Page 7 of House of Crimson Kisses
I take another gulp of tea. Each one I drink makes me a little brighter.
“We don’t know yet,” Bella says. “Give her a chance. Quinn called me and said she found Red collapsed at the end of our street. I called Stirling, who got in touch with you and Scarlett. And here we are.”
“Why are you here?” Bella asks, patting my hand.
I frown at her and rub my chest. It still aches, though considerably less. But worse, the hunger is gnawing at my gut. The rising need for a piece of her. I’m never drinking blood again. I yank myself out of my thoughts and focus on Bella.
“Did you not consider, oh, I don’t know… putting some clothes on before welcoming me into the flat?” I say.
She pouts. “I sorely hope that if Quinn phoned you in the middle of the night and told you I was unconscious on your street that you’d drop everything and come running, too.”
I open my mouth to remind her she flashed nip at me, but have to concede she’s absolutely right. “You make a good point.”
“Exactly,” she says. “Now, what the hell are you doing here? I wasn’t expecting you.”
Between Quinn and Bella coming to my rescue, and the tea, which is now finished, I feel considerably better. The ache in my chest has eased almost completely.
“Okay, look. I realise I came here unannounced, and I owe you an explanation. But I need to get back to Sangui City before anyone comes looking for me. Is there any chance you can take me back to the tunnels and I’ll tell you everything on the way?”
“Who’s going to come looking for you?” Morrigan fixes me with her regal stare.
Suddenly I recall that vampires and magicians don’t mix, and me coming here without explanation when Octavia knows who Bella is was probably an epic mistake.
I stand up. “Bella…”
Her eyes widen as she takes in my expression. “Okay, okay, fine. I’ll throw on a tracksuit.”
She rushes off to the bedroom and reappears in about twenty seconds flat.
A few minutes later, we’re all on the street, Scarlett fifty feet ahead of us, scanning the street and darting this way and that. Morrigan, Quinn, Bella and I walk in a huddle, our voices low. Morrigan wears a cloak with an enormous hood that conceals most of her face, no doubt to hide from the public. Though it’s the middle of the night, I hope no one will recognise her.
“Things have gotten… Mother of Blood, I don’t even know where to begin,” I say.
“How about at the start?” Quinn says.
So I do. I explain how there’s a competition that the Chief agreed to run with Cordelia St Clair. I have to stop and explain a little of the vampire-hunter politics, but I get through everything, including the trials and telling them that whoever wins gets to run the city in the future.
I also tell them about how one of hunters is the dhampir who will bring magic back to our city. Though I don’t tell them Octavia believes it’s me.
My spiel ends, however, because Bella jumps in front of me as we reach a tunnel entrance, and I careen into her chest for the second time tonight. Thankfully, this time it’s covered by a hoody.
Bella folds her arms. “Nice try. None of that explains why you’re here, or why you collapsed.”
I sigh and sag against a bench nestled under a lamppost. Morrigan and Quinn sit next to me. Scarlett dives onto one end.
“You recall I hate vampires?” I start.
“To your very marrow,” Bella confirms.
I lean forward, put my head in my hands. “Right. Turns out… I don’t actually hate them all. Or at least, there’s one specific vampire I don’t entirely hate.”
“Wait. What?” Bella shrieks. “You need to say a lot more, and quickly.”
“It’s complicated, and… there’s more… I may have developed an addiction to blood.”
I can’t bear to look at them. Confessing makes my tongue taste bitter and my throat thick.
Bella’s face pales, Quinn whistles, and Morrigan’s eyebrows vanish up under her fringe.
