Page 34 of Veradel
My breath comes out ragged as my eyes rove over his clenched jaw, the tendons straining in his forearm as he curls his fist, the rigidity of his posture. “But you’re already in pain.”
“But I’m giving my permission,” he argues immediately, as if he knew that was the retort hovering on my lips. “It’s not going to damage me long-term, like it would a human.” His voice takes on an edge of a growl, authority lacing through each syllable as we size each other up. “Now, I don’t want to ask you again, little nightmare. Drink from me until you’re fucking satisfied.”
Staring at him, I consider all my options.
I could bolt. That seems like the safest one—just run away in my new body now thrumming with a different kind of energy, until I collapse from exhaustion and starvation all over again.
But Lucan would catch me if I did, of course, and then we’d be right back in this same situation. And even if Idohave the potential for more strength now than I did as a human, every one of my bones and muscles scream in fatigue and weakness at the present moment, hunger still licking the lining of my throat.
I didn’t get enough blood. Not nearly enough. And until I do, I won’t be strong enough to defy his orders.
“Drink,” Lucan commands again, holding his bleeding arm out to my lips.
As soon as the smell hits, I can’t help it anymore. Denying it doesn’t stamp out the fire building in my chest, the deep urge tobite. His utter dominance over me coupled with the need formorejoin forces until I’m sinking my teeth back into his skin, pulling in the nutrients, gulping life back into me.
His blood doesn’t taste good, exactly, not sweet like how I imagine a human would taste, but it tastesright. If this is going to be my life from now on, I don’t want it to taste so sweet that I could get addicted. This bitterness seems to anchor me to the earth, giving me exactly what I need and nothing more.
But my stomach still buckles at the reality of what I’m doing.
Finally, when it feels like some strength has returned to the very tips of my fingers and toes, I wrench myself away again and wipe his blood from my mouth.
“I’m satisfied,” I lie.
Lucan peers at me for a handful of seconds, as if assessing my honesty. Apparently, he decides he’s satisfied, too, because he jerks his head at Taika, who hobbles forward with some kind of cottony material to press against his wounds. I open my mouth to suggest that they just wrap it, but when Taika removes the material seconds later, the pinpricks in Lucan’s skin melt away. As if his body healed it that fast.
“How do you feel?” Taika asks Lucan.
“No different than all the hundreds of times I’ve tried to climb the Wall.” Lucan’s gaze reverts back to mine. “How doyoufeel, Saskia? That’s the more important question.”
I flex my fingers, glancing down at my body. I’m still in that dress from Vivian, albeit with bloodstains streaking the front of it now, but otherwise, I feel like I’ve been doused with cold water and electricity all in one. Energy hums in my veins, a sense of invincibility whispering at me to run, jump, tackle the male before me to the ground and…
No. Not letting myself finish that thought with Taika in the room, although I’m vaguely pleased at the notion that I’d still rather kiss Lucan than kill him.
Aren’t we supposed to hate each other on an instinctual level? Maybe he does hate me now that he thinks I’ve turned into one of them—the Guardians. I look up and meet the amber of Lucan’s eyes, and I can’t read the worlds of emotions behind the mask of his tight-lipped face.
“I feel,” I start hesitantly, honestly, “like I’m truly awake for the first time in my life. But Lucan, I swear, I didn’t know. I don’t even know how this is possible—”
“The Thirteenth Guardian,” Lucan answers gruffly, picking up the fallen journal I hadn’t noticed until this moment. “He must have been your ancestor…”
“Who passed the vampire gene to my father, who passed it to me,” I finish, sliding a hand through my sweat-dried hair. “Arad said he didn’t want a bunch of little Guardians running around, but he didn’t realize he already had one—maybe several—right under his nose.”
“Don’t,” Lucan growls.
Taika stiffens at the sudden charge in the room, but I merely cock my head at Lucan. “Don’t what?”
“Say that parasite’s name in front of me. I only want mine coming out of your mouth.”
Every particle of my new body seems to freeze, as if the world hangs in the balance of his next answer. “Still?” I ask carefully. “You still… want me? Even though…”
“Still.”
His answer isn’t just firm. It’s the center of gravity itself, anchoring me to him even more than before. “Why?” I whisper.
When he leans toward me, the air crackles. “It was never a question of why, Saskia. It was only a question of how long. Because mere hours ago, I thought you were going to be nothing more than a stone corpse in ten years’ time—the blink of an eye, for my kind. Tenminutesago, I thought you were going to be dead by the end of the night. Now?” His lips drag up in a smile. “Now you’re mine forever, little nightmare.”
Tears well in my throat, but before I can figure out why he wouldwantto have me forever now that we’re enemies, Taika clears his throat.
“The others in the pack, however, might need some convincing.”
