He shrugged halfheartedly. “Where I’m from, it’s perfectly legal. Required, in fact.”
“I won’t ask you where you’re from then. What did Cicero mean when he talked about feeding from me though?”
Bast had to admire her courage. The way she’d switched topics so smoothly. She didn’t raise her voice. Any inflection indicating her concern or arising hysteria remained absent. Neither convinced the truth from him. Bringing together the worlds of human and vampire wasn’t his responsibility.
“Go get some sleep. It’s been a long night.”
“Stop avoiding me.” She stepped closer, eyes narrowing. “You’re perspiring.”
“I’ve been working out.” He’d hardly begun. And just like illness, sweating belonged in the world of humans. Still, beads of sweat began to form along his hairline. The first drip of cool moisture trickled behind his left ear.
“Why do you have to be so stubborn? Why won’t you accept you need my help?”
Bast stood. “I don’t need your help,” he said through clenched teeth.
In fact, he thought he was burning alive. Heat weaved in and out of his body, twining through him until he swore he saw smoke rising from his flesh. Something crawled along his back in waves, like fingertips pushing from the inside. Like something struggling to get out.
The speed with which his illness swept through him seemed to increase every time he faced an attack. The first time, it had taken close to thirty minutes before he’d felt its full weight. Now? By God, it had been less than thirty minutes.
The next time...
He swayed, and Alice rushed forward. Her hand touched his skin. The instant it did, she cried out. “Your fever’s back.” She reached for his face, wincing as her fingers skimmed his cheek. “I think it’s worse. Sebastian, please, we have to get you to a hospital.”
“No hospitals.” Four syllables had never made his mouth ache as much as those did.
“Come on, then.” Alice grunted as she tried to heft his bulk. “The shower.”
Sebastian took a step. Wavered. Staggered back. “Leave,” he urged, his voice barely above a whisper.
“Yeah. In just a minute.”
Alice didn’t understand. He needed her to go.
Not because he feared what his world might do to her if they found her with him, instead fearing what he himself might do if they stayed together just another minute more.
Along with the heat—the burning, all-encompassing flare—came a ravenous hunger. If Alice didn’t leave him now, he didn’t know how he’d be able to handle it. His want lived inside his body, screaming for attention and demanding to be appeased.
His mouth watered from the remembrance of her taste. Not just her lips, but the dark, sweet slide of her blood against his tongue. Incisors lengthened, pulsing from the memory of puncturing her soft skin. Licking his lips didn’t help. The gnawing in his belly expanded, announcing with deep rumbles the depth of his growing hunger. Bast had to taste her now.
Had to.
* * *
The man was built like a freight train. Sebastian dropped, and Alice thanked God he’d managed to fall onto the padded seat. If he’d hit the floor, it would have been next to impossible to get him up again on her own. “It’s like you eat rocks for breakfast,” she muttered.
Somehow he found the strength to rise again. Her spine almost telescoped in the process of assisting him, but at least he was standing. Now they only had to tackle crossing almost the entire expanse of his house to the bathroom.
“Wh-what?”
Alice stilled, something about the slight spaciness to his answer setting her nerves on edge. She was reminded too much of her brother Richard during one of his high sprees, when she wasn’t sure if she’d wake up to find most of her belongings sold to one of his friends, or discover one of the same friends groping her while she’d slept.
His body heat clung to her, causing her own body to perspire as well. How hot could a person go before permanent damage was inflicted? She needed a thermometer and a few minutes with Google. She needed help.
“Sebastian, I have to go call someone. Even that Cice—”