No, no, no—
But I’m too weak to fight.
His blood spills past my lips, over my tongue, and an urge takes over me. Something inside tells me I need to do this.
Ihaveto do this.
‘You’re home, Sloane. Drink! Become who you’re born to be,’the womanly voice in my head screams so loud I can’t ignore her this time.
It’s as if tasting his blood ignites an insatiable fire inside my blood, and I can’t help but swallow. My hands slide up, gripping his wrist, as I clamp down, drinking with a hunger I didn’t know existed. It tastes of what I imagine darkness and starlight would be, power distilled into something beautiful and terrifying.
The moment it hits my throat, everythingchanges.
My heartbeat stutters.
It stops.
My head throws back, as I let out a harrowing gasp for breath I can’t catch.
I’m dying.
Oh fuck, this is what death feels like.
The world goes black and silent.
No sound.
No sensation.
Just an endless void.
Then—
THUMP.
My heart restarts, but it’s not the same.
It’s stronger.
Deeper.
Each beat resonates through my entire body, pulsing in my veins.
My eyes fly open, and the world is different.
I can seeeverything. Every detail is in hyperfocus. The individual threads in Crave’s leather vest. The dust particles floating in the air. The blood, so much blood, and I can see the life in it, as though it’s glowing.
Colors I don’t have names for bloom across my vision. And the pain in my side is fading, replaced by something else—heat,burning heat that spreads from my core outward, following my veins with liquid force.
I gasp, and the sound echoes strangely.
Crave is staring at me, his face inches from mine, his silver eyes wide with something that looks like shock.
Horror.
Awe.
“What…” I try to speak, but my voice sounds different. “What did you do to me?”
