “I could be…a
killer. I am a killer,” he rasped, his fight with himself apparent.
    I tried my best
at reassurance. “I know you suffered through horrible circumstances, but you
did not make the choice to be a killer. It was forced upon you. And now you
would never make the choice willingly. Someone wants you to doubt yourself, but
I know in my heart you did not kill those women. I know with my power you are
innocent of these crimes.”
    He pulled away
from me slightly and looked intensely into my eyes. Before I could respond his
mouth covered mine.
    Power spiked
between us like nothing I had ever experienced before. Better than anything
those poor women