Free CREAM (On the Hunt) by Zenobia Renquist Page B

“Humans and their fucking sugarcoating.”
    “It’s all about spinning it to the public. The head families and the higher-ups want everyone to think the world is still the same even though vampires are no longer fiction.”
    “Hell, at least we didn’t get outed in Bram Stoker’s time. No coexisting back then. He got damn close with that book of his. The families almost sent a hunter after his head and the heads of the entire Van Helsing clan.”
    “The necromancers’ guild of the time got to them first. No one has heard from the Van Helsings since. One of the campus books I read hinted that the whole family—most of them high class—ended up in the necro-metal vats. Another said they were just killed outright. Still another said the family was delivered to the vampires to deal with. Whatever the true story, they didn’t survive that book being published.”
    “Snitches don’t get stitches in our world. They get dead.” His hand tangled in her hair and pulled so she met his gaze. “Your secret is safe, Jeliyah.”
    “Thanks. Though how pathetic am I that I do something like this after two days in the field?”
    “Based on the way you were begging for more, I would say you were due for a good lay.”
    “You’re not wrong.” She rolled out of his hold and sat up. The date of the last time she’d had sex eluded her. It was well before she graduated the campus and joined Hirsch’s crew.
    The trainees were encouraged to seek intimacy with each other. The coed sleeping arrangements all but guaranteed it. Necromancers gave birth to necromancers. The higher-ups wanted babies, recruits they could train from the cradle.
    Jeliyah’s prospective partners dried up after she found out she couldn’t get pregnant and her closest friend—the girl she thought was her closest friend—spilled the news to everyone else. The girl had done it to get the boy who had been interested in Jeliyah. After the news spread and the trainers verified it, Jeliyah had gotten her own room and all the solo training time she could wish for, even if she hadn’t wanted it.
    She heard Teaghan shift behind her. He probably made noise so he didn’t startle her, since the man was normally quiet, like all vampires. She stood before he could touch her. She needed a shower. The time alone would clear her thoughts as well as help her figure out the future.
    She didn’t say anything as she walked to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. The hot spray of the shower water had just started soothing her frayed nerves when the curtain opened. Teaghan stood naked and staring at her. Without a word, she stepped back in the tub, giving him room to enter.
    He stepped into the spray of water, facing her. Water cascaded over his shoulders and down his chest. A chest that sported a diagonal, sunken scar that spanned from his left shoulder to his right side.
    Jeliyah hesitantly touched the scar. She whispered, “What happened?” He could only have gotten the wound in life because vampires healed everything without a trace.
    “You’re right. This is what killed me. A battle-axe to the chest. Hurt like hell. I thought I was dead until my sire showed up.” He gave her rueful smile. “Just think. A few more minutes and I wouldn’t be standing here now to annoy you.”
    “You don’t annoy me.”
    “Don’t I?”
    She looked away from the scar to the rest of him. Tight abs, though not defined, a slim waist and strong legs. This man had been a warrior when he was alive, not some pampered lord or farmhand. A body like this one had been honed in war.
    She trailed her fingers down over his stomach, hovering above his erection. Her pussy twitched in response. “You should be everything I hate, but I don’t.” She lifted her gaze to his. “Why don’t I?”
    “You’re asking the wrong man, sweetness.” He walked forward a few steps until her back pressed against the cold tile wall.
    He captured her mouth with his in a hot kiss that banished the