Page 15 of The Unraveling

Victor furiously shakes his head, his footing shifting like he made himself dizzy. “Absolutely not. He will blame me for this poison.”

I straighten up, Daisy’s arm falling away. Though I can’t completely remember what happened, I know that assumption would be wrong.

“This isn’t our fault,” I say with absolute certainty.

“It doesn’t have to be. He will lecture me about my preference for immortal blood simply because of the mere fact this happened when we drank from Bradley. He’ll be so blinded by it that he will distract me from my research and introduce a bias! I’m perfectly lucid now and just need to study Bradley’s blood—his tissue—and I’m sure I can find answers.”

My lips purse, knowing he’s not completely wrong. “Okay, love.”

“Besides,” he mutters as he wanders out of the kitchen, “we’re both supposed to be long dead by now. The telephone operator would have me committed before ever connecting my call. Who do I even ask for? The ghost of Dr. John Smith?”

As he scoffs to himself from his study, I pull away to look at Daisy, who gives me a long stare and hisses, “Telephone operator? And he says he’s lucid?”

My stomach roars before I can respond, like my body is reminding me I desperately need food to feel better since my mind keeps tossing out the idea.

“I need to eat,” I tell her, staring up at the dining room table through the connected doorway a few yards away.

“You were insisting you needed a sandwich,” Daisy says in astonishment, like that’s such a strange idea.

“Yes,” I breathe, the word falling out of me.

She quirks a brow but helps me to my feet as I fumble, then guides me to the dark oak table. I grunt as I drop into a chair and plant my elbow on the table, resting my head in my palm to keep it upright.

“All right,” she relents. “But we were supposed to go out last night for groceries.”

My breath escapes me for a moment before I nod lazily toward the hallway—foyer in mind—and utter, “I went out.”

She scowls at me as she crosses the room, gone for mere moments before returning with the bag. “You went without me? I didn’t think you meant you bought sandwiches and snacks tonight. I could have carried the bag.”

“I managed,” I lie. Though I made it to the house, that’s the one time I actually needed her help.

She shoots me a doubtful look, digging into the bag and splaying the items across the tabletop. “Was Frederick working?”

I nod.

“How’s he?”

“I don’t know,” I admit.

She nibbles her lip, then pulls out a sandwich and sets it in front of me. “Did he ask about me?”

I can’t help my shaky smile. “Yes. He noticed you weren’t with me.”

Her cheeks flush pink. She lowers into a chair at my side and unwraps the plastic from the sandwich. “So he does think of me . . .”

Though it’s selfish, I nearly wish Frederick would be diagnosed with something so Daisy can have a chance with him. But, as Victor says, it’s counterproductive to offer treatment and a cure to a perfectly healthy human. Victor’s a hopeless romantic though, and has divulged that he goes out of his way for Daisy’s sake to periodically sniff out signs of illness in her crush . . . just in case.

I pick up the sandwich and stare at it in my unsteady hand. My stomach roils and sloshes at the thought of biting into it. Though the delicious memory of soft bread, ham, cheese, mayo, and mustard is clear in my mind . . . the sandwich may as well be wet, rotting bread with strips of thin human flesh pinned between. The idea of putting it in my mouth—the way it might feel waterlogged on my tongue—makes my stomach lurch.

“Just a nibble,” she insists. “If the worst that will happen is the venom in your body dissolving it, then what’s the harm?”

I wrinkle my nose. “It’ll be disgusting.”

“Disgusting doesn’t hurt.”

A cringe twists my face as I lift the sandwich to my lips and take a bite.

It tastes exactly as good as I remember as a human . . . and foul like dirt and rot as all food tastes to an immortal. Sweat slicks the back of my neck. My throat closes like my body doesn’t want me to swallow. My eyes water, but I gag and force the bite down.