Page 10 of Make Me Bleed

MATE

Has hunger ever made you do anything crazy?

Like, I don’t know, maybe drink abear?

The thirst is worse than I’ve been letting on. I’ve done my best to ignore it, but now that I know that Julian is an option… my brain saysno. My fangs sayyes, please.

Luckily, my brain is still winning out. I’m not so sure that it will for much longer. I’ve managed to survive as long as I have on the mouthfuls I get from the prey animals I can hunt easily near the edge of Dyea. It’s not filling, though it’s enough to continue on without the bloodlust overwhelming my humanity, turning me from a gentile vampire to a raging rogue, willing to bite anyone or anything just to drink.

Before Alaska, I’ve never drank from an animal. I had no reason to. Even living out in the former ghost town turned hidden sanctuary, where the prey shifters go from fur to skin and one must be careful that the animals they catch aren’t your neighbors, I never thought of demeaning myself so far that I’d exist on animal blood.

And then I sensed someone at our door. They didn’t knock, lingering only a few seconds, and when Bridget paused ourtelevision show because she needed to use the restroom, I went outside to peek.

I sensed the echoes of Conall’s alpha wolf hovering near our home. It wasn’t the first time the head of security had been so close, and my initial suspicion that he looked at Bridget and saw his mate only solidified when I found a recently hunted snowshoe hare left as an offering to her on our porch.

I don’t consider myself an expert when it comes to the mating quirks of the many different types of supes. Of course, I know all about vampires. Wolves, too, because I’ve always had a morbid fascination with our sworn enemy. That’s how I knew that the predator shifters have this need to provide for their mates. Feeding them? It’s at the top of the list.

A city girl, through and through, Bridget would never eat a freshly killed rabbit. And since she wouldn’t—and she made it clear that she had no interest in Conall…yet—I didn’t see any reason why I shouldn’t accept the animal in her place.

Waste not, want not, right?

That was the thirst talking. It convinced me that the still warmmeatwould have enough blood to make it worth it. So I sucked the poor creature dry, promising myself that it was just to hold me over until one of the blood deliveries inevitably made its way to me.

I ate three more that way before Conall tried to give it to Bridget, my poor bestie turnedgreen,and I took the hare while only just managing to keep my head held high as I strode into the kitchen. It was even more shameful, drinking that fourth one while Conall’s low voice filtered across the house from the porch, audibly hurt that the mate he was trying to feed not only passed over his gift, but she had no idea he’d been hunting for her in the first place.

That was the turning point in their courtship. Poor Bridge. She also had no clue she was even in the middle of the matingdance with Conall, but though I knew she’d never eat ‘bunny’, she found another way to let her mate feed her. They went down to the canteen, and I buried the latest husk under the snow while understanding that Conall wouldn’t be bringing his hunts to the cabin any longer.

He wouldn’t—and I still needed to feed. Such began the last couple of weeks where I’ve tested the borders of Dyea, snagging small prey animals on my own to drink while knowing it’s just not enough.

What other choice do I have? The sanctuary has no willing donors other than Bridget, and as the intervention earlier proved, I refuse to test her bond with her possessive wolf so soon after their initial mating. The handful of humans are off-limits, and though I could sneak past the borders, searching for a meal in the the local town of Skagway, Thorn warned me about doing so before I left Clarity. We are ahiddensupernatural sanctuary. To draw attention to us because I bit the wrong human would end with Dyea being shut down by the witch covens that build the mystical spell that protects our borders.

There are plenty of animals in the woods, though.

Even more in thewild.

Bigger ones. The sort that I could tap and gorge on without draining them dry.

I’d been too scared to travel that far on my own. As terrified as I am of enclosed spaces and the dark, the idea of getting lost in the wilds of Alaska, unable to find my way back to Dyea… I would have to be desperate to try.

And after Julian’s almost tempting offer, I was more than desperate.

I wasdetermined.

So though I told Julian I was going to look for Bridget, I changed my mind. I acted as though I would, watching him out of the corner of my eye as he crossed the town again, headingtoward the side where the individual vampires live with us but apart, hiding their human donors away from the rest of the sanctuary… and as soon as he let himself into the tall, narrow cabin I recognized as his, I turned around, heading for mine.

In the front door, out through the back, and I was dashing into the trees behind my cabin moments later.

It was late afternoon when I ran. In May, in this part of Alaska, the sun doesn’t go down until nearly nine at night. I had plenty of time to find a large beast to feed from, sate my hunger, satisfy my thirst, and get back to Dyea before the darkness crept in. I would be careful to stay near the edge of the border so that the magic would crackle in the air, guiding me home…

And then I saw a moose.

That was the first time that I’ve been so close to one, and the moment I snuck up beside it, I wimped out while retracting my aching fangs. It must not have liked my vampire scent, either, because the towering creature with the deep-brown fur, massive rack of antlers, and incredibly long legs tossed its head when it caught sight of me right before itcharged.

So… moose are surprisingly fast and agile. I did remember being warned that they could become aggressive when they feel threatened, and a starving vampiress lurking near its rump must have done the trick. It trumpeted, coming at me, and I yipped before tapping into my innate super speed to escape.

I did. That was the upside. The downside? Not only did I get myself hopelessly lost, but I emerged from one overly thick grouping of trees to stumble upon an open cave mouth to my right leading to a system of boulder-sized rocks dotted along the flat earth, grass popping up all around them though packed dirt guarded the entrance of the pitch-dark cave.

Because of Bridget, I know all about the underground cave system in Dyea. It’s part of the reason she was sent to Alaska in the first place—because fire opal supposedly grows in theunderground caves… and it does—and though she invited me to join her down there, my claustrophobia coupled with my nyctophobia meant I had to refuse.

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