* * *
It wasdark when Lance fell asleep.Nix wanted to pass out beside him but couldn’t.It wasn’t safe.He forced himself out of the bed, his body lethargic and aching from too much biting and sex.By the door, he retrieved his pajamas and dressed, careful not to wake Lance, knowing that now he was fed and sated, his body would finish processing the change.He paused before opening the door, stealing a last look at his lover, wishing he could spend the night and wake up in Lance’s arms.The bite marks that hadn’t healed throbbed, and he smiled.Another night.
He slipped out of the room and closed the door.He nodded, and the guard locked it, ready for day five.Nix stumbled into his own bed, too tired for any nightmare to intrude.
ChapterThirty-Five
Lance jerked awake,his fingers curled and heart pumping.Rage flooded his veins like acid, and his fangs ached to carve into flesh.He reached out, but the bed was empty.He snarled and flung off the sheets so he could find Nix and drag him back to bed.But Nix wasn’t in the room.
He flexed his fingers and made tighter fists.He needed blood.The taste was thick on his tongue, but he remembered the way Nix had pulled away before eventually succumbing.
But he’d left.
Nix hated him and what he’d become.
His fangs cut his lip.The roof of his mouth hurt.His body hurt.He scratched his arms, needing to spill blood.What was wrong with him?Wasn’t he supposed to be getting better?
He turned the door handle, but it wouldn’t open.He shook it.“Let me out.”
There was someone out there.Their heartbeat echoed in his skull.
He stalked to the window and flung open the curtains.Dawn light spilled between the bars.His room was a prison.
His pulse thumped.A headache bloomed in his temples and spread.He dragged the curtains closed before the light could add to his discomfort.He glared at the bed that smelled like blood and sex.He wanted more.But he couldn’t stand to be touched.
Every mark Nix had left on his skin was sore and open.
Shouldn’t he be healing faster?
What had they done to him?
The heartbeat outside the door was joined by another, so he banged on the door again.“Let me out.”
His knuckles bled.How hard had he hit the door?In that moment, he didn’t care.He kept hitting it because it felt good.When the bastards outside wouldn’t open the door, he started yelling at them.At Nix for leaving him.The Reids for locking him up like he was an animal and his family for abandoning him.He tore the sheets from the bed, and even though he was aware he was ranting and howling like a possessed man, he couldn’t stop.
At the back of his mind, he knew he didn’t really hate Nix, but in that moment, he did, and if Nix had been there, they would’ve fought, and he’d have been just as strong.Nix wouldn’t be able to push him away anymore.He sniffed the pillow Nix had used, then tore it in half, watching the feathers fall to the floor.
Nix wasn’t coming.No one was.He yelled until his throat ripped.
* * *
Nix leanedhis head against the door, his arms resting over his knees.He’d gotten dressed in the track pants and T-shirt that had been left in his room for the occasion even though he didn’t think anyone would’ve cared if he’d hidden in his room and recovered.Today, his stomach was a shiny, thick scar with new muscle forming beneath, which was a vast improvement.The bite marks were healing, even the deep ones on his ass—which he had enjoyed far more than he should’ve, mostly because Lance’s tongue had been everywhere.After finding the lube in the room, the safe biting lesson had fallen to the wayside, but Lance had remained in control enough to bite only where he was allowed.
That control had vanished today.
He closed his eyes as Lance launched into another round of abuse aimed at him.He’d sat guard for one of his cousins and knew this was normal—though Nix couldn’t remember exactly what he’d said on his day five, only that the trust between he and his mother had been irrevocably broken.
There was always a guard just in case the new vampire broke down the door and started on a rampage.New vampires were dangerous, wild beasts, but there was truth to what they said.Lance would be questioned before he was accepted by the Reids even though he was Reid by blood now.
The click of heels along the corridor made Nix open his eyes.He sat up straighter as Ann Reid, the family matriarch, stopped in front of him.This was the woman who’d been in the room when he’d first woken and when he’d drained Lance.A few steps behind her was Garrick.
“You don’t need to be here.That’s what he’s for,” she said, nodding at the guard who was working on his crossword skills.
“Yeah, I do.”He stared up at her.Her dark hair was streaked with gray, and the lines around her eyes might have been friendly if she’d been smiling.
“Your loyalty is admirable, but we need to talk.”She indicated for him to follow and took two steps, then glanced over her shoulder.
Nix was already getting up, though not quick enough—the weak stomach muscles slowed him down.He couldn’t refuse an order from her when he was a guest and in trouble beyond these walls.He fell into step behind her, and Garrick walked behind him.
