Flutter (My Blood Approves #3)(90)

The wound itself wasn’t deadly. Or at least I didn’t think it was. I tried to remember if vampires could die from blood loss. I knew starvation could kill them, but it had to be a very long time. But by looks of the puddle growing underneath me, I had lost almost all the blood I had in me.

My insides felt like they were burning and shriveling up. I had this weird painful sense of being deflated. My mind had fogged up so much I couldn’t understand anything Jack was saying to me, and everything I could see had blurred completely into a red haze.

I couldn’t feel actual bloodlust because I was too weak. All the strength had seeped out of me, and it was replaced with some of the most intense pain I had ever felt. I started screaming until Jack put his hand over my mouth. I could smell and taste my blood on his hand, and my stomach lurched.

The ground seemed to move around me, falling away. A cold wind blew over me, but I could barely feel it. I couldn’t see anything. There was just the pain.

I could smell blood, and that frantic animal part of me was barreling in. I tried to move, to fight to get at the blood, but my arms wouldn’t work. They were shaking violently, and I wondered dully if I was having a seizure.

The world swayed and bowed around me, and I was about ready to kill Jack to get his blood. The pain was so excruciating that I would’ve killed anyone to make it stop.

“Alice, drink.” I heard Jack’s voice in my ear, but I didn’t know what he was talking about.

I could smell him, but it wasn’t his blood. It was warm and fresh and pounding quickly. I wanted to drink it, but I couldn’t find it. I couldn’t speak or move.

Warm skin pressed against my lips, and I felt the pulse of veins throbbing on my mouth. Without thinking, I sunk my teeth and drank. Almost instantly, my strength picked up, and I grabbed onto whoever I was drinking. I pressed them closer to me and drank furtively.

My mind flashed onto when I saw Milo biting Jane and how he had looked like an animal, and I knew that I was eating like that, but I didn’t have a choice.

The pain stopped, then pleasure slowly trickled in. Delirious heat spread over me. Pleasure exploded all through me, and I drank more deeply. I could feel how kind they were, and the acidic aftertaste from the adrenaline. They had been afraid, but they weren’t now. They trusted me and cared about me, even though I was drinking them dry.

Some part of me knew I should stop. I had already drank enough where I would be alright, and it was almost more than a human could spare.

But the rest of me refused. I couldn’t stop. It felt too amazing and tasted too wonderful. I needed this, and I couldn’t stop, not until I had it all.

“Alice!” Jack shouted. A sharp pain grew in the back of my head, but I didn’t care, not until that pain started pulling me back. He was pulling me by my hair, so I’d let go, but I wouldn’t, and if he pulled too hard, I would end up tearing out the throat. “Alice! Let go!”

“Jack!” Milo wailed. “Make her stop!”

Jack kept pulling on me, and I literally growled at him, like a dog with a bone. He wrapped his hand around my throat, squeezing down on it. I couldn’t breathe, but more importantly, I couldn’t swallow.

I let go, simply so I could bite Jack and get him to leave me alone, but as soon as I separated, I could think again. I felt dizzy and drunk, but I didn’t feel animal crazy anymore.

Jack didn’t know that though, so he wrapped his arms around me to keep me from going after the blood. The neck had already been pulled away from me. It had been the instant I had stopped biting. Milo cradled Bobby in his arms, sobbing, and that’s how I found out.

“Bobby?” I mumbled. The familiar tired haze I got after eating settled in on me. My inner thigh tingled and itched like crazy, meaning it was healing.

“You nearly killed him, Alice!” Milo yelled at me.

“She had to do it, or she would’ve died!” Jack shouted. He was still holding me in his arms, but more gently. He just wanted me near him.

I wiped Bobby’s blood away from my mouth and tried to sit up. We were on black top next to a white building, and when I looked up, I realized it was a massive cathedral near the park. Jack had carried me over here, away from the police, and fixed me up.

I felt like passing out, but I was fighting it. We weren’t safe here, not with the lycan after us, and I had to do something.

I could hear Bobby’s heart beating, and it was still strong, I hadn’t killed him, but he had completely passed out. Not to mention the fact that he belonged to Milo, and vampires hated sharing their humans with other vampires. Even though he loved me, it had to be driving Milo crazy to let me bite him.

“I never should’ve let him come with.” Milo stroked Bobby’s hair.

“That is why I let him come with,” Jack said.

“What?” Milo glared at Jack. “You brought him along to feed her?”

“He saved your sister’s life, didn’t he?” Jack shot back. “She wouldn’t have died from the blood loss, but she’d have been too weak to do anything against the lycan. She needs to be strong to fight.”

“I’m sorry,” I apologized weakly. I tried to sit up again, but that was all I had in me. Jack’s arms were strong and warm, and I finally gave into them. Darkness rolled over me, and I passed out.

I awoke on the floor. After everything I’d gone through, I felt surprisingly good. When I opened my eyes, all I could see were the beautiful gold and white ceilings of the cathedral.