Page 29 of Love Bleeds

Not that I wanted to. How could I?

Damian rose from the steps he'd been sitting on.

"I thought you were dead," I croaked out, the words somehow making their way out of my too-tight throat. "I thought you..." The rest of the sentence died on my lips as Damian frowned at me as if he didn't understand a single word I was saying.

"Did we know each other?" Damian might as well have pulled a sword and stabbed it through my heart. He had no idea who I was. Of course not. Vampires lost all their memories of their previous lives. I'd known that.

But...

For some reason I'd thought it would be different with Damian.

That there was nowayhe could forget me. We'd been best friends forever, we'd even built our first computer together!

My mouth opened and closed, but no words came.I didn’t know how to respond to his question.A simpleyes,seemed too small to describe the extent of our relationship. It would downplay the magnitude of what I'd lost when I'd lost him.

But what else could I say?

"We did, didn't we?" Damian averted his gaze. "I'm sorry I don't know who you are."

"It's not your fault," I blurted out. If anyone was to blame... My hands dug into fists at my side.

Damian looked in the direction of the bushes to our right as he pulled a phone out of his pocket. An old one, pre-smartphone era. He paused for a moment, as if debating with himself, and then, very quietly, he said, "You should leave."

Cold sweat prickled at the back of my neck. "You don't have to work with them," I rushed to say. "You can come with me. We have blood. You can have my blood." The thought of letting a vampire--even Damian--drink from me raised goosebumps on my skin, but what else was I supposed to do when it was my fault that Damian needed blood in the first place?

"That's..." Damian eyed my neck before focusing on my face again. "I wish I could take you up on that."

"But you can!"

He shook his head. "You need to leave," he urged, glancing at the bushes again. I looked too. Was there another vampire there?

They always worked in teams, didn't they?

"I have to report you to my sire."

My eyes snapped back to Damian. His sire? Who was that? And how could I ram a stake into their heart? Bile rose in the back of my throat. I never used to dream of violence, but the image of some vampire manipulating my best friend like a puppet on a string...

"I don't want to hurt you," Damian said. "Whoever you are. So you should leave."

I held his gaze. If I left, if he let me leave, he would get in trouble. But he would make that sacrifice for me, the way he always had, even though he claimed that he couldn't remember who I was.

Maybe there was a part of him that did.

Or maybe this was what he would do for anyone. Maybe it was just in his nature to look out for everyone else and put himself last.

Whatever the reason, I wasn't going to let him do that.

Not again.

"If you need to report me, report me. Just.... There's one other thing you need to do first." I licked my lips. "Bite me."