Page 91 of Deadly Alliances

“That’s actually what glue was made for,” she said, then blew a stream of air at the goop on my arm. “One of the greatest nontechnical inventions of all time, and we mostly use it to stick pieces of paper together.”

“Human nature, at its finest,” I said.

She chuckled, covering her mouth as if the action was reprehensible. Poor girl. She tapped the clear gel with the tip of her finger, finding it solidified. “There, that should do.”

I withdrew my arm and tucked it in my lap. “Thanks.”

“Any time.”

We both stood, and she walked me back to the entrance of the ward.

“Have a good evening,” she said, though her eyes and body language delivered a different message.

“You, too. I’ll see you around.” I waved and headed for my room, crossing my fingers that everything went as planned tomorrow. There were so many moving parts, so many things that could go wrong. If even one cog in our clockwork jammed, we’d all be fucked.

Chapter 34

Julian

A goblet went flying across the room, smashing against the closet door and splashing blood onto the walls and lavender carpet.

“Dammit!” Marguerite cursed, her arms straight at her sides, her hands clenched into fists. “Why is this happening to me?” Undrank blood dripped down her chin.

I watched her from the couch, propped up on an elbow, enjoying every second of her suffering with a twisted sort of glee.

“Could it possibly be karma?” I suggested conversationally.

She slowly turned her head in my direction, her eyes narrowed to murderous slits. “Don’t be ridiculous, Julian. There’s no such thing.” She flipped her blonde locks over her shoulder and began to pace. “Besides, I’m a good person. Why on earth would karma targetme?”

I shrugged, a twinge of righteous anger tainting my amusement. “Oh, I don’t know… Maybe because you’ve killed countless humans, and you are keeping the man you claim to love imprisoned in your room.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m a vampire, Julian. We live off the blood of humans. When are you going to learn that they are just food for us? Pets at best.”

The anger grew. “You know you were human once, right?”

She scoffed. “That’s beside the point. Some of us are called to the blood. Some of us arebetter. I don’t think those who turn areever really human. My maker saw that. And Hadrian can see it when someone deserves the right to become a god.”

I snorted a sardonic laugh. “Is that what you think you are? A god?”

She pursed her lips and looked down her nose at her fingernails, admiring them even when they were covered in blood. “As close to a god as one can get—below Hadrian, of course.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of agodwho can’t consume the one sustenance they need to survive,” I said cuttingly.

Worry creased her brow for the umpteenth time today, and I couldn’t help but savor her torment. She deserved the curse Shea placed on her, even more so because it wasn’t an immediate death sentence.

While vampiresdidneed blood, we didn’t need it all the time. Not like the human need for food or water. It wasn’t something we needed to consume every day or even every week. The older ones could go years without feeding—not that they ever would.

The longest I’d ever gone was six months, but I still didn’t believe that was out ofneed.The craving is a unique torture, and day after day, night after night of thirsting and abstaining, I just broke. That was in the days before humans learned to extract and save blood for medical purposes, and I was determined not to drink live. I didn’t really know how long I could go without blood before it actually killed me.

Considering Marguerite’s vampiric age, I’d wager it would take several years before starvation ate her alive, and it would be a slow, agonizing death. Part of me wished I could stick around to witness it, but the rest of me hoped the shifters won this war and killed her long before then.

“Have you considered trying animal blood?” I posited, holding a snicker in the back of my throat at the very idea.

Again, she paused her pacing and slowly turned her head to look at me with furious insult. “Are you fucking insane?”

If I stay with you much longer, I will be.

“I’m just saying, you’ve tried drinking human blood both directly from the vein and from a cup. Could it be that you’ve developed a sort of allergic reaction to human blood?” My insides ached with the urge to laugh, but I kept it inside.

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