“That’s because you stuffed it through the shackles before diving off like you’re an Olympic swimmer!”
Mads must finally free my leg before turning around to look at me where I lie splayed out on the ground. Now that I’m down here, I’m not quite sure how to get back up there.
“Are you embarrassed about how you acted while being helped?”
“Not in the slightest.”
He raises an eyebrow. “I can run. You cannot. I thought you wanted to get home to Rylee. I mean, look at you, you can barely get up off the ground evenwithmy blood. As long as I keep stopping to drink, I can keep resupplying you with blood and get us out of here.”
Using all of the energy in my body, I push myself up to my feet. “I don’t need help.”
“Why?”
“Because Abel makes me kill every fucking person I’ve ever grown an attachment to. So if you don’t want to die, leave me alone,” I snap as I head off.
At least that shut him up. Maybe he’ll leave me the fuck alone now.
“Ah well,” he blurts out. Really, that didn’t quiet him down long enough.
“I went into this pretty sure I was going to die,” Mads continues.
“I’m ignoring you.”
“So if you kill me along the way, it’s fine. My chances of living through what I was going to do are pretty slim and getting slimmer by the day.”
I keep ignoring him as I walk and he finally falls silent.
But now that he’s not talking and talking, I have absolutely nothing to focus on but the misery my body is in. My arm is screaming in pain, my body feels weak, and I just want to get home to Rylee. And instead, I’m going to fucking die out here. Will Finn be able to protect her? Will Orin? She really likes them. But Finn is just a human, and does Orin understand the lengths he’d have to go to keep her safe?
At least I won’t die alone. I always assumed I would.
I stop walking. “I just need a minute.”
“I’ll get you more blood.”
“You’re risking your own life every time you give me blood. What if I lose control again?”
Mads says nothing as he leaves and when he returns, I’m kneeling on the ground. I don’t even remember how I got there.
“Can I just cut off my arm?” I ask plaintively.
“It’s in your shoulder and already in your bloodstream. I can try searching for more shards but given the state you’re in, I’m beginning to think it’s already fully expelled its poison into you.” He stills and I realize if he’s hearing something I can’t, then I really am fucked. “We have to move.”
I push myself up and decide that as long as I don’t ever care if he dies, then I can use him. That’s all I’m doing, using him, and he can use me. It’ll be fine if that’s all we end up doing.
He seems to understand as he grabs my arm, pulling me in and dragging me onto his back where I’m pulled back into the darkness.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
MADS
Well… this isn’t good.
It’s like when a wild lion chooses to trust you, you know it’s because it’s so far gone it doesn’t have the life left in it to eat you.
I move quickly and wake him only when I feel strong enough to feed him. It’s taking a toll on me, having my blood drained this often. Even consuming blood isn’t fixing everything when he’s taking more than I can get from these animals without killing them. A few times I’ve heard the vampires looking for us and have pressed myself against a tree, trying to remain quiet and keep them from noticing us.
Ender hasn’t said anything in a while now, so I’m not too concerned that he’ll make a noise.
