Crimson Read Online Free Page B

not enough, as the two crashed together heavily, the whole of their contents came to spill out between them. Sacks of grain, flour, rice, sugar and spices filled the void between them. It would take several men with strong backs to right the shelves again.
    With the back exit blocked, the seven women in the room with Anna realized their predicament seemingly all at once. As if of one mind, all seven rushed to the door opposite Anna, but despite their being two thirds of the distance ahead of her, none would beat her to the door.
    Like a force of nature Anna launched herself across the room, moving at impossible speeds. She spun on her toes as she slid to a stop before the door into the tavern proper. Raising her hands she showed the women whom she had thwarted the two knives she had managed to pick up off a prep table halfway across the room. Fear showed in their eyes. Anna preferred the fear over pity. Turning again she drove the blades of the two knives through the wooden door and deep into its frame, effectively nailing it shut. The women began to scream for help, but all Anna heard was music. Music played to the steadily increasing rhythms of their hearts. A moment later the door behind her began to shake and rattle as someone tried to get in, assuring Anna that it was secure and she could take her time.
    Smiling, Anna danced across the cobblestones, her bare toes barely touching the floor with each step. She leapt towards Rachel, the woman her eyes had fallen upon. Rachel was a cook, the prettiest in employ at the tavern. She was a confident woman with blonde hair, blue eyes and a body that every boy and man in Traiven appreciated. Now she would be Anna’s. As Anna landed in front of Rachel, only a few steps between them, her victim tried to retreat. It was unfortunate for the poor girl, for stepping backwards she plowed heavily into one of the large cooking pots suspended above a fire. Such was the blow to the pot that it swung violently into the wall behind it. Hitting the wall the huge pot splashed boiling soup onto the cook who screamed out and clutched at her arm where it had been burned. Worse than that, the front chain of the pot, having become slack for an instant, managed to unhook itself and, as the pot swung forward once again, it spewed its contents onto the floor.
    Rachel wore but linen booties upon her feet so as the scalding fluid pooled and splashed onto the floor, it instantly saturated the linen, melting and boiling the woman’s flesh. Screaming in agony, the injured cook tried to flee, but taking a step, her flesh peeled away from her foot exposing meat and bone. The pain was so intense that she collapsed into the pool to endure the torturous pain a thousand fold over much more of her body. None the less, Anna needed to taste her blood, if nothing else to see if a more beautiful woman tasted better.
    Screaming as the flesh blistered and cooked on her body in too many places to count, Anna dragged Rachel from the harmful liquid, her own feet seemingly spared. Thinking this an act of kindness, two other women in the room ceased their panicked screams and attempts to escape to watch in wonder as Anna extracted the woman. A second later they resumed their screams as Anna plunged her teeth into Rachel’s neck, sealing her lips to the milky white flesh of the fair skinned woman that so many men lusted after. Anna was again overcome by pleasure, but to a lesser degree. Rachel’s blood was indeed different. It was saltier, warmer, and Anna could literally feel the adrenaline seeping into her as she drank, her own heart beginning to beat faster. Again the longer she drank, the stronger she felt. The other women in the room huddled together, half sobbing between their screams for help. A loud banging sounded at the back exit, and was repeated at the other door. Those in the tavern had realized that something was locked in the kitchen with the women. They were franticly trying to get in. Anna would not have