Page 57 of The Sins That Bleed
Maybe it’s time I changed that, but I’d have to stop lying to her first.
I have to let it out before it consumes me.
I lean back from her embrace now that there are no more tears to fall. She tries to take my hand but I pull my knees to my chest.
“Let’s get you cleaned up, V, and into something comfortable, yeah?” She’s gentle, as if talking to a wounded animal.
I don’t deserve her care.
“No,” I rasp out and clear my throat, using the opportunity to scan the room and find that we’re alone. He left, good, he should get as far away from me as he can.
I’ve committed the ultimate sin.
“I don’t deserve your kindness, Sunny.”
Sadness threatens to consume me and drag me under into its inky depths. I so badly want to let it take me so I don’t have toface this. I think of all the choices I made that lead me to this point, all the times I could have told Sunny the truth but I didn’t, and now here we are.
“Don’t be like that, V, you?—”
“I’ve lied to you!” I shout, the words echoing off the walls because she has to know, I can’t keep it from her any longer. “I’ve fucked up, Sunny, and you’re going to hate me for it, but I can’t keep lying anymore. I’m exhausted and you deserve to know, you deserve better. You deserve achoice.”
She stares at me and I can see her trying to put things together, trying to decipher what I might have lied to her about, but she’ll never guess this. It’s going to alter her world as she knows it. She’ll rewrite her life without me being a part of it—my only friend in my long existence and I still managed to fuck it up.
“What’s going on, V? I’ve never seen you like this before, hurting yourself like that and breaking down, you’re always so strong. I should’ve been looking harder. Fuck, it hurts me to know you’ve been carrying this all alone for so long.” She’s crying too now.
I clutch my knees tighter. My mouth opens but nothing comes out. I can’t form the words that will break her heart.
“Talk to me. Whatever you’ve kept from me can’t be that bad or, if it is, there must be a good enough reason to keep it to yourself. I trust you.” She tries to get me to meet her eyes, but I avoid them. I don’t want to see the moment she sees me for who I really am.
A terrible friend.
A liar.
A monster.
I suck in a breath that I don’t need as I say the words that will curse our friendship to ruin.
“Your full name is Azara Moreau, and your Rai’s missing little sister.”
CHAPTER 25
Visions
RAI
Nico helps escort me from the room since I’m in a daze and the only thing I want to do is crawl to Valeska and offer myself up to her entirely.
She’s possessed me.
Something Sunny said, which doesn’t make a lot of sense to me right now, is that this is part of the appeal or something. I didn’t care, I needed Valeska to keep drinking from me, touching me and letting me feed her, feel her quenching her thirst with my blood.
I’m harder than I’ve ever been in my life and I want her hand wrapped around my cock as she works on my throat. I imagine her drinking from me as my cum spills over her hand. I moan but Nico ignores it, taking me to my room.
I try lamely to fight him off so I can get back to her, but I have no energy and I’m like putty in his hands. I blink and I’m lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling and wondering how I got here.
“Sleep well, princess, we’ll talk in the morning.”
Morning? It’s not that late, it is still daylight I am sure of it, but the curtains are closed and I have no way of telling. My eyelids grow heavy and start shutting of their own accord. I drift into sleep and dream of mon cauchemar.
