Narrowing his eyes, he tipped up the blood bag and poured out the small amount into the vial. The thick red river settled at the bottom.
I didn’t breathe as he tapped the final droplets into the small glass tube. If he got more blood on me...I honestly didn’t know what I’d do.
Tossing the empty bag into the biohazard bin, he stole the vial off me, screwed on the cap, and held it up to the harsh light of the fridge.
The gleam of scarlet, the knowledge that it was his—
“Here.” Grabbing my hand, he pressed the still-warm bottle into my palm.
I backed up so fast, I crashed into the bench. Looking at the awful gift, I stuttered, “W-Why would you give me this?”
His mouth twitched into a half-smile, drawn and tired. “Weren’t you just complaining I don’t give you a salary?”
I stared at him, trying to understand this man who must be clinically insane. “You’re paying me inblood?”
“It’s the only thing of value I have.” His eyes caught mine, something tight and secretive burning behind his exhaustion. “It’s worth a lot to those who want it.”
My skin crawled as I held something so intimately fundamental to a person’s survival, all while he reduced it to a currency that others would kill for. All I wanted to do was throw it away. Pour it down the sink. Stop him from having to submit to the monsters who trapped him here and drained him.
His forehead furrowed, sensing where my thoughts had gone. “If you throw that away, I’ll make you regret it.” Stepping into me, he leaned close. I wasn’t expecting him to get so near, to lower his head, to brush his lips against my ear.
All those needs. All that heat.
I bit my lip to stifle a moan.
I shivered as he whispered, “I’ve never given someone a gift before. Let alone something so sought after.”
Pulling away, he tucked black hair behind my ear, his fingers lingering on my cheek and sending yet another bolt of connection directly into my heart. “Don’t make me angry by refusing it.”
“But...” I swallowed hard, my cheeks on fire with how near he was. How scarily tender. How he made me react and feel andache. “I don’t have any need for it.”
“Yes, you do.” Backing up, he clutched his head as he swayed a little but then stood to his full height as if forcing himself to seem unaffected. He moved carefully toward the door. “It will help with your headaches and your other...complications.”
My mouth fell open. “You expect me todrinkthis?”
He reached the doorframe and leaned against it. His face darkened with annoyance as he turned to look at me. “Not all at once, obviously.”
“There’s nothing in this world that could get me to willingly ingest this—”
“You already have and it helped, didn’t it?”
“That was...” My mind filled with memories of his salty, metallic taste as he’d pressed his wrist to my mouth when I’d had a particularly bad attack. How Whisper had brought him to my rescue. How that was the first moment I’d felt something other than terror toward him.
“Just take a couple of drops and it will help.” Sagging against the door, he pinched the bridge of his nose.
I went toward him, drawn to his pain. “But how?Howdoes it help? Whoareyou?”
His head tipped up and in the time it took for him to don his mask, I saw a possession instead of a person. A man who’d been forced to bleed himself for decades. A man who was hollow and hurting, full of scars and savagery.
He sucked in a breath as if he knew I’d seen him.
Therealhim.
Seen his defeat and despair after fighting on his own for so long, chained to an existence he couldn’t end and couldn’t escape.
When he finally spoke, it was so low I almost missed it. “It’s not who I am,” he whispered, “But what they’ve made me.”
Something in my chest ached so hard, I almost doubled over.
