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“B-Blaire,” he stammered, and then inhaled sharply and groaned. “…blood everywhere…”

“What?”

He choked on a sob. “She’s going to die…”

“Calm down.” Shuffling sounded and someone spoke in the background. “What’s happening?”

“I’m so… thirsty,” Lukas whispered hoarsely as he stared at Blaire from across the room. His throat burned.

“Lukas… what the hell is going on?”

There was silence as Lukas sat staring over at his destined pair. Blaire was supposed to be his forever, not just for this brief time she had been in the academy. He was only just now starting to feel he had a chance of truly making her his. He hadn’t even begun to have her, and now she was leaving him by neither of their choosing.

“Lukas!” Aiden yelled through the phone, snapping Lukas out of his spiraling thoughts.

Lukas groaned again, slightly drunk from the smell thickening the air, increasing his need to have her.

“Lukas… by the gods, tell me what the fuck is happening!”

Suddenly, the sound of Blaire’s heart breaking through his haze slowed even further. He gripped the phone tightly, almost breaking it in his grasp.

“Hurry!” Lukas screamed into the phone, his voice cracking, before dropping it to clatter on the floor as he raced back to Blaire, kneeling beside her bed.

Aiden called out to him on the phone before the line went dead. Lukas hoped his friend came because he was barely able to function. He covered his face with his bloody hands as he tried to keep his composure, the scent of her blood filling his senses as he panted, hyperventilating.

Lukas barely registered Aiden busting through the door, then immediately staggering back, recoiling at the scent of blood saturating the air.

“What did you do?” Aiden yelled as he stepped into the room with his arm over his face, followed by Seth, who pulled his shirt over his face.

“What the fuck?” Seth choked.

Lukas growled out, yelling at Aiden, “I didn’t do this! I would never do this!” He took a stuttered breath. “I found her like this when I came back from your room.”

He looked up from his hands at his two friends in the doorway, tears streaming down his face through the blood. He was lost.

“Please…” Lukas choked on his cries. “Please tell me what to do…”

Riley entered the room. “What’s going on? I can smell blood down the hall and students are filling the hallway.” She shut the door, not seeing Blaire or Lukas yet.

“Why didn’t you close the door?” Aiden snapped at Seth.

“I wasn’t thinking, okay? How can anyone think with that smell everywhere?”

Lukas placed his shaking hand once more on Blaire’s face, needing to feel her. His thirst be damned.

“Wait, what’s going on?” Riley moved around Aiden and Seth and screamed. “Oh gods, Blaire!” She ran over and dropped next to Lukas, pulling the sheets up to press over Blaire’s arm, applying pressure to where the most blood was concentrated. “What happened?”

Aiden ran a hand through his hair and dropped his arm from his nose as he clenched his jaw. “I don’t know. Is she still bleeding?”

Lukas lowered his hand and looked at Aiden, his face weary. “I don’t know.”

“You didn’t check?” Aiden shouted, incredulous.

Lukas bared his teeth. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand basic first aid, but in his panic and fight against the thirst, he barely managed to keep his composure. Thinking clearly wasn’t exactly his strong suit at the moment.

Riley held Blaire’s arm tightly and shook her head. “I can’t tell, but I’m not taking any chances.”

“We need to contact the health branch to get help,” Aiden said. “It’s too dangerous to move Blaire in her condition with a hallway full of Vasirian. We don’t know what we’re dealing with, anyway.” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and cracked the door, slipping outside to make the call.