Diana Lee A Taste for Blood

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with her eyes closed. "It's like a flare of fire, that way, but I can't tell what it is."
Ryan laughed. "The cat has caught a mouse. It is good you can smell the mouse's blood, but you can't let
something like that distract you. Savor the scent for a moment, so you know it and can ignore it."
Carissa wrinkled her nose. "It has a very brassy smell to it, Ryan. Is all animal blood like that?"
"That is the scent of fear. It gives the blood itself a very sharp taste, even somewhat bitter."
Carissa nodded and moved again to concentrate her senses on the man climbing the steps. "I can just scent him,
Ryan, but his scent is mingled in with the other servants." Carissa turned her attention to the sleeping servants.
There were more than a dozen of them, and the combined awareness of their blood woke her appetite, turning
the dragon into a demon.
Carissa began to move toward the prey, her hunter's senses completely locked in to the rich scent of blood. She
moved past Ryan almost as if she were walking in her sleep, and then suddenly she was sprawled painfully on
the hardwood floor, Ryan's walking stick at her throat.
"That, my dear, is how you die." Ryan gave Carissa her hand and helped her up. "If you allow the beast to
control you, then you too become prey in your turn. Learn to harness the dragon; learn to make it work for
you. Now, again."
Carissa rubbed her throat and nodded. She knew Ryan would not go easy on her, but then, her very existence
depended on learning these lessons. Three times Carissa was caught in the thrall of the hunt, and three times
Ryan knocked her flat. The last time, Ryan administered a hard blow from her stick across Carissa's buttocks.
Carissa's first reaction was to snarl and to leap up in challenge, but then she caught hold of the surge of anger
and took a deep, calming breath. She nodded to Ryan and signaled that she was ready to begin again.
This time when Carissa reached out with her senses, she also kept the memory of the painful blow foremost in
her mind. Pain is danger, she told herself. She opened her senses completely and felt once more the sight and
smell of the servants' hot blood run along her nerves like strong liquor, but this time she added the memory of
the brassy smell of the mouse's blood, not because the servants were afraid, but to remind herself that she
should be. They were not the only prey in the house, she told herself. As she took the step toward the door, she
caught a flash of moving shadow. Carissa pivoted to meet Ryan's blow, her hands reaching for the stick as it
descended toward her head.
Ryan aborted the blow, allowing the wood to rest lightly against Carissa's palms. Now the two opponents were
eye to eye, gazes locked in a struggle of wills. Ryan's eyes were black with the depth of centuries. Carissa could
see sparks flashing in those depths, and she wanted more then anything to give herself up to their mesmerizing
patterns. She steeled herself against the temptation while Ryan battered her will, trying to force her to her
knees. Carissa could not retaliate. It was all she could do to lock her joints and bear the weight of Ryan's will. It
touched her mind and slammed against her inner core like the blows of a hammer. Carissa felt herself wavering
and then she remembered Ryan comparing her to a ruby. She made her mind into a faceted shield, and the
blows bounced off harmlessly. Ryan grunted in surprise, and Carissa could sense her lover's lips spreading into
a smile of admiration. And then she was there on the floor kneeling at Ryan's feet, her body on fire with the
sudden blaze of pure sexual need.
Ryan stepped back, giving Carissa a chance to recover. Carissa knelt, trembling, and it took all her will not to
throw herself forward at Ryan begging her to take her. She let her anger build to transmute the fire of passion
into that of pure rage. Carissa sprang at Ryan, her hands rigid as claws, snarling deep in her throat. Her
heightened senses allowed her for the first time to see the red-black blood that pulsed in Ryan's neck. Now she
hungered to taste that black fire; she hungered to feel Ryan's pain.
Ryan caught Carissa and held her. She was tempted, oh so tempted to crush the woman against her and make
brutal love to her, but pleasure would have to wait. Ryan was much too disciplined to let her senses be aroused
until she was ready. For long moments, Carissa grappled with Ryan, her lesser strength making no impression
on Ryan at all. Finally the haze faded from her sight, and she pulled away. She stumbled to one of the chairs
and collapsed there.
Ryan went and poured two glasses of wine, bringing one to Carissa and settling in the second chair to give
Carissa a chance to recover.
"What happened to me, Ryan? I wanted nothing more than to hurt you." Carissa was completely bewildered.
"Dear one, I meant it when I said there is a dragon, a demon inside you. It is more then just a metaphor.
Perhaps we are possessed, as the priests say. I also meant it that you have to learn to leash that beast, or it will
destroy you."
"Ryan, I& please believe me, I would never want to hurt you."
"I know, Carissa. I purposely triggered that reaction because this, too, you have to learn to control. When you [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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