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“Yeah, me too,” Lukas muttered under his breath as he paced the room. “Is she going to be okay or not?” All the talk of a potential negative reaction had done nothing to calm his panicked state. He looked at the professor with a desperate plea in his eyes.

“She should be fine in a few hours, but I will stay and monitor her with one of the nurses,” the professor said, looking Lukas over, assessing his bloodied state. He still breathed heavily. “You, however, should stay elsewhere tonight.”

“What?” Lukas stiffened his arms and loomed over the diminutive professor, who looked undaunted.

The female nurse looked at him with sadness in her eyes. “It is probably more difficult for you than anyone else with this much of the girl’s blood in the air.”

That was a simple way of putting it. He was so unbelievably thirsty, and he just wanted. He craved. He didn’t even know what he wanted anymore. He ached for Blaire, and it ripped him apart inside. He was so scared, but he wanted to taste her, glut himself until nothing was left.

Shuddering, he bit down on his lower lip and one of his fangs pierced the skin there, blood running down his chin, his eyes focused on Blaire with intense heat.

The professor nodded and gestured toward Lukas. “See?”

Aiden placed a firm hand on Lukas’s shoulder, shaking him from his trance as Aiden steered him toward the door, whispering, “I’ve got you.”

“I’ll get his clothes and stuff,” Riley said as she rushed to the closet.

Stepping out into the hall, Lukas released a shaking breath, trying to ignore the burn in his throat.

Aiden glared at the students nearby. “Get the fuck out of here,” he growled at them.

Several students disappeared into their rooms while others farther down the hall stared at Lukas covered in Blaire’s blood.

“This is not good,” Aiden said under his breath.

Riley and Seth finally came out of the room, and they ushered Lukas and Aiden out of the building and over to Aiden’s dorm.

29

BREAKDOWN

As soon as they stepped into Aiden’s dorm, Lukas collapsed to the floor, his body finally giving out on him as he held his head, sobbing like a child.

Aiden rushed to his side, dropping to his knees, grabbing onto Lukas, and pulling him into his arms.

“I’ve got you. I’m with you, man… it’s going to be alright,” Aiden whispered. “I’ve got you.”

Seth looked down at Lukas in Aiden’s arms with a tense expression.

“I can’t do this. I can’t stay here. The smell of her blood all over him is too much for me to handle.” Seth looked over at Riley, who shook all over. “I’m sorry. I just can’t.”

Aiden swallowed thickly and looked at Seth with a nod. “I don’t blame you. I’m honestly on autopilot here. I had a packet not long ago… I’m… managing.”

With one last glance at Riley, Seth rushed out the door as Mera and Kai came in.

“What happened?” Mera took in the state of Lukas.

Kai narrowed his brows in confusion before adding, “The entire school is talking about Blaire being attacked.”

“Shit. How did it get around so damn fast?” Aiden muttered under his breath.

“The smell was everywhere… it’s not a surprise.” Riley shuddered and sat down on Aiden’s bed.

Lukas squeezed his hair in his fists as he cried against his best friend’s chest. He was losing it. This was finally it for him. All the fighting he had done to drive Blaire away, and the subsequent fall as he could no longer resist his desire to be with her, was all coming to a head. He was going to lose her. He couldn’t lose her. He barely registered what happened around him. What was being said, and by who.

Riley was at least explaining what happened, so he didn’t have to relive it until she broke down in tears, Mera sitting next to her to console her.

The small room was crowded, and he was suffocating. But in that moment of his collapse, his best friend, with whom he’d been irrationally angry for so long, was the only thing holding his sanity in check.