Page 44 of The Vampire's Mercy
A swift snap of the neck would quietthatpart of my mind.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
PARIS
She makes sandwiches with sweetened cream and strawberries, singing her favorite sad song.
A sandwich like a cake, but with regular bread. It shouldn’t work, but it does.
She tells me everything will be sweetcream. She tells me we’re fighting for a purpose.
She hugs me when I cry.
She hugs me when I laugh.
And she makes those sandwiches every morning. Breakfast of champions. Delight before the good fight.
She dies…
She dies…
So much blood, so damn barbaric…
She leaves me all alone and I can’t forgive her for leaving, even if it wasn’t her fault.
Not supposed to leave me.
Not supposed to.
Not supposed to.
Please come back!
PEARL!
PEARL!
PE—
I woke up with a scream ripping out of my burning throat.
Shit.
A coughing fit followed, tearing through my chest, layering on extra suffering.
Breathing hurt. Being awake hurt. Sleeping fucking hurt.
Ugh. This was going to be a bullshit death.
I’d rather be awake, though. This kind of pain was better than the other kind.
The Pearl kind.
Man, those nightmares were vicious, a damn plague on my life I’d never been able to shake. If Pearl were here, she’d help settle them down with her awesomeness. Everything about her tempered the shadows, making life bearable.
At one point, my executioner training got the better of me. Around the age of ten, I couldn’t take any more, wanting out of the relentless routine of physical labor and killing captured vamps in the arenas, trapped in a cycle of death and violence.
I wanted more.
