Page 41 of Those That Don't Exist

“I don’t understand your lack of fangs, but the way you look, under your glamour, isn’t normal. You’ve still got your strength because your body is feeding on itself. It won’t last much longer.” I hesitate over this next bit as I can see the freak out coming. “Red, will you try to drinking some blood for me?”

CHAPTER 17

AURORA

Even in my wildest thoughts I didn’t think he was a vampire. Murderous stalking psychopathic criminal maybe. A shifter living illegally beyond their boundaries even. Not this. I can’t believe they still exist.

Spending as much time as I do reading about them, of course I hoped some had escaped the persecution, didn’t mean I thought for a second they’d be hiding in Froan.

And me? I can’t be one of them. It's not true.

But it makes sense.The voice I’ve been ignoring makes itself known. The one that wanted David’s blood. The one that sighed in relief when Ty said the words, adding up everything odd about me since my accident.

Oh gods, it wasn’t an accident.Overwhelming darkness surrounds the thought.

But the strength, the lack of appetite, the ability to function on so little sleep.The figure I see in my nightmares.My brain has been trying to tell me the truth this whole time.

No. No, no, no.

Ty is still looking at me, waiting for my reaction to his last question.

Do I want to drink blood?I wish I had the sick feeling in my stomach, you know the one, when you must eat something you don’t like. I should be repulsed, the thought should make me ill.

It’s all absent.

I want it.

I want to taste it.

“I…,” I stammer, “I don’t know.”

I watch as Ty slowly moves across the bed, not towards me but to reach for his backpack which I’d leant against the frame. He pulls the bag onto the bed and sits up again slowly, having jostled his injured shoulder and ribs.

He unzips the bag, the sound jarring me, and reaches inside. My eyes widen as he pulls out two packets filled with a deep crimson liquid.

Blood.

It's blood in those packets. It's the exact ones you get in a hospital, the ones I remember being hooked up next to me for a time when they first woke me up after the accident -not an accident.I’d needed a transfusion to try and halt an infection raging in my body.

I fight the pull inside me wanting to grab the blood packs in his hand, they’re calling to me like a magnetic force.

“Sorry your first taste isn’t fresh but until you get fangs this will have to do. It’s not bad to be fair, just cold,” Ty says, holding one of the packets towards me.

I leap back off the bed as if it's going to explode in my face, but don’t take my eyes off it. The liquid inside is swirling around invitingly. I want to run, leave, but the hunger keeps me rooted to the spot.

“I can’t.” I wipe at the tears leaking from my eyes, still not taking my gaze from the packet in Ty’s outstretched hand.

“It’s ok, you’re allowed to want it.” Ty seems to read my mind, siding with the monster encouraging me to drink this. I look up at him again.

He looks a little more relaxed now, the pain in his eyes has lessened somewhat.

He’s not forcing this, he’s waiting for me to decide.

“Are you going to freak out if I drink some?” he asks, drawing my attention to his extended canines. “I could really use it to speed up the healing.”

I gesture at him to go ahead like it's a completely normal thing he’s about to do. Whilst inside I’m spiralling. What I’m seeing doesn’t seem real.

Oh gods, he has fangs, real fangs.