Page 43 of How to Entice a Fiend

“Sounds kinky or concerning… I’m struggling to remember if I was awake for it.”

“Yeah, definitely the vibe I was going for as I tied your blood-soaked clothes to a deer and sent it off. It did distract them for a while because they lack a brain,” Ender says.

“Did you tie my underpants to it as well?”

“Had to. Would have been weird to have just left your underwear lying on the ground somewhere.”

“What if the deer is now running with my clothes for eternity?”

“You think the vampires didn’t catch and eat it?” he asks.

“I was hoping they didn’t. That poor deer… you killed another deer to feed me, didn’t you? Poor thing.”

“Yes, because the humane thing to do would have been to let you die instead of sacrificing a deer to keep you alive.”

I decide that I can’t really fault him if I look at it that way. “I’m cold as fuck. Come cuddle me for warmth.”

“I would rather freeze to death,” he says.

“Why’d you try to kill me and then choose to come back and save me?”

He remains silent and refuses to look at me.

“Ender?”

“I liked you better when you were quiet.”

“Ender, answer the question. Was it just because you wanted to get me naked?”

“Go back to sleep or I’ll go sacrifice myself so I don’t have to talk to you.”

“Ender, you know you want to answer the question. Come on now. I’m all ears. I’m a phenomenal person who is willing to forgive you. I mean, do you know many others who’d be willing to forgive you after you literally ate them? It just goes to show you that I am a kind and caring being, which is why you should spill all of your dark secrets to me.”

“If I’d eaten from you a bit longer, you would still be quiet,” he realizes.

“I don’t quite think you did it on purpose, did you? You acted different. You were uncontrollable and your eyes looked dark. Like in sexy novels I’ve read where she’s all ‘his eyes turn dark’ like what the fuck is happening? Is he turning into a werewolf or something? I’ve been with both men and women and their eyes always seem to stay the same. Does that mean I’m doing itwrong? Anyway, your eyesactuallyturned darker. OH! Or is it the pupils? But the pupils are already dark…or?—”

“Do you ever stop talking?”

“I don’t know, I did earlier when you triedmurdering me.”

“My bad.” He closes his eyes, and I see the way his fingers dig into the stone. He’s lived this long, hasn’t he? Would he really have lived through all of this only to die from it now? Slowly dragging myself up into a sitting position, I look down at my stomach and see that it’s mostly closed. Still fucking hurts, though, which tells me that I really do need more blood.

Crawling over to Ender, I manage to reach him, which makes him jerk awake.

“Your dick is uncomfortably close to my face.”

“Says the man who stripped me. Didn’t even leave me a sock to cover myself with.”

“It was bloody. Everything was bloody. You want some of my clothes? They’re wet and cold.”

“Not until they’re dry,” I say as I give him a push and pull his shirt down until I can see his shoulder. The location of the bullet hole hasn’t fully healed. The blood that’s seeping from it is black, and when I swipe it with my finger it smells strange. I rinse my finger off in the water before turning back to his wound.

“You have a knife?”

“Just a sword. You planning on stabbing me to get back at me?”

“Sure am,” I say as I put a knee on his arm to hold it down.

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