The words hit me like lightning.
I froze. For a heartbeat, I thought I’d misheard him. “What?”
“You need blood,” Kit said, calm but firm. “And I’m offering.”
My breath caught. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am,” Kit said finally.
I laughed once, low and disbelieving. “Do you have any idea what you’re asking for?”
“Yes,” Kit said with a nod.
“Do you?” I snapped. “You think it’s as simple as me taking a sip? You think it wouldn’t change things?”
Kit held my gaze. “It already has.”
That stopped me cold. He took a step closer, and I could feel the warmth radiating from him, the pulse in his throat, the steady beat of his heart.
My instincts screamed at me to move. Either toward him or away, I didn’t know which.
“Kit,” I said slowly, “you don’t understand. If I drank from you?—”
“You’d get stronger,” Kit finished.
“I’d want more,” I told him.
“Then take it slow.”
“I could hurt you,” I said.
Kit smirked. “You’ve had plenty of chances to, and you haven’t.”
I stared at him, at the quiet stubbornness in his eyes, at the faint curve of his mouth. He was offering something sacred,something dangerous, and he didn’t even realize what it meant. To me, to any vampire.
Feeding wasn’t just survival. It was intimacy. Claiming. Trust. To drink from someone willingly and constantly, it bound you to them in ways that went deeper than blood.
“I can’t,” I said finally.
He didn’t look away. “Why not?”
“Because I wouldn’t stop.”
His throat worked as he swallowed. “You would. I trust you.”
That word hit harder than any blow. My chest ached with it.
“Kit, if you knew what it does to us, to me, you wouldn’t say that,” I told him.
“Then tell me.”
I exhaled shakily. “It’s not just blood. It’s connection. It’s need. When we feed from the same someone constantly, it’s not hunger anymore. Once I start, I’ll want more of your blood. Of you.”
Kit didn’t flinch. If anything, he stepped closer, his voice steady. “Then maybe you’re not the only one who wants more.”
The silence that followed burned hotter than any fire.
Kit meant it. I could see it in his eyes. He wasn’t afraid.
