Page 31 of The Hunger
He hurried away, but I didn’t get the isolation I wanted. Instead, Mother’s heels clicked softly on the floor behind me.
“Eliana, what would cause you to reprimand your father so harshly?” she asked.
Her anger flooded the surrounding space, and I swung my head in her direction. The antagonistic emotion was replaced with one far worse when she saw my eyes, though. Pity swelled in place of her anger.
“Don’t, Mother,” I warned.
“Don’t what? Love you? Worry about you? I’m afraid both are impossible to deny. Now, what are my chances for getting a hug?”
I took a few calming breaths then stood to hug her.
“My strong girl,” she murmured against my hair. “I will admit that I don’t know what to do or say to comfort you at the moment. I know you’re hungry, and I know you’re capable of feeding yourself when you’re ready. So I won’t insult you with the offer of food.” She pulled back to look at me. “But maybe you’d like someone to talk to?”
Her compassion and understanding gave me the strength I needed to rein in the hunger.
“I don’t think talking is going to help anything.”
“We won’t know unless we try.”
I sighed.
“Fenris won’t stop texting me. His desperation is messing with my head in a very bad way.”
“How?”
“The constant reminders of what I’ve done to him are just making me hate myself more. This is exactly why I have a hard time eating. I didn’t want to be this person. I didn’t want to steal lives from people. But that’s exactly what I did. And I’m still hungry, Mom. That part of me doesn’t even care, which makes this all a million times worse. Then, I have Dad down here, happily playing bartender and chatting up Ymir like it’s the coolest thing ever to be immersed in this world.”
“A world you despise?” Mom asked softly.
I closed my eyes and nodded in defeat.
Mom’s phone chose that moment to ring.
“Speak of misery and despair, and the devil will have his due,” Mom muttered.
I opened my eyes in time to see Adira’s name on Mom’s screen before she answered on speakerphone.
“I’m at Blayz. To what do I owe this displeasurable interruption?” Mom asked.
“I was wondering if you’d seen Eliana and Fenris. They both seem to be missing.”
Mom considered me thoughtfully. She knew that I’d appeared on her doorstep, thanks to Mrs. Quill, and I could tell by her expression that she was thinking the same thing I was. I never imagined that Mrs. Quill would keep my location from Adira as she’d promised.
“I still don’t see a problem that would warrant interrupting my feeding.”
The tap of her nails on the bar top punctuated her annoyance.
“There’s a bit of an upset in the pack. Some believe that Eliana has been negatively influencing Fenris’s behavior.”
“In what way?”
“In the way that prevents him from finding his mate.”
Mom got a hard look in her eyes.
“You know, as well as I do, that a succubus’s gifts don’t work like that.”
“Of course, but convincing the pack of that is becoming problematic. It would be best if Eliana found an alternate food source until I can straighten this out.”
