Page 82 of Scorned

“Is she even awake? There’s still an hour before it gets dark.”

“She said she always gets up before the sun sets.” I nervously bit my lip and Lyric crossed her arms, eyeing me.

“Save yourself the trouble, Sage, and tell me the secret now because you and I both know you’ll cave later.”

A rush of warmth flushed my cheeks as I determined whether I should disclose the truth. But she was right—I would tell her, eventually.

“After Winnie dragged you off into the woods, I’d mentioned to Peach about how nice it would be to have one of those immune booster injections we used to get weekly from Venom. You know, the ones Ravage said had vampire blood in them.”

Her head tilted, eyeing me suspiciously. “And?”

“Peach mentioned consuming vampire blood would produce a similar outcome, possibly better, for one to two weeks.”

Lyric leaned in closer to me, her eyes narrowed. “What else?”

I huffed because we both knew I wasn’t saying the whole truth. “Then she offered to feed me, and I accepted, but she also said if I die with her blood in my system that the chances of me coming back as a vampire are very high.”

She uncrossed her arms, her back stiffening. “How high?”

“Like ninety-nine percent.”

“Oh.” Lyric got quiet for a second, her eyes trailing over my face as if she was reading my mind. “So, let me guess. You’re worried Luka will be mad at you for not saving him sooner, or because he gave himself up to save you. And then you’ll die, actually become a vampire and you’ll have to spend eternity pining over the only man you’ve ever really loved, and that’s too much shit to worry about at once.”

“I, uh . . . ” I looked toward the ground, kicking the dirt beneath my feet. “You really should charge people for psychic readings.”

Lyric laid her hand on my shoulder, bringing my gaze back to her. “Stop worrying about what might happen in the future and make the best decision for today.”

I snickered, rolling my eyes. “Do you really think it’s that simple?”

“I know you’re mocking me, but it genuinely is. Make the best decisions your brain will allow you to make today and deal with tomorrow’s problems tomorrow.”

As I stared into Lyric’s beautiful hazel eyes, I couldn’t resist the urge to make her happy. Although it would take a lot of work on my part to get myself into that type of mindset, her advice somehow made sense.

“Then I choose to become a vampire if I die. At least, for today.”

Lyric squealed before pointing toward Winnie’s cabin and lowering her voice. “Good, because I drank his blood last night and he didn’t tell me about the ninety-nine percent thing. So if it happens, I don’t want to spend eternity without you.”

My mouth fell open and my eyes widened as my thoughts took a hard right, bringing up memories of a stress ball I once had. It looked like a dog’s head and when I squeezed it, the eyes bugged out. The thing gave me the creeps, so I avoided using it, but I was certain that’s exactly how I appeared at that moment—an overly compressed stress ball.

“Wh . . . wh . . . ” this new information made me fumble on my words, “when were you going to tell me?”

“Actually, that’s why I stopped you. I was going to talk you into drinking Winnie’s blood again, since you did it after you wrecked his bike, just in case. But the problem solved itself.” She clapped her hands excitedly, like we were now blood brothers or something. “I gotta go get these tangles out of my hair, shower, and still pack. I’ll see you when you wake up.”

Lyric strolled off, leaving me feeling dumbfounded.

After she’d left the party last night, I’d figured she and Winnie had made up, especially after seeing the sex hair she was sporting, but I hadn’t banked on them becoming partners for life. I mean, I know she wouldn’t have to stay with Winnie for eternity, but she’d have to deal with him for it because he’d be her origin.

That’s why I decided to take Peach up on her offer. She was a friend, someone I could trust, and not someone I was dating. Not that I assumed Luka and I would break up, but if there’s one thing life has taught me, it’s that everything had an expiration date.

It technically wasn’t my business if Lyric wanted Winnie to be her origin, but I was still worried about my friend getting her heart broken . . . or dying and becoming a vampire.

I let out a heavy sigh and made my way toward Peach’s cabin, praying that none of us were making harsh decisions out of fear.

An hour later, I’d drank Peach’s blood, taken a forty-five minute nap, and the sun had set. My phone beeped and it was a text from Winnie telling me it was time to go.

With a deep breath, I grabbed the one bag Winnie allowed me to bring, tossed it on my shoulder, and made my way outside. I shut the door behind me and when I turned around, Vivi was standing on my porch.

“Winnie’s still not budging. He insists I have to stay here to help Drag protect the camp.” She rolled her eyes. “I know he’s only leaving me behind because he’s afraid I’ll mess up the mission.”

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