Page 56 of House of Crimson Hearts
“I am so completely fucked. I’m a hunter. I can’t drink vampire blood.”
I sigh, “What’s your name?”
“Red.”
“Your real name.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Red.”
“Don’t make me compel it out of you.”
“Compel it out of me and I’ll take your life instead of those village men…”
I raise an eyebrow.
“You get to know my name when you’ve earned it.”
“And how do I do that?”
She grins at me, the smile lights up her green eyes. “I don’t know yet, but I’ll be sure to tell you when I do…”
“Well,Red…thanks for… for… you know. Stopping that guy.”
“You’re… welcome?” she says. “Gods, what is… why do I feel?” She slides her hand over her chest, gripping where her breasts sit. She glares at me and then scrambles up. But she doesn’t back away. Instead, heat rushes up her neck.
“Fuck,” she says and buckles over. “Why do I…? What… what is this?” she takes a step closer to me despite the confusion sprawled across her face.
Shit, she drank too much.
“Have you ever drunk blood before?” I ask.
“Obviously not. I’m a hunter, it’s my job to prevent drainers like you taking blood illegally, why the hell would I drink the stuff?”
“If you hadn’t, you would have died.”
“Oh my gods, maybe you should have let me. Shit, if anyone in the Academy finds out?—”
“They won’t.”
“Why, because I can trust you not to tell anyone?” Her face scrunches like that’s the last thing she would ever believe.
She wobbles on her feet. She had lost a lot of blood and even though I saved her, she’s going to need to rest. I slide my arm around her waist.
“Let me assist you home.”
“I cannot go home like this. If anyone realises it’s not human blood on me. If they knew I’d drunk… Gods, I am in so much shit. Next time, let me die, yeah?” She pats my shoulder, her face strained as if she’s not sure whether to run away or sit on my face. “Why the hell did you save me?”
The words slip out before I can stop them. “Because you’re the first person in nearly ten centuries to not look at me like I’m a freak.”
Her brows knit together, and then I scoop her up and I’m running her through the villages. I run so fast the wind whips her straggly short hair away from her face. Her pupils blow wide, and I know my blood is seeping into her system. That the urges crawling through her body aren’t real. She may have been willing to help me, but none of this is real. It never is. No one ever wants me. Not really. Eventually they all find a way to be afraid.
I need to get her back to Castle Beaumont and into a private room before I find myself unable to leave her. I run through the forest, trees and branches whipping at my arms.
She clings to me, the pads of her fingers pressed against my neck, the faintest thud of her heartbeat against my skin.
I can sense my blood in her body as it ebbs and flows through her veins. The further is drifts through her body, the calmer I grow. It infuses with her essence, her soul.
It makes her mine.
