Page 93 of Pretty Little Prey
I hate you.
Bastille fell to his knees in front of her, clasping the sides of her arms and holding her close.
“Ma chekka,” Kobe pleaded, his hand clawing at his chest, over his heart—which broke at seeing her so sad. “Please do not cry.”
“How could you do this to me?” she cried, tears glistening on her round, flushed cheeks. “You—You made me a vampire?”
“Prey are delicate; they are hunted,” Nikolai explained. “We made you strong. Immortal. A predator.”
“You thought so low of me, you changed myspecies?” she wailed through heaving breaths and streaming tears.
“We did it toprotectyou,” Bastille said.
“Will always protect you,” Kobe repeated, placing his palm on the back of her head and petting her. “Please. No crying.”
“Your emotions are heightened right now,” Nikolai said softly. “Once you calm down, you’ll understand that we had to—”
“Food tastes like ash,” she cried out.
That made the men pause. “What?”
“Everything I e-eat tastes like dirt.”
Nikolai’s lips parted, guilt flashing over his expression. “Vampires don’t need to eat food to survive. It will taste wrong to you—”
“I livedsix yearsoff of microwavable noodles and gum,” she exclaimed. “I—I wanted to finally try everything and—and enjoy myself and—and everything tastes like ash!”
Kobe stroked her hair and released calming, purring noises at her ear. He gazed around at his friends in horror. Horror for what they had done to her.
“The sun is too b-bright,” she cried.
Nikolai stepped forward. “You will be very sensitive to sunlight, but it will fade with time. Though, the first century, you might want to only go out at night.”
No sun for the first century? Bastille had not realized that. Still, as a vampire, now she was strong and sturdy.Safer. “You will adjust,” he promised her.
“I don’t want toadjust.” She shoved at him as she cried harder. “I was finally going to be free. I was finally going to live a normal life, one by my own choices—and you took that away from me. You have trapped me for an eternity!”
“Not ‘trapped’ you—”
“I hate you for this,” she promised.
Kobe again let out a dog-like whimper of pain.
“Undo it,” she begged, grabbing onto Bastille’s hands. “Please, undo it!”
“I—I can’t.”
Nikolai stated, “There is no way to reverse vampirism, Luna.” A solemn look painted over his face as he said, “Trust me.”
Their mate sobbed so hard, her face grew splotchy and her eyelids swelled.
“We will show you there are good parts to being a predator—”
Louder cries.
“You will like how strong you are like this.”
“I—I fed from that man.”
