Page 87 of House of Crimson Kisses
Eleanor’s breathing is heavy and deep beside me. The rhythmic exhalations lull me into a reverie. My eyes flutter shut, and that is when the pain wrecks my body.
I lurch out of her warm grip. The loss of her heat is instantaneous. I roll away, a strange sensation trickling through my body. Everything tingles and cools until I’m shivering.
It’s a cold that leeches into bones and grows in graves. It creeps up my fingertips and crawls down my arms.
Inch by inch, my veins chill until they ache. I glance back at Eleanor, still sleeping sweetly under the stars. My eyes flick to her throat, the soft pulse of her blood through her arteries. My mouth fills with saliva. I frown, unsure why I have the urge to bend low and kiss her in the same spot where her skin flutters with the beat of her heart.
No, not kiss. Bite.
Bite. Bite. Bite.
Drink. Drink. Drink.
Drain her of life. Of magic. Of her blood. I want it.
Need it.
I slap my hand over my mouth and stagger back. What the hell is wrong with me?
I fall to my knees, my hand wrapped around my stomach as I lurch forward and throw up.
Eleanor’s eyes shoot open.
“What’s going on?” she says, her voice shrill.
“Stay back. There’s something wrong with me,” I say, putting my hand out to stop her from getting any closer.
I shake my head as a loud beating fills my ears. But it’s not like the roaring of blood in my ears when I’ve run across the city. It goes ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum.
I glance at her neck. The sound moves with the same rhythm as the flutter in her neck. I’m hearing her heart.
I have to leave. Thoughts of consuming her fill my head. She’s in danger, from me, and I’d rather leave and flee than see me hurt her.
“Cordelia, talk to me. What’s wrong?” she pleads.
But my body is getting worse, the pain wracking my fingers and arms is flooding my entire system. It’s like my insides are shrivelling, decaying, dying. And the awful knowing that the only thing that will cure it is her.
Not her.
Her blood.
There’s no time to kiss her. No time to say goodbye.
She shakes her head at me, tears flowing down her cheeks. “Don’t do this. Don’t go. Not after everything.”
But how can I explain what I feel in my bones: that I will hurt her if I don’t leave? I can’t explain what I don’t understand.
So I turn and run.
I run to the screams and pleas of Eleanor begging me to stay. Not to leave her. That she will do anything.
And then, just as suddenly, her cries stop and the woods are silent as I stagger my way through them.
I trip and cut my knee on a stray branch, but as soon as it bleeds, it heals. I scream in shock as I watch the skin knit together. What is happening to me?
My feet pound the dirt as I run and run, but after a time, I become aware that I’m not really running away. I’m being led. Drawn to the source of my pain. The magic that has bewitched my veins.
All night, I run until the sun rises, and my skin begins to itch and blister. I don’t understand why my body is rejecting the sun. But as my skin starts to bleed, I find shelter in an abandoned property on the outskirts of Sangui City.
