Page 67 of Love Bleeds

"Vlad?"

"Do you have his number?"

Crimson sat up. "Why?"

"Because he's attacked Nicolai once so maybe we can get him to do it again.” And because I would never get any contact information out of my siblings, but I didn’t say that part out loud.

"You want to talk to him?" Crimson swung his legs out of the bed and picked his pants up from the floor.

"If it gets me closer to killing Nicolai, then yes."

Crimson stopped and stared at me.

Why was it so difficult for everyone to believe that I wanted this vampire dead? It was true that I never used to wish bad things on anyone, but Nicolai?

For what he'd done to Damian, I hoped he would roast in hell for all of eternity.

"I don't know if you should talk to Vlad," Crimson said, but he pulled his phone out of his pants. "There’s something off about him.” Crimson tapped on the buttons of his phone, searching for the number. “Oh,” he said after a moment. “The number must have been saved on the SIM card.”

“And you’ve changed your…?” I stopped, because of course Crimson wasn’t using the same card his sire had given him anymore.Shit.

“I’m sorry,” Crimson said.

“It’s not your fault.” I exhaled, feeling myself deflate a bit, faced by dead ends all around me.

"Do you really think we should team up with Vlad?"

"I'm willing to consider every option. Aren't you?"

"Not if it might get you hurt."

That gave me pause. "You don't have to worry about me." I climbed on the mattress with Crimson. "I'm so tired of people worrying about me."

"I can't help it. I love you. I threw myself in front of vampires for you, and I would do it again."

"But I don't want you to!" The words came out a little more emphatic than I'd intended. Of course I felt grateful to Crimson for what he'd done, but I also wished he'd never done it. "Don't you see I want you to be safe the same way you want me to be safe? When I thought you were dead, I..." I stopped, because I didn't even know how to put all the things I'd felt into words. The panic, the guilt, the grief, the anger... "I can't go through that again," I finished lamely.

"I'm sorry." Crimson inched closer to me. "Not for what I did, but for putting you through all that."

I didn't lie and say that it was okay. Instead, I said nothing at all.

In the end, what was there to say, really? He was sorry. I was sorry....

"Didn't we agree to stop apologizing?" I asked.

"I guess we did." A small smile graced Crimson's lips, but then he glanced at his phone again. "I still think contacting Vlad would be a bad idea."

"I just want to get things moving. You're getting really pale, and that worries me," I admitted, because it was true. I couldn't help but think of my brother, Collin. He'd looked kind of similar when he was pregnant but we hadn't realized he was pregnant and Nix was using up his blood supplies to grow. He'd become sick then.

I didn't want Crimson to become sick.

"I'm fine," he said.

I was pretty sure he was lying just the same way I had been every time I'd said that over the past couple of months.

But what could I do?

I needed to come up with another plan.