Heart of the Dead: Vampire Superheroes (Perpetual Creatures Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

staggered into Taos’s arms. Two small puncture wounds stood out on the pale flesh of her neck, but no blood escaped them.
    Kole turned toward the firelight, and even from the trees, the change Rhoda’s blood worked in him was visible. His skin was no longer pale but flushed hot and pink. And though his eyes glowed as if lit from within, he looked almost human.
    Taos took Rhoda in his arms without any of the grace or finesse that Kole had, instead crushing her to his chest and bit her neck with a leonine hunger. Rhoda gave one last raspy groan, her eyes turned to great marbles of glass, and her body went limp in his arms.
    Taos released her throat with a gasp and stood with his head back, still swooning with pleasure. Droplets of blood covered his perfect white teeth, especially his fangs, but not a drop had been spilled or wasted. He tossed Rhoda’s lifeless body onto the campfire without even so much as a wince of effort.
    The younger man issued a choked scream, which startled the older man into action. The older man pushed off of the younger, nearly knocking him to the ground, and took off at a run down the deserted tracks. The younger man jumped to his feet and followed.
    Kole leapt over the fire with dazzling speed, catching the younger man by the back of his neck before he could get out of the circle of firelight.
    Despite the man’s struggles, Kole drew him in close, forced his flailing arms down with his free hand, and bit into his neck. He issued the same guttural moan that Rhoda had, and within a few moments, he was dead.
    Kole pitched him on the fire atop Rhoda.
    Taos moved in front of the older man with preternatural speed, appearing as if from nowhere. The older man screamed, turned and started back toward the fire. Taos laughed, clapped his hands, and then darted around in front of the man again. The man tried to circle around Taos, but he caught him by his long gray beard and pulled him off of his feet. The man hit the ground with a groan, crawled along the tracks, blinded by his tears, yelping like a beaten dog as Taos followed along, kicking at him with the toe of his expensive shoe.
    “I said make it fast, Taos,” Kole said with a hiss.
    Taos looked from his prey to Kole and bared his fangs in a derisive smile. “Why do you deny me the pleasure of the hunt?”
    “Far be it from me to deny you your nature,” Kole said in a firm yet understanding voice. “But this is neither the time nor the place. Let us feed and move on.”
    Taos rolled his icy blue eyes and sighed. He grabbed the older man by his shirt, lifting him off of the ground. The fabric tore but held. The man struggled against Taos’s iron grip, stretched his feet downward, searching for the ground. Taos forced the man to look at his face, to behold his unearthly eyes, to search his sharp white fangs, and inhaled as if the man’s fear were a savory scent. Then he plunged his face into the man’s neck and the pair shuddered together.
    When Taos finished feeding, he tossed the man’s body on top of the others. Small tongues of fire dance about the clothes of the corpses, but lacked the strength to consume the bodies.
    “Come now,” Kole said. “Let’s finish this and be on our way.”
    Taos raised an eyebrow. “What has you so nervous?”
    “I’m not sure,” Kole said. “I only know I do not wish to linger.”
    Taos positioned himself across the pile of corpses from Kole. Both men closed their eyes and extended their hands toward the fire. The air between the men shimmered, a little at first, but more as the seconds passed. The corpses began to blacken, to smoke. Then, with a great whoosh , the bodies were engulfed in a roaring conflagration. The fire burned with such intensity, that within minutes, all that remained of the three derelicts and their campfire was a small pile of fine black ash.
    “How long must we hide away in this place?” Taos asked, toeing the ashes like a sulking child. “I want to return to the city where