Chapter 47
Chapter Forty-Seven
APRIL
“She should wake up any moment now.” I can hear Andrei mumble somewhere in the space I’m in, sounding drunk.
Last time I checked, immortality meant you can’t taste the alcohol. Well, they can’t taste it, I can. So how is he drunk? And what is he doing here in my room? Better yet, why am I in bed instead of being curled up in the closet?
I forget all about that when memories of my dreams come rushing in.
So many places, so many countries, they flick behind my closed eyelids like someone is placing slides in my head.
Memories of families, all mine yet all of them so different.
Lives where I’ve been happy and loved, and others where I’ve been miserable and counted the days until I’m dead.
Everything comes one after another, speeding up slowly until I’m sure that I’m about to faint from the onslaught of information.
And in each of those memories, I see my face.
“Maybe she needs more blood.” Marcus sounds just as drunk, and his voice pulls me from the spinning in my head.
“Unless one of us is volunteering to die, I don’t think we can feed her, yet.” Sebastian doesn’t sound drunk, just tired, and a soft moan follows his words.
A woman’s moan.
My eyes snap open, and I jolt upright in bed, zeroing in on him.
Sebastian is sprawled, very much unlike himself, on a chair next to the bed.
His shirt is half unbuttoned, exposing his well-defined chest and the first couple of rows of a six-pack.
With his legs spread open, one bent at the knee, he looks so seductive that tingles start at my lower belly when I look him up and down.
There is no one around him, and he smirks at me knowingly, pointing his chin on the other side of the large bed.
Turning my head, I see Marcus and Andrei both in similar positions, looking bone wary with dark circles under their eyes.
Marcus smiles tiredly at me, while Andrei is staring at me unblinking, his fangs buried in a woman’s neck.
She is straddling him, her hips undulating as she grinds herself against him.
My face burns in embarrassment, and I avert my eyes, gripping the sheets around my legs.
“How do you feel, my redemption?” Sebastian pulls my attention back to him. To my surprise, it doesn’t irk me that he uses the nickname he gave me.
“How should I feel?” Assessing myself internally, I must say I actually feel better than I have for a very long time. “Why am I here?” Realizing I’m not even in my room, I glance around the guest bedroom that Sebastian has been using. “What happened?”
As soon as I ask the question, the sewer and the two idiots plays in my head like a movie.
Sebastian opens his mouth to say something, but he stops, watching me expectantly.
My mind flicks from one thing to another, trying to figure out what got him staring at me so intently.
And then I remember the pain. After the whiny idiot went limp in my arms when I sucked him dry, my whole body felt on fire.
I was burning from the inside out, the pain so strong that I lost consciousness.
“How is that possible?” Frowning, I watch Sebastian intently, expecting him to have all the answers. He is a trickster and a know-it-all, after all.
“Tell me what happened.” At his question, I glance at the other two.
Marcus stands up, swaying slightly on his feet. Grabbing the woman by the arm, he drags her off Andrei and out of the room. Andrei grins at me, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, and I roll my eyes at him.
“Dumbass.” He chuckles at my mumbling.
“Well,” I start after Marcus returns and plops down on the chair like his legs can’t hold his weight.
“Nothing was wrong with me.” Grimacing at that lie since there is a lot that’s wrong with me, I wave a hand like I’m chasing a fly.
“I mean, I was just my usual, crazy self until I started drinking the blood of that idiot.” Glancing at Marcus to confirm my words, he nods once.
“What happened then?” Sebastian prompts me.
“His blood was wrong.” Chewing on the inside of my mouth, I try to think of the best way to explain it.
“I didn’t feel it at first. Actually, I did, I just didn’t think anything of it.
” Locking my gaze with Marcus’s, I expect him to confirm my next words.
“His blood tasted bitter. Not coppery, not sweet, just bitter to the point my mouth got parched.”
Marcus darts his gaze between Sebastian and me, shaking his head slowly with a confused look on his face.
“They tasted normal. After she dropped on the ground, I actually tasted the one she killed just to see if that was the problem. I still don’t feel any different, although there was not much left in him to be sure. ” His eyebrows pull low over his eyes.
“I’m sure there was something wrong with that one.
I’ve tasted all your blood, and it’s never bitter.
” It kills me to admit it, but I better get all the facts straight since I almost kicked the bucket.
“It didn’t make me want to barf like human blood does.
It was just very, very bitter there at the end.
Maybe he was sick or something.” An uneasiness creeps up in my belly.
“That doesn’t say much.” My head snaps in Sebastian’s direction. “You’ve only fed from the three of us. Marcus and Andrei have my blood in them. We can’t be sure that you can feed on the others.”
“What does that mean, Sebastian? I can’t read minds, so you’ll have to explain it to me.” A calculating look enters his eyes, one that doesn’t sit well with me. Did he find a way to bend me to his will?
“You seem very calm.” He cocks his head, lifting up and straightening in his chair. Leaning forward, he drapes his forearms over his knees, the opened shirt gaping, giving me a clear view of his body.
My thighs clench and tingles intensify in my lower belly. Swallowing the whimper that wants to push its way through my lips, I narrow my eyes on him. The jerk is trying to have me off-kilter for whatever plan his twisted mind is brewing, I just know it.
“I do feel more grounded if I’m honest. I don’t feel like two people trying to fit under one skin right now.” Deciding to ignore the pull he has on me, I concentrate on the crucial things.
“Interesting.” Looking from Marcus to Andrei, I can see the gears turning in his head. “Why didn’t I think of this before?”
“Think of what?” Andrei leans forward eagerly, voicing the question that was on the tip of my tongue.
“I made her, and even when she doesn’t remember what she is doing, she only comes to the three of us to feed.” Looking too satisfied with himself, a small smile plays at the corners of his lips. “She has killed but not fed…”
“I have what?” Screeching, I almost jump off the bed.
“That’s not what’s important right now.” Dismissing me, Sebastian opens his mouth to continue preaching his theories.
“Like hell it’s not important, asshole. What do you mean I have killed? Who have I killed?” Spitting questions one after another, I can’t stop talking. Oh my God, I really am a monster. Horrified tears prickle my eyes.
I thought I was just scaring them and maybe slapping them around a little when the sun went down. I didn’t dare believe I was a killer on the loose, roaming the hotel and terrorizing everyone. What else have I done that I don’t remember? Have I killed humans, too?
“Now that is something I’m going to explore.” Sebastian’s shrewd words snap me out of my panic. “You didn’t kill everyone you came across. Only some. After this revelation, I think it deserves investigating.”
“What are you saying? Speak clearly so I understand you,” I tell him dryly, crossing my arms over my chest. “I don’t speak riddles.”
“The one that had bitter blood was one of Kali’s, you said?
” Sebastian looks at Marcus, and he nods in confirmation, with a look of concentration on his face.
“And April here, every night, goes on a hunt through the hotel, killing one or two max. Every time, new arrivals join us.” Pursing his lips, he stands up.
“Including the humans you find loitering around the perimeter. I think there is a connection there. Especially, when she never drank from any of them, until now.”