Page 28 of Tears of Revenge

“You don’t think I know that?” Varos snapped, his voice dripping with guilt.

“You’re supposed to be the level-headed one.”

“I couldn’t let her go.”

Did they do what he thought they did?

He stepped into the room, his eyes landing on the tiny, lifeless body laying on the bed. Avalon was naked and covered in blood, her skin as pale as the moon and her chest no longer heaving. Her eyes were closed, and her heart no longer beat. She was covered in burns, bruises, and cuts, the latter spelling the name ‘Troy’ over her chest.

“What the fuck did you do?” he growled.

Varos and Marcus whipped their heads around. For the first time since he’d met them, he had managed to sneak up on them. Varos, who knelt on the floor next to Avalon, looked horrified. Marcus paced by the edge of the bed, anger rippling through his body.

Before either of them could explain, Avalon’s eyes opened. With her body massacred and her eyes a bright red, she looked like the stuff of nightmares. Goosebumps pebbled his skin as her eyes searched the room and locked on him—on his neck.

Avalon launched herself off the bed, knocking him into the doorframe and latching onto his neck. Her fangs sank so deep that they scraped his collarbone. He winced at the pain, hissing as the venom dripped into his body.

“Shit!” Marcus called, rushing across the room.

“No, Avalon,” Varos pleaded as the two tried to pull her away.

But the more they pulled, the harder she bit, her claws now anchoring her to his skin. The blood loss made him lightheaded, though the pain was replaced by a sweet, floaty feeling.

“Fuck,” he groaned, her antidote erasing the burn of her venom. He couldn’t help himself, needing more of that addicting drug. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close to his body. “Shh,” he hushed, trying to reassure her that she and her antidote weren’t going anywhere.

“She’s healing,” Marcus pointed out as Lysander’s legs buckled. He slid down the doorframe, collapsing to the floor.

Varos knelt next to him with a glass of blood, brushing Avalon’s hair away from her face. “Here, drink this. You can’t drain Lysander like that.”

“At least not today,” Marcus chuckled, earning himself a scolding glare from Varos. “Fine,” Marcus grumbled, approaching her. With a quick flick of his hand, he jerked Avalon’s mouth away from Lysander’s shoulder. She tried to fight him, but Varos was already pouring the warm blood down her throat.

If it weren’t for her antidote still pulsing through his body, he would’ve thrown up. The donor blood poured onto him as Avalon tried to gulp it down, losing more than she drank. He rested his head against the doorframe, his arms still around her naked but now warming body. Broken ribs cracked and shifted under his fingertips as they grew back together.

“What happened?” he asked lazily, still far too high to care for anything but the warmth spreading through him.

“Her former boyfriend tracked her down. By the time we got to her she was basically dead,” Marcus started. “Varos was turning her before I could do anything to stop him.”

“I just couldn’t let her go,” Varos repeated in a hushed whisper.

Blood endlessly dripped onto him and when he opened his eyes to see why, Varos was pressing a second glass to her lips.

“I couldn’t let her die like that.”

“So you’d rather turn her into a blood-sucking monster surrounded by millions of victims,” he snarled through the fading high.

“She won’t hurt anyone.”

“I didn’t take you for someone who made promises he couldn’t keep. What will happen once you run out of blood?”

He knew far too well how thirsty fresh vampires were. And Avalon had far more healing to do than most newborns.

“If need be, we’ll lock her up.”

“Fucking fantastic.”

He was more than angry with Varos for not thinking things through, but that didn’t extend to Avalon. He gently stroked over her spine, trying to soothe her. She hadn’t asked for any of this and from what he could see, she’d been through hell and back. With each glass of blood poured down her throat, she calmed. After what felt like a thousand glasses, Marcus loosened his grip on her jaw. When her confused gaze drifted through the room, he could see her natural honey-toned brown replacing the angry red.

When she saw the shredded flesh that had been his shoulder, she gasped and tried to wiggle out of his hold.

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