“Casey is changing. That feral vampire’s bite had venom. I’m not sure how. But I intend on finding out.”
“So... is he going to wake up and want to just, like, drink my blood all the time?”
“Well, his instincts will tell him he needs human blood. Newly shifted vampires need more of it at first. But he’ll want to drink yours for entirely different reasons, Daisy Love. Unfortunately for him, he’ll have to get in line.”
I blink.
Once.
Twice.
“Excuse me?”
Stark pauses then, and even in the dark I can see his mouth spread into a smile.
He looks even more dangerous now than before.
The kind of dangerous my grandmother would’ve smacked me for looking at twice.
My pulse flutters anyway.
Well.
That’s probably a concerning development.
I hear rather than see Stark inhale. Alek’s eyes flick to me in the rearview mirror for a fraction of a second before he clears his throat, his grip on the steering wheel so tight I hear the leather creak.
Before I can question him, Alek yanks the wheel and swerves violently, throwing me and Casey sideways.
I hit my head on the window, hard, making my ears ring.
A starburst of pain explodes behind my eyes.
Le fucking ouch.
“Hang on Kallie, we’ve got company,” Alek says, grunting as he swerves again, but this time I hold on to the oh shit bar above me while gripping Casey’s head so it doesn’t bounce around.
I press my face to the window. A revving engine, like a motorcycle—but no headlights, nothing, just pitch dark and whatever is out there moving too fast to see. I squint into the black. Are they really driving without lights?
I see glowing red eyes speed past, and the nightmare slams back into me—the wave of blood, the terror, the feeling of being hunted. Something sour rises in the back of my throat.
One second Stark is in the passenger seat; the next, he’s twisting over the console, his hand gripping my arm. Before I can react, he’s pulling me into his lap and wrenching the door open.
The wind is a solid thing, stealing the air from my lungs and trying to peel my eyelids back. The world is just the roar in my ears and the hiss of leaves whipping past.
“I’m sorry, Love, but you’ll have to trust me again.”
He doesn’t give me a chance to say or ask anything before he leaps, and the force of his movement rips my hand from Casey’s. One moment he’s there, the next he’s gone, left behind in the dark Jeep as I’m pulled into the rushing wind. All I can do is squeeze my eyes shut and cling to Stark.
I brace for impact, but all I hear is the shriek of wind as the world tears past us.
I crack one eye and immediately wish I hadn’t. Trees are slamming past on both sides, close enough to graze, the ground a dark blur beneath us.
Another wave of dizziness overtakes me, but this one settles low in my gut, roiling with a hot spike of panic.
“Stark. Stark, please stop. Too fast. I’m going to be sick.”
“Sorry Love, we can’t slow down yet. We’re being tailed. Can’t risk your safety.”
