Page 15 of B Negative

Six

Bright redarterial blood soaked into the high-pile white carpet. Devon and I stared at each other, mouths agape. Sunny’s body shuddered and contorted as it relieved itself of her first vampiric meal.

I rushed to comfort her, holding her hair away from the mess and stroking her back. “You need to call someone,” I said to Devon. I didn’t know who he should call, but he needed to call someone.

Hell, I’d even settle for Titus.

Well…

“Anyone but Titus.”

Devon reached into his linen pants for his phone and dialed. “Get Ishta to the mate’s suit immediately. Keep it quiet.”

“No. This can’t be,” Sunny groaned, shaking and on all fours, before retching up bile.

“Whatever is going on, Sun, we’ll figure it out, OK?”

“I knew I wasn’t supposed to rise. I knew it,” she said, after she’d stopped hurling her guts up. Sunny curled in a ball on the floor, well clear of the bloody mess, knees hugged to her chest.

“That’s not true, Sun. You said it yourself. Your family is one of the oldest lines of vampires in the new world. You were made for this.” I scooted closer to her and pushed her sweaty locks off her face.

“And that’s exactly the problem.”

I rubbed her back, at a loss for what to say.

Far sooner than I expected, Ishta, whoever that was, knocked softly at the door.

Devon answered, speaking in hushed tones in the threshold, too quiet for even my vampire ears to make out, but soon enough he brought her to us.

“Sunny, this is Ishta.”

Before him stood a small…

Girl?

“Hello, Sunny. I see you aren’t feeling well. Maybe my blood will help.” Her small, sweet voice rattled in my brain, colliding with and proving every vile judgment and rumor I’d heard about Titus and his tower.

“You keep children on thirty-three?” I asked, trying my best to keep a neutral tone.

Sunny caught me with a pained look before sitting up. “I’d hoped it wouldn’t be true.”

Devon and Ishta joined her, sitting cross-legged on either side of her. Each took one of Sunny’s hands in theirs.

“It’s all right, Sunny,” Devon murmured.

I stared at the three of them before truly taking in Ishta. Pale yellow locks—a shade only found in youth, which women paid steeply to reproduce in salons—framed her round, cherub face. She wore a floral print sundress that reminded me of my own summers spent outdoors. But it was her wide brown eyes that struck me most. Doe-like and innocent, but also far too wise for her age.

God, she couldn’t be more than ten.

Sunny sucked in a deep breath before pinning me with a serious stare. “As one of the oldest vampire families, the River clan retained one of our kind’s more abhorrent traits. I’d hoped it wouldn’t pass to me, but—” she nodded toward the red mess of carpet in front of her. “It seems I wasn’t so lucky.”

I leaned forward, pulling Sunny close by her face. The purple smears beneath her eyes grew by the second, as did the spider-webbed black veins at her temples. “I don’t care what skeletons your family has in their closet. You need to drink now. Or you might not make it through this.”

Odette had been very clear on the matter. If a newly risen vampire didn’t drink within the first hour of rising, they would no longer be risen.

They’d just be dead.

I released her, and she gave me a single nod before bringing Ishta’s wrist to her lips.

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