Harsh Light of Day
Page 53
CHAPTER 24
Taking a long pause at the hotel room door to wrap his brain around everything that had happened, Will took several deep breaths even though it hurt his now bandaged ribs. The ER doctor wrote him a prescription for the pain, but Will didn’t fill it. He didn’t want his senses dulled in any way.
He realized seconds later that if he wanted a moment for himself, he should have taken it far from vampire earshot.
Annabelle flung the flimsy door open, luckily not allowing it to fly into the wall so the cracks in the plaster got even worse. This time.
“Ah,” she sighed, looking as disappointed as her inexpressive face could look. Will knew who she had hoped it would be. He also knew she could hear him, smell him, and sense he was human from half a mile away. She would have known it was not her boyfriend at the door. But she wasn’t being rational.
Lena still slept. Will was relieved to see he hadn’t been gone when she woke up. He wanted to be a part of whatever would happen next. He had to be. Will would do anything for her now. He didn’t have a choice.
Even though she clearly loved someone else. And the game had changed completely. Will didn’t even know who she was as a human. He realized she could be everything he didn’t like in girls, once the vampire in her was long gone.
But it didn’t matter. He was a part of her now. And always would be.
Like blinking, or breathing. It just happened.
“Here, I…” Will started, but couldn’t believe the sentence he was about to say. “I got you a bag of blood.”
Annabelle looked at him. She didn’t do it often. She barely spoke to him.
“That was…thoughtful. Thank you.”
Her face twisted a little as she said the words, and now they both felt uncomfortable. Will had apparently learned to read vampire expressions a little during his time with Lena, and in the Pit of Despair.
And Annabelle didn’t freak him out much anymore. Even though he was aware she could twist his head off like opening the cap on a bottle, he wasn’t in a constant state of hyperventilation when he was around her. That was good.
He tossed her the cold bag and chuckled.
“You’re welcome. But I had an ulterior motive.”
“What was that?” she asked, squinting a little. Will got the impression it was pretty strange for the little blonde to be interested in what a human was going to say. Or seeing a human smile. Or sharing a hotel room with two humans. Everything was very weird.
“I don’t want you to eat me.”
She tilted her head, still looking at him, and said softly, “Hmm, that’s funny.”
Will laughed, then grabbed his taped ribs when pain shot through his chest.
Then Annabelle’s canines grew and she ripped into the plastic. She wasn’t demure with it. She lapped and slurped and drops of blood dripped to the floor from her chin. When she looked up again after a big gulp, her mouth was completely crimson, slathered with bright red blood.
Along with the pain in his sides, the metallic smell hit Will’s nose, and he felt his stomach lurch.
He was lucky to have made it to the bathroom and closed the door before throwing up.