More Than Life (Arcane Crossbreeds) Read Online Free PDF

held her attention. She scented Dr. Rupple, his decaying morality a heavy, repugnant odor that permeated the room, and she tensed against the restraints, her eyes finding and following his lab-coat-draped form as he moved closer.
    “How was your trip to the hole, little one? Have you reconsidered your behavior? Feel more like cooperating?”
    His thin, nasal voice grated on her nerves, and she chose not to respond. Instead she just stared at him, letting the promise of retaliation fill her gaze.
    Those tiny black eyes appraised her. A little smile tilted his thin lips. “I can see it hasn’t. Well, no matter, we have something special planned for you. A new direction.”
    Dr. Rupple slapped his hands together as one of his assistants arrived in the room. She ripped open a plastic bag that held a long clear tube. Katya flicked a glance to it before she returned her eyes to those ratlike black ones. He watched her closely as he pulled his rubber gloves on with a snap.
    The good doctor loved a response.
    Katya clenched her teeth against the urge to give him one he would never forget, forced herself to relax her head back against the thin padding, and focused her attention on the ceiling. Her leg jerked once when he laid that icy hand over her bare ankle.
    “This will go much easier, my dear, if you don’t fight it.”
    She heard the rattle of the tray cart being drawn closer to her side, the assistant’s soft exhale when she leaned in closer. Katya would survive this. When they fed the tube through her nose and down her throat to her stomach, she managed to control her reaction. When they mounted the huge syringe to the end and flooded her stomach with a cold fluid, she didn’t as much as twitch against her restraints.
    Even when the feel of Dr. Rupple’s perverse anticipation brushed against her flesh, she continued to stare passively at the ceiling. The low pop of a syringe being uncapped was loud in the room, and she inhaled slowly. The gurney fell away from beneath her; the room retreated. Hunger clawed at her gut, and a dull throb started in her gums, igniting a thirst that raged through her entire body.
    Blood.
    Katya rolled her head sharply to the side and fixed her gaze on the huge syringe Dr. Rupple held aloft, filled with crimson liquid.
    “I have your attention now, don’t I, little one?” His voice pitched high with excitement as she drew in another draught of air, helpless to resist.
    The strong scent of it infused the room, overpowering the doctor’s noxious presence. She’d smelled the metallic essence of blood before, but it hadn’t been like this. This smelled of life, heady and seductive and so heavy in the room she felt as though it coated her lips. She ran her tongue over them, hoping to gather the taste. Every part of her body was trembling, poised on the edge of violent discovery.
    It smelled… Oh God, it smelled like…Raife.
    Katya pulled hard against the restraints with an ear-piercing cry. She was unable to look away as he attached the syringe to the end of her tube and began to depress the plunger. The blood coated her stomach, and the empty organ gurgled ravenously. Heat pooled in the pit of her belly and crept through her. Her flesh began to tingle as though just now coming alive after being numb for so long. It was excruciating and yet wondrous.
    Eyes shut, teeth clenched, she fisted her hands as every nerve in her body came online. An awareness slowly built as each cell transferred it to the next until it burst over her, and she arched her body against the restraints. Pain exploded in her mouth as her fangs descended for the second time in her life, and she parted her lips in a cry of denial.
    Her body was betraying her again. Like that night so many months ago, yet worse. The infusion of his blood into her system would only hone her hunger for him until it was razor sharp, and then every minute she went without him would slice into her.
    She’d feared he would break her with a look,