Fuck that. This would not be a clinical operation. The woman he loved would take him the way this should happen. With him tangled up with her.
In one smooth move, he swung up on the narrow bed and stretched out beside her. As Serena swallowed, he nuzzled her throat and whispered to her. Soothing, comforting words he was surprised he knew. She was icy—too icy, and too still.
He didn’t know how much time had passed when Eidolon peeled his arm away from her mouth and sent a healing wave into him to seal the wound.
“She’s not drinking anymore,” E said. “If this took, she’ll wake tomorrow at dusk.”
“It will take,” Wraith said fiercely. “It has to.” He spent a few more quiet moments with Serena before Eidolon shook his shoulder gently. “It’s time, bro.”
“No.”
“Wraith, Shade is about to collapse.”
Wraith glanced over at his brother, who was trembling so hard his teeth were chattering. His dermoire’s glow had faded and began to flicker.
“You’ve got to let her go.”
A sob welled up in Wraith’s throat. The moment Shade let go of Serena, she’d die. And if the turning didn’t take…
I’ll lose her forever.
Eidolon gave Wraith’s shoulder a little squeeze. Oh, Gods… Wraith closed his eyes and nodded. Instantly, Shade’s power cut off, and Serena’s chest stopped moving. Her heart thumped once. Twice.
And beat no more.
The only sound in the room after that was the sound of Wraith’s scream.
Thirty-two
Blackness swirled in an endless void. There was nothing there but a cold wind and a gnawing, relentless loneliness.
And hunger. Hunger… such as Serena had never experienced.
She felt like her stomach was caving in on itself with starvation. But the hunger went deeper than that. To the bone. To the soul.
She couldn’t open her eyes, so she lay still and listened. She heard the thump-whoosh of a beating heart. Of whisper-light breaths. Another sense roared to life: smell.
She caught the scent of something smoky, maybe brimstone? Then there was the heady, musky odor of… Josh.
Warmth burned into her side, a heavy, satisfying heat that stretched from her shoulder to her toes. She peeled open her eyes, but closed them immediately against the intensity of the light above. After a moment, she tried again, driven by the insane hunger.
Squinting in what she now realized was very dim, reddish light, she looked up at the dark ceiling and the weird chains and pulleys she’d seen earlier. Josh was stretched out on the bed beside her, one leg over hers, one arm draped across her belly. His face was tucked against the crook of her neck and shoulder. He couldn’t get any closer if he wanted to.
“Josh?” she said. Or tried to say. Her lips moved, but no sound came out. She licked her lips, her tongue catching on sharp points—ouch.
Were those… fangs?
The past few days rushed over her like an avalanche, cutting off her breath… breath? Wait… was she breathing? Sort of.
Vampire.
She’d talked to Josh about becoming a vampire, but that was all she remembered. Until now.
Hunger pangs sliced through her. With a yelp, she jackknifed into a sit.
Josh was right there in her face, eyes wide and mouth dropped open. “Serena!”
“Hurts,” she moaned, clutching her belly. “Hurts.”
Josh raised her upper lip with his thumb and let out a whoop of victory. “Baby, it worked. Oh, man, it freaking worked!”
A veil of red came down over her vision and the sound of a beating heart drove her to the brink of madness. She wanted to attack him, to ravage his neck with her mouth, ravage his body with hers…
He seemed to know, and he tugged her to him, cocking his head aside to expose his throat. “Take what you need,” he whispered. “Take it now, and don’t worry about hurting me—ow!”
She buried her new teeth in his neck, instinct guiding her beautifully. And nope, she wasn’t worried about hurting him at all. She felt a moment of regret when he barked in pain, but then he moaned and pulled her down on top of him.
On some level, she thought she should be disgusted by the fact that she was drinking his blood, but the hunger had hijacked her body, and the need to just be with him had hijacked her heart and mind.
A deep, throbbing ache began between her thighs, and once again, he knew, because he dropped a hand and cupped her intimately. She’d been naked beneath the sheet. How handy.