I briefly debate fighting him for it, but I don’t think I would win. I'm not strong enough. This is my second day without blood, and I was already weakened from getting only one blood pack a day. I barely sleep that night. The next morning, I’m not even sure if I can get out of bed. My gums feel like knives, and I can barely swallow; my throat is so dry. I’m so hungry and so weak. Somebody pounds on my door, but I don’t bother answering. A few moments later, the door opens. “Why are you still in bed? You have work to do.” I don’t bother forming ananswer, but Ajax stalks over to my bed and grabs my still-healing wrist. “Let’s go, Sherese. I can make this so much worse.” I glare up at him and wonder if it could get any worse. He must see that I have nothing left; I don’t care if he gets mad. “Fine.” He huffs a sigh. “What if I promise you blood?”
Thatgets my attention. I would do almost anything right now for blood. I finally climb out of bed. “Give me a minute to change.”
“Hurry up.” He walks over to the door. “Weakling,” he mutters under his breath. I don’t bother responding. I want to ask him how he’d fare if he were starving to death, but he wouldn’t know. He’s probably never skipped a meal in his life. It takes me longer than I want to get ready. I’m clumsy and feel like my limbs are too big for my body. I finally make it to the door and open it. “Finally. Let’s go.”
The hope of blood disintegrates when we walk past the blood room. I follow Ajax to the main room and regret ever getting out of bed. The lights are too bright, my mouth and stomach ache, and I barely have enough energy to get across the room. I collapse in my seat for my morning shift at the screens. “Sherese, pay special attention to camera seventeen.” I try to focus my blurry eyes on that screen. I frown at the person sitting in the room with a black hood over their face. “Intruder,” he explains.
I watch the screen for a moment, trying to focus, but it’s so hard. The faceless guy doesn’t stay in my thoughts for long because one of the super soldiers somehow comes out of his semi-conscious state and starts wreaking havoc. I keep my distance because I am in absolutely no shape to fight another one today. It takes a while for someone to get Ajax and to get him sedated. I don’t know why they don’t leave those stupid needles so we can do that when he and Rizo aren’t here, but nobody asked me. Ajax puts me on the clean-up crew, and it takes a good two hours to clean up the mess the soldier made. By then, myshift is done. I start making my way towards the exit. “Sherese,” Ajax calls out. I don’t bother turning around. I can’t. I’ve got nothing left. He grabs my arm, and I whirl on him, but the move makes me dizzy.“Let’s go.” He doesn’t release his grip on my arm.
“Ajax, let me go, or so help me—”
He releases me suddenly, and I fall forward. I can’t even catch myself. I fall on the floor like a stupid idiot. Fury burns through me. He squats next to me. “Or you’ll what?” he asks softly. He stands up, and I push myself to my feet. “Let’s go, Weakling.” Only sheer grit gets me back on my feet. Somebody calls his name, and he turns and walks back. I lean against the wall. “I’ll be right back. Don’t move,” he calls out over his shoulder.
As soon as he disappears, a thought hits me. I have an urgency to get rid of Ava’s blood while I can still function.I make my way quickly to the blood room. I know where the special blood is kept, the blood they took from the healers. Ava’s blood is in there. I find the plug for that special cooler and unplug it, and mentally beg that no one discovers it’s unplugged until it’s too late to save any of the blood. I hurry back to my spot and get there just before Ajax comes back. “Let’s go.” I follow him, plotting all the ways I would like to personally hand him over to the alpha of the Northwoods Pack. Nothing would make me happier. I don’t realize Ajax has stopped until I nearly run into him. “Ready?” he asks. Since I don’t know what I’m supposed to be ready for, I don’t bother answering. I follow him inside an apartment. I’m not sure what we’re doing here exactly. My confusion grows when I see Rizo. But it’s not until I see the chair in the middle of the empty room with a person in it that I stop. It's the person I saw on the screen. “Oh, good, Sherese. You’re here,” Rizo says in a rich, velvety voice. I turn to him, hoping to beg off on whatever this is. But the words die on my tongue when I see the expression on his face. He is not happy. I won’tbe asking for any favors right now. “I believe Ajax promised you blood.” His words light up the thirst in my mouth, and I almost bend over in pain. I’m so thirsty I can barely take it. “We’ve saved something special for you.” He walks over to me and holds something out. The smell of rich blood hits me, and I nearly bowl over. I reach out to snatch it, but he’s faster. “There’s more where that came from.” All rational thought leaves my mind. All I can think about is that blood.
I need it now.I will absolutely kill to get that blood. Even in my weakened, tortured state, something niggles at the back of my mind. Something about this isn’t right; there’s something I’m missing. But I can’t figure it out for the life of me.
“Now, Sherese, the blood is yours for the taking, as much as you want. You just have to do one small task.”
“Name it.” I barely recognize the sound of my own voice in my ears.
Rizo nods at the person sitting in the chair. Honestly, I’d forgotten they were there. They haven’t moved a muscle. Maybe they were already dead. I tried to remember what Ajax had said about the person, but I couldn’t recall. Rizo steps close to me. “Remember how you told us you didn’t help that healer escape.” My thoughts sober a little bit, and I try to keep a tether on my thoughts. I manage to nod. “Now is your chance to prove it. Prove it once and for all that you are with us and not working against us.”
His words ring around in my head, not quite landing and not making sense. “I don’t understand.”
Rizo smiles, but it’s cold. “You will. All you have to do to prove your loyalty is to get that blood you so desperately need.” That word lights up my thirst again, and my head hurts. There’s a headache building behind my eyes. He steps closer, and I blink so I don’t go cross-eyed.
Right now, I think I’d agree to anything. “Okay.”
“If you don’t,” Rizo steps closer. He runs a hand down my cheek, and I jerk back in shock. Then he leans forward and whispers in my ear. “I may not be able to kill you, but there are things far worse than death.” He pulls back. “Make the right choice.”
Then he leaves the room. I watch the door shut as shock courses through me and fear. I’ve seen the things the vampires have done, horrible things I want no part in. “All right, Sherese. Don’t forget that camera?” Ajax nods to the camera in the corner of the room. “Remember, there are many sets of eyes on this room, watching your every move.”
I finally find my tongue. “I don’t understand.”
“Don’t you?” Ajax asks patronizingly. “Let me simplify it. Drain him or become our enemy. Believe me, you don’t want that. And either way, he dies. So, you might as well do it.”
“I don’t understand. Why am I even—” And then he pulls the hood off, and my heart stops. Dark eyes meet mine, and the air evaporates from my lungs.
“Chop, chop, Sherese,” Ajax says, and then the door closes, leaving me in a room with Hunter.
I stare at him as my mind tries to take this all in. “What are you doing here?” I rasp out.
He stares at me with eyes so dark and intense, it hurts to look at them. I look down, but then my gaze locks on the thump of his heart, and I can’t think of anything else but that rich, decadent blood pumping through his veins. I throw a hand over my mouth and back up several steps. He doesn’t miss a thing. Those dark eyes track my every movement, and then he finally speaks. “When did they give you blood last?”
I close my eyes at that word again. I shake my head, unable to form words. My heart is racing, and I feel like it’s all too much. I can’t process any of this. I vaguely register him saying something, but I can’t hear it over the pounding of my heart.Panic has completely taken over. “I can’t do this. I can’t do this.” I can barely hear my own voice. Eventually, I become aware of another voice, a deeper one, a calmer one.
Chapter Forty-One
Sherese
“Sherese, Honey. Look at me.”
His words penetrate through the fog in my brain. I finally turn my head and stare at him. “What are you doing here?” I manage to get out, even though my mouth is so dry it feels like sandpaper. “You got out. Why did you come back?” I finally managed to meet his eyes again.
“You were here.”
I shake my head. “That makes no sense.”
