I needed sleep. Needed silence. Needed my instincts and thoughts to stop screaming at me for a little while.
By the time I climbed up to my room and fell into bed, I immediately fell asleep. I got at least a few hours’ worth until a sharp ache twisted through my stomach and ripped me awake.
I bolted upright in bed, blinking at the dark room before checking the clock. 11:39.
“…Seriously?”
A growl rolled through my stomach immediately after, and I stared at the ceiling in disbelief.
I’m hungry again?Fucking hell. It just won't quit. They really weren’t kidding about vampire appetites. I was basically operating on newborn feeding intervals.
My mind immediately drifted toward Rack’s room, remembering what he told me, but the memory of him gripping the stair railing earlier flashed through my head. The slight shake in his posture when he thought I wasn’t looking. Signs that I’d probably taken too much from him in the car.
He needed time to recoup, but I needed blood right now.
Throwing off the covers, I sped my way down to the kitchen refrigerator. This time, I was determined to try the cool puncture-the-blood-bag trick Calix had done. How hard could it be?
If I spilled, how did I clean blood off of marble?
Thunk.
Pain exploded across my forehead, and I stumbled backward, clutching my face, while the refrigerator mockingly stood there, unmoved.
“Son of a bitch!” Apparently, vampire reflexes didn’t stop me from moving like a baby deer on ice.
Grumbling, I yanked the fridge open and grabbed a blood bag. Right as I lifted it toward my mouth, a door slammed somewhere on the second floor.
My body reacted before my brain did.
One second, I was by the fridge, and the next, I was peeking around it, tightly clutching the cool blood bag in my hand.
A tall redheaded woman floated down from the second floor, her wings fluttering irritably behind her while her heels furiously clicked across the marble.
“You want this and want that,” she snapped under her breath while fixing her dress. “The glamor has to be just perfect… then to just leave me hanging?”
Her muttering got quieter as she reached the door.
“I wanted some of that famous Syndicate dick everyone drools over, not a damn paycheck. What a waste of my time. Dick.”
The front door slammed behind her, and a second later, movement caught my attention upstairs.
Calix appeared at the end of the hallway and slowly started down the stairs.
The white tank stretched across his chest, and the gray sweats rode low enough on his hips to make my mouth dry. Dark tattoos crawled down both arms while messy white hair fell across his forehead like he’d been dragging his hands through it repeatedly.
But it wasn’t his body that held me still. It was his face.
His shoulders hung lower than usual. Dark shadows bruised beneath his eyes, and even from across the room, exhaustion clung to him in a way I’d never seen on a supe before. He did not look like he was doing okay.
Stepping out from behind the refrigerator, I barely made a sound, but Calix’s head snapped toward me anyway.
He froze halfway to the kitchen, and something flickered across his face so fast I almost missed it.
Guilt.
The logical part of me latched onto it immediately.He doesn’t owe you anything. He isn’t yours. He can sleep with whoever he wants.
I repeated the thoughts over and over, trying to force them into place while my gaze darted toward the front door where the redhead had just disappeared. Something deep inside me stirred.
