Page 32 of Bitten Vampire

“You are still so new,” he says, glancing at me. “Still breathing. You have been an unregistered vampire with no clan for more than a month. How many bodies?”

“Bodies?” I echo, incredulous. “As in people? None. Do you think I’m out here murdering humans? I’m nothing like you or your friends.” We lock eyes. I’m doing a dreadful job of reining in my temper. This isn’t like me—I’m usually the one people walk over, not the one who fights back.

This beautiful manmakes me feisty.

“It’s less than an hour to dawn. I need to get you somewhere safe.”

“I just want to pretend today never happened and go home.”

“Where’s home?”

“That is none of your business. I don’t know you.”

“I’m the only help you have got.”

I grimace, ashamed of how I’m reacting. It’s nothisfault I was turned. I soften my tone. “I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be rude. I’m just… frightened. It’s been a lot.”

A knock interrupts. He opens the door a crack, speaks to someone, then closes it again, something small in his hand.

“Winifred, vampires aren’t clanless. To survive, you must belong. There’s no hiding and no running. You have managed so far, but time’s up. Let me help. Let me take over now.”

“Take over how?”

His phone rings. His shoulders tense, yet he ignores the call.

The weight of his undivided attention is on me. It’s disconcerting—like I am standing in the presence of a god.

“I wish I could give you more time, but you have run out.” He steps forward and looms over me. “Please forgive me. I won’t let anything happen to you, and Iwill notlet you fall into another clan’s hands.”

He blurs into motion. Gripping my left wrist, he flips it over and presses a small object against my skin.

A squeak escapes as burning pain shoots up my arm.

“Ow!”

Magic colours shimmer as a sigil sears crimson into myflesh. A bird… a crow or a raven sits on a shield, blood dripping from its beak.

He pricks his thumb on a fang, dark blood welling, and smears it over the mark. “You are now a member of my clan,” he says, calm and cold.

Ew, that’s nice and hygienic, bloody vampires.

“It hurts.”

“I know. It’s for your protection.”

I cradle my burning arm to my chest. “My protection? What about my consent?”

“There wasn’t time.” He extends a hand. “Come, I’ve arranged a safe house for you.”

I’m so angry, my fangs are pricking my lip, but my intuition is screaming at me to go with him. For now. Numbly and feeling completely overwhelmed, I put my hand in his.

Power flows from his touch, flooding my fingers—my whole body.

What on earth is that?It didn’t happen when the guards manhandled my wrist. It must be a vampire thing; he’s that powerful. I try to pull my hand free, but his grip only tightens. He draws me through the station to the underground car park, where a blackened car waits.

“You are not taking me back to that house, are you?” Meaning the house where I died.

“No.” That heat from his hand settles on my lower back. “Get in.”