“Where’s Mic?” Blair demanded.
“I’m not here to answer your questions, Ms. Hanson,” Sorano snapped.
“Ma’am,” I tried to catch her attention next. “I didn’t feed yesterday. Will that be counted as my first night?”
“No. You’ll be released when everyone else is—unless you’d like to share your name and household?”
I pinched my eyes closed and swore under my breath. “No, ma’am.”
“I’d keep the hysterics to a minimum, too,” Sorano added. “If you piss off Gerald, he has the authority to terminate your session and boot you out of the program.”
The creak of the crypt door as it closed suggested that was all the explanation she’d be offering. We were on our own. Except for the deathly silent Gerald. Was he one of the duke’s guards? I wondered, having nothing better to do. Was he kicked back on one of the empty bunks, reading? Going through our personal effects?
No one made a sound. Sorano wasn’t one for issuing false threats, and testing the guard sounded on par with tapping out. The silence stretched on forever. I felt my wrist, searching for my watch so I could check the time, but it had been removed. The only way we’d be counting down our misfortune was by the rising and setting sun.
I pictured Blair pouting in her own box, and Emma attempting to meditate. Lotus position was a no-go, but I envisioned her hands folded over her chest, all Dracula zen. I wished I had my earbuds to pass the time. Instead, I closed my eyes and silently mouthed the meager Spanish I’d learned. I thought about the most recent things I read in the library. Then I thought about the last few conversations I’d had with Sonja. A lump formed in my throat as I decided that maybe wasn’t the best thing to contemplate at the moment.
I was no good at this game. Being alone with my thoughts never led anywhere pleasant. Every little anxiety came out to play. My mind wandered, stumbled back in history, and found the familiar face that served as the bittersweet backdrop of my conscious.
My mother.
She was lying in a coffin, too. Eight hundred some odd miles away. Though she was, hopefully, more at peace than I was right now. If she were alive, I wondered what she would think of this new version of me, of my thirst for blood and the nocturnal hours I kept. Could she overlook those oddities and still be proud of me? Would she think I was on the right path? Was I doing the right thing here?
I couldn’t tell anymore.
It was hard not to feel at least a little responsible for Sonja’s death. Things I’d been too shocked to feel or consider before came back to probe at my raw condition. Why hadn’t Sonja told me she was going to stay behind? Had she just wanted some peace and quiet? Was she afraid I would badger her with my ignorant questions the whole time?
Even though I couldn’t see anything beyond the inside of my own coffin, Mic’s absence haunted me. He was a prick, through and through. And Sonja had pushed his buttons more than anyone else. But…I just couldn’t imagine him going to such an extreme.
Every thought of Sonja conjured the grim image of how I’d found her. It was much too fresh in my mind to stave off for long. In the darkness, I could see her open, vacant eyes staring back at me. The raw wound in her chest was sloppy, like a hollowed out jack-o-lantern. I’d never seen anything like it in my time as an officer. What alarmed me most, though, were the two neat puncture marks lining the right side of her throat, as if she hadn’t struggled at all when bitten.
It didn’t make sense. I’d asked Sonja about blood rituals between vampires, and she’d expressed mild distaste for the taboo practice. The act made sense between sire and scion, and there were even…toys to assist in the act, like stainless steel fangs for half-sired imitation feeding. Blood sharing was less acceptable between vampires, but some mated couples chose to do it anyway. As for maintaining a healthy diet, vampire blood offered little in the way of sustaining another of the same species. Something about depleted platelets and oxygen levels.
There had been a serial killer noted in Kai’s law class who’d fed from his own kind before killing them, a depraved power play. The wounds he’d left behind, pictured in our textbook, were ragged from the victims’ struggling. Not clean, tiny holes like those left on Sonja. Even if she had willingly let another vampire bite her, it was most certainly not Mic Novak.
The festering questions plagued me all night, though, there was nothing I could do about any of it from inside a damned box. I longed for training to be over, for the feel of a badge in my hand and the authority to do something worthwhile again. I was tired of being told to let others take the lead and sort things out. To not worry my pretty little head over it. That needed to change. Soon.
The ache in my stomach didn’t let up, but as the sun drew closer to the horizon, I felt the pang of hunger punch more urgently, telling me my window of opportunity was closing. I rubbed my eyes, trying to keep them open just a little longer despite my agony, feeling courageous and proud that I hadn’t yielded and called out my name.
The next two nights were not so kind.
Chapter Sixteen
A vampire needs blood. It’s one of the few truths even humans who are not in the fold seem to understand about the species. Immortal is such a fluid term. On the one hand, sure, a vampire could potentially live forever. But, only if they drink human blood regularly, never go out in the sun, steer clear of silver, and don’t sustain too much heart or head trauma.
Mandy had warned me, shortly after we first met, that she’d heard of new vamplings who had gone full-on psycho after not feeding for a few days. I had less than six months behind me. Near the end of the coffin-lock trial, my greatest fear was that I would lose my mind before my stubbornness gave way and allowed me to tell the guard my name.
I nearly did tell him, but the jury was still out on how intact my mind remained.
The lights were too bright, and I was no longer in the crypt. I didn’t remember being moved. I didn’t remember waking after sunset. This felt a lot like a police raid in the dead of night, except I was on the wrong end of it.
“Necesito sangre,” I rasped. My vision blurred in and out of focus. Shapes took form, liquid lines sharpening as if they’d been drenched in blood. The world was a sea of burning red, slowly draining away as I emerged from the mouth of hell.
“What’s wrong with her?” someone asked.
“She hasn’t had blood in three nights. What did you expect her to look like?”
“Jenna, can you hear me?”
Their voices were distorted, as if they were underwater, or under all the blood just out of my reach. Where was it all dripping away to? I needed it. Desperation speared my heart. My stomach cramped, and I felt my lungs labor for my next breath.
A hand touched the side of my face, and then Sergeant Sorano appeared through the liquid haze. Her thumb slid over my cheek, and she pulled down the skin under my eye, shining a small flashlight at my pupil.
“Are you in there, Skye?” she whispered, real concern pinching her brow.
I made to nod, but my neck was so stiff. My jaw, too. I tried to move my arms next. My fingers trembled, and my elbows locked. I reached out of the coffin with all the grace of Frankenstein’s bride. A dry croak whispered past my throat, and Sorano eased out of my path.
“You just have to make it to your donor, and you can have a drink,” she said, eying the other bodies in the room.
My tunnel vision extended as I stepped out of the coffin, and I saw the base harem crowded around us, forming a narrow pathway that ended where Collins and Kai stood. I looked for Natalie and Sampson, but I didn’t see them anywhere in the room.
I shuffled a few steps toward Collins, still scouring the crowd for someone I could sink my fangs into. The eye teeth ripped at my gums as I tried to lengthen them. A trickle of my own blood dripped onto my dry tongue.
“You’re doing great,” Collins said, waving a steady hand at me. “I’m right here.”
I looked at him again, really taking in what the underground
training had done. Despite the span of his shoulders being wider, he looked haggard. His skin was paler, but his hair was a shade darker. It was longer, too, hanging around his face in unkempt tufts. I’d only been coffin-locked for three days, but my memories of Collins on the force with his golden tan and military haircut had played more frequently through my mind than this new version of my friend. This was my fault. He wouldn’t have been here if not for me.
I found my voice again just before I reached him. “Who?” The word was barely a breath from my lips.
“Me,” he said as if it were obvious. “You’re going to drink from me.” He pushed the sleeve of his fatigue shirt up and thrust his wrist out. The thin scars from where he’d opened his flesh himself and bled into a cup for me were all healed now. They ran in an inch-wide row just beneath the swell of his palm.
“No,” my eroded throat protested.
Collins nodded and tried to take a step closer to me, but Kai put an arm out to stop him.
“She has to do this herself. It’s part of the trial.” The vampire eyed me intently, as if trying to communicate something more pressing without spelling it out.
“Please,” Collins begged, his wrist still held out before him. His eyes glossed over, and he swallowed. “You have to. You’re so close.”
You’re so close. Was that a good enough reason to do it? My brain tried to launch a debate, but my stomach clenched, tugging me forward.
I thought again of Natalie, of how comfortable I’d become with her. When I fed at her wrist, I was thoughtful and gentle, creating as little pain and injury as possible. It had taken a few attempts to perfect the method, and a lot of advice and tips from her.
I didn’t want to be thoughtful or gentle right now. I wanted to bite down on Collins wrist like a savage dog and shake my head until his blood flowed over like a fondue fountain. I wanted every last drop of it. My breath rushed in and out at the thought.
Collins frowned at Kai’s arm where it lay across his chest. Then he glared up at the vampire. “I don’t care how big and scary you are. I don’t care if you kick us all out of the program. That’s my friend, and she needs me.”
“Wait,” I rasped. If I didn’t get it together, all of this would be for nothing.
I took another step toward Collins and reached for him, my fingers skimming the button of his collar. Kai moved his arm away as I closed the gap. I tried again to remember how this worked with Natalie, but as my fangs strained to extend to their full length, I knew this wasn’t going to be my best bite ever.
My fingers curled around Collins’ forearm, and I noticed the skeletal sharpness of my knuckles and nails. My fatigue pants hung loosely around my waist. I blinked a few times and licked my cracked lips before glancing up at Kai.
“Four nights,” I said softly. His brows knit together in confusion. “Ask Sorano. I haven’t had blood for four nights. Make sure that goes in my file.” I gave him a pointed stare as I sank my fangs into Collins’ flesh.
Collins flinched, relaxing a few seconds later as my saliva coursed through his system. His chest swelled, and he made a soft noise in the back of his throat as I sucked at his vein. His blood felt hot, almost too hot on my tongue. It scorched my throat, but I swallowed as fast as I could, hoping it would help me regain my self-control in time.
I tried to take only as much as I needed to function on a more coherent level. Natalie and Sampson were around here somewhere. They could finish the job before I incapacitated Collins.
When I finally found the confidence to extract myself, I pulled away quickly, gasping as if coming up from a deep dive. Collins clasped his free hand over the seeping wounds I’d left and blinked at me, his eyes dreamy and unfocused. I hoped it was from the endorphins and not blood loss.
“Are we done here?” I asked Kai, giving him another unpleasant, neutral stare.
He nodded slowly, a cautious frown dragging at the corners of his mouth. Sorano stepped up beside him and handed over a clipboard for his signature. He gave it without taking his eyes off me for more than a split-second.
“Good job, Skye,” Sorano said, sounding impressed. “You may spend the rest of the night with your harem. Be in the crypt by oh seven hundred hours for a program briefing.” She handed my watch back to me, and I took it.
“Yes, ma’am.” My teeth clenched as I struggled not to glare at her. Getting irate wouldn’t do me any favors. Not if I wanted to make it through the remaining five weeks of the program.
Collins put an arm around my shoulders and steered me out of the room. We were in the harem hallway, the one opposite Natalie’s room. As we shuffled across the long rug that led the way, Collins sagged more heavily against me, and we struggled to keep each other upright.
“I haven’t eaten in a couple days either,” he admitted. “It’s apparently a new trial in the human program—minor starvation and then donating blood, to prepare for emergency situations.”
My fury bubbled irrationally before I could contain it, and my fangs began to emerge again. Collins noticed and squeezed his hand around the cap of my shoulder, holding me in place.
“I had the choice to quit. They didn’t force it on me,” he said.
Five weeks. Could I stand to look at these people that much longer? And not tear out their throats? I choked back angry tears and swallowed, trying to reign in the wrath. This had to be the bloodlust talking. I would feel better after I’d fed more, I hoped.
“This one,” I croaked as we paused in front of Natalie’s door with the glittery raven. Collins made a face, but he knocked with his free hand.
The door jerked open, and Natalie’s beaming face greeted us, along with a burst of confetti from a cardboard funnel. Shiny cutouts of tiny, black bats and yellow, crescent moons rained down on us.
“Congratulations!” she squealed. More voices echoed hers, and I spotted the other three members of my loaner harem behind her.
Mandy appeared next, pushing past Natalie to reach me. “Are you…okay?” She grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze. Then her brow scrunched as she examined my thin fingers and arms.
“I just need to feed a little more,” I assured her, attempting a small smile. That only seemed to distress her further, until Natalie chimed in.
“Do you mind the audience?” she asked, already rubbing down her wrist with a wet wipe. “We can use Sampson’s room if you’d like some privacy.”
“No. Here’s fine.” I was far too hungry to fuss over modesty, and everyone in this room had shared blood with me before, so it seemed silly to think I should hide from them.
Natalie shooed Cara down to the foot of her bed and made a spot for us. Mandy held tight to my hand as Collins eased me across the room. He let Mandy take up his station at my side and headed for her dresser where a party tray of meats, cheeses, and olives had been laid out.
Natalie wedged herself in against the headboard since Mandy filled the space to my right, gripping my hand as if she might never let it go. She laid her head against my shoulder, her breath quivering with the beginnings of a sob.
“It’s okay. I’m okay.” I rested my head on top of hers, inhaling the earthy scent of her hair.
“Do you want me to…fill a cup?” she asked, sniffling.
“No, you’re in training. Keep your strength,” I said, turning to Natalie. She gave me a tender smile and held her wrist out to me.
I wasn’t as ravenous as I’d been with Collins, but I definitely hadn’t regained the bulk of my composure. To Natalie’s credit, she didn’t flinch or recoil when I bit down. Her breath was even, and she watched Mandy just as much as she watched me, as if concerned about stepping on toes within my true harem.
Mandy closed her eyes, and I heard her own breath hitch. She held tight to me, refusing to shy away even in the face of an exchange she had unwillingly endured too many times before escaping the Scarlett Inn. My blood boiled at the reminder that there were just as many scumbags in this world as the human one. It wasn’t shocking, but it did r
einforce a core reason why I was training at the bat cave in the first place.
After I’d released Natalie’s arm, and apologized for my uncouth indulging, my next request was an update on current events. “Is the duke and company still on base?”
“They left yesterday,” Sampson said. “They took the House Novak cadet with them. His donors are having their own party right now.”
Natalie stood to tend to her wrist, and Sampson plopped down in her place, eager to divulge the gossip and his blood. Every donor was different, experiencing the chemical reaction in their own way. Sampson pinched nervously at the whiskers on his chin as I fed from the bend of his arm. His wrists were too ticklish.
“The creep claims he was with a hooker the night that girl from House Starling was killed,” Sampson went on. He paused to wince when I unconsciously bit down harder at the mention of Sonja. “But no one else could confirm his alibi, and he’d already insulted Lord Starling once before, and was nearly locked up for it.”
“What about everyone else?” I asked, wiping my mouth with the back of one hand.
Natalie reached for Sampson’s arm and smeared a glob of her ointment on the holes I’d left in the crook of his elbow. “I think you were the first one they opened,” she said. “I tried to tell Mr. Blueblood that you hadn’t fed Saturday night, but I don’t think he believed me. I think he just thought I was trying to help you cheat or something.”
I ground my teeth and tried to push away the nagging suspicion that everyone in charge was conspiring to make training extra hard for me, the duke’s pet vampling. He knew it, too. But I’d show them all. Tenacity, indeed.
“Cain is feeding Blair,” Collins said around a mouthful of cheese. He balanced a paper plate heaped with food in one hand, but continued to pick from the spread, stuffing more in his mouth as he spoke. “I’m guessing the other two in my unit are taking care of the remaining vamp cadets. We all signed on for the fast and bleed trial.”
“Did the duke question you, too?” I asked him.
Blood in the Water (Blood Vice Book 3) Page 13