Page 58 of High Noon

“Me.” I raised my eyes to meet his, seeing the turmoil housed within.

“You?” he scoffed. “I can’t feed from you.”

“I didn’t say you could bite me; I meant you can drink my blood. Unless it tastes… bad.” I remembered his comment from the only time he tasted it before, how he said it tasted strange.

He was in front of me in an instant. “I might lose control and bite you if I had even a drop of it.”

“Or,” I posed, “you could learn to control yourself and have a drink. Just like you did in thirteen forty-eight. You don’t need much, Enoch.” It was clear he hadn’t had any in a long while. The mere mention of blood was sending him into a delirium. I took my stake, the tip of which was still very sharp, and pressed it into my palm. Blood pooled in it as I held it out to him. “Hurry. Before my suit heals the wound.”

“I’m afraid I’ll bite you.”

“Just sip it, Enoch. You won’t bite me if you just sip.”

The look in his dark green eyes was feral, if not lethal. If I were anyone else, I would be afraid for my life. He grabbed my hand and brought my palm to his mouth, tipping it up so he could catch every drip. His body was taut. He closed his eyes and drank until my suit closed the wound.

The sight of his lips stained with my blood was…

“Eve!”

My knees hit the ground hard. My head hit next. I inhaled the brittle earth before Enoch scooped me up and ran back to the saloon. Even though I didn’t have the strength to open my eyes, I could tell his speed was unimaginable. He laid me in the bed upstairs and sat at my side, worrying over me.

“I’m fine,” I groused.

“No, you’re not,” he replied. Distress laced his voice and trembled his fingers as they brushed over my face. “I’m sorry. Did I take too much? Did I accidentally bite you? I tried to be careful…”

“Bite her?” Titus barked in a voice that set me on edge. I tried to sit up. “You bit her?”

“No…” Enoch answered feebly, looking over at me. “I didn’t, did I?”

I shook my head as Maru slid into the room. “He didn’t bite me. I scratched myself.”

“Then why are his lips stained with blood?” my trainer accused, his dark eyes flicking from me to Enoch.

“Look – I wanted to feed him, so I stabbed my palm with my stake. There’s still blood on it if you wanna check. I poured it into his mouth. He never bit me.”

“Why would you do that?” Titus raged. “What were you thinking? He could snap at any minute and you’d be dead, Eve.”

“It was just a little,” I defended my actions weakly.

“A little blood, especially yours, could be a catalyst for a catastrophe. It’s been scientifically designed to entice him. What the hell were you thinking?”

Maru pushed Titus back and stood between him and Enoch, who slowly stood up. “Don’t talk to her like that,” Enoch replied calmly, deadly.

“He’s right,” I told Enoch. “Titus is right. I shouldn’t have put myself or you in that position.”

“Then why did you?” he spat, turning around to see my response.

“Because I wanted to be the one to take care of you for once.”

Confusion washed across his features. “You mean…you weren’t testing my control?”

I shook my head. “No, Enoch. Unlike the rest of the world, I’m not afraid of you. I knew you wouldn’t hurt me.”

“But I could have. Titus is right,” he said, surprising all of us.

“But you didn’t,” I reminded.

I could tell Maru was pissed. His nostrils flared, and normally when they flared, he’d make me run an extra few miles. But here we weren’t Asset and Trainer, and instead of retribution via exercise, he looked ready to pound a hole through the wall. “At dawn, we link,” he said sternly, before stomping out of the room.

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