Ren.”
Bastard. I mentally scream at myself as I rip the note into dozens of pieces and close the box, knowing I cannot eat those sweets. Nope. I’m not even going to look at them again. I shove the box in the bathroom cupboard under the sink and swear to myself I’m not going in there again.
Nope.
No way.
I head out of the bathroom, glancing at Thallon, who looks just as I left him not too long ago so I could clean up. Pale and sickly, but Henry promises he will make it, he just needs to rest. Whatever Henry gave him to drink and spread on his cut leg has seemed to lower his fever, but I’m not going far until he wakes up. Henry sits in a chair in the corner of the room, and his eyes follow me as I head out to the balcony for some fresh air, hoping he will come out with me.
The balcony air is a welcome chill from the warm bedroom and all the worry seeped into the walls. Thallon’s temperature has finally gone down to a normal level, but he still hasn’t woken up. The cold night air whips around my shoulders as I look over the academy, how normal and serene it looks, when it is anything but. Henry pushes the balcony door open and comes out, walking to my side and resting his arms on the balcony railing.
“My parents are high-level angels in the city above,” he starts to explain, and I tuck some of my wayward hair behind my ear as I listen to him. “They had everything, but they could not have children. For years, they tried, and eventually, a healer explained that it was not possible. My mother’s want for a child was so desperate that she begged the light above for a solution. He told her she could find a human child with an angel mark in the human adoption services and told her exactly where to find the child.”
“So that the child would become an angel?” I ask, not expecting an answer.
Henry clamps his hands together. “Yes. Hazel remembers our mother, a woman addicted to drugs who paid for it with her body.”
“Henry...” I whisper, and without realising I’m doing it, I cover his hand with mine. Henry hardly notices as he stares at the sky, lost in the past. “I was taken with Hazel from our mother not long after I was born, and then my parents found us. Well, they found Hazel first and then were told about me. They weren’t meant to adopt me; the light above didn’t send them for me. I was a mistake.”
“I’m sorry about your past, but I don’t get what this has to do with Ren and what is happening now,” I whisper.
“It all does. See, I was a sick baby. Really sick, darlin’,” Henry admits, running his hand through his hair. “My heart couldn’t beat fast enough for my body, and eventually my organs just failed. When I was one, my parents got desperate for a cure and contacted the vampires. It’s well-known their blood can heal humans.”
I didn’t know that, but okay. “The blood healed me, and for years, I survived on a small amount of vampire blood a month to live. Then I became an angel, just as predicted, but it wasn’t that simple. You’ve seen my ability to go into the shadows and move around?”
“Yes,” I answer, furrowing my brow.
“That’s a rare vamp power, darlin’. Like most my powers are,” he explains. “And the new problem lay in the fact I was getting sick again and the vamp blood wasn’t working. That’s when I first heard Ren’s voice in my head.”
I can only nod, feeling my hands shake a tad over Henry’s. If he notices, he doesn’t say anything. “Ren told me a master vampire’s blood would heal me over time, turn me into something unheard of. A mixture of angel and vamp, but like never seen before. Kaitlyn, I wanted to live, but I never betrayed you. I wouldn’t.”
“Does Ren’s blood help?” I question as Henry turns to me, linking our fingers. Memories of Henry’s lips on mine, his body pressed against me in his room, flash into my mind, and my cheeks redden as he comes closer like he can read my thoughts.
“Yes,” he answers, and slowly he reaches up, gliding his hand through my hair to the back of my neck. I arch my neck to look up at him as he leans down and kisses me. My hands instantly grip his shirt, tugging him closer as his lips devour mine with a possessive claim I’m helpless to deny.
I want to be mad at him...but I can’t. He only wanted to save his own life, and he hasn’t hurt me. Not really.
“Sorry to interrupt, but my roast beef sandwiches are going to get cold,” Myles’s amused voice drawls, and Henry breaks away first, spinning around in front of me to face Myles holding a wicker basket. Henry’s wings flicker out as black energy builds up around his hands. I climb under Henry’s wing, placing my hand on his chest as Myles keeps talking. “No need to attack this big bad wolf. I’m the one bringing the food this time, not Red Riding Hood.”
“Henry, this is Myles. He saved my life and came here to protect me,” I tell Henry, who briefly looks at me before glaring at Myles once more.
A low chuckle vibrates from Henry’s chest. “I’m sure the wolf did.”
“Henry,” I warn, pleading with him to cool it.
“Where am I?” I hear a deep voice grumble, and I forget the two plonkers on the balcony as I open the door and run to Thallon, who smiles when he sees me.
Thank god he is alive.
Chapter 36
Biting my nails, I look between Myles and Thallon as they awkwardly stare at me for answers I can’t give them right now. Thallon can’t put any weight on his leg for at least a week, and he still is so weak that he needs a lot of help. Which means leaving him in Myles’s care...and Myles and Thallon haven’t said more than two words to each other yet. Not that Thallon has talked much since he woke up, he mainly sleeps and drifts in and out. “Are you sure you two will be alright for the day?”
“You have class, get a move on. I will look after your friend,” Myles states, adding more emphasis on the word friend than needed. “I will only leave to find you food.”
“I’m going to be the size of a house if you keep cooking for me, Myles,” I warn him with a smile. His sandwiches and cake he made for me and the guys last night was to die for. Looking between them both one more time, I slip my shoes on and head outside into the corridor where Henry is waiting for me, resting against the door.
“Morning, darlin’. Have you tried flying with those wings yet?” Henry asks, pushing up off the wall. “I could teach you after class if you wanted.” His arm presses into mine as we walk down the corridor, and I grin at him.
“If you want to be my teacher, go ahead,” I suggest. “I will warn you, I suck at being a good student.”
He laughs and says something, but suddenly everything goes blurry and my heart pounds in my chest. Sucking in a deep breath, I stumble, and Henry catches me. I can’t focus on anything but my fast-beating heart and the deep ache in my throat until it vanishes, leaving me as confused as Henry looks worried. “When did you last feed, darlin’?”
“I-I haven’t,” I stammer, and Henry helps me straighten up. A few vampires at the end of the corridor stop to stare at me and Henry before walking past, their angels on chains following after them. “Feed? Like blood?”
“You aren’t just an angel anymore. You will die if you don’t drink blood,” Henry warns, gritting his teeth. “Problem is, you need fresh blood that isn’t a vampire. Like an angel or even a wolf.”