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getting ready to feed.
    I tackled Grand, and we fought. He got me on the ground. I
had a second Glock strapped to my leg. He was reaching out to drain me, but I
pulled the barrel between us. The shot took off most of his left hand. Grand
figured the odds and fled before I could line up another shot.
    He got away.  I failed.
    It was clear you’d been infected. I knew what had to be
done. Gabe thought there might be a way to help you. He was already emotionally
attached. I could hear sirens in the distance. We didn’t have time to argue.
That’s the only reason I didn’t kill you then and there.
    …No, that’s it.
     

Chapter 6
    “Your head,” the boy with elf eyes murmurs as he puts me
into a car. Then, “this is, um, awkward.” He can only get me half in. I hear
his steps moving quickly around the back of the car. He opens the opposite door
and pulls me the rest of the way across the back seat.
    “Thank you,” I say. I want to touch the blue glow around
him. This will soothe the pain inside of me. Not pain. Hunger. Great, gaping
hunger. I am shivering, still sweating. The strap of my bra has fallen to my
elbow.
    “Do we, uh, have a blanket in the trunk or something,
Tarren?”
    “Get in the car.”
    I hear sirens. They sound closer than they could possibly
be. Just like I think I can hear the boy’s heart thudding in his chest, but
that can’t be real.
    “Yeah, it’s a warm night. She’ll be fine.” The door by my
head closes. I flinch at the sound. After a moment it opens again.
    “Seatbelt.” He leans over me, grappling with the buckle
under my back. His heart is a drum.  I hear the whoosh of air in and out of his
lungs. I smell him, the sweat on him, the damp of his clothes. Glowing spirals
of blue cloak his body like colored steam. I must touch the color. I am moving
my arm, dizzy with even this effort but desperate. He is so close. My hands
grow hot. Something is happening to them. The skin of my palms is puckering,
splitting open.
    “There we go.” The boy is gone. The door closes. I keep
reaching up hoping to catch any lingering wisps of the glow. The skin furls
back over my palm, seaming itself up into a dark X across the center. The car
is moving. Every breath smells like blood. I’m giggling like a maniac, but only
in my head. I shove my hands under my body, because this will somehow help. I’m
still burning to death, by the way.
    The driver whispers to himself, “We had him. We had him.”
    The one with the backwards ball cap and elf eyes says,
“Look, we got her; that was the whole point.” He turns to look at the driver.
“We’ll kill Grand some other time.”
    The driver doesn’t say anything, but the color ratchets
around him, bright along the edges. I close my eyes, but I can still feel the
skin pulling away from my palms again.
    “Your eye is swelling up,” the passenger says.
    “I’m fine. You?”
    “Ankle. Just twisted it a little. I’ll throw some ice on it
whenever. No cops behind us. We need to switch our plates when we stop. Ditch
the guns too. We left shell casings. Damn shame, though.” The passenger pulls a
gun from his belt, hefts it in his hand. “My guy went through a lot of trouble
to get this baby. Not that you care. Anyone can get Glocks.”
    “Put that away,” the driver says. “We’ll cover cleanup
later.”
    The passenger turns to stare at me. I watch the delicate
shades of blue pulse around him.
    “We should probably get her a shirt,” he says. The driver
doesn’t reply, but his eyes flick up to the rearview mirror when we stop at a
light.
    After a while, the elf turns to the driver and asks, “Is
there any way this isn’t going to totally fucking ruin her life?”
    I can’t stop shivering. My body jerks, so that I fall back
painfully onto the buckle. The fire is starting to separate. There’s the part
ripping up my bones and evaporating my blood, but there is something entirely
different lifting out of the flames. This is an exquisite