LITMIR.BIZ

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      “Don’t say that.” His voice was slurred. “We had to—save you.”

      I sat up and pressed two fingers to his throat. His heartbeat was steady, if rapid. I hadn’t gone too far, but I could have. I knew the danger even if he didn’t.

      “We can’t do this again,” I said, as I cradled his head in my lap. His shoulder oozed a few trickles of blood, but I resisted the urge to lick his skin. “We’re going to find another solution, and soon. Right?”

      “Wasn’t too bad.” Lucas’s lopsided smile made my stomach flip-flop in the best possible way. “Kinda nice, actually.”

      There was a time when it would have thrilled me to hear him say that. But I knew more about Lucas now, and about his priorities, which meant that I was obligated to warn him: “Remember—if I ever go too far, I could kill you. And because you’ve been bitten by a vampire multiple times, you’d become a vampire yourself.”

      Lucas went very still. Although I, too, no longer wanted to become a full vampire, Lucas’s revulsion to the idea was absolute. Death would have been preferable to him.

      “Okay,” he said at last. “I’ll see about the hospital blood bank. Or something. But you’re better, right?”

      “Yeah.” And now that I had drunk human blood, I felt sure I would be sustained for a while—but not forever. He had risked his life to buy me just a few days’ time. Or did he have other reasons, too? Quietly, I asked, “Do you crave it now? Being bitten? Is this something you wanted for yourself?”

      I wouldn’t blame him if it were. Balthazar had drunk my blood a couple of months ago, and I remembered the exhilaration of it. But if Lucas was getting as hooked on my bite as I was on biting him, we were really going to have to work on the self-control.

      Lucas thought over the question. “I don’t know,” he said at last. “Part of it—most of it—is about taking care of you. And then there’s the fact that it’s one hell of a turn-on.”

      Smiling, I brushed a last trickle of blood from his shoulder. “Yeah, there’s that.”

      “Every time we do this, I get stronger.” Lucas’s eyes met mine. “I get closer to being—to being what you are. To understanding, maybe. Without having to turn into a vampire myself.”

      Each bite gave Lucas a little more vampire strength. His hearing had sharpened and his strength had increased—but he neither healed faster nor craved blood. The mystery of what it meant to be prepared for vampirism but not yet a vampire: That was one way in which we were truly and fully the same.

      Well, not the only way.

      I bent low and whispered, “I love you, Lucas.”

      “Love you, too.” Tiredly he clasped my hand in his, and for a while we simply sat together, wordless, needing nobody else in the world.

      Once Lucas felt reasonably steady and the bite mark on his shoulder had stopped bleeding, he put his T-shirt on again and we joined the others. We must have looked rumpled—a couple people snickered, and Dana waggled her eyebrows at us. I didn’t care if they thought we’d sneaked off to have sex. What we felt for each other was too pure to be turned into anything tacky or cheap.

      Besides, I felt better than I’d felt in weeks. Lucas seemed a little bleary, and his skin was definitely pale, but he could walk steadily. He put his arm around my shoulders for support initially, but kept it there all during our long ride home.

      We’ll be all right, I thought as he rested his head against mine. Taking a deep breath, I could smell the cedar scent of his skin, tinged slightly with the delicious saltiness of blood. It’s going to be okay soon.

      After we returned to HQ and stowed our gear, we walked in to see that someone was waiting for us—Eduardo, who leaned against one of the cement pillars. In his hands he held a coffee can. I didn’t think anything of it, except that it was kind of weird to be making coffee so late at night. But the moment Lucas saw it, he stopped in his tracks. “That’s mine,” he said.

      “You have an interesting definition of what’s yours.” Edu-ardo tossed the can upward, caught it lazily. The scars on his cheeks looked harsh in the overhead lights. “Because the way I see it, in Black Cross we have a rule. Everything we do is for the good of the group.”

      Eduardo then peeled back the plastic lid of the coffee can to reveal a roll of cash.

      “Hoarding money,” he said. “How is that for the good of the group?”

      Oh, no, I thought. Lucas’s savings. The money he was going to use to get us out of here.

      “How is going through my private stuff for the good of the group?” Lucas’s eyes blazed as he stalked up to Eduardo. As his voice got louder, it echoed off the concrete walls. “What, were you going to steal from me?”

      Eduardo shook his head. “It’s not stealing if it’s not rightfully yours to begin with. And it isn’t. Money like this should be used for Black Cross purposes. Not to—take your girlfriend out on Saturday nights.”

      “Since when do I ever get to take Bianca out? Since when do you guys let us spend more than ten minutes alone together?”

      “Free time is something you don’t have. You’re a soldier, Lucas. Have you forgotten that?”

      “Hey!” Kate came hurrying toward them, her hair wet from the shower and her blouse buttoned up wrong. Apparently some body had come to fetch her to break it up. A small crowd had gathered—obviously interested but not taking sides. “What’s going on?”

      Lucas’s fists were clenched at his sides. “Eduardo’s stealing from me.”

      “Lucas is hoarding cash.”

      “You went through his stuff? Jesus, Eduardo.” Kate snatched the coffee can of cash from him, and for the first time I saw Eduardo looking really embarrassed. “I don’t expect you to be a father to Lucas, but I also don’t expect you to act like his jealous kid brother.”

      “I’m not the one being immature here!”

      “Yes, you are,” Kate snapped back. “You know why? You’re both acting like adolescent jackasses, but at least Lucas actually is an adolescent. Is it too much to ask for you to be the adult?”

      “Thanks, Mom.” Flushed with vindication, Lucas held out his hand to reclaim what was his.

      Kate simply closed the lid. “We can’t allow people to hoard money, Lucas. You know that.”

      “It’s mine! We don’t have to give up everything—we never have before—”

      “I didn’t say it wasn’t yours.” More quietly, Kate added, “If and when you need it, you come to me. If Black Cross can spare it at that time, I promise, I’ll give it back to you. And I know you wouldn’t want to spend it if Black Cross doesn’t have cash to spare. Right?”

      Lucas and I exchanged one despairing glance. There wasn’t anything else we could do or say. Already I knew that Black Cross wasn’t like a job you could quit. It was more like a cult you had to flee.

      And the money we needed to escape had just been stolen, which meant we were trapped.

       Chapter Six

      MAYBE IT WAS THE CRUSHING BLOW OF LOSING our saved money. Maybe it was the exhilaration of having been so close to Lucas after we’d been kept apart so long. Or maybe it was the rush of blood and the sweet relief of being full after weeks of hunger.

      Whatever it was that distracted me so much that night kept me from remembering that drinking blood had consequences.

      “Bianca?”

      Raquel

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