Page 116 of Love Bleeds

"Is everyone else okay?" I asked. "Is Talon? He and Aldrich helped us and--"

"Everyone's fine," Collin assured me. "He got a few scrapes and bruises, but nothing that won't sort itself out by the end of the day. Vampires are pretty tough." He paused. “Like that vampire you chose to rescue.”

The bird! I’d almost forgotten about the bird! “He helped me.”

“We suspected as much, though he won’t say anything. He seems pretty out of it right now, to be honest. Crimson says Nicolai sired him too.”

“I didn’t know that,” I admitted. “You think he’s going to be okay?”

“Probably.” Collin shrugged. “Jared is keeping an eye on him in one of the empty bedrooms.”

“Jared is?” I asked because I could hardly imagine my oldest brother babysitting a vampire.

Collin shrugged again. “He volunteered for it. He was pretty damn insistent about it too. I bet there’s something he’s not telling us, but hell if I know what that is.”

“We won’t find out as long as he doesn’t want us to know,” I agreed. It was pretty much impossible to get information out of Jared if he didn’t want to share. "What about my friend?" I asked. "Savannah?"

"She freaked out. Or at least, that's what Aldrich says. She stormed right past him."

At least that meant she was probably fine. "I'll have to talk to her and explain."

"How do you even explain all this?" Collin asked, and for a short moment, neither of us had anything to say.

Crimson came back into the room, then, with a big bottle of blood and a smaller bottle of pills.

Collin took the baby back from me and vacated the chair. "I'll leave you two alone."

"You don't have to," I said, but he was already on his way out the door.

Crimson sat with me again. I took both bottles from him and popped two pills at once. They went down surprisingly easily with the blood. I decided not to think about that too much.

"Savannah seems to be okay," I said.

"I know. You should text her, though, to let her know we're okay too. The way I know her, you've probably got a hundred messages waiting on your phone from her already."

"True. But my phone blew up, and not with messages."

"Right. I forgot about that."

I smiled at him. "It does seem pretty surreal." I rubbed my temples. The pain wasn't as bad now as it had been when I woke up, but it wasn't completely gone either. I looked up at Crimson again. "You really remember, though? Everything?"

Crimson hesitated. "I know who I am and who I was, but... "

"But you've changed. I know. I've changed too. It's okay."

"I don't think I could even look Savannah in the eyes anymore. Not after what I've done to..."

I swung my legs out of bed and took both of his hands in my own. "You had no choice."

He held my gaze, but uncertainty shone in his eyes. "Even if it wasn't my fault, those memories are going to stay with me. He wasn't my only victim either."

"It's okay," I said again, squeezing his hands. "You're a vampire. You'll always be a vampire now. But I love you anyway." I didn't know if that was enough, but I hoped it was.

For a few beats of my heart, he remained quiet, searching my face. He opened his mouth, and I thought he was going to ask me if I meant it, but then he didn't. "I know," he said instead.

I stared at him. "I can't believe you just pulled a Han Solo on me."

He grinned. "What are you gonna do about it?"

I leaned in and shut him up the best way I knew how--with a kiss.

His mouth tasted like blood, but then, so did mine.