“Some people think it’s not possible to read them,” Charles said.
I tilted my head toward Ivory, suddenly hating her stupid room and her stupid bed that my injuries left me prisoner to. The whole idea of Cruor was bizarre, but Ivory wasn’t one to play pranks.
“The aura-thing would explain why they would come after me,” I said, turning to Charles, “but it doesn’t explain why you thought someone was following you. Or why you thought that person was me.”
“First you’re talking to someone from Marcus’ table, then you’re staring at me. What would you have thought?”
“So you decided to save me from the people you thought I was helping follow you?”
“I thought you might be playing stupid,” he went on, “but once I noticed how he was looking at you, I realized you were in trouble.”
“Let me express my eternal gratitude that you found it in your heart to save the enemy. Or, rather, abandon her in the woods with her attacker. That was so helpful.”
“Just because you make lasting judgments doesn’t mean we all do. I gave you the benefit of the doubt as no one deserves to fall victim to the ways of the Maltorim.”
“How very noble of you,” I said. Sarcasm was my way of masking the gratitude beneath the surface that threatened to deflate my pride.
Charles cocked an eyebrow. “Anything else you’d like to complain about, princess?”
I huffed, turning to Ivory. “What about you?” I asked. “You knew the dangers, and you took me to Club Flesh anyway.”
“She shouldn’t have,” Charles said from beside me. As if he should talk. He hung around those monsters, too.
“Thanks for that, Charles,” Ivory said, “but we’ve been going how long without incident? It should’ve been safe for Sophia. How was I supposed to know Marcus was visiting? Or that she didn’t have an aura? Maybe if you’d told me—”
“Maybe if I could reach you, I would have said something,” Charles replied through his teeth. “Instead, you don’t come around for months, and when you do, she’s with you.”
Say it like I’m a disease, why don’t you.
I was shaking from anger. Anger at myself for my attraction to Charles and anger at Ivory for being so reckless.
Shit. If I was getting mad, that meant I believed them.
Ivory sat in the upholstered chair beside the bed. “You must know I wouldn’t have taken you if I’d known this would happen?”
She rubbed the sides of her pants in a repetitive, inexact pattern, her eyes trembling with regret. She hesitated as she curled a strand of hair behind my ear.
“Adrian needs to get going soon,” she said, “but before he does, he will help with your wounds.”
“Is he a doctor?”
“This is going to sound worse than it is.” She grimaced. When I said nothing, her words rushed out in one breath. “You need to drink his blood. It will—”
“What? Why would I do that?” I shook my head, which only made me wince in pain. “You’re all insane. This whole situation is insane.”
“Cruor blood accelerates healing.”
“You’re seriously going along with this shit? What the hell, Ivory?”
Charles put a hand on my shoulder. “You’ll have to trust us.”
A familiar calm pushed into my mind. Pain swayed my thoughts, but I grasped to my last shreds of logic. Drink someone’s blood? It didn’t sound sanitary or sane.
“Besides,” Ivory said, “you can’t go home in your condition. What if someone stops by?”
I sat up as much as my body allowed. “So, I guess this won’t turn me into one of these Cruor things? Most people would freak out about that, too, just so you know.”
“Adrian won’t bite you. He’s very controlled.”
While Ivory might be willing to trust him with her life, I didn’t exactly share her sentiments. I barely knew him. But even though I wished to fight the offer, something stronger and unnatural urged me to accept. Emotions out of my control smothered my desires, and before I could stop them, the traitorous words tumbled from my lips.
“Just tell me what to do so we can get this over with.” Part of me fought against what I was saying, but I was on autopilot, a dial turned to someone else’s settings.
“Relax.” Adrian crossed the room, and Ivory stood to allow him her spot next to the bed. He pulled back his cascade of neatly woven dreadlocks, revealing striking eyes so dark they were almost black.
His fangs extended, and he lifted his wrist to his mouth. Visions from the night before flashed through my thoughts. I took a deep, shuddering breath as Adrian’s teeth crunched into his flesh. Blood seeped out, and, as his wrist inched closer, I turned away.
He cradled my head with his other hand. “Try thinking of something else.”