Page 56 of The Cruelty of Thorns

I was rock hard when he pulled away with a last flick of his tongue and sat back. “He’s all yours, darling.”

He pushed up off the bed and stopped to smash his mouth into hers before she replaced him between my legs. She was nude now, and while my rational mind still hated her with every fiber of my being, my body still craved her touch like a shameless whore. She squatted over my cock and lowered herself onto me, burying me inside her to the hilt in one try. She then leaned forward, her arms on either side of my head, and started rocking up and down while she ran her tongue over my lips. I shuddered and bit back a cry, though of what I couldn’t say. She smiled as though she knew how conflicted I was feeling.

“You might as well enjoy it,” she whispered in my ear, her breath sending shivers of lust through me. “It’ll be the last thing you do as a human being.”

I didn’t know what she meant and had no time to ask before her mouth drifted down to my throat and her teeth bit into my flesh. I arched my back and tried to pull away, but she had my neck trapped as surely as my cock. Even while she sucked the life out of me, she continued to fuck me. I could feel my grip on reality start to loosen, the light from the room dimming as my body grew weaker. My heart pounded in my ears while the muscles of her mouth worked against the wound on my neck, all while my cock, in its single-minded quest for release, neared climax. Apparently dying wasn’t even enough to kill that need. Her cunt clenched around me, milking me until, with a final gasp, I felt everything let go and the world slowly fade to black.

I don’t know how much time passed. It could have been an eternity. There was no reference point anymore.

I thought I was dead and gone, my body finally spent and useless, then I heard someone whisper in my ear.

“Drink.”

One word that pulled me back from the abyss.

Something cool was pressed against my lips, a coppery taste coating my tongue. I sampled it, swallowing, and felt a fire ignite within me. I reached up and wrapped my fingers around the source of this wondrous elixir, sucking greedily, as though I couldn’t get enough. As though this was suddenly the most important thing in my dim world.

Other things became known to me in that single moment. Scents I had never smelled before bombarded my senses. The simple touch of flesh against my flesh was both intensely raw and light as a kiss.

And then there was the need. The lust. It was all-consuming. It came from deep within me and was impossible to ignore. No simple matter of desire was this. My cock, rock hard now, screamed for relief.

But all of that paled in comparison to the thirst. It was a living thing. Like I had crawled across the dryest desert, and I knew no matter how much I drank, it would still be there. That there was only one thing that could satisfy it, and finding it was the most important thing in my existence.

I opened my eyes and looked around. In some logical part of me I knew the room was dark, but I could still see shadows. I was lying on a hard bed with the outline of a person standing above me.

“Rest now,” said the same voice that had entreated me to drink, and then a door opened and closed, and the presence was gone.

I was alone.

Bereft.

And so, so…thirsty.

CHAPTER 24

MYRA

Signals crossed

I PUSHED THE almost full tray of food away from me, my knotted stomach unable to eat more than a few bites.

I had been sitting next to Ron’s bed since they moved him to a room on the third floor, waiting for him to wake up. Toby and Lisa had left hours ago, and the shift change had brought new nurses to the ward. When I smelled the dinner cart delivering meals, my stomach had growled wretchedly, causing the nurse who was taking Ron’s vitals to frown at me.

“When’s the last time you ate?”

I sighed. “Yesterday, I think.”

“Go down to the cafeteria and grab some dinner. You’re no good to him if you don’t take care of yourself. Besides, he’s not going anywhere.”

That’s the part that worried me. What if he didn’t wake up? What if the blood loss had been too severe? While I was sitting in Ron’s room, I had googled hypovolemic shock. According to what I read, there was a high chance that severe blood loss could cause organ failure or death if not treated in time. None of us knew when the attack had occurred or how long he had been unconscious. What if it was too long?

The thought of losing someone else was almost more than I could bear. I stayed by his side as if I could will him to live. I didn’t know if anyone had contacted his family, and I didn’t want him to wake up to strangers if he did pull through, so I stayed and I watched and I waited. Leaving to go eat was the hardest thing I had done since watching my dad die.

When I got back to the room, the IV for the blood had been removed, leaving only the saline drip. I caught the nurse out in the hall and asked her about it.

“His blood pressure and heart rate are stable now, his red count back to normal. It’s just a matter of waiting for him to wake up.”

“So he’s going to be all right?”

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