Page 43 of Blood Secret

I could save her. I could damn her to hell along with me.

I didn’t have time to think it over.

I had to act, and quickly, because she was almost gone. Her breath was slower and slower, shallower, more pained.

I acted.

My fangs slit the inside of my wrist, and I held it over her upturned mouth.

“Drink,” I begged, stroking her face with the other hand. “Please, Janna, please, take this and swallow. It’s your last chance. I’m begging you. I’m ordering you to drink.”

My blood dripped onto her lips, into her mouth.

She only had to swallow before she died.

I watched her torn, blood-caked throat for any sign of her obeying. Could she even hear me? Was she already far away?

Her eyelids fluttered as another pained, labored breath tore through her.

I could almost feel her pain, and it caused me pain.

All she had to do was swallow.

“Swallow, damn you,” I hissed.

When her eyes snapped open, they locked on mine.

And the red ring crept along the outside of her violet irises.

It had worked.

I had damned her.

“Drink more,” I instructed, holding my wrist closer to her mouth.

She tried to turn her head, even as I knew she must be desperate for it.

“You need it to heal. Come on. Now’s not the time to be stubborn.”

More of my blood spurted out onto her mouth, and she was gone the moment she tasted it.

Her growing need, so fresh and hot and desperate, overtook her fading human sensibilities as she latched onto my wrist and sucked. Hard.

My eyes closed and I groaned as I felt her draining me, swallow by swallow.

I remembered feeling that way, that first burst of complete, all-consuming lust. Hating myself for it, feeling dirty and wrong for needing that sweet, coppery-tasting fluid. Every swallow only made the lust stronger. A thirst that would never be slaked.

I felt myself slipping away and realized she was about to bleed me dry.

“Enough!”

I pulled away using every last bit of strength she had left me.

My blood mingled with hers, smearing over her mouth and chin.

“What… did… you… do…?” she managed to pant before the full change began.

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