I realized then how stupid I had been, leaving campus on my own without telling Tate or Julian where I was going and how utterly fucked I was now.
If I was lucky, I’d get out of this alive, if not... then here’s hoping someone cried at my funeral.
Chapter 28
Kyren
The blood in my glass tasted like shit. I’d been ordering from the same supplier for years, and they had never steered me wrong.
Until today.
I sipped it once more. Nope. There had to be something wrong with this batch. The very taste of it was an abomination to my senses. I wanted something else.
Maybe I should try a different blood type?
Dumping the thick liquid down the sink, I turned the water on to rinse it. A soft thud. My ears pricked up. What was that?
My head tilted slightly to the side, searching out for that almost inaudible sound. When nothing happened again, I went back to washing my glass.
That’s when it hit me.
The scent of blood.
A lot of it.
And not just any blood—hers.
I almost shattered the glass with how fast I put it down, my feet already ahead of me as it raced to the door of my private house in town. Nobody knew where I lived off campus, except for Tate. How did she even find me?
The door wretched open, and there she was. Leaning against the door frame, her dark head of hair a tangled mess, blood dripping from a slash across her forehead, those beautiful almond-colored eyes fluttering open and closed as she reached out to me. Her hand clasped to her stomach, where even more blood poured from a wound.
“Fuck, Jack,” I stared down at her at a loss to what to do. “What happened?”
“I...” She coughed and then moaned. “I... didn’t know where else to go.” Then those gorgeous eyes closed, and she slumped against the frame.
My head darted outside my door, looking for any witnesses before I bent down and lifted her up into my arms. She groaned in pain, her hand gripping the material of my shirt and smearing me with her blood.
My fangs ached. The scent of her life essence in such an abundance made my already hungry stomach growl with need.
I shoved the need to feed down where it belonged and brought the little hunter to the living room. Laying her down on the couch, I brushed her hair away from her face. The cut on her forehead wasn’t that bad. It would heal quickly on its own, but her stomach was a whole different matter.
Bracing myself for the onslaught of hunger her blood would cause me, I lifted her hand away from her stomach.
Jack had been stabbed. Based on the empty sheath on her thigh, it was probably with her own blade.
“What have you gotten yourself into,la mia?” I murmured to myself. With her quick healing abilities, she would heal on her own if I patched her up. Except... should I?
This woman, this Durand, was the very reason my sire was gone. The bane of my very existence. The whole reason I’d joined that farce of a college was to find this very woman and destroy her.
I hadn’t been able to do it before. Not after what happened with Tate and seeing her, wrapped in my shirt, tossing and turning in bed.
Now, here she was, like fate was giving me a second chance. Injured, vulnerable, begging for my help.
Who would know if I just dumped her body in a ditch somewhere and let her bleed out? My goal to hurt the Durandsthe way they hurt me would be accomplished, and I could move on with my eternal life.
And yet...
Andyet...
