Chapter 3Under normal circumstances, the worried terror on Max’s face would’ve bored Sutter. How many screams had he heard over the years, all for Petrus’s entertainment? Too many, and they were always accompanied by the tears and abject fear that sweetened his victim’s blood to intoxicating proportions.
But this was different. Though Sutter poured all of his remaining strength into the vise-grip he maintained on Max’s throat, he knew Max’s reaction didn’t come from his breath suddenly getting blocked off. He’d woken Sutter up with the first compression to his chest, and from that moment on, the air had sharpened with the tang of his distress, succulent under the best of conditions, irresistible now.
Sutter’s gaze ducked to the bulge of flesh above his grasp. The skin whitened as the pre
