Page 44 of House of Crimson Kisses
“We should talk about…” her eyes go to Octavia’s bin. The one holding an empty blood bag.
I yank my hands out of hers.
“What’s the alternative?” she says, her voice pleading.
“There’s always another way,” I say.
“Red, please. Just do this for me.”
“I… I can’t,” I say, tearing my gaze away from hers.
“Please? Don’t you get it? If you don’t drink it, you could die.”
“Don’t fucking do that. Don’t guilt trip me. I won’t do it. There’s no way I’m drinking human blood, Amelia. I am not becoming the monster that took everything from us.”
“Half the monster,” she says. “And lest you forget, you fell for one of those monsters too.”
I glare at her. “And where’s the line? Did you lose all your morals when you became a vampire? Where’s your humanity?”
“Then what about the cure? You want me to take it so badly, and yet you’re resisting becoming the one thing that will secure it.”
“Yeah,” I huff, looking her up and down. “I can see we need the cure more than ever.”
“Oh, go fuck yourself, Red. How dare you! I’m being pragmatic here. You want a chance to fix this city? Fix the wrongs that were done to us? Done to so many others? Then you have no choice but to drink the blood.”
“THEN I’LL BE AS BAD AS THEM.” I fling my arm out towards Octavia’s office window. The curtains are closed, but the meaning is the same. Them in the club. The vampires. The ones in power.
“That may be so, but you’ll have a pure heart and all the power in the world to fix it.”
“Well, maybe that is the fucking problem. No one should have that much power.”
“Say that when this city is safe, and no more humans die needlessly. Say that when we have a taxable blood system—I bet you haven’t even let Octavia tell you about those plans, have you? Or the fact she wants to up the pay rates so that there’s enough willing donors that no vampire ever starves, and no human ever dies. Isn’t that worth becoming half the monster you fear so much? Isn’t that worth holding the power so you can do something good with it?”
That floors me. I knew this meant a lot to Octavia, but I hadn’t imagined she’d already thought it through so much. That she had plans and ideas solidifying into place, real tangible ways of making her dream come true.
I glance up at Amelia. “What if I can’t? What if I take that power and I’m no better than Cordelia? Than everyone who has ever come before?”
Amelia sniffs. “You’re being a coward. What would Mum say?”
“Don’t you dare use her name against me.”
She shakes her head and then freezes. It’s such a sudden movement. My skin prickles.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
Her head snaps to face the door. “Someone’s injured in the club. A lot of blood. They’re coming here.”
The door is flung open, and Erin comes barrelling in, holding the body of a limp man. Blood is pouring out of him, splattering on the floor like juice.
I instantly feel sick and hungry and deeply fucking confused. Amelia’s eyes widen as she takes in my expression. She wipes a hand over her mouth with a feverish swipe, and it takes me a second to figure out she’s miming about me. I close my mouth, running my tongue along my teeth. Whoa, they’re sharp. Way sharper than they should be.
Fuck. What is happening to me?
“Let me help,” I say. “Amelia. Rags, sheets. Get some O negative blood from the stocks. He needs a transfusion. I need the first aid kit. Lay him there. Do we have a vampire medic in the club?” I say to Erin, pointing at the sofa.
“Not tonight. There normally is at least one vampire who will donate in case of emergencies, but the designated one on duty tonight had to leave.”
Amelia is off and back before he’s even on the sofa. I breathe through my mouth and not my nose. The last thing any of us need is for me to lose my head at the first scent of blood.
