(Unromantic) Valentine’s Day Teaser

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“Of course I care about her!” Alana laughed, as if she couldn’t think of a single reason for anyone to doubt her love. “How could you think otherwise?”

Rose stared blankly at her. “You tried to disembowel her,” she said, “less than an hour ago.”

“She hurt my feelings,” Alana pouted, cleaning the blood out from beneath her fingernails, even though her dress was still soaked with it. She shrugged. “Everyone tries to kill the one they love every now and then, right?”

Rose frowned. “Uh…no, actually, I don’t think they do. At all.”

Alana’s dark blue gaze shifted toward Rose. She tilted her head to the side, her pale blonde hair falling over her shoulder, as she studied Rose with an unnerving intensity. A smile curled at the edges of her lips. “The better question is,” she said as she stood and approached Rose, “why do you care about her?”

Unsurprisingly, Rose found herself cornered against the door again, but this time, she didn’t intend to run. “It’s a bad habit,” she said dryly. “Some of us sane, non-homicidal people struggle with it. I’ve tried to quit, but…” She shrugged and flashed a sassy smile. “I guess I’m just not a sociopath like you.”

Rose yelped as Alana shoved her back against the door. Alana had used so much force that the wooden door splintered and bent outward from the impact. Rose closed her eyes, cringing, as pain spread throughout her body.

Alana’s hands pinned Rose’s shoulders to the door, and she leaned in close, so close that Rose could smell her own blood on Alana’s breath. Alana’s lips curved into that seductive smile she wore so often. “I think you and I both know that it’s more than that.” She moved her lips to Rose’s ear and whispered, “I saw what you did for her. The terrifying monster that you became for her.”

“Also a bad habit,” Rose said as she opened her eyes.

Alana gasped and took a step back.

Because Rose’s eyes were no longer blue. They were red.

from THE TOMB OF BLOOD

Creatures of Darkness: Book Two

© Britney Jackson