Page 184 of This Blood that Bonds Us

“That’s it.” Luke lifted his head and pointed to the same house Kimberly was eyeing.

I rang the doorbell on a pink townhouse. It was past midnight at least, and I’d seen only one person walking on the other side of the street.

When a few seconds passed, I rang again.

“Presley, don’t.” Aaron groaned. Kimberly’s hand was wet with his blood as she firmly held scraps of her crumpled shirt to cover it.

“Well, we’re bleeding out here. Kinda need her to hurry the hell up,” I said, trying to hide the stress in my voice.

“It’s okay. Take a deep breath. It will work out,” Luke said. His best attempt at comfort in our current situation. I missed that.

“Says the guy that’s currently bleeding all over me! Ugh!” I pressed the doorbell a couple more times while struggling not to drop him on the cobblestone.

There was a soft stirring inside before the door swung open and the one named Aine appeared. “Fuck. Who is—”

Her eyes widened at the sight of all five of us bloody on her doorstep.

“Hi,” Luke croaked out.

There was black on the edges of my vision—I’d chosen to simplyignoreit—but I could make out her red hair.

“What is this?” she asked.

“Heard you had blood. We’re going to need it,” I said.

“Let Luke do the talking, Pres.” Zach groaned, clutching his side.

“What is all over you?” Her eyes remained wide.

“Wait, she doesn’t know?!” I scoffed in frustration, and we all almost fell to the ground.

“Know what?”

Luke opened his mouth to speak, but he was taking too long.

“We’re vampires. We’re dying and bleeding out. Yep, the black stuff is blood, and we just got back from killing the cult members on that island, and we really need the blood that you have. Luke said you’re the blood bank lady. If you don’t, we’re allliterallygoing to die on your doorstep. So can you please let us in?”

“Subtle,” Aaron muttered.

Kimberly cleared her throat. “Please, we don’t mean any harm. We just need a little help. This was the only place Luke knew to go.”

Aine’s eyes were huge. “It was real. The rumors were true.”

“Yes,” Luke said. “And it’s done. It’s over.”

“Yeah. See. Can we hurry? My brothers are super heavy, and I can’t hold them much longer,” I said.

“These are your little brothers you mentioned?” She appeared to still be in shock, which I didn’t have the time to entertain because my grip was slipping under Zach’s arm.

“Here in the flesh.” I bit my tongue. “Can we come in or not?”

I didn’t want to have to pick people off the street to drink, but I’d do it.

She nodded and held open the door. “Fine.”

Her house kind of reminded me of our house in Brooklyn, but I was too busy dying to admire the furniture. She led us through a hall into what looked like a guest room with two simple bedside tables and a large bed.

“You can all rest here tonight, but I need you out by the morning. I’ll go see what I can do about the blood.”