I can’t move.
I can’t scream.
I can’tfuckingdo anything.
It has to be the nightwalker from the delivery room.
I squeeze my eyes shut, bracing for the sting of venom-filled fangs, when the touch moves away from my neck and brushes against the tattoo inked along my shoulder.
My gown is slowly drawn down, sending me back to thoughts of the moonflower vale, and I suck in a tight breath as panic flares.
The icy touch doesn’t pull the gown any lower. A steady burn of cold prickles the hairs on my neck.
I should peek and see whatitlooks like. Does it look like me? All I have to do is open my eyes and turn my head.
I desperately try to conjure the will to open them. Just a peek to prove this is real and I’m not dreaming.
My eyes open a crack just as something collides with my face. I bend forward, cupping my nose over the spot that pulses with pain.
“Shit, sorry!” Emily says as she crawls out of the vent. “I didn’t think you would still be awake!”
As I rub my nose where her heel smacked into me, I scan the room, but neither the darkness nor the unnatural cold is present anymore. I want to believe it was just my imagination, but I touch my neck where the tingling sensation lingers.
It was real. A nightwalkerwashere.
But…they didn’t bite me. They didn’t kill me.Why?Does it follow Serun’s Law?
Emily gently touches my arm. “Are you okay?”
I brush my blonde hair over one shoulder and glance up at the now-closed vent. “Yeah…” I turn to her. “How was your trip to Dan’s room?”
She shrugs. “The same. The lights annoyed me, though.”
“How so?” I ask as she scrambles off my bed and into her own.
“I always seem to bump into them,” Emily says with a yawn.
Either she was lucky enough not to encounter the nightwalker, or it wasn’t interested in her.
Could it know what I am?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
NIGHTWALKER
If a Feeder cannot give blood every week, they are to undergo medical checks for their health and wellbeing. Failing to do so will be punishable by death.
— Serun’s Law
“Haveany of you seen a nightwalker before?” I step under the stream of water in the shower and run my hands through my hair until it’s sopping wet.
Emily spins around to face me, her hands working to strip the suds from her hair. “My grandma has.”
Manni rolls her eyes and says, “Your grandma hasseenit all, Em.”
“Do you wanna know more or not?”
Manni and I look at each other, then nod.
