Page 46 of Watch Me Burn

Elise vanishes into the kitchen. Me? I stand on the porch, not sure what I’m supposed to say as Conall just stands there with me.

He clears his throat. “It’s not a bunny. It’s a snowshoe hare.”

Whatever he wants to call it. That dead thing had white fluffy fur, long ears, and big back feet. It looked like a bunny to me, and I have no idea why Conall thinks that I would ever have skinned and cooked and?—

My stomach twists again.

Conall starts to reach for me, but thinks better of it before the same hand that was holding the bunny lands on my shoulder. Instead, he moves it behind him, scratching his thick neck.

“I thought you liked ‘em,” he says after a moment. “That’s the third one I’ve left this week and they keep disappearing. If you’d like, I could hunt you up some caribou, but that might be too much meat for you, Red. I figured your friend wouldn’t want any.”

I’m not so sure about that.

Three bunnies? What the hell is Elise doing with these bunnies?

On second thought, I don’t want to know. Though I wouldn’t mind understanding just why Conall’s bringing me dead animals…

“I don’t want to hurt your feelings, Conall… and, uh, I appreciate the gesture… but I like meat when it’s prepackaged at the grocery store. Not when it was hopping around the woods right before you gave it to me.”

His expression falls. If I wasn’t looking at him, I don’t think I would’ve noticed it before he resumes another of his flat expressions, but I did and, whoa, what was that about? I said I didn’t want to hurt his feelings!

I didn’t want to, but I think Idid.

“Conall—”

“So you weren’t accepting my food?”

Look at that. I get the return of Mr. Grump

“Is that what this is about? You’re trying to feed me?”

Instead of answering me, he tightens his jaw.

Oh, good lord. He’s serious. For whatever reason, he’s decided to take it upon himself to provide me with food.

Why? No idea. I’m not Elise. I’m not the one who is struggling to keep up with what my body demands of me. There’s more than enough to go around at the canteen, but he’sclearly been hunting down some of the wild animals who live in the woods to feed me—and, I swear, he almost looked crushes when he realized that I haven’t been eating the bunnies.

Hell, I didn’t evenknowabout the bunnies.

But now I feel bad. And while it just might be the most impulsive thing I’ve done in a minute, I look up at Conall and say, “Come on. We’re leaving.”

“Where? The caves?”

I shake my head. “It’s my turn. I’m going to feed you.”

His eyes flash. “What? You are?”

“Don’t get your hopes up too high. I’m still not eating that bunny, but I will buy you dinner at the canteen. You coming?”

His jaw relaxes. “If you don’t mind the company.”

I use the back of my hand to slap his bicep lightly. “If I did, I wouldn’t have offered. Now let me just see if Elise wants to go, and we’ll head on over.”

No surprisethat Elise stays behind at the cottage.

There still hasn’t been any sign of her missing blood delivery. That makes two in nearly three weeks, and though I offered to give her drinking my burning blood another try, she swears that she’s doing okay.

I don’t want to say she’s lying to me. I’m sure that Elise believes that she is. After all, this isn’t the first time she’s had to go this long without blood. Before she started trading dinner dates for blood, it wasn’t as easy to find a willing donor who didn’t want more than she could offer.

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