“You’ve never gone into heat in a room full of hungry vampires, I take it,” he says, shaking his heat.
“No, I usually go through my bloodheat alone, I?—”
And then it dawns on me. Chloe’s words.
I can smell you from here, Wes. You ain’t hiding shit.
His bitterness as he touted that he couldn’t help it. His bitterness now.
I stop abruptly, the motion nearly knocking us both over. And then his scent hits me like a brick. Hard, in the chest.
“Ivy—” His voice shakes minimally, but I can hear the lust in it.
“Chloe… she said?—”
“Don’t listen to Chloe,” he says as he takes a step closer. I note his sapphire gaze is dark. His pupils nearly blown.
“Come on, we need to get you back?—”
I look ahead, noting the forest. Chloe and I came through the path here, from the campus. I know we have to go back, but I feel strange and think I need to sit or lie down, or…
My knees buckle but Welsey catches me just in time before I fall.
I grimace as my fangs ache. My stomach twists and my insides are starting to cramp. Chloe was right: I am hungry. I’m starving.
“I can’t, I?—”
My body feels light and creaky, weak. My throat is dry and tight. I look up at Wesley.
“We were supposed to eat,” I say, trying to make him understand.
“Guessing you guys weren’t going for a tuna salad sandwich?” he asks, his voice faint yet heavy.
I grip his forearms, my fingernails digging into his flesh so hard, I think I feel blood.
Blood…
“Ivy…” he breathes my name as I look down, and sure enough, I see it. Tiny prickles of crimson against his flesh, pooling beneath my fingernails.
Time stops. Everything juststops.All there is, is the steady beat of my heart, the pulse of his blood beneath my fingertips. My aching fangs and the voice in my head telling me to feed.
I blink, my vision hazy as he settles his hands on my hips and pulls me gently.
“Come on,” he whispers. “Just a little further.” But I can’t let go, I can’t move my feet. My legs are numb.
I don’t want to hurt him.
Somewhere in my mind, I know that what’s happening is dangerous and if I’m not careful, if I give in, Iwill hurt him.
I’ll sink my fangs into him, and I don’t think I’ll be able to stop. Because his scent, mixed with the sharp, metallic tang of blood is more tempting than anything I’ve smelled in my life and that energy—the one that exists between us like a ghost—it’s heavy in my chest. Like a stone over my heart.
And I think… I think if I just have ataste, I’ll be free.
He grabs my hand, plucking it from his arm. My hand shakes and he slides his fingers between mine and squeezes.
“Ivy, look at me.” His voice is careful, low. Deep.
It makes my blood rush and my fangs ache.
