Arms folded over her chest, Adair backed into the shadows. Pulse pounding in her skull in rhythm with his, she felt Bennett being torn to pieces as vampire and demon hunter battled for dominance.
Ryan didn’t let up in his hold, but his chest rose and fell with a heavy sigh.
Bennett’s eyes sealed shut, a single tear budding at the corner of his eyelashes. He mumbled under his breath, “You stole my life. Took my prophecy, Quinn, had my baby. I needed the fight… I walked right into their trap.”
“I know. I’m so sorry.”
Bennett whispered with a gravel edge to his voice, “I always fuck it up.”
Bodie let up in his grip, leaning down to whisper in Bennett’s ear, “Yeah, you fucked up. But don’t fuck it up worse by ignoring who and what you are, or by pushing away your friends. You’ll get through this. If they’re willing to put up with a werewolf? No problem on a vampire.”
Under his breath, Ryan said, “You started this team. From what Quinn tells me, there hasn’t been a fight yet that you’ve backed down from, even an unwinnable one. I’ve seen you dive into the scariest damn shit on the planet. Now? Think any demon is going to want to fuck with us?”
Unmoving, Bennett didn’t fight back. He almost looked to have a measure of control.
The moment they let their guard down, he let out a blood-curdling roar that echoed off the walls. Thrashing wildly, his veins about to bust out of his neck at the strain, he fought. Growling, snarling, he bit at Ryan again.
Slamming a fist into Bennett’s face, Ryan hissed, “Stop it.”
Adair ran over and dropped to the ground. She fired a glare at his friends. “He can’t help it. It’s all instinct.” She rested her hands on his cheeks and traced her fingertips along the angle of his jaw. Again, he leaned into her touch but didn’t bite. “I know you’re hungry. Please, wait.”
Footsteps pounded up the stairs and a willowy blond flew into the room with a paper grocery bag.
Bolting up, Adair grabbed the bag and pulled out one of the containers and popped off the lid. “Okay.” She nodded to Ryan and Bodie. “Don’t let go in case he books it, as this is like offering a starving person Brussels sprouts when they could have souffle, but let him sit up.”
Grimacing, Bennett reached for the container, but his friends held his arms down. He flashed Ryan a pissed-off glower. “I’m not going to run.” Even half-crazed, half-ill with the hunger of a fledgling, Bennett still exuded an almost aristocratic arrogance.
Hesitating, Ryan released his arm, backing away a few steps to block the door. Bodie held at his other side, ready to grab.
Bennett pulled his lips back with a disgusted sneer as he inspected the viscous brew, but she could see the hunger driving him to desperation. He took a long breath, his body relaxing as he accepted what he needed. Tipping it back, he guzzled, his Adam’s apple bobbing with each gulp. After draining the last of it, he wiped the base of his thumb over the drip that pooled in the corner of his mouth. “Fuck that’s terrible.”
“It’s better warm, but we were out of time.” Adair shrugged, easing to her feet.
Arms wrapped around his knees, he turned toward Ryan. “Sorry.”
Rubbing the wound that was healing as they spoke, Ryan shrugged. “No worries.”
Chapter6
Shellshocked, nobody moved. Bennett sat on the floor, surrounded, an empty container in his hand that he had the most revolting urge to lick clean. Quinn’s dad walking in on him in bed with a vampire was nothing compared to the embarrassment he now found himself embroiled in.
Fuck. He’d have to tell his parents.
Eventually, the paranormal world would know that a demon hunter had been changed. That it was possible. He numbed at the thought, hating the burden he’d brought on all hunters with his recklessness.
As the blood filled his belly, he felt the soldering energy of it seep into his veins, penetrate his brain, his muscles, revitalizing his skin. He rose to his feet and brushed past Astrid in the kitchen, resting a hand on her shoulder as he paused. She squeezed his hand, her illuminating smile now heavy with sorrow. Yeah, fucking awkward and downright humiliating, but the connection reassured him that the team had his back.
Now if only he could be sure he’d have theirs. He rinsed the container before dropping it into the recycle bin. He checked the paper bag, then stuffed the spare pints in the fridge.
His friends, his former lover, all observed his every move. “I’m good. You guys can head out. They’ll be here soon to finish the job, so for now I’ll max out my security system and then… I’ll figure it out. Adair, if you wouldn’t mind leaving me the information on some butchers that won’t bat an eye at someone wanting blood? Astrid, Bodie, I know you are eager to get back to Montana. Ryan, your flight must be leaving in a few hours?” Standing with his arms folded over his chest, his shirt ripped to shreds from tearing the closet apart, then from his friends trying to subdue him, he knew he looked the mess that he felt.
Still lightheaded, the blood in his veins unsettled, he knew it wasn’t over. Blayk said he had time, a day or two, and the clock was ticking. As his gut churned, something in his bones demanding that he finish it, he’d nearly called Adair to come feed him. But he couldn’t risk her like that. He’d rather go hunting for a vampire himself, or maybe feed from the ones that came to finish the job.
Or to see what happened if he let his body reject it. Death would be better than eternity as a monster.
Ryan shook his head. “I’ll call my captain. I can board when they dock at Kodiak in a few weeks.”
“No, I got this. My mistake, I’ll handle it. You’re already late joining the crew.”
