REAPING INNOCENCE ◦ STILINSKI [3]

xxiv.

xxiv. ALL OUT IN THE OPEN

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CARTER WASN'T HEALING. Her wounds felt mortal on her body.

    Over the pain in her abdomen, she felt a strange and quickly growing ache in her upper jaw. And her warm blood spread across her stomach with alarming speed. She could feel it soaking the tops of her jeans, hear it dripping on the wood below. The smell of the blood suddenly twisted her stomach.

    Carter swallowed and felt her own blood trickle back down her throat. She ran her tongue over her teeth and almost cried out in pain. Her canines were so razor-sharp that she was afraid that if she applied anymore pressure against them she would slice her tongue. She stiffened and Malakai noticed. He peered down and lightly touched her jaw. Carter's back arched, mouth open in a silent cry as the pain intensified.

    Malakai gasped. Her fangs were extended and throbbing. He knew exactly what her body wanted—he'd known for months that this was bound to happen because it happened to Raeven. He tried several times to bring the subject up to Carter, but she always went on about how she didn't want to be anything like Raeven. But as she writhed in his arms, he couldn't stop himself from slowly bringing his wrist up to her open mouth...

    Carter tried to swallow and then sighed, closing her eyes and tried to push his wrist away. Malakai was persistent; he was silent but she could hear it in his mind. Insistent that the blood would heal her. She shook her head and attempted to close her aching mouth but stopped when her fangs lightly rested against her bottom lip.

    It was only by the grace of her love for Malakai, and their connected minds, that she didn't bite down and pierce his skin. Ancient undead urges that were becoming untamable were screaming at her to do just that.

    But she loved him, and they were one—and besides, she could barely move an inch. She was frozen in pain; it seemed to radiate from everywhere on her body. Her fangs had never extended so far or become quite as sharp, and without her doing a thing the razor edge of her teeth had cut into Malakai's wrist. Blood was trickling very slowly down her throat. Malakai's blood was...indescribable. It was charged with power.

    To Carter, the blood flowing down her throat was a pleasure as sharp as anything imaginable to a human. She also knew that her body had been craving blood, but refused to divulge in the instinct because she was afraid—afraid that she would become as hungry as Raeven, that she would be taken over by an uncontrollable thirst.

    Carter's heart was pounding out of her chest.

    She could feel his satisfaction as the tiny sacrificial pain turned to pleasure, because he was linked to her. Raeven had once told her that sharing blood with someone who you shared a deep bond with wasn't painful, but pleasurable.

    Hot shivers traveled down her spine, Malakai's blood still making the world spin.

    All's right. All's well...Malakai chimed telepathically.

    And right when she was about to sink her teeth into a small vein in his wrist, she heard Scott and Stiles enter the Sheriff's station. The ache in her gums instantly faded and she pushed Malakai's wrist away. The pain that had faded in her jaws was immediately replaced by the agony of her abdomen. She looked over at Lydia and saw the tears in her eyes, Kira pressing hard on her wound.

    Carter felt her. Sensed her and Carter was suddenly flooded with anger. She walked in and her face confirmed everything Carter already knew. Raeven was literally shocked to see her lying there—and it wasn't the happy sort of shocked—it was the "I just buried the devil and then he shows up in my house" sort of shocked.