Page 25 of Kidnapping Their Third

“Drink it,” Cora ordered. She grabbed one of his hands in hers and held tight. “Do it, Kimble. Drink!”

Her commanding tone worked, as Kimble’s fangs fully descended, and he started to weakly suckle. Cora heard Pike breathe out a sigh of relief.

“Tough love,” Pike murmured. “I like it.”

Cora grinned. “We can’t all be big softies like you.”

When she straightened up, she found Pike regarding her with a longing expression. “It’s going to be a rough night. He’s not going to want to stay at my place. I don’t know why he’s so depleted from simply traveling from home to here, but it’s going to be almost impossible to keep him contained until sunrise.”

“I think he might have robbed a jewelry store on the way here,” Cora said, tugging the disk out from under her shirt. “He gave me this before he collapsed. Even if it’s stolen, I’m not kicking out the guy who brought me something pretty I actually like. With your help, we can board up the windows, and he’ll be as safe here as he would be at your apartment.”

Pike’s expression turned ecstatic. “We can stay?”

“For tonight at least,” Cora amended quickly.

“That’s fine,” Pike assured her. “I’ve been living one night at a time for nine months. I can keep doing it for as long as you want.”

His eagerness made her feel guilty. “I might not be sure about being part of the flock, but I’m determined to help you two. You’re important to me. I'm just not sure how important yet.”

Pike nodded his head. “That’s fair. More than fair. I bet a lot of other humans wouldn’t be so accepting so quickly.”

Noticing that Kimble had stopped drinking with the bag only half empty, Cora squeezed his hand again. “Keep going, Kimble. Finish this bag and then you can sleep.”

“We’re going to stay with you Kimble,” Pike added. “We’re all going to stay together all night.”

Kimble made a weak, happy sound and started sucking again. It took another five minutes of their encouragement, but he finally finished the bag.

“Should we try for another?” she asked.

Plucking a pillow from the couch, Pike put it under Kimble and then lowered his head. “Not right away. Let's start getting the house vampire-safe and try feeding him another bag later. He’s so depleted it’s going to take most of tonight and tomorrow to bring him back.”

Cora couldn’t feel the weight of her necklace on her skin, but it weighed on her mind. “Do you think he did something bad for the necklace and that’s why he’s so weak?”

“Show it to me again,” Pike requested and then leaned in close when she pulled it back out from under her shirt. “That’s magic. I don’t know what kind or what it does, but it smells powerful. However he got that, it probably wasn’t by force. He must have traded for it and that’s why he’s like this.”

“Should I take it off?” Cora asked. It felt wrong to remove it, but she shouldn’t be playing around with magical items she didn’t understand.

“Kimble wouldn’t have given it to you if it was dangerous to any of us,” Pike assured her.

“I wish I could’ve told him not to do whatever he did,” Cora murmured. “I feel guilty as fuck.”

Reaching across Kimble’s supine body, Pike took one of her hands in his. “Don’t. When Kimble gets an idea in his head, there is no stopping him.”

Because she hated feeling guilty or helpless, Cora focused on practical matters. “Come on, I’ve got some sheets of plywood in the shed out back and all the tools we’ll ever need in the work van. Let’s play post-apocalypse and zombie proof this house!”

Pike laughed. “You’re strange, and I love it!”

Chapter 10

Pike

Sitting on Cora’s couch watching TV while Kimble slept with his head in Pike’s lap felt like the height of decadence. They’d managed to get three bags of blood into Kimble last night before Pike carried him into the guest room. He and Kimble slept there last night. He wished Cora had stayed with them, but it was enough to know that only a wall separated them.

When he’d woken up late the next morning, he found a note taped to his phone.

I had to go into work or else I might not be able to keep you guys in blood and groceries! I should be home around five. Call if you need anything or if Kimble gets worse. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen.

The note ended with a smiley face instead of a heart or I love you. For Cora, this was probably a pretty affectionate message. After talking to one brother over the phone and interacting with a second one, he was getting the impression her family didn’t do normal displays of affection.

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