Addictive (Hellish Mates #1)

Chapter 2

Gun looked between the two of them. "You've already met?"

"No," Zachariah answered.

Rina waited for him to elaborate his words, but he didn't. The vampire only continued to stare at her with wide, eerie eyes. She took another step back and bumped into her uncle's chest. He placed his hands on her shoulders and she felt comforted—but only for a split second.

Because the next moment, the vampire was standing right in front of her.

He was taller than she expected—taller than even Gun who stood well over six feet. Though his frame seemed lanky at first, Rina noticed it was simply because he stood slightly hunched with a lazy air around him. His dark shoulder-length hair added to his appearance, looking unruly, yet smooth. The black long-sleeved shirt he wore couldn't hide his muscles that shaped the fabric. Rina had never seen a male who looked so...attractively vampiric.

"How do you know about that?" she asked.

Zachariah tilted his head. "That?"

"The tree."

In the backyard of Rina's home was a weeping willow tree that stood alone in a forest of pine. It was where her parents first met and it held significance to her mother all her life. In fact, her mother believed she had even been named after it: Willow. Rina often enjoyed spending time alone underneath the tree, and it became a place of peace and quiet from her large and loud family.

So how could this vampire, who she had never met before, know about it?

"The tree is you," Zachariah spoke. "I've been waiting."

She didn't understand. Neither did Gun.

"Waiting for what?" her uncle asked.

The vampire smiled, his fangs glinting. "To taste you."

Gun immediately shoved a surprised Rina behind his back and bared his teeth. "You do anything to her and I'll kill you."

Zachariah tilted his head and a wrinkle formed between his eyebrows. "I won't kill her. I simply want a drop or two. Or three. Or a hundred."

"This was a mistake," Gun growled. "You'll drain her dry the moment you have the opportunity."

"Depends." He licked the corner of his lips. "Does she taste as she does in my dreams?"

Rina's interest was peaked. "You see me in your dreams?"

"Rina!" Gun scolded. "Don't encourage him."

"Yes," Zachariah answered, a glaze forming over his eyes. The way he spoke, the way he stood, it was as if he had gone off to that dream land to reminisce. "I see you, beside another. Just as beautiful, but uncomparable. Every drop of you is exquisite. Yet your flavor, it escapes my tongue when I wake. And so the question remains." His eyes cleared and looked straight at her. "How do you taste in this reality?"

Again, Rina found herself drawn to the way he gazed at her. She hadn't encountered many vampires in her lifetime, but she imagined this was how humans felt when they set eyes upon one. Vampires had the beauty and intrigue to hold their prey captive. Inside, her two halves fought. The human wanted to offer her blood to this fascinating creature. The werewolf wanted to dig her claws into him and fight for control.

Either way, Rina wanted both nothing to do with him, and everything to do with him.

"Is he really going to be my trainer?" Rina asked Gun. A werewolf's ability to communicate telepathically kept their conversation private. And yet, by the way Zachariah looked between the two of them, it was as if he knew they were speaking without him.