Page 114
I’m here. Packets are beside the door.
Aiden scrambled up from the floor and peeked out the bathroom door. The house was dark. He had been in the bathroom so long Charlotte went to bed.
He stepped out of the bathroom and crept through the house to avoid making a sound and alerting her. Once he reached the door, he unlocked the deadbolt and doorknob, then eased it open. Pushing open the glass exterior door, he slipped out onto the porch. Lukas stood there with his hands buried deep in his pockets, a look of concern etched in his features.
“Thanks, man,” Aiden rasped. “I didn’t think I could stay all night like this.” He held up his hand to show how violently he was shaking. Even his voice sounded borderline feral.
Lukas cursed under his breath. “Why did you let it go this far? Did you know your eyes are glowing?”
“Shit. No, I didn’t.” He dug his fingers into his eyes, as if applying pressure would prevent his body’s natural reaction to the lack of blood from rising to the surface. When Charlotte mentioned his eyes glowing, he hoped it was a trick of the lighting, but he couldn’t take chances. He had to get away from her. “I was stupid.” A poor explanation, but the only one he had. He’d made a foolish choice by avoiding feeding. He lectured Riley about it often.
“Yeah, well, do I need to stick around? Send Blaire?” Lukas peered around Aiden toward the house. He wouldn’t see anything. Charlotte had closed the curtains, and Aiden assumed she’d closed them to hide from the stalker.
“No.” He crouched to pick up a blood packet, tore into it, and gulped down the thick liquid without stopping to breathe. The relief was instant.
“Better?”
“You have no idea.”
“Actually, I do.”
He wiped the corners of his mouth and raised a dark eyebrow. “What?”
“When they locked me in the dungeon, I sat there for around twelve hours, and it’d been a while since I drank before that.”
“What time is it?”
Lukas pulled out his cell phone. “One. Why?”
He left the academy at three in the morning. His last blood packet was around ten the night before. He wanted to laugh at how foolish he’d been when the reality sank in of how long he’d gone without blood. “It’s been twenty-seven hours since my last packet this size.” He held up the empty bag.
“Are you fucking serious? What the hell, man?”
“Shhh, you’ll wake her. She’s already freaked out because of the stalker.” He looked over his shoulder toward the house, listening for Charlotte. “But yeah, I know. You don’t have to even tell me how risky it was.”
“Why did you not drink something today? And why is she freaked out about the stalker down here? Didn’t she move here to get away from him?”
“I wasn’t at the academy. And that’s one reason, but he followed her here.”
“Where were you?”
“Here, there. Everywhere in between.” His shoulders lifted in a shrug.
“You could have stopped at a clinic.”
“Yeah, I messed up.”
Lukas sighed, his hand raking into his hair. “You said the stalker followed her here?”
“Yeah, he broke in and left roses on her bed.”
Lukas cursed and turned in a circle, rubbing his hands over his face. “And that’s why you’re here?”
“Yep. Her parents aren’t here. I can’t leave her alone, man.”
“Yeah, I get it. But something has to give.”
He bent to pick up the other two packets. “I know. Listen, I need to get back inside and hide these before she gets up and finds me missing.”
