THIRST (The Elite Book 3) Read online

  Copyright © 2021 by Hanleigh Bradley

  www.hanleighbradley.com

  [email protected]

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  This book is licensed for your personal use only. Please respect the author’s work and refrain from sharing it with others. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.

  The characters, organisations and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  This book is written in UK English as the author is a British author. You may notice the occasion variation in spelling and grammar if you are used to reading in American English.

  The Elite – PNR Vampire Romance

  INSTINCT

  CRAVING

  THIRST

  OBSESSION

  Table of Contents

  The Elite – PNR Vampire Romance

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Preview of OBSESSION

  Preview of Ember

  THANK YOU!

  Hanleigh Bradley’s Newsletter

  About Hanleigh

  The Elite – PNR Vampire Romance

  Dear Reader,

  This series might get a little dark.

  It might break your heart.

  There’s no guaranteed happiness.

  There’s only death.

  Hanleigh

  THIRST

  He wanted just one taste. I knew one would never be enough.

  PROLOGUE

  There’s no backing out now. You’ve seen too much. You know too much. All the things I wanted to hide from you, all the secrets I kept in a bid to extend your life, even if only for a day.

  Even if you begged for me to save you. Even if I wanted to save you, I wouldn’t be able to.

  And I’m pretty sure I don’t want to. I want to own you, possess you, maybe even destroy you, but not save you.

  I thirst for your blood, almost as much as I crave your body. But I’m no longer the biggest danger in your life. Nowhere close.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Everette

  I’m conflicted. The look of shock on her face mirrors my own perfectly. I told her before that there were secrets she was better off not knowing. At least if she wanted to live just a little longer.

  What I hadn’t expected is that the choice would be taken away from me.

  I always knew this wasn’t up to her. As much as I might have meant it every time I told her that I wouldn’t kill her today, I always knew that eventually I would. I always knew that eventually I’d take her life.

  But it would be my choice.

  Not hers. Or anyone else’s. Mine.

  Now with her standing in front of me and the Mother, I feel like that choice has been stolen from me. Or maybe it was never mine to begin with.

  I want to grab her, pull her over my shoulder and hurl her out of here. I want to take her somewhere, anywhere that she will be safe. Away from my world. Away from the Mother. Away from me.

  Sinking back down into my seat, it hits me. She was never safe.

  “Will you eat with me?” The Mother repeats. She’s not used to people not answering her, so I’m surprised when I don’t hear impatience in her tone.

  “Er. Sure.” Farah crosses the distances from the door to the table, coming to sit opposite me.

  We’ve done this before, countless times over the few weeks since I first stole my way into her life. But never with someone else here. And certainly not with the Mother. The one Vampire that I can’t refuse. If she wanted to take Farah from me, I’d have no choice but to relent. Or die fighting for her.

  Would I do that? Fight for Farah? I’m not sure I would, even as my hand forms a fist under the table. I’m on edge, ready for a fight that I’m not sure is even coming.

  “I’m sure you have questions, Farah.” The Mother’s tone is sweet. My teeth clench at the sound. I can’t decide if she’s actually being kind to a human or if she has some hidden motive. A secret agenda.

  Either way, I don’t like this one bit.

  “Q-questions?” Farah blinks in surprise.

  “I can’t imagine that Everette has told you very much. He’s a stickler for the rules.”

  She’s right about that. I’d never tell Farah about our world, not until I know where this is going. If it’s going anywhere. Why end her life prematurely?

  “No. He doesn’t like me asking questions.” She’s looking down at her plate, instead of looking at either of us, a nervous blush on her cheeks. I love that blush.

  That blush will be the first thing to go when I kill her.

  The Mother laughs. She actually laughs as if the idea of Farah dying isn’t haunting. Then again, why would it be? For her, a single, irrelevant human’s life is meaningless. Farah is meaningless. Only a few weeks ago, I’d have agreed with her there. I wouldn’t have hesitated to snap Farah’s dainty little neck if the Mother had asked it of me.

  But now…

  But now, her life is important somehow. It’s not that I want to keep her. It’s not that I plan on changing her. I still haven’t decided that, but I can’t bring myself to kill her yet. I want to give her the life she has begged me for.

  She wants a long human life. It’s not something I can offer her. Either my desire to keep her by my side or my thirst for her blood will bring me to kill her. I just don’t know which yet. There is a third option, of course.

  I could just grow bored.

  That’s how I first thought this would end. That I would grow bored of her blood. Grow bored of her body. The idea is laughable. I know better now. I will never have enough of her. Even if I drank every drop of her blood, my thirst would not be quenched, and even if I fucked her for a century, I wouldn’t want to stop.

  “Everette, don’t look so stern,” the Mother chastises, swatting at my shoulder with her hand. The motion pulls me out of my thoughts and I glance her way briefly before returning my attention to Farah.

  “He does that,” Farah says shyly.

  “He does, doesn’t he?”

  “I think that under the circumstances, I should be given leniency.”

  “What circumstances?” The Mother asks, giving me a knowing look. She’s doing this on purpose. She’s making my decision for me, and she damn well knows it.

  If she answers Farah’s questions, I’ll either lose her or I’ll be stuck with her forever. I’m not sure which idea is worse. Do I want to share forever with Farah?

  I watch Farah closely, trying to determine the answer to that question. I want her blood. I want her body. I even want her company. But forever? I’ve never considered sharing forever with anyone. That’s a level of commitment I’ve never even contemplated. At least not until recently.

  “Questions,” I mutter under my breath. I know the Mother will hear me, even if Farah doesn’t. It’s not likely to be enough to convince her to hold her tongue however.

  “You knew my mother?” Farah asks the question I know she’s dying to have answered. It’s been on the tip of her tongue since the Mother first declared that Farah looks just like h
er late mother.

  Even I had been surprised by that one. It would appear that even when you’re centuries old, there are still things you don’t know. Not that I’d admit that to either of the ladies sitting at this table.

  I’m tempted to rush to Farah’s side so I can cover her pretty, little ears before she can hear something that will get her killed, all the while, wondering if that is actually what I want.

  Do I want her death? I think I just might. More than I’d like to admit.

  “This can wait,” I say sharply. “She doesn’t need to know yet.”

  I don’t even know what I’m talking about. I don’t know what secrets I’m trying to keep hidden, but I won’t let her sacrifice her life for mere curiosity. It’s absurd. Love would be a better reason. Lust would be better still.

  But curiosity?

  “Not today!” I stand to my feet, causing Farah to jump slightly in her chair. The Mother on the other hand simply looks delighted that I’m making a spectacle of myself. She is clearly enjoying my discomfort in that way that parents do.

  This is exactly like how human mothers show off their children’s baby photos.

  “Everette,” Farah replies tersely, “what on earth is the matter?”

  “Do you not want to live?” I ask her, my fist dropping down onto the table between us. I sound almost callous. As if I don’t care that her life hangs in the balance, and perhaps she thinks I don’t. She’s wrong though.

  “Yes. Of course, I do.”

  “Then not today.” My voice is quieter now. Almost gentle. Full of fear that I’d rather not inspect.

  She finally grasps my meaning. “You’re not going to kill me today.”

  “Not today,” I say with a nod.

  Her responding smile is so wide, so thankful that if I were human, I wouldn’t be able to breathe. She’s breath-taking.

  “You might not need to die today,” the Mother says with almost lyrical laughter, “but I can still answer your questions.”

  My eyes narrow. I have no idea what she’s up to. If we answer Farah’s questions, we’re practically writing her death warrant. I will need to kill her, and far sooner than I’d like.

  “NOT TODAY,” I grit out.

  “You keep saying that like it means something, Everette. But you forget. Today. Tomorrow. It’s all the same. She has questions. We have answers. It’s about time we give them to her.”

  I’m not used to being chastised by the Mother.

  “Usually, Everette, you’re so obedient. I don’t know what’s gotten into you. Now sit down and have a glass of blood, while I tell your beloved a story.”

  “B-beloved?” I ask, sputtering.

  “Is that not what she is?” she returns too quietly for Farah to hear. “You were about ready to strike me a moment ago.”

  I don’t deny it. She’d see through the lie.

  “I suppose she is.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Farah

  It’s hard to hide my surprise. Beloved? It’s a word that hardly seems to apply to me. At least not where Everette is concerned. And it’s not just because it’s a word from some distant era. He doesn’t love me. Sure, he wants me. He craves my body, and he definitely enjoys my blood, but that is not love.

  He’s never once used the word love.

  And I don’t think it’s something I’ve even considered. Even if I’m living out the plot of a vampire romance novel, it seems far too surreal that he might actually love me.

  But he accepts the word and all that it implies after only a brief attempt to refute it. His eyes focused on me, he gives me a gentle smile and I can’t help but want to open up his mind and read it like a book. I just don’t understand him one bit. Nothing about this makes sense.

  He can’t possibly love me.

  The Mother, Jessamine, takes a deep breath and this time I know Everette isn’t going to interrupt. He’s lost in his own thoughts. Probably trying to work out what is going on between us, the same way I am. Will he decide to keep me? Does he love me enough for that?

  I still don’t know if that’s what I want. Eternal life. Forever seems a little daunting.

  Especially a forever with Everette.

  “You wanted to know about your mother?” Jessamine’s words pull my eyes away from Everette’s face. Now isn’t the time to try and work him out. I’m not sure I’ll ever understand him.

  “How do you know her?” I ask immediately.

  “Most humans go unnoticed by our kind. They’re simply prey.” Jessamine doesn’t look apologetic. She says it without feeling at all, and I wonder if I should be offended. “Occasionally, we protect them from our kind or the shifters, but more often than not, we protect them from themselves. Your kind have a knack from self-inflicting pain on themselves.”

  I should probably be annoyed at her condescending tone, but I don’t argue with her. She’s hardly wrong. Humans hurt humans every single day.

  “But rarely, and I must say very rarely, there are humans who surprise us. They show a staggering amount of compassion, kindness, or they show us what it is to be truly altruistic. Your mother was one such human.”

  I don’t need Jessamine to tell me how noble my mother was. I’ve seen her generosity first hand. And I’ve seen what it cost her. What it cost me.

  “I’m always on the lookout for humans who might make good additions to our royal ranks.” Jessamine takes a bite of her food, clearly in no rush to continue speaking.

  Neither Everette or I say anything though. I have questions burning to be asked, but I don’t think that will get me anywhere. Jessamine doesn’t seem like the sort of woman – the sort of Vampire – to be rushed.

  “In times gone by, I might have chosen humans for their prowess on the battlefield,” she says with a smirk, “like Kirdem.”

  Everette jerks his attention back to Jessamine, taking his eyes off me, and I want to ask them who Kirdem is, but now is not the time for me to get distracted. I want to know about my mum. Not some random vampire.

  “Or their strategic mind, like Everette,” she continues, giving the vampire she calls her son a small smile. It’s almost sweet, loving and I don’t understand it.

  None of this makes sense. They’re vampires. They’re not supposed to care about one another. And they’re definitely not supposed to care about me. An irrelevant little human. Everette has told me that enough times. That humans are beneath their notice.

  But I’m not.

  He’s always watching me. Always aware of what I’m doing. Always bossing me about. Demanding my attention.

  “It depends upon what I need.” Jessamine is still speaking, but I’m not really following. Did she once choose my mum? Is my mum…

  Everette

  I’m watching her so closely it would be impossible for me to miss it. That tiny fraction of time where something changes in her expression. A sudden burst of hope crossing her face.

  “Is my mum…” She begins, but she stops, not wanting to get her hopes up.

  “I had plans for your mother to rule one of my countries.” Jessamine’s face softens. It’s almost scary to see. Everything about this conversation has been bizarre, but that look doesn’t belong on her face. She’s never been particularly soft hearted. “But I was too late.”

  Farah doesn’t say anything, but I watch as her shoulders slump. She sits back in her chair, her gaze lowered, tears pooling in her lashes. I’m tempted to get up, circle the table and pull her into my arms. I hate this feeling. Her pain does something to me. Something unfamiliar and uncomfortable.

  It’s not just a desire to ease her pain that brings me to my feet, but a need to fix this. A need to end whatever has come over me.

  I move to her side quicker than she can see, but she doesn’t jump or react at all as I kneel next to her, taking her hand in mine. Her hand is limp in mine. Jessamine is still speaking, saying something about the night Farah’s parents died, about the cruelty of humans, but I know Farah isn’t taking it in. Not
anymore.

  Reaching up, I brush her tears away with my thumb. I want to shout at the Mother to shut the hell up. Can’t she see that Farah doesn’t need to hear this right now?

  Farah’s eyes meet mine and she looks shattered. Destroyed. I have to remind myself that the Mother didn’t do this. Humans did. Anger pours through me, uncontrolled. I’m more than tempted to leave immediately, just so I can hunt down the human responsible for the pain I can see in Farah’s eyes. Hunt them down, torture them and eventually, and rather slowly mind you, kill them.

  “You don’t need to do that,” the Mother says gently, her eyes on me. “I already dealt with him.”

  I shouldn’t be surprised that she’s already exacted her revenge. She doesn’t allow anyone to hurt her people. Scotland is littered with dead vampires now, thanks to whoever killed Kirdem. The Mother killed everyone she suspected might be responsible without hesitation.

  Lifting Farah out of her chair, I’m surprised when she doesn’t complain. She never makes anything easy for me. I’m not sure what I intend to do. I could take her upstairs. Put her to bed.

  Since I can’t decide what to do, I lower myself into Farah’s chair, pulling her across my lap. Her face is buried in my chest and she’s shaking silently, no doubt crying in earnest now.

  “Which region was Farah’s mother to take?”

  I’m not sure why it matters.

  “Ireland,” she says with a shrug. “Anyway, that doesn’t matter anymore. I didn’t mean to upset you, Farah.”

  The woman in my arms shakes her head as if pushing off the Mother’s concern. She doesn’t want to appear weak even now. She’s making her cheeks raw from the salty tears, and yet her pride won’t allow her to admit that she’s upset. Silly little thing.

  “Did Everette ever tell you why vampires exist?”

  “I told her that we’re created because of the need or desire of another vampire.”

  The Mother nods her head, staring intently at the back of Farah’s head. “You always had a way with words, Everette,” she says sarcastically.