Page 25 of Blood Lovers

“He will never love you.”

All of my thoughts pause. “What did you say, witch?”

“You heard me.” She’s growling at me, baring her teeth, her mouth filled with blood from my long drink. “He will never love you.”

I force a smile. “Ryet, you mean? Oh, my dear. He’s loved me since the moment we met. I am his bliss.”

“You are the Devil. You are not worthy of a man like him.”

“We’re talking about the same man here? Zecharyet Wagner?” This time I force a laugh.

“You think you’re stronger than us, don’t you, demon? But you’re not. And when you took my blood just now, you took my death too. And the next time he drinks from you, he will die.”

“Shut up, you bitch.” I pick her up and throw her across the room. My body begins to change as the anger inside me brings out the memory of the devil I am. “Lies!”

“Truth! You are killing him! And you can’t hurt me now.” She sings these words out. “I’m already dead, you see. You drank the dead blood, monster!” Her cackling laughter fills the room.

“What are you talking—” But I stop mid-sentence. Because I know what she’s talking about. “No.”

She’s hysterical with laughter now. “You’re still drinking, demon! You’re still—”

I wake up, the dead witch in my arms, my mouth full of black blood. Black witch blood. Rancid, foul, putrid, dead, black witch blood.

I spit it out, then vomit. It comes up, and up, and up. And my body, unable to retain the human form due to the poisoning, reverts back to demon form. Wings unfurl, clothes rip apart, claws appear.

I am at the door. Out the door. Down the hallway.

Echo is there. “What the hell? Paul?”

She has never seen me like this. Almost none of them have.

I need to get away. I need to dig, and bury myself, and heal.

But there are hundreds of humans here. Watching me.

Watching me be weak.

I stop on a small rise of a hill outside near the steaming-hot pool where dozens of naked humans are frolicking. And I look up at the moon like a wolf. I tip my head back and I scream.

It echoes through the night. The terrifying bellow of a demon.

My body is fire and I scream at the pain.

“And he hates you!” The old feeder sings and cackles these words through the night. She’s haunting my reality now. “He hates you, he hates you, he hates you…”

I need fresh blood.

I need her blood.

And I can’t have it until he has had her first or all these decades will go to waste.

I scream again.

And then the purple comes and I go… somewhere else.

CHAPTER NINE - SYRSEE

Fuck the world.