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Nadine strode to us, avoiding the blood. Pulled her head up by the hair and shoved two fingers in her mouth.

“Fuck.” She dropped the girl with disgust. I rolled her over to see her face. I needed… I needed to wipe the blood off.

“She was a fucking mortal.”

“What?”

I looked down at the girl.

The dead girl.

Fuck.

I hoped she was dead. Accidentally making a vampire was poor form.

ELEVEN

TIFFANY

He pressed his body against mine, his nose buried in the crook of my neck.

It felt… right.

And it shouldn’t.

It was almost too much, the sensation of pure comfort and belonging, belonging to him. It was as if every inch of my being was meant to be in this moment, my arms wrapped around him.

I should not be standing here with a stranger like this. My dumb brain was shooting out warning alarms. It could shut the hell up. This was more intimate than anything I’ve done naked.

I could feel him melt into me. The tension and pain that had been etched into his muscles slowly dissipating. Layers of grief and pain easing away. Other things, too. I felt wanted, needed, like his very soul was reaching for me.

He placed his lips to my neck, a shiver broke from deep within me. I bit my lip so I wouldn’t make this obscene by moaning. A stab of pleasure shot through me, sharp and crisp.Jesus. Did I just come? I gasped as that sensation moved in me, pulled from my center to his lips. It kept moving, to him, like he was searching for every bit of good, all the pleasure, all my happiness in me and drinking it in.

And I wanted him to have it.

I wanted nothing more than to give him all of it, to let him take whatever he needed. I could feel the boundaries of my being blending with his. It was impossible but I could feel him, his pain, his loneliness, and his surprise at wanting this, needing this so desperately.

A bubble of panic burst. Somewhere deep within me, I knew this was wrong, it had to stop or I wouldn’t be me anymore. Stinging need rippled through me. His need. And mine. It didn’t matter right now. Everything slowed, my thoughts, my breath. Tears pooled in my eyes.

I sank into this calm, the peace of being wanted, needed for the first time in my life.

TWELVE

LACHLAN

Nadine dumped her unceremoniously in the back of a nondescript van. She was just a pile of limbs, like pickup sticks. One bare foot hung out the back door.

“Her shoes.” Not sure I said that out loud. She should have shoes.

Nadine was busy dabbing a spot on her dress. The drugs, the blood, the panic, all swirling, making everything unreal. I touched her foot, testing reality. It was cold. I held on to the edge of the van, using will alone to make the parking garage stop spinning.

A door banged. I didn’t jump, but every cell cranked on, senses high. A short bald man hustled towards us, giving us space, avoiding the dangerous creatures. Good boy.

He walked the long way round to pop the hood. I could hear his grimy fingers running over engine parts. I cracked my neck, trying to pull back my attention, until his smell wafted over the van. A mortal. I wrinkled my nose. A mortal who didn’t value the practice of a daily bath.

“This is a bad idea,” I mumbled.

“A worse idea would be having a newly made wake up in a city of 9 million heart beats.” Nadine was still fucking with her dress.