Free Obey Me by Paige Cuccaro Page A

to pierce the skin. It worked much like a tattoo with just enough venom trapped under the skin to pull blood to the wound. The mark was quick and permanent. Even if the person was turned later on, the mark never faded.”
    “Where’s your ring?”
    “Gone,” he said. “There came a point I wanted nothing to do with the past, with the life I’d led. But a ring like that, something so uniquely connected to me, I couldn’t simply toss it in a river or down a canyon, and trust it would never be found. So I donated it to be sealed in a time capsule nearly seventy years ago. When the capsule is opened, I’ll place it in another. Safely hidden and out of reach in plain sight.”
    I could tell by the way his chest puffed and his chin lifted he thought himself oh-so-clever. The idea was good, unless things went wrong.
    “You sure? I mean, if someone got hold of your ring and some vamp venom, they could fake your mark.” I could see him making the same connections I had. “Make it look like you’d drained a few of your customers and left them for dead.”
    He shook his head. “No. The mark of the murder would still show at the wound sight. Their venom would pull it to the surface. Besides, the ring is sealed beneath concrete. I watched them pour it.”
    “You have another explanation for how your mark got on the necks of those women?”
    After a few seconds of contemplation he said, “No. But that doesn’t make yours any more possible.”
    “Whatever. There should be some kind of record of that sort of thing. A list of items, names of donators. I can check. Make sure your ring’s listed. What building was it?”
    “The Cathedral of Learning.”
    “Seriously?” The Cathedral of Learning is one of Pittsburgh’s most famous buildings, the centerpiece of the University of Pittsburgh campus.
    He nodded then took a sip of his tomato juice. “I donated the ring in the name of the Edmunston family.”
    “Which was you,” I said, to be clear.
    “Yes, but at the time I thought it best to remain indistinguishable given the fact I planned to still be around when they opened the time capsule.”
    “Right. Good thinking.”
    Alex took another sip of his juice and I did the same, my gaze drifting over the club goers. Unintentionally I found myself staring at the couple in the near lower table, Todd and his date. They were huddled close now, she whispering in his ear, her hand on his lap beneath the table, he with his arm around her back holding her close…to his neck. She was feeding. Now I understood how Todd had snagged such a pretty woman. My gaze slid to her arm and lower to where the tablecloth moved with her strokes. Todd rocked his hips, shifting closer.
    Octavius’s venom stirred to life through my veins, warming muscles low in my womb. I swallowed hard, tried to ignore the sensation. “Octavius said that vampires equate feeding with sex and vice versa.”
    I saw Alex follow my gaze from the corner of my eye. By now Todd had all but given up on modesty, rocking his hips so hard the table shook from the effort.
    “There’s a…connection. Yes.”
    The lower, rough tone of his voice made me look his way. His eyes seemed darker, more intense, and the way he stared at my mouth made my chest tight. “Connected, how…exactly?”
    He licked his lips, glancing at the couple and back again. “We can feed without having sex, but the desire’s always there.”
    “Can you have sex without feeding?” Just asking the question sent a delicious pulse through my sex muscles, my mind flashing on thoughts of his penis growing hard, filled with my blood.
    “Yes,” he said. “Though it’s not as…satisfying. It’s easier for a woman. The infusion of blood aids the nerve endings, heightens sensation. But for a man the fresh blood makes things…firmer. Feeding is a pleasurable sensation for both vampire and donor. That pleasure translates easily to sex.”
    I scooted to the edge of my chair, leaning on my forearms across