Page 56 of Newly Undead in Dark River

I unlocked my door, surprised to see the lights on. I could see Walker passed out on my couch. My heart rate sped up when I saw Doc Alice leaning over him, though.

“Doc? What the hell happened?”

She jumped, looking at me with relief. “Raine! I don’t know. He called me and sounded off. When I got here, he was out of it. I can’t get him to rouse,” she said, and I raced over.

I checked his temperature, which was stupid because he was going to be cold, he was a vampire, but I didn’t know what else to do. “Walker? Can you hear me?” I shouted, but he didn’t wake up. “Could it have been the blood supply?” I asked Alice over my shoulder. I shook Walker by his shoulders, but he didn’t so much as flutter an eyelash. It was like he was really dead.

“I checked the blood supply, it looked fine,” she said.

Walker’s eyelashes fluttered, and I breathed out a sigh of relief. Thank god.

“Ra…” he whispered, fighting his way back to consciousness.

I smoothed a hand over his cheek. “Hey, I’m here. It’s okay.”

“Ra…” He breathed again. His eyes fluttered open, and there was fear in them. “Run,” he gasped out, his eyes wide with fear. I stared down at him, confused.

But he wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at Alice. “Run!”

I spun around, but Alice raised a hand. “Stop.”

I froze. Physically unable to move from my crouch.

No, no, no, no. This couldn’t be right. “Alice?” I whispered. I wanted her to deny it, for there to be another reason my body wouldn’t move. Maybe some kind of paralysis pumped through the aircon system. “Why?”

Alice rubbed a hand down her face. “You know why, Raine. I’m your Maker. Which I’m really sorry about, by the way. I didn’t mean…” she sighed heavily again. “I’m sorry that it came to this. I’d hope we would just accept you into the fold and then Walker would let it go, but I should have known he wouldn’t. He’s that kind of person.”

My legs were starting to cramp from holding the crouching position so long. My heart pounded, and I was scared. Beyond scared. I was petrified. “Why?”

Alice flopped down on the couch, looking totally defeated. But she didn’t let me stand. She held me in that position, though my thighs were visibly starting to tremble. “It was an accident. Do you think keeping a blood supply to a town of vamps this size, without alerting human authorities or coming to the attention of the Vamp Nation, was easy? It isn’t; it’s hard and thankless work. So I decided I could borrow it from the human tourists. They donate for a couple of days, leave and go home to wherever, without being any the wiser. Until you.”

I couldn’t tell if she was remorseful or annoyed, but I was starting to whimper. Walker was still struggling to maintain consciousness, so he was no help. I tried to wiggle something, my pinky finger, a toe, something.

“You ended up going into hypovolemic shock. You died right there in front of me, and I panicked. I turned you, left you in the drain outside of Dark River where I could take care of you. But it didn’t go like that. You wouldn’t let it go, and neither would Walker. And then the Drifter started poking his nose into things, raising the suspicions of the Enforcers and now I’m screwed. You need to go. Walker needs to go. Without him, the Council will let it drop to maintain the peace.” It all ran out in one long, garbled sentence.

Tears began to run down my cheeks. She was going to kill me this time. Or wipe me and send me out into the world, where I would probably die. This was bad. She stood again, fidgeting as she walked to the kitchen.

“Raine, Child of my Making, feed from Walker until I tell you to stop.” Finally, released from my position, my body leaped to Alice’s command like it wasn’t mine any longer. I latched onto Walker’s throat, piercing his skin with my fangs and dragging his blood into my mouth.

I cried. I cried with every involuntary pull my mouth made, my tears running hotly down my cheeks until they pool onto Walker’s shoulder.

“Shh, it will be okay,” he whispered, as I dragged huge gulps of his blood, the predator thrilled to be feeding, even though I was trying to fight the urge with every ounce of my mind.

I wanted to tell him it wouldn’t be okay. That we were both going to die. That I was going to murder him, and I couldn’t stop myself. But I didn’t say any of that as I drank him down faster and faster. Eventually, the blood spilled over my lips and onto his cheeks. The slow beat of his heart barely thumped anymore, and every time I waited, waited for the moment his heart wouldn’t beat again.

“Alice…” his voice was whisper-thin now. “Stop this.”

I slid my eyes to Alice, who was openly sobbing now as she saw the deathly paleness of Walker’s skin against the vivid pinkness of mine.

“I’m so sorry, Walker. I am. But I have to do this. To protect me, and the town, and Angeline.”

My brain screamed and screamed, and when she slid an honest-to-goodness stake in my hand, I wanted to wail at the injustice of it.

“Stake him, Raine,” Alice said, her voice wobbling on the words. “Then stake yourself.”

She turned her back, so she didn’t have to watch the fucking coward.Let go,I commanded my fingers.Drop the stake. Or better still, ram it into Alice’s heart.Instead of obeying me, my hand raised itself, and my sobs made me choke on Walker’s blood. Good. I’d rather drown than be the death of Walker.

“Raine… Love…” he whispered, his breathing became a labored rattle, his eyes sliding closed. “Not your fault…” He was about to exsanguinate, and he was trying to make me feel better. Tears mixed with blood, and as much as I wanted to tell him everything I felt for him, that I would be with him soon, I couldn’t.

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