Blood Lust (COMPLETED)

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Sleeping With the Enemy pt. 1 (Audrey's POV)

Dedicated to MrsSteal_yo_gurl

My eyes fluttered open as soon as they closed, but barely. They were no more than slits as I watched Duke lower me to the floor, his expression grim.

"I warned you," he croaked. "I didn't want to--"

Out of nowhere, a blur knocked him back between mine and Jo's beds, straddling him with a snarl.

"What the fuck have you done?" Aiden's voice shook with rage. "Huh? Answer me, you traitorous bastard!"

Aiden was hitting Duke. I couldn't see much besides his back--and the rise of his fist before it fell to collide with Duke--but I could hear the connection. The painfully loud smack of flesh striking flesh. The nauseating snap of bones breaking.

"Stop," my throat hurt. I couldn't stop coughing. "Aiden, please."

It was no use. My voice was so small from being choked that I may as well have been a gnat buzzing around.

I tried to reach out for something to throw at Aiden to get his attention, and snagged one of Jo's sneakers. With the whisper of a grunt, I chucked the shoe and got Aiden right in the butt cheek.

"Damnit, ow." He stopped to glance at me over his shoulder. "What?"

I swallowed, nearly crying out from how painful it was. "Not his fault," I paused, coughing yet again. "Influenced..."

Aiden froze, his turquoise eyes bulging. "What? That's impossible."

He looked down at Duke, who groaned, made a spitting noise, then coughed.

"Shit," Aiden scratched at his head. "Shit, Duke. Who did this?"

The question must have been rhetorical, because instead of waiting for an answer, Aiden got to his feet. "I have to fetch Lucius and Gabriel."

Fear widened my gaze, and I made myself speak. "Don't... leave."

How could he even think of leaving me alone with Duke after what just happened?

"I don't have a choice." Aiden squatted down to help me into a sitting position. "I can't carry both of you around the school; not without exposing what we are. And thanks to Gabriel's stupid electronics ban, I have no way to reach him."

We glanced over at Duke as he struggled to sit up, and I gasped.

Aiden had really done a number on him in a tremendously short amount of time.

His right eye was swollen shut, bloody from a small gash in his eyebrow. His left cheek was blaring red with a huge lump beginning to form along his jawline. Various spots on his handsome face were starting to bruise, including a particularly painful looking place on his forehead.

"He hasn't fed since he fed from you." Aiden mumbled, sounding crestfallen. "So it will be a while before he heals. You should be safe until I get back."

I cocked an eyebrow at him, mouthing, "should?"

He gave me the slightest of smirks, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Will. You will be safe. But, if you want an advantage..."

He took his hand off me to hold it palm side up. "...I can give you some of my blood."

Before I could protest, he bit into his own flesh until blood dripped down his chin. "Hurry before the wound closes."

I thought of Dean Lachlan giving me his blood the night before, what it had done to me. I had never felt so alive. So aroused. So strong.

But like a drug, vampire blood had it's pitfalls. It weakened my resolve, made me a slave to my urges, drove me to lose my virginity to Nero.