Free Something Wanton (Mystics & Mayhem) by AJ Myers Page B

smiled like a kindergartener who’d just gotten a gold star.  “And you’re gorgeous,” he murmured, actually scooting his chair around the table toward me.  My darker side laughed.  “So are you and that guy,” he waved his hand toward the house, “a couple or something?”
    “Or something,” I said, taking another deep breath of the scent coming from his aura.  God , he smelled delicious.  “We used to be a thing, but we’re kind of on the rocks right now.  What about you?  A hottie like you must have a girlfriend?”
    Clay beamed at me like he’d won the lottery when I started sliding my hand up his arm.  I just felt sick—and even knowing what I was doing was despicable wasn’t enough to stop me.  I was too far gone; my demon had too much control.
    With each word, I found myself getting closer to my completely oblivious victim.  His essence was all I could smell, his luminous aura the only thing I saw.  I wanted it.  I wanted it with a driving need that was just plain terrifying.   I wasn’t going to be able to fight the demon sharing my body.  I was going to feed on this guy whose only crime was that he’d been unlucky enough to stumble across me in the dark, and there was no one there to stop me.
    Or, at least, I didn’t think there was…
    “Yes, he does,” a cold voice said behind me.  My head snapped around to find Nathan standing on the back steps, Tyler and Sierra right behind him.  Nathan’s arms were crossed over his muscular chest and his eyes were flashing furiously as he studied my almost-snack.  “Her name is Lisa, and she’s next door.  Where he needs to be.”
    A feral snarl rumbled in my chest as I glared at Nathan, and my fingernails dug into Clay’s arm.  I was like a wild animal defending my kill.  Later, I would be glad for that, because it snapped my drunken victim out of the trance I’d managed to put him in.  Clay shook his head like he was trying to remember what the hell he was doing there, and then looked at me in confusion—that quickly turned to fear when he saw the way my eyes were glowing.
    “Go.  Now,” Nathan told him, walking over to jerk me out of my chair. 
    When I snarled again, Tyler moved to put himself between me and my victim, that beautiful glow he put off getting brighter.  I cowered away from that light, as terrified of getting near it as I’d been that first day as a darkling.  There was just something about it that both mesmerized and scared the shit out of me. 
    Once Nathan saw that Tyler had me under control, he turned back to my would-be victim.  Staring deep into Clay’s eyes, he snapped, “You will forget all of this.  You came outside, you got sick.  You’re going to go find Lisa and call it a night.  Right?”
    The compulsion in his voice was so strong that even I reacted to it.  I felt dazed, but he’d probably fried a circuit in that kid’s brain with his vampy little mind trick.  Clay went completely blank for just a second, then nodded dreamily, got up, and walked away. 
    I watched him go, sanity returning all at once.  I could have killed him.  And for what?  To win some stupid pissing contest between me and Sierra?  Was that who I’d become? 
    Was that what I’d become? 
    By the time the side gate closed behind Clay and Nathan turned his full attention—and the full force of his anger—on me, I had already started to shrink into myself, so full of horror and self-loathing that I couldn’t even defend myself.
    “We shouldn’t have let it go so far, Nate,” Tyler said, his voice calm and soothing. 
    “ She should have fought harder,” Nathan growled, glaring down at me.
    “Don’t be such a prick, Ashley,” Tyler snapped back, headed right for me.  “This was Sierra’s brilliant idea.  If you want to get pissed, at least turn it in the right direction.”
    “She has to learn to accept her limitations, Tyler,” Sierra said, giving me a sympathetic, yet exasperated, look.