Free Mistwalker by Naomi Fraser

nourishment.
    The scent grew within her, starbursts of indescribable sweetness. She threw back her head; her lips parted, throat open, and she gulped down the rest of the blood.
    “How do you feel?” Juliun stepped closer between her legs, and the heat of his body seeped into her quivering thighs.
    Strength rushed into her arms, her fingers, her whole body thrumming to life. This wasn’t natural; it was determination of mammoth proportions. She moaned in ecstasy, her face hot, feeling energy coursing through her back, and building into her thighs and stomach. Fangs extended, she raised her head, licked her wet lips, tasting the coppery richness.
    “More please.”
    The old man laughed, but Juliun coughed, his nostrils flaring. His gaze filled with intent, zeroed in on hers with a silent message that throbbed in the air.  “You are so beautiful,” he said, coarsely. Then he shakily stepped back and collapsed into mist.
    Lissanne frowned and shook her head. “I’m not sure you should, dear. There’s wisdom in starting out slowly, a lot of new vampires have troubles if they take too much at once.”
    “I need more. I want…” Simone rocked and jumped in the chair, banging it against the floor, trying to break the damn thing.
    “Enough,” Juliun demanded as he reappeared and floated to the bottle on the counter. He poured himself another glass. “You will be sick.” He sounded choked, and his pale throat worked as he gulped down the blood.
    Simone spilled all her jealousy and hate into a single glare, but his gaze was a mass of swirling emotions. His startling grey eyes were the same shade as the old man’s, except something else glittered in Juliun’s depths. He stared at her as if there were no one else in the room. She remembered he’d called her ‘love.’ Why did he do that?
    “Do not worry. You will have plenty later,” he promised. “We have no intention of hurting you. You are safe here.”
    “Why?”
    He fell silent, and then said, “You cannot leave Ravenkeep until you gain control.” He elegantly shrugged his broad shoulders and sat down at the desk. “You will feed later.”
    “I cannot leave ? What about your promise to release me?” She wanted to scream. “I am not staying here.”
      “There are special circumstances as to why you must. Your thirst, for one. My promise was to free you from the chains. The others will see you to your room. You will be made very comfortable and be afforded every luxury.”
      “Except my freedom.” She growled low in her throat. “Forget it. I’m not going anywhere with them, and nothing and no one can make me.”
      “Not even this?” Juliun asked quietly, holding up another glass of blood. “You have only had a taste of what it is like to go without, love.”
      She glared at him. “Don’t call me that. I am not your love.”
    He finished the blood with a sigh and set the glass on the desk. “We do need to talk.”
     “I want to go back home.”
    His face turned stony, and he floated around the desk. “You have no choice until you learn how to take care of yourself. You don’t know who or what you are. You were starving—”
      “I don’t even know what’s going on. Why the hell did you take me?”
      “That must seem obvious now. For your own protection. For the protection of others. You will not last one day without our help. We will show you what it means to be a vampire.” He made a signal with his hand. “You need to accept the truth of who you are.”
      “You’re the one who made me this way. I need your help like I need a six-foot hole and my name on top.”
      In her peripheral vision, she saw Vaughn, Sanchez and the guards coming for her. They would make good on their promise and keep her locked up until doomsday if she didn’t do something. She traced back through her memories, but nothing had ever prepared her for chains and a group of immortal attackers, the kind who liked to chew on you for fun in the dead