Istopped Kai’s hand. “No, that’s too much. I’ll do it.” Was he stupid?Werewolves died of blood loss. I wasn’t going to let him stand here and givetwo glasses away.
“No,you won’t. Vampires need your blood for other reasons, remember?” he ordered meand looked at Max. They were conversing in their heads, I could tell.
Maxthrew his arms up. “Fine! Why not? These are the good cuddly teddy bearvampires, right? Let’s help them,” Max joked, reaching for the knife.
BeforeMax could do anything, Alexa grabbed the knife and slashed her wrist, holdingit over the empty cup that the teenager had drained.
Kaistared at her with his mouth open. “Alexa!”
Shewas a wild card, I had to admit. After things had settled after Layla bit me,we tested Alexa’s pack rank. She was fourth behind Max. She was very dominantand did what she wanted most of the time but respected Kai’s authority.
Sheshrugged. “It’s not a big deal.” The cup was filled and Alexa watched infascination as her wrist healed. “Cool,” she said. She was still a werewolf newbie.
Theteenager was panting now and his pupils were pulsing. “I want the other kind ofblood,” he whimpered to Alek.
Alekshook his head. “No,” he stated firmly.
Alexahanded him her cup. “Bottoms up,” she said. He bowed slightly before taking itback in three big gulps. His pupils shrank, his cheeks were pink, and he stoodtaller.
“Thankyou, I feel much better,” Alek said politely.
Asa human, I had struggled with low blood sugar issues. I was always snacking.Sometimes I got dizzy or grumpy or confused if I didn’t eat. I wondered if thatwas how vampires got, too.
“So,you have some information for us.” Kai stared at the kid.
Thekid wiped his red-tinged mouth on his sleeve.
“Yeah,well, I was at a house party a few days ago and some really pale chicks showedup with some smack.”
Ilooked at Kai in confusion.
‘Heroin,’he told me.
Thekid went on. “I smoked weed a bunch of times but never did hard stuff. I wasn’tinterested, but one of the chick’s made me. Her eyes went all purple and shesweet talked me into it. The second the high hit me … she attacked me. Bit me.”His hand flew to his neck rubbing the spot where he was once bitten.
Kai,Alek, Alexa, Max, and I all had the same look on our faces. Rage. This was notokay! Bringing drugs and forcing them on teenagers in a house party wasnotokay. Mist began to creep off my skin and I took a deep breath to calm myself.I wanted to blast the roof off of this barn! If I was feeling wishy-washy aboutkilling the vampires before, this cemented my belief that they needed to bewiped out. Everyone associated with Layla’s drug-running clan would die. Angerrolled off of Kai and rippled through the entire pack bond.
Icleared my throat. “Go on.”
Hescratched his arms again; they were streaked red but quickly healed. “Well, I feltlike I was dying. She wasn’t letting go of me. I got dizzy. Right before Iblacked out, she said something about wanting to keep me. That I was sexy. Shedripped her blood into my mouth.”
Alekinterjected, “Get to the part when you woke up and heard the queen talking.”
Thekid slicked his hair back with a shaky hand and then sighed. “So, I wake up ina medical type of room and the door’s open. They don’t even know I’m awake. ButI hear voices coming from the next room. This lady is screaming and freakingout on some doctor for killing her baby. He calls her Queen Layla. He calms herdown and says if she gives him one more chance, he can give her a full-termhealthy baby. He tells her that her body was too cold to carry the child andthat’s why she miscarried. But he says something about her eggs being good.That it worked. He tells her to get more fertile blood and to kidnap a femalewerewolf to incubate her fetus in. He says a human will be too weak. A werewolfwill stay warm but can regenerate.”
HolyShit. Oh, holy mother effing shit. It’s like time had stopped. I stood therestaring at this kid in shock. I wanted to say a million things but nothing cameout. My mouth was opening and closing like a fish out of water. Kai had enoughpeace of mind to ask a good question.
“Whenwas that? When you heard the doctor and the queen?”
“Idunno, like, sometime yesterday? Day and night are weird now that I can’t goout in the sun. I ran off after that. I saw her feed off of him and I knewwhat I was. I had an insatiable thirst for blood but I didn’t want to hurtanyone, so I ran to the nearest blood bank. Found this guy.” He motioned toAlek.
Aleklooked sadly at the boy. “And I’m going to help you live the best life youcan.”
Thekid scratched his arms again. “I wanna go home. I want more smack.” His legkept bopping up and down.
Kai’svoice was deadly calm. “Where was this? Where was the lady who talked about herbaby?”
Thekid shrugged. “I was delusional. Somewhere in Pearl District, a warehouse.”
