Page 111 of The Monster and the Last Blood Match

She wanted to believe him in that moment, that the monster was gone, that her Beckham was back. She wanted to trust that this was a mistake and all would be right, but how could she forget that he had been feeding off of her like food, like his prey? He hadn’t wanted her for anything more than food. She had sworn to herself she trusted him to stop, but he wasn’t going to. Only her screams had jolted him back to reality, and even then, the monster was still brimming under the surface.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Reyna stumbled out of Beckham’s room and toward the elevator. She had no plan in mind. Terror pricked at her, and it was the only thing fueling her forward. She was shaky. Her body disagreed with every movement. She felt like she could sleep for days, but the desire to run, run far away kept urging her on.

The elevator door was closing just as she saw Beckham’s face appear. He slammed his hand in the slit before the doors closed, and they wrenched back open. She screamed at his appearance. Still completely nude, blood running down his chin and chest. He looked ferocious and deadly.

“Beckham, please,” she muttered.

“I wasn’t going to hurt you. You have to know,” he said.

“I don’t know.” Her body trembled. “You weren’t going to stop. You could have killed me.”

“It was a mistake. Reyna, forgive me,” he ground out, reaching for her.

She stepped back into the elevator wall and shrank from his touch. “You were right. You are a monster.”

Beckham recoiled at that word and removed his hand. They closed on his hurt face, and she heard his fist slam on the closed doors. Her heart rate picked up, and she had to hold on to the railing to keep herself steady.

When the elevator opened, she lurched forward through the lobby. She tottered and floundered until she made it through the glass sliding doors. Some part of her mind realized she was making a spectacle of herself, but she couldn’t seem to care.

As she stepped out into the daylight, she blinked back tears from the intense sun. She needed somewhere to go and collect her thoughts. God, this moving thing was horrible. So much of her body was screaming to slow down, but the other part was telling her to run. It made her head throb.

“Reyna,” Everett called.

She turned toward the voice and blundered forward into him. “Everett.”

He caught her easily. “Hey, are you all right?”

“Yeah, I guess,” she slurred.

“You’re bleeding.” He touched her neck tenderly, and she winced. She hadn’t even realized she was still bleeding. Everett’s face darkened as he pieced everything together. “Did he do this?”

“Oh,” she mumbled. She placed her hand on her throat, and when she pulled it away, it came back red. “Yeah.”

“I’ve never seen you like this,” he said softly, concerned. “You’re really out of it, Reyna. Does it normally work this way?”

She shrugged and teetered forward. “I don’t know.”

He furrowed his brow at her answer but let it go. “You look fucked out of your mind. Where the hell were you going in your condition?”

Reyna shrugged again. “Away. I need to think…”

“You’re not going to think doped up on a vamp bite. Christ, how much did he take?”

“More than he should have,” she said with an uncontrollable giggle.

“Look, we need to get you cleaned up and somewhere where you can come down from this shit. Come with me. My shift is almost over. I can leave now,” he told her.

Everett put a comforting arm around her waist and helped her to his Mustang. He ran back to the front to tell his manager that he had to head out early, and then they were zipping through the city. They reached his apartment a short while later. Reyna’s head was drooping forward into her chest by the time they arrived. She could barely keep her eyes open. Her mind was muddled as if she was trudging through a swamp.

He unlocked the front door, and she sprawled onto the floor in a heap. She opened her mouth to say something, but she felt herself slipping toward unconsciousness.

“It’s okay,” she heard someone say to her through the murkiness in her mind. “I’ve got you.”

Then it all went dark.

…

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