Page 44 of Newly Undead in Dark River

It was all too much, and I felt like climbing the walls or screaming or something to expel all the tension that was crawling along my skin. Brody looked over his shoulder at me, always the first to sense my spiraling emotions.

He took a step away from Tex but didn’t take his eyes off him. “Let’s have a seat, and then we’ll see if we can’t untangle this mess.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the couch. I shook my hand out of his, and when hurt flashed across his face, I leaned up and kissed his lips.

“Tex is blind. This is a strange apartment,” I said in a low voice. Tex would hate appearing weak in a room of strangers, but I didn’t want to hurt Brody’s feelings either.

I walked over and placed Tex’s hand on my shoulder like I’d done a million times before today. It felt as natural as breathing. “There's an armchair two steps to your left,” I whisper, and he squeezed my shoulder. I wanted to hug him again, but it was probably a good idea to get everything sorted out. Who knows if he’ll even want to touch me again when he realizes I’m a monster now.

I pulled a chair from the dining table and dragged it into the living room. I didn’t think sitting on anyone’s lap would be a good idea right now.

“So talk,” Tex said, and I could basically smell the anger and pain simmering beneath his porcelain skin. “Start with who Raine is.”

He knew it was me. He just wanted me to say the words. “I’m Raine. It’s the name I took after… after Mika died. Look, this is going to sound crazy, Tex. The whole thing. But you have to hear me out before you tell me I’m crazy. I want to go home, I really do. But I can’t.”

Then I explained the whole ridiculous, terrifying situation to him. Everything from the point I woke up in that stormwater drain. Even the fact I ran into him that night in the nightclub because I wanted to drain the guy on the dancefloor of blood. I didn’t pull punches or sugarcoat it. I told him about how my maker was terrorizing me and how it was breaking my heart to think of my family in pain. I may have glossed over the Brody and Judge being my boyfriend's bit, and that Walker was definitely a massive crush. Telling that to my childhood beau seemed like some kind of awkward dating faux pas. Or maybe I was just a chicken shit. Whatever.

Tex listened to the story without interrupting, though his face went from disbelieving, to angry, to incredulous, and back again.

When I was finished, we sat there in that heavy silence again. Finally, he cleared his throat, awkwardly, filling the lull in the conversation.

“So, you’re telling me you’re a vampire. And we are in a town full of vampires. And the guy that barged in here like he owned the place is some kind of shapeshifter? Am I getting all this correct?”

I winced. “Yeah. I know it sounds crazy. I wish I could show you…”

He gave a mirthless laugh. “Because seeing is believing, right?”

I sighed heavily. Yeah, it was. If he could see my fangs, or me zipping around faster than his human eyes could see, or see Brody turn into a fucking tiger like he’s desperately wanted to do since I met him, then all this wouldn’t sound like such a crazy fairytale.

I stood and walked toward his chair, and the other two guys tensed on the couch. I knelt in front of him and took his hand. “Yeah, seeing is believing, and that would make this whole thing easier. But feeling is believing too, right?”

I took his hand and put it over my heart, in the space between my breasts. I ignored Brody’s grumble. Tex’s skin felt hot, so I knew I would be a little cold to the touch, though not as cold as normal because Walker’s blood still coursed through my veins. I could feel him waiting for the soothing thud-thud of my heart. But it didn’t come. It would eventually, but not as often as that rhythm that we knew instinctively as humans. When it finally thudded against his palm after about ten seconds, he yanked his hand away like I was diseased. Which I kind of was, I guess, but it still hurt. I was suddenly glad he couldn’t see the hurt in my eyes, or the tears glistening in their corners.

Clenching his jaw, he reached out and ran his fingers over the curve of my cheek, then his thumb dipped to my full bottom lip. He pressed it between my lips, and along the line of my teeth until he hit one of my fangs.

He sucked in a gasp but didn’t withdraw his fingers. He got infinitely paler, but his thumb ran the other way across the straight edge of my teeth until he got to the second fang. He pressed it hard, and the sharp tip pierced the pad of his finger. The taste of his blood hit my tongue a moment later, and I moaned.

My hand shot up, grabbing his wrist, stopping him from withdrawing his thumb from my mouth. Walker was there in a moment, his hand around my own wrist, his eyes screaming a warning. I ignored him and sucked Tex’s thumb, the hint of his blood coating my mouth, making me moan. Making him moan too.

Walker’s cool voice pierced the lust-filled haze of my thoughts. “Take his thumb out of your mouth, Raine. You don’t want to hurt him.”

He almost sounded pleading, but I quirked an eyebrow at him. I didn’t want to hurt Tex. I wanted to fuck him six ways to Sunday, but I didn't want to obliterate him until he was a bloody mass.

Still, I let go of Tex’s wrist, and his thumb popped out of my mouth with an audible sucking sound. Tex was staring at nothing, pulling his hand to his chest.

“If you are so dangerous to your family, why haven’t you tried to maul me yet? If new vampire control is so very limited like you say.” He didn’t sound accusatory, well maybe a little, but confusion was there as well. I didn’t know either.

I looked at Walker, and he shrugged. Brody raised his hand.

“I have the answer to that. Actually, it explains a lot if you disregard the fact that it should be a goddamn impossibility.” Whatever he was about to say, he didn’t seem overly happy about the fact. “Have you and Pretty Boy over there, ever, you know, done it doggy-style? Become the beast with two backs? As Marvin Gaye said, did you get it on?”

My face flushed, and I imagined I was now redder than my hair. “Uh, yes?”

I don’t know why I framed it as a question.

“And is your boy -”

“My name is Tex, and I am not a boy,” the ‘boy’ in question growled. Luckily, he couldn’t see Brody’s eye roll.

“Be nice,” I mouthed silently, giving him a scowl.

---