Page 76 of Veil of Blood and Bone

Something ugly twists in my chest. You’re everything.

My shadows leach out of me, the gloom in the room increasing and a chill searching through the cracks in the windows.

I sigh, getting to my feet. “I think it’s time for you to rest.”

“I can’t rest. There’s no way for me to sleep now. Do you see this?” She lifts a shaking hand away from her mug. “The adrenaline is real. I think I’m losing it, because I can’t stop moving. My mind is going a thousand miles an hour, and I might have a heart attack.”

Her tone increases in volume, and Nicholas is there. He reaches for her, only to let his hand fall with inches to spare. Touching her would be a catastrophe.

Eventually he stares at her. Sees her. Big mistake.

Hunger instantly hollows his expression.

“Why would anyone want me? I haven’t done anything.” Her chin juts higher. “I take care of my sister. Sure, we’ve stayed in Nightshade longer than usual but it’s a good place. Or it was. It’s...it’s just...”

“Breathe,” he snaps.

She needs to breathe, because he isn’t.

“I’m breathing.” She sends him a nasty look. “I’m also freezing. Why am I cold now, but I wasn’t when the troll turned the town into the inside of a snow globe?”

“You said it yourself. The adrenaline.” Gods help anyone who tried taking her from us again.

“I can’t rest, anyway. Forest is in my bed, passed out. And Audra...” she trails off, her throat working. “You fed her blood. Odin, the immortals...I don’t even go to church. My sister is drinking blood, and I should find the nearest chapel and start praying.”

“She’ll be fine.” Nicholas deflects the way he does best.

He’s three feet away. Distance alone might save them both.

Every second near her peels something raw off his restraint. It’s taxing for him to face her, knowing what he knows in the face of her innocence. I wouldn’t want to be in his position.

Then again, I wouldn’t want to be in any of our positions.

Outside, a sheet of rain needles the windows. The drone dampens my senses and has me clenching the coffee mug closer like I’m desperate for warmth.

“You’re a vampire,” Helene says outright.

Nicholas goes dead still. There it is. The word hangs between them like a wound.

Well. So much for subtlety.

“Much better.” My smirk widens. “I think you’re getting it.”

“So what are you, Wren?”

The air shifts. The world pauses, my shadows surging back to me and feeding me information. What am I?

I’m the start of this mocking cruelty. And, potentially, its end.

Chapter 16

Nicholas

Mold blooms underneath the sink. A slow leak in the walls dampens the insulation, which is nothing more than sawdust and rags and anything the builders of the house had handy to stuff into the creases. This apartment is a tomb, and for too long, Helene and Audra have let themselves be sealed inside. By choice

Living, breathing, seeking the sun in a place where nothing shines. Any growth comes from sheer stubbornness.

I know stubborn things. Rot recognizes rot, and still she survives it.