Sighing, I corrected the course again. “I hate everything about this, Aiko.”
He turned to me. “I don’t.”
THE CRAVING HIT IN THE MIDDLEOF THE NIGHT.
Horrible cramping moved out in waves from my very center. It was like no other pain I had ever felt before—a desperate clenching and a tingling in my gums.
My fangs.
I did what I could to ignore it. We were three days from North Landing, and we’d passed the middle of the scar midday.
Aiko was on to me, though.
He knew what was going on as soon as I doubled over at the wheel and fell back to the bench behind the wheel.
Jumping in front of me, he took over the steering.
He said nothing.
The pain would come in waves. Sometimes, I could bear it. Other times, I wound up handing him the wheel.
The land was clearer on the horizon, and we were so close to being back in West S’Kir where I knew how life was ordered.
I doubled over again at the next wave.
“Kimber.”
“What?” I snapped the words.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Doing what?”
“Denying your body what it needs.”
“I’m just trying to get home.”
He placed a gentle finger on my chin and turned me to look at him. “And then what?”
“I’ll…” My words trailed off.
What would I do when I got to North Landing? Try to find another who might give me their blood? Try to hold off for the men? Hope it would go away? Find another source?
None of that made a lick of sense.
I slumped on the bench.
A moment later, I crumbled into hysterical tears. Sobbing and gasping and doubling over in pain, Aiko managed to grab the wheel and haul me against his side, mumbling soothing words.
“I don’t want this, Aiko! Why did he do this to me!?”
“Because he’s mad,siqinira.He’s absolutely batshit insane. He also had no idea what you were. You’re a literal impossibility.”
“I don’t want to drink blood for the rest of my life.”
“It’s truly not that terrible, Kimber. It isn’t.”
I looked into his deep black eyes. “What if they hate me now?”
