The Dark Blood of Poppies Read Online Free PDF Page A

them.”
    “You can protect yourself, but you cannot protect them,” Matthew said softly.
    “What?”
    “Matthew,” Stefan chided, but it was too late, the threat had been uttered. Violette felt her fury gathering in a great wave.
    “I can disregard threats to myself,” she said, “but not to my company.”
    The wave of fury broke, exploded through her.
    She lunged and seized Matthew by the throat. He tried to slip into the Crystal Ring but she went with him, dragged him back. His sombre expression flashed into hideous panic as she squeezed his neck, shook him, pierced the skin with her nails.
    John, Rachel, Stefan and Niklas grabbed her. She threw them all off with one hand, heard them spinning across the floor, colliding with the mirrored walls. Lilith’s strength seemed limitless.
    Tightening her grip on Matthew’s neck, she snapped his spine, wrenched back his jaw until the skin ripped. Muscles and fibres tore, blood oozed from the wound. Vampires clung to life like cockroaches. She strained until the vertebrae parted and the spinal cord finally broke with a dull, moist popping sound. Then she bent and drank from the stump of his neck.
    Blood flowed through her like sexual pleasure – only for a second or two. Her victim was dead.
    Violette flung him aside in disgust. Lifting her head, she saw the others staring, their eyes glazed with horror. Stefan put his arms around Niklas, as if to protect his mute and near-mindless twin.
    Then Violette realised what she’d done. Decapitated a vampire with her bare hands.
    But Lilith had not finished.
    She went after Rachel next. The woman tried to flee but Violette was too fast. She snagged the flame-red hair and wound Rachel towards her. Biting into the white neck, she sucked hard. Scarlet light filled her. Rachel thrashed in helpless terror.
    All the time, Violette moved with the weightless grace of her art. It wasn’t that she felt unnaturally strong, more that the others seemed as fragile as paper in her grasp.
    John ran past her. Still feeding, she grabbed him one-handed. Over Rachel’s shoulder she saw Stefan flee into the Crystal Ring. Dragging Niklas with him, he glanced back in horror – then they vanished, as if the mirrors had swallowed them.
    If they hadn’t fled she would have attacked them too, friends or not. Lilith had no pity.
    Now she held Rachel and John together, one in each hand, writhing helplessly against her. Both were spattered with their own blood. She did not bite John, only ploughed his flesh with her fingers.
    Then Violette found herself descending from fury into shock. As the fever subsided, she emerged shaking, aghast at herself.
What have I done? Dear God, it was so easy!
    She shook her two captives. They were like sacks of flour in her hands.
    “Now leave my property,” she hissed. “If ever you return, or threaten any human associated with me, if I so much as
see
you near this place, you will think Matthew fortunate.” She raised her voice. “Do you understand?”
    “Yes,” Rachel gasped. Her face hung with fear, colourless.
    Then Violette flung her and John on top of Matthew’s body. “Get out. And take that thing with you.”
    John’s eyes lanced her with venom. Now she’d slain his friend, as well as Rachel’s. Now she had two mortal enemies. It would have been safer to decapitate them too, but her killing frenzy had subsided. She couldn’t do it.
    “We can’t take a corpse into the Ring,” Rachel whispered.
    “Then leave by the back stairs. Just go!”
    They obeyed. John hefted Matthew’s body over his shoulder, his face a mask of blood and tears. Rachel took the head, a grisly burden. And with blank looks, like two demons carrying a soul to hell, they fled.
    Violette listened to their soft footsteps descending, an outside door opening and closing. Their auras dwindled along the riverbank until she could no longer sense them.
    She was alone. Silence settled like snow around her.
    She wanted to weep, but