Page 48 of How to Entice a Fiend

“I don’t shiver.”

“Ah, right. Sorry. You were… flickering your body. Is that better?”

I ignore all of that and slowly sit up, but doing so makes the world spin around me.

“You’re clearly not any better.”

“I’m fine. Why aren’t you wearing any of the clothes?” I ask.

“I already told you.”

“Put them on.”

“I’m doing okay. I fed some.”

The idea of feeding perks me up. “Where’s the guy these clothes belonged to? I’d like to eat him.”

“Out there somewhere… in his underpants, very much alive.”

“You didn’t kill him?”

“He nearly killed me,” Mads says as he uses the barrel of the gun to nudge something. “How long do you think you ran to get us here?”

“I don’t know… I wasn’t moving quickly, but probably two or more hours of moving time. I did take multiple breaks. Why?”

“I’m going to go back. If I don’t live, then move on. If I do, I’ll try to be back by tomorrow evening.”

“Why are you going back?”

“I want to see if there’s something to help you. And I have to assume that if they’re tinkering with the ammunition to make it more deadly, they have something I can use to get us out of here. Hell, even if I just got more ammunition.”

“There’s no way Abel is going to sit back and let you tinker with his shit.”

Mads bites his lip. “He probably has to leave the building to rest at some point, right? I’ll just slither in then.”

“Tell me how your fight went with the guy you got these clothes from,” I say.

“Splendidly well. I kept both eyes, I took his clothes, I rocked himin the skull.”

“The state of your hair tells me you also rolled around on the ground for a bit.”

“I was like a dog that rolls in their kill when they’re done with it,” he assures me.

“You said you didn’t kill him. Now how are you going to handle, oh… ten? Twenty? Thirty of those?”

He’s quiet for a short while. “Well, guess I’m not coming back alive. Will you mourn me? Go to my funeral service? Pretend to be my lover so people think I didn’t die lonely and sex-deprived?”

“Sure,” I say with ample sarcasm.

“Fine, that idea has been unwillingly scratched,” Mads grumbles before crawling over to me. He’sstillnaked, so this is quite concerning as he gets closer. Then he grabs my face and now I’m questioning if this is supposed to be romantic or torture. “If you murder me… I will… I will… be so fucking pissed.”

“At least it’ll be quiet,” I say.

I watch in confusion as he bites his wrist and shoves it against my face. I can’t even hesitate or do the whole “What’d you do that for” because the smell of it enraptures me. I grab his wrist and jerk it to me as I sink my fangs into it and groan. The taste is so sweet. So perfect. The blood that fills my mouth is unbelievably satisfying. Have I ever tasted such sweet blood? It’s hypnotizing as it pushes away the pain in my body, even if for a brief moment.

“Alright, getting close to my limit,” Mads says as he gently taps me.

But I don’t want to let go. I don’t want to pull away. Not when this is the best I’ve felt.

---