AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My name rips from Julian’s throat and my head swivels to find him. He’s standing just down the hall, hunched over as if in pain. “Watch out!” he bellows.
In the second I took my eyes off the old vampire, he managed to sneak up behind me.
“No!” Julian’s voice echoes off the walls as Count Byron’s fangs sink into my neck.
A sharp pain—so intense—radiates through me. It’s nothing like it was with Julian. Where allowing him to feed from me was exhilarating and pleasurable beyond measure, this chills me to my bones. A coldness unlike anything I’ve ever experienced races through my veins.
I barely register the vampire being torn from me, but as I’m lowered to the floor, my eyes meet Julian’s. Flashes of anger mix with extreme sorrow. Whatever happened has him very concerned.I’m dying.
“Katina, help!” he cries out.
The pain in his voice is unmistakable. I’m definitely dying. Somehow in this moment of chaos, Shante’s prediction rings loud and clear. Julian was right. This is the moment she warned him of, and I didn’t listen.
Your blood will bind you.
Her words are a whisper, floating through my subconscious as though she were here murmuring them herself. Intuitively, as if the knowledge had been stored somewhere in my psyche, I know the answer.
“Your blood,” I manage to barely croak out. “I need... y-your bl—”
I don’t have the strength to finish the sentence, but I don’t need to. Julian’s eyes widen before he tears a cut in his own arm and presses it to my lips. The tangy taste isn’t at all what I thought it would be. It’s not necessarily delicious, but it’s not disgusting either. I lap at his wound, drinking up every last drop of his blood that comes out before the wound heals over.
My stomach is full when the intense heat starts low in my belly and draws upward, growing to inferno levels. I roll over, heaving as my back arches and my entire body feels like it’s being contorted.
“What’s... happening?” I groan through the intense pain.
“What did you do?” Katina screeches.
“She’s going through the transition. I didn’t have a choice,” Julian shouts.
My sight blurs, but I don’t miss Julian falling to his knees, cradling his stomach, face contorted in pain. He’s on all fours, crawling toward me as his head falls back and a guttural roar rips through him. He manages to make it to me, cradling my back to his chest as I writhe on the floor of this hellish place.
“Julian,” I barely manage to say before everything goes dark.
* * *
“Marina. Open your eyes.” Julian’s desperate plea is practically shouted directly into my eardrum. I wince at the sound.
Allowing my eyes to open to mere slits, I blink several times to adjust to the bright glare overhead. “Can you turn down the lights? And while you’re at it, stop screaming,” I groan.
A choked sob draws my attention toward Maggie, who’s currently curled into Law’s chest. He strokes a hand down her back and coos soothingly into her hair.
“What’s wrong with her?” I ask no one in particular.
“You practically died, Marina. She’s upset,” Julian answers, hovering over me like a mother hen. “How do you feel?”
There’s a hint of anxiety in his tone that is less than comforting. Being bitten by a vampire—who isn’t Julian—was not a life highlight, but I’m breathing. Based on the burning pain that still remains, the old vamp took more blood from me than Julian ever has. My body will need rest, and, in this moment, I could use a lemonade.
“Like a Mack truck ran me over,” I grunt, bringing my hand to my forehead to wipe away the sweat at my hairline. I attempt to sit up, but everything begins to spin. “Ohh,” I moan, as Julian’s arms wrap around my body, steadying me.
“Take it easy, Marina. You’ve been through a massive transition. You need to rest.”
“You both should rest,” Law gripes. “You were in just as bad shape not too long ago, brother.”
The memory of Julian hunched over and then crawling to me resurfaces, and my stomach roils.
“Oh my God, Julian. What happened to us? Are you okay?”
“Don’t worry about me.” He shoots a lethal glare at Law. “I’m better than ever.”
