When he’d taken enough to make sure the man continued to sleep for another day, but not enough to kill him, he released his bite. His vision blurred as he placed his hand over the woman’s mouth and dragged her forward.
The room spun, and he felt out of control, but he couldn’t stop. Now that he was finally feeding again, nothing would stop him.
The woman came awake when his fangs pierced her throat. For a second, her hands brushed his chest before she went still. He didn’t sense any discomfort from her as the drugs in her system pulled her back into unconsciousness.
He had no idea what either of them were on, but the drug’s effects were seeping through his body. His limbs became heavier and more difficult to move. A part of his brain whispered at him to stop, but a more primal piece wouldn’t be denied blood anymore.
When he released his bite on her, he rose and almost fell over. Staggering to the side, he held out his hand and braced himself against the wall. He stood there with his shoulders heaving, his vision blurring and snapping back into place before blurring again.
When he was confident he wouldn’t fall over, he stepped away from the wall and swayed toward the fourth woman. The toes of one of his feet caught on the ground, and he nearly went down. He lurched forward and somehow managed to keep his balance as the earth rolled like a ship on a storm-tossed sea.
Callie reached for him but pulled her hands back when he caught himself. He stood with his head bowed and his shoulders heaving. “Are you okay?” she asked.
Lucien didn’t reply as he closed the last couple of feet between himself and the remaining woman. His knees cracked against the wood when he fell beside her.
Callie stiffened; what she’d watched him do in this room was awful, but seeing him do it to that woman was different. Somehow, she seemed more vulnerable than the others.
Unable to watch, Callie turned away when he rested his hand over the woman’s mouth. She focused on the graffiti-covered wall in the hallway as she tried to drown out the sounds of his feeding.
How had she gotten here? How was it possible she was standing in this room, listening to a vampire consume the blood of his victims. Last night, she was celebrating her freedom with her friends, laughing, dancing, and embracing the next stage of her life. Now, that life was unrecognizable.
How could things have changed so drastically in such a short time? She was well aware of the precariousness of life, and though she’d faced many twists and turns before, she never could have seen this coming.
Even if she could regain a life somewhere else in the world, how could she pretend to go about her days as if a group of crazed vampires wasn’t out there?
Callie clenched her hands as she tried to drown out the sound of his feeding. No matter how bad her life was right now, it could be worse—she could be dead, or she could be that woman.
However, she had to admit that none of them seemed to have experienced the same sort of torment she did from his bite. Maybe he was telling her the truth about that, but she didn’t ever plan to endure it again.
Or at least she hoped she wouldn’t. She shuddered at the possibility he might try to feed on her again and clasped her elbows as she hugged herself.
Lucien released his bite on the woman. Unlike the others, he hadn’t tasted anything in her system, and when she came awake, he felt her distress before he shut it down with his mind. He still wasn’t up to full strength, but at least the blood had replenished him enough to help him regain part of his ability to control another.
The effects of the drugs and alcohol lingered, but her blood helped ease some of them. He placed his hand against the wall and rose. He braced his legs apart when dizziness assailed him. They had to get out of here, but he wasn’t sure he could make it far.
Swaying toward Callie on wobbly legs, he leaned against the doorframe beside her and clasped her elbow. She was rigid but didn’t fight him as he drew her closer.
The feel of her silken skin beneath his palm caused a thrill to course through him. He hadn’t experienced this sizzle of excitement before, but then, he’d been too lost in his need to get away, keep her safe, and feed to notice anything else.
Now, rational thought was returning, and so was a feeling beyond starvation. Or at least he was processing as much rational thought as he could while drugs and alcohol were still battering his mind and body.
Chapter Twelve
“We have to go,” he said, the words coming out slurred. He tried to repeat them normally, but his tongue felt swollen and heavy in his mouth, so it came out worse.
“Are you okay?” Callie asked.
She hadn’t considered it possible, but he looked worse than before. His ruby-colored eyes were heavy-lidded, his words slurred, and he swayed as he led her toward the door. They were almost to the door when he lurched to the side and bounced off the wall. The impact caused broken bits of plaster to rain down from the ceiling.
“I’m fine,” he muttered.
“No, you’re not.”
The last thing she wanted was to be in the company of a vampire losing control of his bodily functions. Being cut open and tossed into shark-infested waters was probably the safer option.
“Too much… too many… drugs… and alcohol,” he said. “Normally, it wouldn’t. Normally….”
He couldn’t find the right words. Talking took too much concentration, and he focused on getting them somewhere safe because he wasn’t going to make it far.
“Normally?” Callie prodded, but Lucien didn’t reply as he led her out of the house.
Like Frankenstein’s monster, he lurched his way down the sidewalk. By the time they arrived at the end, she had to wrap her arm around his waist to help keep him steady. She should let him go and run; he’d never catch her in this condition, but even as she pondered it, she knew she couldn’t abandon him in such a way.
He’d hurt her, the fact he was a vampire was unnerving, but she was alive because of him. She couldn’t repay him by abandoning him while he was weak and drugged out of his mind. Her mind reeled at the complete insanity of helping a drugged-out vampire walk down the street. Shit did not get more surreal than that.
Then another possibility hit her. Maybe she was the one hallucinating all this. Maybe they’d given her something when they took her, and she was on some kind of trip that made Wonderland look sane. Or maybe she’d hallucinated her capture and she was really at home, passed out in bed, and dreaming this.
However, no matter how vivid some of her dreams had been, she’d never experienced anything this real. And she was pretty sure she would have woken up the second he bit her.
“We have to…. We have to find someplace to stay… to… to hide,” Lucien said and hoped she understood his words.
His vision was getting smaller and smaller. He could barely see more than ten feet in front of him. The final woman’s blood helped dilute the drugs and alcohol in his system, but not enough to keep him going. His head kept falling before jerking up as he struggled against the pull of unconsciousness.
At the end of the road, he turned to the right, but he had no idea why. Blinking rapidly, he tried to push aside the effects of the drugs as he searched the street. He was no good to her right now. In fact, he was more of a detriment to her safety than a help, but he couldn’t tell her to run and hide. They would find her, and without him, she didn’t stand a chance.