Daughter of Night (A Daughter of Nyx novel)

Chapter Twenty

Chevonne sat in the back seat, arms wrapped around her knees and stared out the back window. Jonathan tried talking to her and she couldn't reply. Why didn't he see that? How could he?

How could he know her heart was shattering in her chest. How could he when she didn't know until it was to late? Her feelings for the volatile vampire weren't complex. Not at all. Just frightening. He didn't want it. She didn't either. And if she had realized while he was with them, she would have never told him. But now... Now it was so much worse.

She loved him and he was left behind.

He was already so hurt. There was no way she could see her way through into a situation in which he made it out alive.

There was a vague awareness of Jonathan's arms around her.

Nikolas. Sweet, kind Nikolas. While she didn't love him, not yet, there was a feeling that it would be unavoidable, if only he had lived.

Words. What was he saying? She tried to pull herself together.

"... healing."

What was healing, her heart? No. It wasn't.

"Chevonne. We need to stop. Caleb is going to feed Kian. Elliot tried to save him. We need to make sure he lives."

"Elliot..." She shook her head. "Do whatever."

Caleb pulled over and she thought about it. Her blood was potent. Wasn't that what Elliot... said?

Her blood would do more to to heal him than Caleb's dead blood. Right?

"Take him out of the truck," she said, meeting blue eyes.

"Why?"

"I'm going to do it and Jonathan doesn't need to be confined to my scent." Anymore than he already was. Sure the windows were down, but she had to imagine that with the mess she made...

"Why?"

Her lips twisted. "You like that word. Why not?"

He studied her face and she didn't know what he found there, but he gently pulled the man from the seat. She had time to look at him now. He was a wreck. Dark red hair was made darker by the blood that coated him. Bites and strips of flesh had been pulled from him. In some places, she could see bone.

"He lives?"

Caleb gave a single nod. "In agony."

"Can he bite me?"

"No. I'll have to make you bleed then you put your arm against his mouth. Then he'll bite." He cocked his head. "It going to be instinct and he won't be able to make it not hurt. You should know that."

She gave a slight shrug. "Elliot and Nikolas gave their lives for me and for him. What's pain compared to that?" She knelt beside the devastated body and held out her wrist. "Do what you must."

"Chevonne," he said and she looked up into eyes that saw entirely to much. "He knows what he's doing."

She smiled. "No one knows everything." She looked back down. "Let's do this."

The slide of metal over her skin surprised her. She thought he would use teeth.

She held her bleeding flesh over lips that didn't move and she was beginning to doubt their claims when his lips did move. A scream came from somewhere within that mass of shredded flesh and hands locked on her wrists. Pulling tight, fangs drove deep into her arm, scrapping against the bone. The pain took her breath and Caleb knelt beside her and took her hand.