Page 85 of Thirst

With both hands still on my neck, I finally realize that I'm not in my apartment. I look around and see the penthouse in all its glory. The blue flame quietly dances in the fireplace. The bright chandelier lights are on over the beautiful dining room table. The curtains are wide open and I'm greeted by the night lights of Philadelphia. Everything is calm, even if my heart isn’t.

With a glance further to my left, I find Shawn standing at the end of the hallway that leads to the elevator, his face is much more concerned than I've ever seen it. There's a thick furrow in his brow that relents slightly when he sees me looking at him. He lets out a sigh, then allows his mouth to lift in a soft smile.

“Nice to have you back,” he says.

Then Amari instantly appears at my side. He's wearing a white robe over soft black sweats, and just like Shawn, every pore in his face is riddled with concern.

“Just breathe and relax. Everything is okay now.”

“You're awake,” he says as he places a hand on my back to support me sitting up. “Tell me how you're feeling.”

Confusion slaps me across the face, because I could've sworn I heard his voice in my head before he spoke. I look at him and feel the jolt of a memory from Fantasies, where he's standing in front of Von, his hand around his throat while Von wastefully pulls the trigger on an empty handgun. He opens his mouth, fangs sharp and pointed, then he chomps down on Von’s neck and uses his teeth to rip it out.

I clear my throat and shake my head like I'm trying to physically eject the memory from my brain. “Umm, yeah I guess I'm okay, although I don't understand it. What happened? How did I get here? I have these memories and I can't make out what’s dream and what’s reality.”

“None of it was a dream,” Amari says. “You were attacked last night when you tried to tell your boss you were quitting the club. They stabbed you in the neck with a broken beer bottle. I came in shortly after and …”

Amari stops talking and looks over at Shawn, who shrugs before turning around and walking out.

“What happened, Amari?” I inquire aggressively. “You said none of it was a dream, so that means when I saw you rip out Von’s throat, it was real. From the floor, I watched you crush Shay’s head with your hands. I saw the fire … and I should be dead. Oh god, I don't even know what to think about anything.”

He sighs, but the softness that was in his face suddenly turns hard and cold. “You don't need to think about anything but the truth. You're right, you should be dead. That bottle to the neck was a fatal wound. Seeing you on the floor like that … I couldn't take it. I lost all control, and yes, I killed them both. To question whether I feel some type of way about it would be a waste of time, because I don't. I feel nothing. Wait, that’s a lie. I feel nothing but satisfaction for avenging you. They hurt you badly, so I hurt them badly. It could've been worse. I could've made them suffer. Instead, I ended them quickly and let the fire run its course.”

Completely numb of feelings, I say, “The fire … what happened to the club?”

“It burned down with them inside,” Amari says. “It’s gone for good, just like Lashayda and Davon. You’ll never see any of them again. They’ll never be rude to you ever again. They'll never take from you again.”

My hands move from my neck to my mouth as disbelief takes over. I freeze, unable to do anything but think about what Amari just said. The club is gone. Shay and Von are dead. They tried to kill me.

“Wait,” I say, scrunching my face as a hand returns to my neck. “How am I still alive?”

Amari takes a deep breath. “I saved you. With my blood.”

“What?”

“By the time I finished with Von and Shay, you were pretty much gone. Briefly, I thought I’d taken too long to get to you. I thought I might actually have to … your heartbeat was faint and slowing quickly, but there was still a little bit of time. So I removed the bottle and marveled at how much blood came spurting out. If it had been removed earlier, you would've bled out in minutes. Luckily, the glass being lodged there kept you alive, but with it removed there was no time to waste.

“The wound was so massive and deep that simply rubbing my blood on it would've been useless. So I bit my arm and let my blood drain into your mouth. I was worried you'd choke to death on it, but you eventually began drinking it down. I had to give you quite a bit, and it made me weak, but after I picked you up and carried you out of there, I saw the tendons in your neck starting to regrow. You passed out from the pain, and I brought you here to heal. You slept the night and the entire day today, but now you're completely recovered.”

“So you saved me from certain death,” I say as a statement, not a question.

A part of me wants to be horrified by what he did to Shay and Von, and I don't know what it says about me, but I can't help but hear the bigger part of me that is screaming how sweet it is that he saved my life. He's a vampire, so I shouldn't expect him to show remorse the way humans do. Is that what I would even want him to do after finding me lying on my back with a broken bottle in my neck? Von and Shay didn't deserve remorse for that. I can't believe I'm thinking this, but they got what they deserved. I'm glad he did it, and I'm even more moved by the fact that he did it for me.

Without thinking any further, I reach out and wrap my arms around his neck. His arms pull me in closer, and we hug tightly.

“Thank you,” I whisper in his ear.

“No need. I did exactly what I wanted to do, and I would do it again. You're my Companion.”

I don't bother arguing with myself about whether it’s true or not. I give in to it, because if it wasn't true, there's no way he would've done all of that for me. It’s clear that Amari truly feels what he says he does. It isn't love. Not yet. But I know I can't go back to living life without him, and the same is obviously true for him, too.

I pull back, but only enough to see his face up close. He's so beautiful, even when I know how terrifying and monstrous he can be. It doesn't even matter to me anymore—not after he defended me to the death and used his own blood to bring me back from the brink of it. It’s something nobody else could even possibly do, and I'm eternally grateful to him for it. I know he killed Shay and Von, but without him, I would be dead, too. I’ll never get over how much it means to me.

“Okay,” I say as I sit back but keep my hands in his. “So what now? If the club burned down, surely the police and fire department are investigating, right?”

Amari nods. “They are … but not really. I went back to the club while you were healing and destroyed all of the security footage. And the fire chief will conclude that nobody else was involved in Von and Shay’s deaths. We’re good. I made sure of it.”

“You Influenced the fire chief?” I ask.