Page 9 of This Blood that Bonds Us

I nodded and faced away from the mirror. His touch was gentle. So gentle it took way longer than it needed to, but I didn’t mind. After he finished, he blow-dried it with the little hairdryer strapped to the wall. I didn’t even have to ask. He just knew.

When it was finally time for me to turn around, he rested his hands on my shoulders and let me take it in. I didn’t recognize myself. My old life was truly gone, and I’d chosen every step that led me here. I guess that was part of choosing what you wanted.Sometimes choosing your own path meant staring the possibility of failure and ruin in the face. We were safe but for how long?

“Wanna go lay down? Presley’s in for the night.”

“He’s not in our room?”

“No, he said he’d get his own. Didn’t think it was worth it to fight about the money. I’ll make it up somehow.”

“We both will.” I grabbed his hand.

Aaron led me to our bed. The room wasn’t anything fancy. A queen-sized bed, couch, an old TV, and a mini fridge. I braced myself for the repetition of its buzzing but smiled when I realized Aaron had unplugged it for me. We turned on cartoons, and I nestled into his arms under the comfort of the blankets. The stench of hair dye was clinging to my pores. The curve of his bicep and the strength in his arms as he pulled me onto his chest relaxed me. I got lost in the feel of his heartbeat beneath my fingertips. Aaron Calem was the best foolish decision I’d ever made.

I’d say I felt ten years old again, but I never felt as safe at that age. Despite everything falling apart, Aaron’s warmth knit me back together from the top of my head to the tip of my toes. I closed my eyes imagining what it would have been like to know him when I was younger. We sat on a dock, kicking our feet over the edge into a beautiful sparkling lake. We would’ve met at the water’s edge every day, and he would’ve told me the most amazing stories. Fantastical stories about places and creatures I didn’t know existed.

“What are you thinking about?” He played with my hair.

“Running away with you . . . and what you looked like as a kid.”

“I was a nerd. Very skinny. Shaggy hair. My mom called it a mop.”

“Now that I could see.”

“I bet you were a know-it-all. The cute kind.” His lips grazed my forehead with a kiss.

“Yes, a little. I was quiet and mostly kept to myself.”

“I would have fixed that.”

“You would have.”

He buried his face into my hair. “I would have taken you all over Blackheart. You could have shown me all the cool secret places. We’d have run away together either way. I think it’s written in the stars somewhere.”

His arms tightened around me as he pulled me closer, and I nuzzled into his neck.

“I’m supposed to be making you feel better. Not the other way around,” I said, pleasantly smushed and oddly whole.

He was the one who just lost his brothers, with no way of knowing how we would get them back, yet he was taking care of me.

“You are. Trust me.”

Running away with Aaron Calem was written in the stars. It sounded like the first sentence of a really good book. One that I’d read over and over.

Five

Aaron

I wished I could’ve enjoyed it a little longer, but it was agony lying in bed with her all night. The first hour or two was fine, but the gnawing thirst came back with a vengeance. Like lead in my stomach, it pulled at my skin and brought me to my feet. The need to feed rolled around in my skull until I had to get the feeling to stop.

I couldn’t keep feeding every other day. We would never make it to our destination, and I would end up killing someone.

Drink. Kill. Drink. Kill.

The voice. The voice. The voice.

It was louder now. Always in my head. Was I going crazy? No. The queen’s blood wasmakingme crazy.

My head was a tornado as we packed the car I’d gone out to steal early in the morning. I’d needed something physical to distract me. It had been tempting too, to go off on my own and wait for someone outside. There were so many unexpecting people around who went out at night to do things like smoke a cigarette . . .