Page 47 of Blood Secret

“There’s no other choice, unless you want to go hunting. I don’t recommend that. You’re too young, inexperienced.”

Something terrifying was happening to me, something I couldn’t control. It was like he’d set a fire in my brain when he mentioned blood.

Before he said the word, I was all right. Thirsty, but all right.

After? And knowing there was available blood right there, ready for me to drink my fill?

My breathing sped up like I had just run up the five flights of stairs from the sidewalk to my apartment. I couldn’t hold a thought in my head except for the thought of blood. Sustenance. I didn’t have to be thirsty anymore, because it was right there. I needed it. I had to have it. I would kill him for it if he tried to keep it away from me.

I leaped up from the bed before I knew what I was doing and pushed him against the wall.

“Give it to me,” I snarled, leaning close. I would take his if he didn’t give me the supply. I didn’t care whose it was.

“Let go of me and I’ll get it.” When I stepped back, and he moved, I saw an outline in the wall.

I had dented the plaster with his body.

I looked down at my hands, flexed them, but that was a secondary concern. What mattered was feeding. Immediately.

I shook with need as he pulled the cap from a bag of thick, red liquid and guided the nozzle to my mouth.

I sucked hard, greedily, closing my eyes to let the sensation of getting what I needed more than anything, more than air, wash over me in blissful waves. It was so good, the best thing I had ever tasted. I didn’t want it to ever end.

But it had to end. I sucked the bag dry, and Vale had to pull it from my pursed lips.

“That’s enough for now. You don’t need more than that.”

“You don’t know what I need,” I snapped, shoving him aside to go for more.

There were five bags left and by God, I was going to empty all of them, and he couldn’t stop me.

But he did. He pulled me away from the backpack and threw me to the bed.

“Enough, I said. You don’t need more than that right now. I know you feel like you do, but you don’t. You have to learn control, and fast.”

“Fuck you,” I sneered.

My towel had fallen open, but what did I care?

All that mattered was getting to the blood and taking it for myself because I needed it, I deserved it, I was already thirsty again and oh, how was I supposed to live like that?

My human thoughts wouldn’t go away no matter how all-consuming the lust was. I couldn’t forget being human. Reasonable. Rational.

I curled up in a ball, lying on my side. Sobbing. “What did you do to me?” I asked without turning to him. “Who am I? What’s going to happen to me?”

His arms closed around my body and pulled me back to his chest. I nestled against him but the tears wouldn’t stop flowing. I cried it all out—the confusion and horror and the question of what I was supposed to do with the rest of forever, the question of who I was going to become.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He was rocking me, crooning in my ear, trying to soothe me.

“Why did you do this to me?” I wept, even as I rested my head on his arm.

“I couldn’t let you go. I had to make a decision, and fast, because you didn’t have much more time. Letting you die… it just wasn’t an option, Janna. I need you to understand that. I couldn’t sit by and watch you die, even if the alternative wasn’t much better. It was selfish. I’m sorry. I condemned you to this…” His lips brushed against my shoulder, my neck, the side of my face. “I didn’t want to live without you.”

The truth of what he said sank in slowly, unwinding in the middle of my fevered brain and sending shockwaves through it.

“I know it doesn’t sound right. I know I’m a bastard for doing this. But without you in the world… there is no world. It was more than letting my charge die—which would’ve been bad enough, failing my assignment. I wasn’t thinking about an assignment when I held my blood out for you to take. I was thinking about me, needing you. I haven’t needed anyone in so long. Hundreds and hundreds of years. But I need you. I’m so weak. I’m so selfish.”

“Enough,” I whispered, turning around to face him, sliding my arms around him. “Enough, now. Just kiss me. Make it all go away for a little while. Please.”

The first taste of his mouth against mine was almost better than blood.

Strong, firm, musky, hot. He ran his tongue along the seam of my lips and slid between them, and I handed myself over to him when I opened my mouth and slid my tongue against his just as my body slid against his.

I wanted to forget everything but him, if only for a little while.

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