Page 64 of Deadly Cravings
“What does that mean? You mentioned a connection.” I licked my dry lips.
Asher brushed my hair back.
“When vampires share their blood, it heals, but it also creates a bond for as long as it runs through your veins. It’s even worse when you’ve exchanged blood with a vampire. You will feel each other’s absence and you will feel when you need each other. It’s like a call to one another. A sort of tether. You can also find one another through it.”
This must have been how I survived in the cave for so long. The Pale One fed me his blood. And here I thought I’d survived because I’d eaten the damn bugs.
My stomach soured at the memory. Nope. No, time to block the traumatic memories. Not one of my finer moments but I’d been determined to live so I could get back to Peter.
Turned out I didn’t have to do that because he’d been giving me his sweet blood the entire time. Sweet? No! I’d hated it, I hated everything about it . . . but not really. I rubbed my temples. Asher said something about finding—a cold wave washed over my thoughts and I climbed out of the mental cobwebs.
If we could find one another, did that mean...
I sucked in a breath.
No. No.
Had he known where I was the entire time?
He’d known how to find me. The whole time he’d known as I ran around like a chicken with her head cut off.
“Sh.Älskade.” Asher perched on the end of the bed and pressed my head to his chest.
I was at an odd angle since Bastien weighed my legs down, so I had to twist my torso, which didn’t help the shortness of breath.
“What has you so terrified, Pet?”
I squeezed my eyelids shut, unable to get the words out even if I wanted to. No, he couldn’t get to me now even if he found me. Vampires seemed territorial and there’d been no other one of them to step foot in their home.
“Distract me, please.” The words rasped free, rough and desperate.
“I—” Asher sighed, and I could practically feel the nerves radiating from him. My fingers clenched onto his shirt.
“Tell me about Ren? Or Bastien? Why is he down here? Why is he like this?”
“Ren... enjoys chaos. Bastien is subtler. Kills anything that crosses him even when he’s not blood-mad.” Asher snorted and shook his head.
“What’s blood-mad?” Dread tugged at my stomach.
“It’s an illness that started running rampant in vampire communities more than three decades ago.” Asher dragged his palm down my side. My heart rate was starting to go down and the fingers of the panic attack slowly withdrew. “It drives vampires crazy. The illness eats at their brain and all they want to do is drink blood.”
I swallowed hard, nose flaring as images of the Pale One filled my mind. He’d been indiscriminate when he bit me, just as Bastien was. The skeletal monster looked like it’d been vacuumed of anything resembling human, leaving behind a husk of athing. It’d had no care or patience, sleeping or eating practically all the time. A sick cycle that led to feeding me hisblood, which, according to them, meant he could have found me this entire time.
How stupid was I?
I’d spent the last few years running, uselessly. If he could find me, then why hadn’t he captured me?
Was he playing a game with me?
I rubbed my forehead against Asher’s jaw.
“Bastien was always a bit loose up there, though. Where Ren thrives on calculated disorder.” Asher chuckled. “Ren and Bastien were known to create the largest number of vampires in one century, which was probably why Imogen wanted?—”
He cut off and I frowned, lifting to look him in the face and quirked my brow questioningly.
The corners of his lips tilted up.
“Ren and Jax may have been fooled by her, but the cunt only used us,” Asher added. “Bastien would have eventually left Crimson Coven if he hadn’t become blood-mad. I stayed for my foolish brother. Ren looked for alliances that benefited him, but was just as quick to turn on you if something didn’t. And Tobiascouldn’tleave.” An odd wrenching tore at my chest. That would explain Jax’s bitterness toward... everything.