Page 44 of Suck This

I bit my lip for a few long seconds, then released it.

“Having an irregular heartbeat means that every once in a while, my heart skips a beat,” I explained. “Say right now, for example. It’s beating normally, and then all of a sudden skips a beat. No big deal. Now, if I’m working out, my heart skips a beat every three beats. Normally, where that wouldn’t be that big of a deal, suddenly it is. Most of the time, no problem. But it only takes that one time for it to get out of whack at just the right time, and in an erratic rhythm. At that point, I would need to be shocked back into a regular rhythm again, or it could deteriorate. Maybe even fall into cardiac arrest if it goes on long enough.”

He just looked at me.

“So, you continue to work out, running miles and miles at a time with your heart at a continuously higher level, and see nothing wrong with that?” he asked carefully.

I shrugged.

“I did not save you, pull you out of that car, and give you my blood just to see you throw your life away.”

My eyes widened at the ferocity in his voice, and I finally made the connection.

The little thing that’d been nagging at me for days upon days since I’d first met him.

“It was you!”

His mouth tightened.

“Knew the moment I tasted you on my lips again.”

I blinked. “How would you have tasted me?”

His mouth was a hard line.

“Blood is blood, no matter if it came from the source or not. That night, after saving you by giving you my blood, I brought my fingers to my lips and licked them clean like one would barbeque sauce. And that taste has stuck with me for years, taunting me, until about twenty minutes ago when you freely gave it to me again.” He sounded like those words were ripped from the bottom of his soul.

“How… why?”

My mind went blank as I went back to that night. Not wanting to remember but the memories taking me under regardless of what I wanted.

• • •

“Cadia, seriously,” Milly snapped. “It’s not that bad.”

I looked down at the hole that I’d ripped into my brand new, hundred-dollar pair of jeans, and winced.

Again.

“Not that bad, my ass. I can see my freakin’ underwear for crying out loud!” I cried. “My father is going to have a conniption!”

She snorted. “It’ll be okay. Don’t worry your pretty little face.”

I grumbled under my breath.

“What was that?” my friend asked in exasperation. “I didn’t hear you over your inability to speak your sentences out loud.”

I bit my lip as I tried not to scream at her.

And had been succeeding at not doing so when lights filled the windshield.

One second, I was staring out the window at darkness, and the next I was screaming.

Glass shattered. Metal crunched. Screams filled the air.

Far off an explosion rent the air, and before long I was having a hard time breathing.

Something felt heavy in my chest, and I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t see.