Page 48 of Fated In Blood

“You should never have been left alone.” Some worthless impulse made me want to push her tangled hair out of her face, but I rose, plunging my hands into my pockets instead. “And you won’t be, not until you’re through your transition.”

“Where…where am I?” She looked around, confusion written all over her face. “What happened at the club?”

“You stepped into a ring with a seasoned vampire. You’re lucky you’re not dead.”

“Collum.” She sat up slowly, struggling to focus through the blood haze. “I fought him. He was so much stronger. I found silver but…not enough.” The light in her eyes flickered out, her cheeks paling as she surveyed her bloodstained hands. “Oh God.”

“Like I said, you’re fortunate to be alive.”

“I didn’tchooseto fight him,” she muttered to herself, climbing unsteadily to her feet. “I would have run the other way if I could have gotten free of that fucking basement.”

“Good to know you have some sense. So you conveniently ended up in the fighting ring…dressed like that?”

One eyebrow went up—she might as well have told me to fuck right off. “First, it’s none of your fucking business how I dress,and secondly, yes, ending up in Vincent’s secret fight club is such a fuckingconvenience. I should do it more often.”

I grit my teeth together and prayed for fucking patience. “That’snotwhat I meant.”

Where the fuck was Blake? She was not my problem. She was my secret weapon, just another tool in this war I had to win. I had bigger issues and the sooner I spirited her back to the house, the better.

“Where is Blake?” I snapped. “Why isn’t he with you?”

“Because he’s got a fucking stick shoved up his ass, that’s why.” But the sour scent of remorse and shame seeped from her like acid, her eyes sliding away from mine to a stand of trees at the edge of the quarry.

“He knows better than to leave you alone.” I pulled out my phone.No signal. Of fucking course. “I’m taking you back to Crimson House where you can get cleaned up. You look like you bathed in Collum’s blood.”

She took a step back, dangerously close to the edge of the quarry. “That’s not happening.”

“Oh, it’s happening. If you think I’m leaving a newborn vampire free to roam the streets of Thorndale and attack every human you come across because you can’t control yourself, you can think again.”

She shivered and took another step, her heels teetering on the drop-off.

“No, you’re not taking me back there because of who I am. Blake couldn’t put enough distance between us when he heard the truth, and I expect you’ll do the same.” She squared her shoulders and widened her stance, her gaze flickering over me, mouth tightening into a line.

She looked like she was ready to go to war, and fuck me, but another of those illicit shivers resonated through me.

“Try me. You’ll find I’m not as judgmental as you believe.”

She snorted. “Yeah? You think you’re open-minded? We’ll see about that.”

23

EVANGELINE

Holy shit was I high.

Likethe world is spinning and won’t stopkind of high.

At least I was out of Valentine’s fucking basement. We were at the old granite quarry, east of town. I’d heard about this place; the college kids came out here to party and do drugs and jump into the cold-as-fuck water to prove how brave they were.

The lucky ones ended up in an ambulance.

The unlucky ones died.

I glanced over the edge into that dark sheet of unbroken water reflecting the night sky above us. Some part of me wondered if I’d survive or if I’d sink beneath that surface, leaving nothing but a ripple behind.

Of course I’d survive. I was immortal.

A soulless bloodsucker. Scourge of humans and deserving of a stake through the heart.

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