Page 96 of Claim the Twilight
“What?” Nyx looked at me wide-eyed, but Kaster didn’t even blink.
He held my gaze for several aching seconds, then said, “When?”
“Loviator gave us seventy-two hours. That runs out at sunset tomorrow. If Padma isn’t back by midafternoon, then we leave Dracul. All of us. We get out, and we get as far away from this fucking city as we can.” My eyes burned with the threat of tears. “I won’t lose the people I love for a war that we cannot win. There is nothing heroic about suicide.”
“Finally, someone speaks sense,” Ramiel drawled. “We need more people like you in Morningstar.”
Nyx threw a barbed look his way before returning her attention to me. “If that’s what you want to do, then that’s what we’ll do.”
I nodded firmly. “It’s what I want. It’s what needs to happen.”
My mouth throbbed hard, gums aching. “Get some rest, everyone. Tomorrow we either fight or we flee.”
“I’m sorry.”Matthew stared at me in horror. “The cold storage must have stopped working. The blood has coagulated.” He held up a gunky looking blood bag. “I…I’m so sorry.”
The corridor outside Matthew’s room seemed suddenly smaller. My pulse pounded, gums pulsing angrily. “Are you saying there’s no blood? None at all?” My voice sounded loud to my ears, thicker, guttural.
He blinked rapidly. “Um…no bagged blood, but…I mean…there’s blood in…people?” He shrugged a shoulder, looking sheepish. “I can go out and get you…someone.”
A wave of heat washed up my body, and I punched the wall beside the doorframe before I could check myself. Plaster drifted to the ground, and I stared at my fist, buried in the brickwork.
Matthew whimpered, and my gaze snapped to him, thethud, thud, thudof his heart beating in the pulse at the base of his throat a tempting distraction. I focused on it as it jumped erratically beneath his skin.
He shrank back, and my gaze flicked to his wide-eyed one.
He was afraid of me.
No…I wasn’t a monster.
I tugged my fist free and flexed my hand, watching the cuts and abrasions heal, leaving droplets of crimson blood clinging to my perfect skin. My stomach cramped, mouth flooding with saliva.
“Miss Lighthart?” Matthew’s voice trembled, and shame gripped me by the throat.
“I’m sorry. I’m fine. Can you get more bagged blood?” I kept my voice even and calm even though fire raged in my veins.
“Yes, but it will be several hours there and back, quicker to find a human?—”
“No!”
He flinched again.
I took a beat, speaking calmly once more. “I’m not feeding off some innocent human.”
I wasn’t naïve. Of course I’d have to learn to feed from the vein at some point. And learn how to do it without harming my donor. But I’d hoped to have more time to adjust to being a vampire, and I’d expected to have Ezekiel here to help me. I needed him here.
“What’s going on?” Ordell asked, coming up behind me.
“The blood’s gone bad,” Matthew explained, looking a little more confident now that Ordell was here. “Miss Lighthart needs to feed.”
Ordell gently took my elbow and steered me away from the door.
I resisted. “I’m not going to grab some human off the street and?—”
“I know,” he said. “Come with me.”
I followed him to the stairs. “Where are we going?”
“To my room.”
