Blood Type (Blood Type #1)(32)

“What? Why?”

“Come on, Reyna. There’s no one who works at my building who looks like you.”

She pulled back to look at him in surprise. “How?”

“You know.”

The music shifted to a slow hypnotic beat and their movements adjusted with the rhythm. His hands gripped her hips, pulling her closer against him.

“Like a blood whore?” she asked defensively.

“No. Gorgeous.”

She laughed and shook her head. “That’s such a weird thing to hear. Where I grew up, I’m pretty sure I was considered adequate at best. No job. Just another mouth to feed. My nicest dress was…oh wait, I didn’t wear dresses because it wasn’t practical.”

Everett reached up and brushed a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. “Whoever that girl was before she came here, no one sees her anymore.”

    Something in the way he was looking at her made her feel like all the air had been sucked out of the room. She had come here to have friends. She hadn’t anticipated him looking at her like this. For a split second, his eyes were replaced with ones as dark as onyx and instead of his boy-next-door features were ones cut out of marble. Her mind conjured up Beckham out of nowhere. A vision she should not be thinking about. She pulled away abruptly.

“I need to get some air.”

And then she dashed away from him as fast as she could. She couldn’t breathe. No. This was all wrong. Shouldn’t she want to be looked at like that by a nice cute boy? But she didn’t. And what was that vision of Beckham? Sure he was handsome and she liked the way he looked at her, but she shouldn’t be thinking about him like that…or wondering how he would react to blood on her lips.

Reyna found the back emergency exit and pushed through the door, praying the alarm didn’t go off. When nothing happened, she walked outside and took in a few deep calming breaths. She needed to get it together.

A minute later, Everett busted out the back door. She whirled around and pressed her hand to her chest.

“God, you scared me!”

“Why did you leave?” he asked.

Reyna looked away from him. How could she explain? “I just needed some air. I felt so claustrophobic.”

    “I didn’t mean to push,” he apologized, stepping toward her.

“No. You’re fine. Just so many changes in my life all at once.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you off.” He looked sheepish.

“I’m not scared. I just…I don’t know. Not ready,” she ended lamely.

“Come on. Let’s go back inside. I promise to be on my best behavior.”

“And I promise to be on my worst,” a voice said from the shadows.

“Reyna,” Everett said anxiously, pushing her behind him. “Let’s get out of here.”

And then the person moved closer toward them, and she realized he wasn’t human at all. He was a vampire, but something was wrong with him. His skin was pallid and waxy. So pale, it was almost translucent. He looked as if his body might crumble into ash at the lightest of touches. His jeans and T-shirt were torn and frayed. They hung on his emaciated figure like a mother’s wedding dress on a child. He had none of the formidability that Beckham or the vampires she had met at Visage had. But she recognized the same desire and need trapped in his eyes, like a living breathing dragon desperate to escape.

“We were just leaving. We didn’t mean to bother you,” Everett said, slowly backing away from the vampire. He nudged Reyna and whispered, “Run, Reyna. Run.”

Reyna’s heart was a drumbeat in her ear as she dashed toward the door. She could feel Everett close on her heels, but she knew that she wasn’t fast enough. Neither of them could possibly be. This was a nightmare. One the entire world had lived with before the cure.

She tripped over her high heels, cursing herself for wearing the damn things. But it didn’t matter. They were never going to make it anyway. She glanced over her shoulder and watched as the vampire lunged for them at an inhuman speed, teeth bared. Reyna screamed and tried to dart away, but the vampire grabbed Everett. And she stood frozen as he held Everett as if he were a rag doll.

    “No,” she gasped out right before he sank his fangs down into Everett’s tender neck. Blood spurted out from the wound into his mouth and the vampire drank deeply.

As Reyna watched the life begin to drain from Everett’s face, Reyna let loose an earsplitting scream.





Chapter 14


This couldn’t be happening. A vampire wasn’t going to kill Everett. She couldn’t run away and leave him here to die.

Despite her better judgment, she ran over to them and pounded on the vampire’s back. “Stop!” she screamed. “You’re killing him.”

When he made no reaction, she stomped on his foot with the heel of her shoes. She heard a sickening crack as it tore through his foot and her heel snapped off. The vampire wrenched away from Everett, who dropped like a bag of rocks. He rounded on Reyna, and she stumbled back a few steps in terror.

“Shit!”

The vampire stalked forward in a way she was deeply familiar with. Her body shook as it dawned on her, the stupidity of what she had done. She could have gotten away. No matter how much of a coward that made her. She could have at least gone for help. Now she was stuck here with this monster, and she could see in his lifeless eyes that he was going to kill her too.