Page 61 of Bloody Temptations

“There is blood in the mini fridge inside the bedside cabinet. Be sure to drink it when you wake," he tells me as he fusses around the room for far longer than he needs to, and he doesn’t seem to care that I don’t respond.

When he finally does leave, he lingers in the doorway.

“Is there anything else I can assist you with before I go?” He asks, switching off the light, plunging the room into darkness.

“What have I done?” The pained words find their way past my lips.

I don’t think he heard, but before he shuts the door I hear him. “We’ll discuss it in the evening. Sleep now, Finn.”

And like a good baby vamp, I listen.

19

Kai

For three blissful secondswhen I wake up everything feels okay. Rolling over, I can feel the weight of a body behind me. It’s so nice, I don’t even mind that my skin is a little gritty and gross from the club. Usually I shower before going to bed if I wear glitter.

Stretching, my fingers brush the cool skin of the body lying next to me. It’s smooth and hairless. Which is… not right. Confused, my hands brush the skin again. The hard abdominal muscles are familiar, but wrong.Nikolo.

Panic rising, my eyes snap open and I bolt upright, falling to the floor in my scrambling retreat from my best friend. Why the fuck is he in my bed? Tugging at my hair I stare at Nikolo, lying in my bed in only his briefs, hyper aware of my similar state.

“For the love of the Gods, we didn’t do anything, you idiot.” Nikolo grumbles, cracking an eyelid to send a withering glare.

He’s right, I slowly and painfully piece it together. We didn’t do anything. After he dragged my ass to the cab and hauled me home I asked him to stay with me.

Because I was heartbroken.

Because of Finn.

Fuck.

Releasing my hair, I collapse back on to the bed and curl up into a ball, a fresh wake of heartache washing over me.

This is fucking awful.

“I’m sorry, Kai.” Nikolo wraps himself around my back, his forehead resting in the crook of my neck. We lie like that until it gets too uncomfortable. The position and the silence.

“I need to shower,” I mumble. Not that I really want to. It just feels like the right thing to say.

“Okay.” Nikolo rubs my arm once more and rolls off me. Except I don’t move. It’s just too hard. “I’ll make you some blood. Get cleaned up.”

I grunt, but lay there for far too long before I manage to drag myself out of bed. The shower is cool, verging on uncomfortably cold and I don’t even put my hair oil in—just leave it to air dry while I slide on some baggy sweats and an oversized tee I didn’t even know I owned.

“Maddy will be here in a minute. I texted her when we got home last night.” Nikolo raises an appraising eyebrow, looking me over carefully, and hands me my mug. “Did you want to start now or wait?”

I stare into the mug, like it might have the answers to how all this got so fucked up. All it has is a little ring of bubbles around the rim.

“Come on, come sit down and tell Daddy Nikolo all about it.”

“Godsdamn it, Nikki, I already feel like shit, don’t make me vomit before I’ve had any blood.” Laughing bitterly through my grimace, I follow him to the couch, taking a healthy sip of the blood on the way.

Settling in on opposite sides of the couch I tuck a cushion into my lap.

“So what happened?” He asks eventually, looking at me with brotherly affection.

“Shouldn’t we wait for Maddy? Where’s my phone?” I ask when I realise I haven’t seen it.

“I hid it. You’ll get it back when we’ve talked.” Nikolo’s smile wrinkles his nose. He pats my leg affectionately when I let out an indignant squawking sound.

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