Page 45 of How to Entice a Fiend

Ender tries to push me off, but in his weakened state, he can’t fight me too hard.

“I should have left your ass behind.”

“Instead, you nakafied it. Did you like what you saw when I was dangling there with my ass crack out? Wanted to see more?”

“Your dick is smashed against my thigh. I canfeelit.”

“Shhhh, just go to sleep and try not to dream about me,” I say, thrilled to have some warmth. We’re both wet, half dead, and exhausted, but where my body is pressed against his, I can feel the slightest hint of warmth.

“I don’t like the touch of others,” Ender grumbles.

I hesitate because I didn’t actually plan on torturing him psychologically. I really just assumed he was being fussy and stubborn. “I see,” I say and push back. “I apologize. I’ll take the first watch, so get some sleep. I’m feeling significantly better after that deer. Thank you for getting me this far. I really appreciate it and am aware I wouldn’t have gotten away without you.”

He watches me scoot back to give him space as the cold eats into me. As a vampire, it wouldn’t bother me if I was up to my normal strength, but like this, it’s quite bitter.

Ender slips off to sleep quite quickly, and I leave him alone as I listen to the forest around me. There are animals moving about in the night and the sound of the waterfall crashing beside us. I’m trying to stay awake, but my body is still struggling.

I sit up so I can be less comfortable to help keep myself from accidentally falling asleep. Then I tuck my legs against me as I listen to the world around me. At one point, I hear multiple vampires and listen carefully, anxious that they’ll find where we’re hiding. It really is a good spot to hide and any little noise we might make will instantly be drowned by the crashingwaterfall. The only problem is it does make it harder to hear them until they’re quite close.

“I think we lost them a mile or so back,” a woman says.

“Abel won’t be pleased until we bring at least one of them back. He acts like he needs the British one, but his fixation is clearly on Ender.”

“He talks about making him, but he’s made many of us. He’s my maker as well, so what’s so special about him? Ender obviously wants to kill Abel, so why would he even waste time with him unless it’s to kill him?”

“Did you see the way he killed those two and ate them… I think Abel needs to kill him, not capture him.”

They wander far enough out that I can’t hear them. I’d wondered if that man was Ender’s maker… but what kind of genetic makeup does he have that allows him to feast on vampires the way he does? I’d begun to question if he was some type of true vampire… but instead…

I stare at him as my thoughts run wild.

He still doesn’t look well, and if anything, I feel like he looks worse. He likely needs more blood to replenish the poisoned blood, but unless I haul a person to him, I don’t think it’s going to work. And in my condition, the possibility of me successfully getting a live vampire back to him seems quite slim.

I poke him to see if he’ll wake enough to let me know if an animal will suffice—but if it would, wouldn’t he have had his fill along the way?

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

MADS

Uncertain of what else to do, I wait until it’s been a good hour since I heard anyone and slip along the rocks to stay dry as I leave. My legs still feel leaden and the shackles on my wrists feel like they’re weighing me down, but I head out into the trees looking for a road or something to eat.

Wherearewe? We came from inside a building… so was it some facility set off in a remote location that’s hidden in the forest so dense we can see no way out? I hear an animal and stop to listen to determine whether it’s large enough to take some blood from. I’d prefer another deer, something I can drink from and refrain from killing without it bloodying me in return.

I find one and grab it, drinking enough that the animal weakens but not enough to kill it before letting it free. And that’s when I hear someone.

Quickly, I slip against a tree and press my bare backside into the bark as I listen. They seem to be alone as they move through the trees at almost a leisurely pace. I wonder if they’re laggingbehind with the hope ofnotfinding Ender, who seems more than willing to murder anyone on the spot.

I’m far enough from the waterfall that interacting with them won’t lead them to our location. Quietly, I move closer to them, unsure if I could take them in a fight at this point in time—especially when I can’t take most people in a fight on a good day. When I get close enough to see the person clearly, I notice that he’s staring at his phone… which I could very much use. He’s so fixated that he’s slowing until he stops and then sits down right there in the trees. Whatever he’s doing is apparently the most interesting thing he’s ever seen because he doesn’t see a thing as I slip out from behind the trees and slam him to the ground.

Hescreams,which isn’t helpful, so I dig my nails into the back of his head. “Keep screaming and I’ll tear your scalp off,” I hiss.

He immediately shuts up and I feel like a badass. A rather naked badass… hell, maybe it’s been my clothes limiting me all this time?

“Where is the nearest road?” I demand, just rolling with my new bad guy routine.

“F-Fuck if I know! I was just told to find you and the other guy. And I don’t want to die so I thought if I just hung back I’d be okay. But you still found me, and I really don’t want to die. Please? I will do anything you ask. I will give you my life savings. It’s really not much, but I’ll give it to you. I have a car! You can have the car!”

“How the hell do we get out of here?”

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