Page 41 of The Monster and the Last Blood Match

She took it without complaint and managed a few sips. “You saved my life,” she said, swallowing back the emotions threatening to take over.

“You were supposed to stay safe.”

Reyna didn’t know what possessed her to do it, but this time when the need to touch him took over, she didn’t suppress it. She reached her hand out to his face and placed it gently against his cheek. His skin was cool to the touch. Yet she felt like she was burning up. Whether from the life-threatening experience or the growing shift in what his nearness did to her, she didn’t know.

“Becks,” she repeated softly.

He turned his head away from her hand, refusing to look at her. “I lost control,” he said gruffly. “You shouldn’t have had to see that.”

“You saved mylife.”

She wasn’t sure what part of that wasn’t clear to him. She could have died out there. She’d been so close to dying, and he had come in and saved her. Everything that had been foggy before was now clear. She didn’t need to fear Beckham. He wasn’t going to hurt her, and she needed to start to trust him. He wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to protect her if he was going to hurt her himself.

“You shouldn’t have even been in that position,” Beckham said. “You were in the club, and then suddenly you were gone.”

“You followed me?”

He met her gaze again. “You were lucky I did. Otherwise, I never would have found you when I did.”

“Yes. I was very lucky,” she whispered.

It was easy to remember the horrible way the vampire had approached her. The way he had fed on Everett. The way he had come after her.

“What happened to Everett?” She sat up quickly at the realization, and her vision blurred. She put her hand to her head and moaned, relaxing back into the cushions.

“You need to rest, Reyna. Everett has been taken to the hospital. He lost a lot of blood and needs a transfusion. I had my medical team look at you and him, and then after we bandaged you up, they took him.”

She touched the back of her head where she had been pushed into the dumpster. There was a large square bandage in place.

“How long have I been out?”

“About a half hour. We had to stop the bleeding.” He reached back and touched her head tenderly.

The bleeding. Her blood. What had the other vampire said about her blood? Of all the strange things that had happened tonight, whatever that thing had said about her blood made the least amount of sense.

“Beckham. That vampire—he said something weird.” He arched an eyebrow at her in question. “He said that my blood smelled good like the nectar of the gods and that he’d heard of blood like mine.”

“You were probably delirious and are remembering wrong,” Beckham said.

“No,” she insisted. She remembered that. She swore she did. “I wasn’t delirious. He said my blood smelled different.”

“He was starving. A pathetic vagabond who refuses to get into the new system. I’m sure your blood smelled like life itself to him.”

Reyna bit her lip and stared up at Beckham under thick dark lashes. “It didn’t smell any different to you?”

Beckham paused for a moment before speaking. “No.”

She remembered how he had inhaled deeply when he had gotten close to her and then didn’t say anything, as if he was holding his breath. It had to mean something. But why would he lie to her? What could he gain from that?

“Okay,” she finally muttered. “When can I see Everett? I need to make sure he’s okay. He was only out there because of me in the first place.”

“Tomorrow,” he said decidedly. “The transfusion takes a couple of hours, and he’ll need to rest. Like you, Little One.”

Reyna slumped back against the pillows. “This is all my fault,” she murmured. “If I hadn’t gone into that alley, this never would have happened.”

“Why did you go in the first place?”

He looked none too pleased, but Reyna realized this was the first conversation they’d had where they hadn’t argued. This almost felt normal.

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