Hunger Awakened by Dee Carney

Author:Dee Carney
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-03-03T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

“...Forty-three...forty-four...forty-five!”

A sharp scream rent the air, a little girl’s cry of pain coming from a young man of nineteen. He tripped over his own legs in his haste to remove himself from harm’s way. Tucked next to his belly, the damaged arm smoked, the skin crackling beneath the weight of newly formed blisters. Jacob’s face twisted in agony, but he grinned. “Forty-five seconds in the direct sunlight. Let’s see who among you can best that.”

Sebastian met the eyes of the others, and knew they were all silently wishing someone else would step up and test his hand.

In a hundred years or so, with more exposure to the sun, such a short period of time in its natural light wouldn’t mean much. But right now, for every second their fragile skin spent beneath the sun, the quicker they would burn. It was also a rite of passage. To prove worthy to be named as one of the privileged, each would test his manhood. That, or travel to the wilds of a newly discovered land called America.

“You next, Edmund? Or will it be Sebastian?”

“This is childish,” Edmund protested. Not five minutes ago, he’d been jeering on Jacob to test his mettle. One look at the latter man’s disfigured fingers, fused together from damage, seemed to have tempered his lust.

“Take your turn or step aside, Edmund,” Sebastian drawled. He didn’t want to feel the sun’s burn anymore than his companion, but there would be no satisfaction until everyone did the deed. He didn’t like the rite of passage, but he accepted it.

“What’s the rush? Need to get back to rutting your mother?”

He’d heard enough of the taunts about his mother—and lack of a father—to let them roll off him by now. “No, a sapphire-eyed, raven-haired vixen needs my attention...”

Edmund scowled at the description of his sister. Sebastian smirked.

“Get on with it, both of you.” Jacob spoke between clenched teeth, but his arm no longer smoldered. The angry red flush covering his face diminished to a healthy pink. A few minutes more, and the burn would be nothing but a memory. He plucked the pocket watch from Edmund’s vest before winding it. “The hour grows late,” Jacob continued. “At the ready.”

Sebastian silently swore, but pushed up the sleeve of his linen shirt. The material scraped against the coarse hair covering his arm, pulling on some of them due to his haste. His expression remained impassive. These little acts of fortitude were childish, but expected among the vampire elite. If there was any chance—any at all—that he and his mother were to be pushed higher than their current stations because of a little pain, he would go through with it. This or any of a million other tortures they could put him through. She deserved it.

He and Edmund stepped forward. A quick glance into the other man’s face proved a pallor gone unnaturally white. Sebastian stood straighter at the sight, unwilling to let the young men surrounding him see the least bit of trepidation in his own face or stance.

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