The man stepped on a patch of ice covering the sidewalk. He fell forward with a yelp, scraping his hand against the asphalt. A sharp copper smell blasted through the air as the man lifted his hand and looked at his now bloody palm.
Maya couldn’t help her reaction. Her fangs snapped out.
She spun in place, covering her mouth and nose. Her body shivered as that smell, potent andsudden, made an ache pulse through her jaw.
It was sosweet. Her mouth was watering, and she had to actively stop herself from breathing in deeper. From tasting the trace of blood flowing through the air.
“Maya?” Diana pulled Maya’s hand down. Her eyes went wide. “You havegotto be kidding me.”
The man grumbled out a curse and stumbled away from the alley. But thesmellwas still there. The spilled blood had already lost its vitality, but the stranger was still bleeding. Still close.
It would pass soon. Ithadto fucking pass soon.
“When was the last time you fed?” Diana said sharply. “If I find out I just sent a half-starved vampire into an overcrowded clubroom, we’re going to have a serious fucking problem.”
That word—vampire—was like a punch to the stomach. Maya had held the title for almost a year, but she hadn’t needed to deal with the consequences of it until recently. Diana might know that Maya’s reputation was bullshit, but she wasn’t immune to the stories that spawned it. She knew what had happened the last time Maya tasted living blood.
Scarlet floorboards and frightened screams. Fire and ravenous hunger that would have killed her under normal circumstances.
“I fed before we left Chicago.” Maya winced as she retracted her fangs. “I’m not stupid. I wouldn’t put anyone at risk like that.”
Never again.Neveragain would she force that pain onto another person, just because her fangs needed a fix.
“You can’t fuck this up,” Diana said. “Natalya is watching this job like a hawk, and since I’m in charge of it, any mistakes fall back on me. If you can’t handle it, then I need to knownow.”
“I can handle it. I was just surprised. It won’t happen again.”
Diana would have been affected, too. All fangers needed to feed on human blood, and therians were no exception. But unlike vampires, who had to feed almost every day, therians only needed to do it once per month.
“You sure?” Diana said, voice still stern.
Maya nodded. She forced on a grin, showing her now fangless teeth.
“I’m sure. See? I have it under control.”
Diana maintained her pissed-off expression for another moment. Then she sighed and dug into her jacket pocket.
“Here.” She tossed Maya a small plastic bag. “Brought this from the safe house. Just in case.”
Maya barely stopped herself from gagging at the sight of the blood bag. Since they could only visit St. Louis, they had set upat a safe house a few miles into Illinois. A small, secluded cabin packed with enough food and cooled blood to last months.
Her fingers tightened around the plastic. “Thanks.”
“Just treat it as sustenance. Makes it go down easier.” Diana patted her shoulder and backed onto the sidewalk. “I’ll do a quick check of the nearby buildings. Eat and don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.”
As Diana took off in a jog, Maya leaned against the alley wall and let the shadows wash over her. Though, it wasn’t really something she had tolethappen. The darkness clung to her as though sewed to her flesh, and no matter what she did, she couldn’t escape it.
Keeping herself from sniffing the air, she pricked a hole in the plastic and brought it to her lips, gulping down as much cold blood as she could before the nausea started.
It tasted dead. Metallic, cold, and lifeless. But as disgusting as it was, consuming it was a minuscule price to pay if it kept the horror inside her contained.
It would be a lie to say she hadn’t considered giving up on that. On keeping this undead body of hers alive. The only time that thought wasn’t present was when she allowed herself to forget about its source. The journey from Chicago to St. Louis would have been faster on foot rather than by driving, but getting queasy after spending hours in a car was a reminder of what her life had been like before.
If she was lucky, the next few weeks would be filled with more moments like that. She’d just be a bartender, making conversation with people who didn’t know how terrifying the world really was. How terrifyingshewas.
Snow crunched somewhere in the darkness. Movement fluttered in her periphery, making her turn in its direction as though her gaze was pulled by hooks.
The neighborhood was dark and quiet, with the main fixtures being the overcrowded Lucky Penny and the parking lot across the street, barely lit by flickering lampposts.
