Page 123 of Tell Me Why
It was so distracting.
“Don’t let me,” she said. “Please. If he… don’t let me overpower him just because I can.”
Tell looked at her with worried eyes.
“You haven’t got long, Tina. I don’t know if you know how close you are to the precipice.”
“We’ll figure out something else,” Tina said. “I won’t do that to a friend.”
“You would,” Tell murmured.
She would.
She couldfeelthe upswell of willingness to attack Tell to make him loose her on him.
“You have to tell him,” she said. “What could happen.”
“He can’t understand,” Tell said. “He’s never been anything but in love with you.”
“Don’t let me hurt him,” Tina said.
“Bite him clean,” Tell said. “I think it… It’s possible that you won’t have… the powers you normally do, to bite him painlessly or have him heal after.”
Tina would have jolted if her muscles had been capable of it.
“Tell,” she said. “Then you’re asking me to risk his life, even just biting him.”
He sighed.
“I will bite him after you do. That should let him heal.”
“I can’t do that,” Tina said. “Not without warning him.”
“Tina, if you tell him the truth, if you warn him accurately, hecannotagree to it. I don’t care how much of a genuine relationship the two of you have, or how badly he wants to help you. The human body’s capacity for self-preservation is going to be too strong. And you will die.”
“I don’t care,” Tina said. “You willtellhim, or… I won’t get out of the car.”
“You will,” Tell said, grim. “With or without me, you will.”
It was true.
She was desperate.
“I was afraid you wouldn’twantto feed,” he murmured.
“Please,” she said. “Please. You have to tell him. And then… I don’t want to live like this.Not like this.”
He looked at her.
“You would bet your very life on the strength of will of a young man that you’ve met half a dozen times in person?”
It was more than that, but not by much.
“If he didn’t exist, I would accept death,” Tina answered. “I will try fresh blood. I won’t give up. But I don’twantto be an animal. Thatisdeath. I died the day the Kaija bit me. I’m not happy about it, and I dowantto live, but… please.”
There was a long pause, then he nodded.
“Very well,” he said. “I will do my best to explain it to him.”
