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33

ATTACK

Blaire, screaming his name, startled Lukas awake. He bolted upright and looked around, disoriented, in the night-dark room. The smell of Blaire’s blood filled the air.

Moonlight from the window illuminated the two figures over Blaire, holding her down. They were cloaked, obviously minions of the Order, as they would never do their own dirty work.

“Lukas!” Blaire cried again as she struggled against her captors.

Lukas flew out of the bed and grabbed one of the assailants as the other made a run for the door. Blaire shrank back into the corner of her bed as he took the hooded figure to the floor. He wasn’t going to let them get away, but Blaire’s terror kept him from striking with his fangs. He didn’t know if she was afraid of him, or them, but he had to protect her—even from himself. He wrestled with the person on the floor trying to get away from him, before he got a good hold on them, pinning them down. He wanted answers.

“What the fuck do you want with her?”

The figure said nothing, and Lukas couldn’t see their face in the depths of their cloak, especially with the room as dark as it was. The figure twisted, and pushed away enough to scramble to their feet, bolting out the door. Lukas growled and sprang up to give chase.

“Lukas…” Blaire called to him in a meek voice.

He glanced back at her as he panted heavily.

“Please don’t leave me alone.”

Lukas raked a hand through his hair. “Fuck.” He walked to the door and closed it, trying to calm down as he made his way back to Blaire, grabbing his cell phone from the nightstand and turning on the lamp. She looked okay, if pallid and shaky.

He punched in Aiden’s number as Blaire slid to the edge of the bed, grabbing hold of Lukas’s arm, and clinging to it where it hung at his side, burying her face against him. She was trembling all over.

Aiden finally answered the call with a groggy voice.

“The Order came again,” Lukas said with barely repressed rage.

That woke Aiden. He yelled through the phone, “Did they take her blood again?”

“Yeah, they got what they wanted.”

Lukas couldn’t see her arm, but he could smell the blood; he knew they had taken it again. “I couldn’t chase them because Blaire needs someone with her, but there were two of them.”

“I’ll be there soon. Want me to call Professor Velastra?”

“Yeah… I need to take care of Blaire.”

Lukas disconnected the call without a response and pulled from Blaire’s hold to sit on the bed beside her. He pulled her into his arms and held out her arm, which had a thin trail of blood running down it but had stopped actively bleeding. He inspected to see if they botched it like before. It wasn’t that bad, but… he swallowed hard as he stared at the blood.

Lukas tightened his grip and shuddered. He felt so pathetic. He was having a hard time controlling the urge.

“Does it hurt?” Blaire whispered.

Lukas looked up at her face with a raised brow. “What are you talking about?”

“I was told that being around me… not tasting my blood… could potentially hurt you,” she whispered, biting her lower lip.

He ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes. He didn’t know how to address this with her. He shook his head.

“No, I’m fine.”

Blaire glared at him, and he knew she saw right through him.

“I can tell you’re struggling. Stop being such an asshole all the time.”

Lukas looked at her with wide eyes, shocked she called him out like that. He sighed and stared into her eyes. “It’s not hurting…”