Page 147 of Eternal Ruin
He’d been such a fool.
“Leave,” he rasped again. The rushing of her blood was beginning to return, and soon, it’d become his only thought. “Before I hurt you.”
June Adane spoke quietly. “You need to drink blood. I’ll help you control your thirst, but you must have a couple of drops at least.”
GK shook his head, pushing back the bottle. “No… leave.”
It wasn’t possible to control the bloodlust that came from a death transformation and he wouldn’t risk it.
Her chin rose in defiance. “Then I’ll come here every day until you decide to drink blood.”
The words confused him, and he pushed out, “W-why?”
June was quiet long enough for GK to imagine puncturing her flesh with his fangs, sucking out the blood like an insect. His canines buzzed and he had the sensation of being bound. They begged him to set them free. His stomach cramped again, and he clutched it.
When June spoke, there was a steely determination to her voice. “Because Kidan will need you soon.”
51.
KIDAN
When Samson swept through the room later that afternoon, Kidan had her blood poured into a glass, and was reading by the crackling fire. Unlike before, the gusts of heat made sweat appear in the hollow of her neck. She was aware of every rustle and breeze, the sun outside pouring into Susenyos’s scrolls, the branches against the window. The walls of the house no different from her own skin.
Samson trekked dirt in with his boots, and without speaking, he downed the glass. It was only half full, on purpose.
Before he could bark at her for more, she said, “I have an assignment I need your help with.”
On the wooden table, the long red band she’d been tied up with Susenyos sat. Briefly, Kidan told Samson the instructions, trying to make her voice bored.
“Obey your companion for six hours?” His starless eyes moved with eagerness, roving over her. “Finally, this school is teaching you about true servitude.”
He took slow strides to the rope and secured his wrist to it. Kidan rose, tamping down the nausea she felt, and secured the tail end to her wrist.
Instead of expressing her usual rage, Kidan tried to lull the room into a warm, safe environment, drawing circles on her thigh. She tried to wrap the feeling around Samson, and could visualize it, a wash of color heading toward him, hurtling then—collapsing like a deck of cards. She frowned as the feeling retreated to her like snapped threads. There was a shield around him, made of darkness.
If circles wouldn’t work, she moved to her next symbol. Triangle. Rage.
At once, the glass flew out of his hand and shattered against the wall. Fuck. Wrong emotion to ignite.
“Arin’s missing,” he growled. “Have you seen her?”
Though panic jittered her bones, Kidan didn’t blink. “No.”
Samson’s veins, light green under deep brown skin, became visible. “And Susenyos?”
“I know where he is.”
He flashed closer to her, jaw flexing. “Where?”
Slowly, Kidan drew the symbol for trust against her thigh. Urging the house to coax it out of him but it was like drawing water from an empty well. Of course Samson didn’t trust her.
Obsculion needed the seeds of a true emotion.
“I’m going to tell you how to punish him,” she said slowly, fighting off the sudden shift in color from the house.
A slight spark ignited in Samson’s eyes, cautious, but curious too.
The seed she was looking for.
