Page 36 of This Blood that Bonds Us

He’d tipped over an IV drip and was getting fake blood over the hallway. We bolted for the lobby doorway and fumbled ourway to the exit. I fell into a couple people on the way out, but we managed to hide back in the trees where we’d come from.

Once the hospital was firmly behind us, we collapsed next to the red and black mess we’d made in the snow.

“Uh. This blows,” I said. I was now sluggishandachy.

“I kinda like it,” Kimberly said. “My head feels . . . clear.”

“How’d we do, Burns?” Aaron asked.

“Perfect. I think that will be more than enough to put us on their radar. We just need to be ready when they come.”

I said nothing. I didn’t want to see The Legion again. Especially Kilian. If Kilian hadn’t been who he is, we’d never have been separated. So every moment my brothers suffered, how much I suffered . . . was because of them, and I wouldn’t forgive that. Aaron wouldn’t understand, but Zach would have.

“Here, let me see you.” Aaron grabbed my arm and inspected my wounds that were now closed.

“I’m fine.”

He moved past me to pat down Kimberly. “You’re okay?”

“Yeah. It wasn’t too bad.”

Aaron had that puppy-dog look again, and it was working. Kimberly wrapped him in a hug, and he kissed her forehead.

Pain radiated again in my heart deeper and more painful than it had been before, so I clutched my chest.

“Ah.” The groan didn’t come from me.

“Did you feel that?” I turned to Aaron rubbing his chest.

“Yeah. The ache got all intense all of sudden.”

I felt it again and had to put my hands on my knees till it passed. Like someone kicked me in the chest, it stole the air from my lungs.

“What the hell.” I could barely get out the words. Then it was gone again. The pain softened back to its heavy, dull ache. “I don’t know what’s happening over there, but it’s not good. That felt like a true Zach kick in the chest. What could be happening?”

The three of us shared the same worried expression. Kimberly’s eyes softened like she might cry, and my brother gritted his teeth. And me . . .

“We have to go.” I picked our empty fake-blood bottles up off the snow.

I didn’t want to be there anymore. I wanted to go home and lock myself in my room. I’d helped them with their doomed plan and needed time to think about my equally terrible one. Alone.

Sixteen

Aaron

It was bad again. So incredibly bad. Two weeks and there had been no sign of The Legion. Two. Whole. Weeks. In those two weeks, my hold on my humanity loosened day by day.

My skin crawled with need, and I couldn’t think about anything other than Kimberly and her heartbeat. And blood. I needed blood. I needed it so bad my hands were trembling.

I tried to steady them as I cut an onion for Mom’s stew. Kimberly and Mom chatted happily while Mom told her one embarrassing story after another.

She was being so cute and helping my mom cook, and I had to hide the fact I was staring at the back of her bare legs and imagining what would happen if I set her free in the forest and watched her run.

I licked my lips and continued chopping. All the while, the image seared into my brain. I was the equivalent of a feral dog waiting outside her door begging for an ounce of her, and it was impossible to think of anything else.

As my knife sliced another onion, I lost myself at her pale legs disappearing out of sight and into the trees. Her bare feet darting through the snow. Her body dodging trees while I pursued close behind. She couldn’t run fast enough. There was nowhere she could hide that I wouldn’t find her. The sound of her heartbeat was like a siren calling to me.

I wanted her.