Page 26 of Beautiful Madness

I sat with my back against her,and she pulled my hair away from my neck before wrapping her arms around me.“He can make it so you will feel good. This is not the time for pain. Let usgive you pleasure and comfort. Just for a few seconds.”

Bastien knelt beside me,something in his eyes I didn’t recognize. It was something soft, though behindthat softness was…heat.

Fuck.

I sighed. “As quickly as youcan, Bastien.”

“May I hide the pain?” heasked.

Farrow’s arms tightened alittle more, and I abruptly understood that after what she’d gone through,Farrow was scared of pain. Everyone’s.

“Yes,” I said. “There’ll be nopain.”

He understood what I was doingand why. He smoothed back my hair, ran his knuckles down the side of my neck,and leaned in to whisper, “You are the best person I know, and I will give yousomething I rarely give anyone.”

Before I could retort, whichwas what I wanted to do, he struck.

There was a sharpness, notpain, really, but…sharpness, and then, oh my God. He didn’t just takeaway the pain, he added pleasure. And just before I began to drown in it, Ifought it.“I don’t want this!”But the shout was only in my mind. Andthen, Ididwant it, probably more than I’d ever wanted anything in mylife.

Because with the waves ofpleasure crashing over me came a sort of euphoria I’d never known existed. Itmade no sense, but it didn’t have to. I would have stayed like that forever, ifonly forever had been offered to me.

His mouth against my skin wasthe most seductive thing I’d ever felt. The feeling of his teeth digging intomy flesh couldn’t have been more sensual. His lips slid along my throat, deeplyerotic, and when he lightly skimmed his fingers over my chest and to my throat,I thought I might die from the pleasure of it.

But all that was nothingcompared to the emotion and intense pleasure that started deep inside me androse to take over my mind, my body, my heart. There would be no explaining thatfeeling. It was impossible—both the explanation and the feeling. It was sheerjoy. Happiness. There was no fear, no worry, no darkness.

Only when he pulled away, histongue scraping the tiny wound—and honestly it was as though he licked my entirebody with that one movement—did I come back to my senses.

The pleasure wave didn’t recede—itfell away so abruptly that I came back to earth with a painful, jarring, bone-crunchingthud, and I had to force myself not to beg him to return to me.

I was immediately as angry as Iwas disoriented, and I jumped to my feet. “No,” I cried, and though that madeno sense, Bastien understood what I was denying.

“Quiet your mind,” he told me,but he moved a few steps away, taking Farrow with him, as though he believed Imight attack both of them. “You have what you sought.”

I realized I was shaking,shaking and cold, and I wrapped my arms around my icy body and wished violentlyfor Jared. He would have warmed me. Of course, if he’d been there, he wouldprobably have killed Bastien, but still.

I missed my alpha with afierceness that shook me to my core. Bastien had stripped away all my defenses,and at that moment, there was only rawness and fear. I missed Jared, and I wasterrified he was dead.

I burst into tears, horrifiedat my weakness but unable to control myself. “Fuck you,” I told Bastien. “Fuckyou for…” I thumped my chest. “For this.”

And then I forced myself toregain some control and went to track the daywalkers whose scent I finallycarried.

ChapterFourteen

Energy, violent andoverwhelming, raced through my body, looking for an outlet. It wasn’t goodenergy, exactly—it was like a feral animal ripping its way from one end of meto the other, desperate to find a way out.

It grew stronger with eachsecond until I knew I couldn’t contain it. Which meant I had to release it.

After I’d been bitten—which Iwas beginning to believe had somehow fucked me up inside—I’d gone back toJared’s house, dressed as quickly as possible, then, not pausing to speak to orlisten to anyone in my path, I’d raced away.

I ran, and though some of thewarriors followed, not even they could stay with me. I was simply that fast.The ball of energy inside me swirled crazily, making me faster than I alreadywas, and I couldn’t have slowed down even if I’d wanted to.

If I had, that energy wouldhave blown a hole right through me.

Fucking vampires.

But Bastien was right—I gotwhat I went after. The scent knowledge was inside me, swirling crazily alongwith the strange energy, and even before I raced out of the other side of thewoods and neared the city, I picked up the daywalkers’ scent.

Maybe they were sleeping, maybenot. I didn’t know much of anything about them. It was possible they rarelyneeded sleep. The scent was dim and misty, teasing my nostrils, but it wasthere. Just a few seconds more, and I’d have a trail to follow.