Chapter 18 pt. 2

I couldn’t tell if he was mad still or just frustrated because his expression wasn’t telling me anything and neither was the shove toward his bathroom. I took it to mean that I was to clean myself up while he thought everything through, which worked for me because we went our separate ways without a word.

The girl I saw in the mirror was a mess. Hair was falling out of the ponytail cascading all around her face, concealing a stream of angry red which had moved down the left side of her face and onto her exposed shoulder. She was lucky that she was wearing a black racerback tank-top so you couldn’t see where the blood had soaked into the strap.

I started trying to get the blood off my face using the sink but the red drops quickly made a mess around the basin and the countertop. Luckily, Kris had a dark brown towel within reach to clean it, but I was still a mess with clumps of blood-soaked hair sticking to my head. With a sigh, I realized that I was going to have to get in the shower, secure feeling or not.

Nervously, I stood still, back to the mirror, listening for Kris. I could hear him talking somewhere in the apartment. That helped me relax but as I closed my eyes I could see him in the kitchen, cell phone to his ear. I quickly opened my eyes again, shivered, and locked the door trying to forget that I had seen anything at all.
It took a while under the hot water for me to get the blood out of my hair. I was pretty sure the water had run clear when I shut it off and grabbed the brown towel to wrap around my naked body.

“Raven?” a voice called after knocking on the door just as the water was stopping and my hand was on the towel. “Are you okay in there? Kris says you’ve been in there for a while.”

I sighed when I realised it was Leo. “Yeah, sorry. It took a while to get the blood out of my hair.”

“How bad is it sweetheart?” he tried.

“I’m fine. I’ll be out in a minute,” I replied nervously.

“You’re not in trouble. I told him what happened last night with Alizya. We’ll talk more about it when you come out.”

I pulled on my clothes as quick as I could, pulling my fingers through my hair, giving the sore spot a wide berth. I didn’t look too bad in the mirror but I didn’t feel myself either. Something had been off since I separated from my body.

When I came out of the bathroom, I stopped in my tracks. Both of them were sitting on the couch looking at me like I had interrupted an important conversation. Leo even looked angry.

“Should I leave the room?” I asked nervously.

Leo softened his expression and stood to walk toward me. “Let me see your head sweetheart.”

I started to bat his hand away but he was so gentle and his eyes so full of concern that I stopped. “You don’t need to fuss, Leo. I’m fine.”

“She’s still bleeding,” Leo growled.

I flinched at the pain he caused when he touched near the spot I had been hit.

“No, I’m not, the water ran…” I trailed off when he showed me the sticky crimson on his fingers.

“Calm down, both of you. She’s fine,” Kris scoffed.

Leo nearly went off but I grabbed his arm to stop him. “If she’s fine why is she still bleeding?”

“I called Alizya.”

We waited and he kept us hanging in silence. He was waiting for me to see the cup in his hands and realize that I could smell what it held. My hands reacted to the smell before I found my voice; twitching and starting to shake before I balled them into fists at my side.

“Who did you take that from?”

“It’s mine. Are you hungry now or should we save it for later?” he replied in a calm soft voice that made me want to scream.

I licked my lips and composed myself before answering him, ignoring the confusion on Leo’s face. “I’m not going to drink your blood, Kris.”

I watched him narrow his eyes and set his face, almost as if he were mad at me for not wanting it. Instead, he surprised me. “But you’re hungry?”

Leo was looking back and forth between us. Clearly he didn’t know what to do and was just waiting for one of us to make a move.

“I don’t know what’s going on here Kris, but I don’t need or want your blood. Even if it does smell really good.”

“You’re not answering my question,” he pressed, “Are you hungry?”

I turned my head and bit my lip, closing my eyes so that I would stay calm and control my shaking body. Leo touched my arm and I flinched but didn’t look back.

“Kris, what’s your point? This isn’t necessary,” Leo tried.

I heard Kris stand and move closer. The smell of his blood in the cup was going to drive me crazy if I didn’t get some soon. I took a deep breath, deciding to give him a piece of my mind, and snapped back to attention.

“Yes, Kris. Yes, I’m hungry. Are you happy now? I’ve admitted it. Now put it away,” I growled.

“Are you in control?” he asked.

“I’m going to leave.”

Kris stood still in front of me; both of us knew that I wasn’t going to leave. I would be lost the instant I stepped out the door. Instead, we looked each other in the eyes for a long moment before he held out the cup toward me.

“I’m trusting you.”

“I don’t want it,” I shot back without moving.

He pushed the cup into Leo’s hands and turned away. “I can’t exactly put it back and I can’t have you bleeding when you walk back through the Nest.” He took a chair positioned across from the couch and nodded, pointing with his head, that we should follow suit. “Drink while we discuss what Alizya had to say.”

I sat down on the couch, Leo to my left and looked at Kris, trying to ignore the cup in Leo’s hands. He pushed it into my hands and I looked down at the cool glass receptacle filled with red-brown semi-liquid. It was like holding the drug of your addiction in your hands and trying to deny that you even have an addiction in the first place.

“Drink it,” Kris boomed, making me flinch and look up at him in fear. “Don’t make me get mean.”

I put the cup to my lips without taking my eyes off of him and took a small sip. I let the blood sit on my tongue, still trying to decide if I should be drinking it at all when suddenly it shocked me and I wasn’t looking at Kris anymore. I wasn’t even in his apartment.