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“Well, Mom told me it’s possible Lukas’s blood will be appealing to Blaire on taste, but because she lacks the basic need of a Vasirian, she won’t crave it the way we do. But there’s a strong possibility if she were to taste his blood, she would want to consume it and feed on him in the same way we crave our own Korrena’s blood. That she too, could possibly become addicted. She said she wasn’t sure, but that was her suspicion.”

“I don’t think anyone will really have the answer to that until it happens, since Blaire’s the first human in this situation,” Aiden said.

Blaire made a disgusted face. “Yeah, I doubt I’ll ever be on board the ‘blood tastes delicious’ train. Sorry, but just… no.”

Aiden chuckled, and then Riley turned serious again.

“Listen, Blaire, I can say with complete certainty that Lukas is probably suffering…” She sighed. “He was completely within his rights to be angry by your outburst. You basically told him you’ll never do what’s required to be his pair the way it’s meant to be.”

Blaire glanced at Aiden, and he looked down.

“I’m sorry, but she’s right,” he mumbled.

“Dude. Say that again.” Riley giggled. “It’s not often you tell your little sister she’s right, so I have to milk it while I can.”

Aiden rolled his eyes before looking at Blaire seriously. “I couldn’t imagine hearing my Korrena say she had no intentions of bonding with me if I wanted her the way it seems Lukas wants you.”

“I’m sorry…” she whispered softly. She didn’t mean to hurt Lukas. “I just… I can’t imagine sharing my blood with anyone, much less drinking blood mysel—” She paused and covered her mouth with her hand.

Aiden stepped forward in concern. “Are you okay? What is it?”

“Nothing.”

“Oh, no way. Spill,” Riley demanded.

Blaire glanced away and fidgeted nervously, twirling the ends of her hair around her fingers. There was no way she could tell them about the last dream she had.

Riley frowned at Blaire. “Come on. It can’t be any worse than some of the other things you’ve shared with us… we’re friends. We just want to help.”

Blaire swallowed hard and tugged on the ends of hair that she wrapped around her fingers. She didn’t want it to get back to Lukas. She wasn’t prepared to admit it to him.

“Remember the dreams I told you about?” Blaire gave Aiden a sidelong glance. His brows knitted in confusion, but she didn’t elaborate. She wasn’t about to tell him how she dreamed nightly of being taken by Lukas in the dark. Talk about twisting the knife.

Riley glanced at her brother briefly and then nodded at Blaire. “Yeah, what about them?”

“I had one where I was…” Blaire ran a hand through her hair, the blonde locks falling over her shoulders in a messy cascade. “…where I was… bitten.” She took a breath, finally able to get the words out.

“Lukas bit you?” Riley shouted.

“No!” She looked at Aiden and sighed. “I dreamed he bit me…”

“What does that have to do with anything, though? It’s just a dream,” Aiden questioned.

Blaire swallowed hard. “…I liked it. I woke up wanting him to bite me. I wanted to give my blood to him willingly.”

“Holy shit… that’s… that’s awesome!” Riley jumped up and down in excitement, the buckles on her boots jangling and echoing in the empty hall.

“How is that awesome? I don’t wanna share my blood with anyone!”

Riley shrugged. “Clearly your body is on board and your mind needs to catch up,” she said, as if it was the most obvious solution to all of Blaire’s problems.

Aiden added, “It does sound like on some level you do know he’s your Korrena and you’re responding to him on a base level. Raw instinct.”

Riley nodded.

“Has anything else been different?”

So many things had changed in their dynamic, and a lot of it happened quickly once they lowered their walls with each other. She didn’t know what to address first, or if she should mention anything.