Page 51 of Love Heals
Never? Considering how old he was, that surprised me, but I didn't comment on it. Instead, I turned and left the room. Nobody stopped me.
Somehow, I ended up in the kitchen, looking at food that I couldn't eat. I had memories of food now, and I remembered the way some things tasted. I remembered chocolate-chip ice cream.
What would happen if I ate? Nicolai had only ever said that I shouldn't, and that we had noneedfor food aside from blood, but then, he'd also made me drink animal blood, so could I really trust his judgement on anything?
It wasn't just his judgement, though. My own stomach roiled as I looked at the containers of food in the fridge and thought about putting the chicken fingers in my mouth.
"You shouldn’t eat that," a voice came from behind me. I startled so badly I nearly jumped, but it was just Crimson.
"I wasn't going to," I lied.
"You'd only make yourself feel bad."
"How do you know that?"
Crimson gave me a wry smile. "I tried. Just a bite. It's how I know that vampirescanthrow up."
I closed the fridge and stepped away from it.
"You’ve never made that experience?" Crimson asked.
"I didn't get out much," I responded with a shrug, wanting to be appear nonchalant about the whole thing. Every other vampire in the coven knew that Nicolai had basically kept me like a pet, and Crimson had seen me 'perform', so really, what point was there in dancing around the truth?
"I'm sorry that you're struggling," Crimson said, and I could tell that the sympathy in his eyes was real. It was what made me look away.
"I'm sorry I can't help you."
"Do you want to?" Crimson asked. "I've been thinking about what you said. About... the people we've killed."
I sighed, because I didn't want to think about any of that. I didn't want to think about the fact that I was staying with the mortals instead of checking up on my coven. Or what that said about me. "I just want all of this to be over," I said, honestly. "I don't want you to kill more vampires, but I don't want you guys to die either."
"Some vampires deserve to die."
"So do some mortals," I gave back. There'd certainly been enough of those in my memories.
"I can't argue with you there." Crimson glanced at the coffee machine. "You ever wish you could still drink coffee? I kind of do right now."
"I don't remember coffee."
"It's good stuff," Crimson assured me. "But since we can't have that..." He opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle full of red liquid. "I believe this is the next best thing."
"Where do you get all this blood?" I asked, because I'd seen there were more bottles where that one came from.
"WAFFER," Crimson said. "They're the organization who have prepared this safe house for us, but don't ask me where exactly they're getting the blood. I don't know, and I'm not sure I want to know. It's better than how Nicolai made me get my blood, though. That's for sure."
At the mention of our sire, I tensed. I wasn't sure what Nicolai had made Crimson do. I did know that he'd treated him differently from me. Crimson was always going to be a real vampire, not just a pet. Something about that made my stomach clench all over again.
"I'm not thirsty."
"This isn't regular blood." Crimson flashed me a smile. "Not one of WAFFER's bottles either. Aldrich got this. You gotta look for the yellow label." He showed it to me.
I took a step back, my nose wrinkling. "Is that animal blood? Or dead man's blood?"
"Nope. Drunk man's blood. I promise it won't hurt you." He held the bottle out to me and I took it cautiously.
Taking the cap off, I sniffed at it. Smelled almost like regular blood. Maybe a little... sour? But not in a bad way. It definitely wasn't animal blood, though, which let me relax. "Have you tried it before?" I asked Crimson.
"Yeah, but only once, on a dare, two nights ago." He shook his head at himself. "Drank an entire bottle. I wouldn't recommendthat.But we should be okay if we share." Without waiting for a response from me, he got two glasses out of the cupboard left of the fridge. He set them on the counter and motioned for me to fill them.
