The Alpha stabbed a button, and his hands tightened on the backs of my legs as the elevator’s doors closed at a snail’s pace. The lift was known for being slow in every way.
“Can you put me down? I’m bleeding all over your fancy elevator,” I said around my throbbing fangs, my hand still pressed tightly to the wound on my neck. My words were slightly muffled by my teeth. “I don’t think hanging like this is helping with the—oof.”
He set me on my feet in front of him, facing the back of the elevator. My fangs were only a couple inches lower than his throat, and I could envision myself biting him there way too easily.
I tried to shake the mental image.
I wasn’t a monster. I drank from the wrist, like any civilized vampire. Feeding from the throat was a sure way to channel the most animalistic side any vampire possessed and possibly end up killing—or turning—someone. Both of which were equally unacceptable in our society.
Cruel, on top of that.
Turned vampires could never learn to control themselves the way born vampires could. They were ticking time bombs—and they usually went off within a few weeks of being turned. They had a 100% death rate, because letting them live was too dangerous for humans.
For a vampire, turning a human would get you killed by all the people you loved, so it hadn’t been done since the war.
The elevator dinged as it stopped partway down. I was facing the back of it, so I wasn’t sure which floor we were on.
“Wait for the next one,” the Alpha commanded, hitting the button to close the doors.
A few people mumbled apologies before the doors shut again.
Maverick grabbed my wrist and pulled my hand away from the wound on my neck, pushing a few bloody strands of my tangled brown hair out of the way with his other hand. My ponytail was definitely loose after he tackled me earlier.
He glared down at the injury. “Why are you still bleeding?”
There was no point in lying to him. “I haven’t fed in two weeks. My system slows more the longer I go without drinking blood. I’m basically human right now.”
Weaker than a human, actually, but he didn’t need to know that.
“You just drained a full-grown man,Bloom.” He emphasized my name in a way that said he felt some way about it.
I kind of wanted to punch him in the face for the tone of his voice.
I also didn’t know how to punch someone in the face. Which would make doing so pretty difficult.
“I didn’t kill Steven.” I tugged my wrist out of the werewolf’s grip and pressed my hand to my wound again.
“Who did, then?”
I didn’t answer.
I didn’thavean answer.
“How many other vampires work in this building?” he pressed.
“None. I know all of the vampires in the city.” Sure, someone could’ve snuck in, but there would be no way for them to feed without it making the news. Werewolves, humans, and hospitals in particular knew exactly what it looked like when a vampire bit someone.
And they hunted us for it.
Just a few months ago, a woman from one of the founding vampire families in the city had been taken out by Maverick’s Beta, his right-hand man.
The Alpha scowled. “You’re obviously the murderer.”
He seemed significantly less level-headed than he had been in the office before he bit me. I guess finding a vampire really brought out the beast in him. He was definitely going to kill me.
And if he was going to kill me either way, there was no reason not to at least try to defend myself.
“I understand why that would seem like the answer, but draining the person everyone knows is my least-favorite co-worker would be the stupidest thing I could possibly do. I might as well just show up to work with a nametag that says, ‘Hi,I’m a Vampire’.”
