Page 23

V for Vendetta

WHEN MY EYES FINALLYopened, it was nighttime and I’d never been so thirsty in all my life. I groaned low in my chest before sitting up and rubbing my neck, throat dry and sore.

I’d never been sick, but I’d heard all about it from other kids at my school. Sore throats were apparently what happened when you were sick. Since my throat was literal fire right now, it was the only thing I could reasonably conclude.

Usually, my body regenerated at a rate that kicked viruses and disease to the curb before it even hit me with symptoms, but stranger things had happened recently.

So was I really sick?

My head was fuzzy, and it took a minute to figure out what happened before I got there. I panned the room and was confused when nothing looked familiar.

The curtains were drawn, keeping most of the light out, but moonlight peeked through a small section. We were on a mission, that much I did know. So, how did I end up here?

“Hey you,” someone said, startling me into action.

I was already crouched next to the bed for cover before I realized I’d moved. The speed was unnatural for me. I didn’t move so quickly that even my own brain had trouble figuring out what happened.

“Take it easy,” the voice said softly, the familiar face coming into view as Phillip took a step forward and turned on a light.

And it was instantly blinding.

I shut my eyes and warded off the brilliance with a hand. “Holy shit! What kind of wattage is that damn light bulb? Why is it so fucking bright?”

“Your body is transitioning. Everything is going to seem stronger for a bit. It’ll calm down in a few days. Are you thirsty?”

His tone was soothing, which worried me. Phillip never talked like that, not even when he was being a patronizing asshole.

Wait.

“What do you mean transitioning?” I blinked and finally adjusted to the light in the room after several minutes of trying. “No. You know what, start first with why you kissed me and made me swallow...I don’t even know what that red liquid was.”

Our kiss—the first official act of betrayal to my relationship with Nigel. Even with things basically over, it still hit me like I cheated. To me, moving on too fast was on the same level as cheating. I’d emotionally checked out. And for what, a kiss where the dude took advantage of me? A kiss shared with some bad boy Austrian who’d no doubt shared saliva with probably half the country’s population?

When had I transitioned to recklessly stupid, I wonder?

Phillip eased closer and gently touched my shoulder. The sensation was beyond anything I’d ever felt. I reacted audibly, breath catching. His palm dragged over the naked skin of my arm, and it was like I’d been hit by a bolt of lightning.

“Sit first,” the Austrian instructed.

Without understanding why, I did. “This better be good. I’m ready to throw a serious bitch fit, Phil.”

His rich laughter reached my ears, louder than I expected. “I promise it is. Rose wanted to wait until your eighteenth birthday, but with Anita’s reappearance and the circumstances surrounding her arrival, I couldn’t risk the wait.”

Confused didn’t even begin to cover what I felt.

Honestly, dealing with a world of new sensations stronger than anything I’d felt before was difficult enough. Now I had to decode what this asshole was trying to say after he rudely kissed me with blood or some kind of red substance in his mouth and made me pass out?

Myvery firstkiss to be specific. I may not covet many things, but that was one of them.

Ridiculous.

Phillip’s piercing blue eyes rose to meet mine, the distinctive coloration easier to make out for some reason. “I know you’re frustrated and confused, but I’ll explain everything. First, you and I aren’t just from a long line of Hunters. I mean, not really. We were genetically created in a lab with vampire blood to have certain genes that give us abilities no human has.”

With vampire blood? What?!

“You better be joking,” I hissed, not ready to believe him but already knowing in my gut he was telling the truth. “Are you suggesting they created us? But for what purpose?”

“It’s still not clear to me. But what I do know is that you and I were given the same genes, and that’s the entire reason I can activate your blood. Right now you’re transitioning. You’ll be able to do way more than before, and you’ll also be immortal. If my guess is right, you’re the first female to be born with everything that vampires have without any of the weaknesses. You won’t burn in daylight. Silver won’t hurt you. Holy water is just another form of water. You’ll require less sleep than most. You won’t even suffer life-threatening injuries. Best of all, you won’t need to drink blood the way vampires do.”