Page 69 of Don't Bite the Director
She thought she had more time.
“No, Cora,” Saiden assured her in a hushed tone as he sat on the bed. “You’re not dying, I promise.”
His eyes were larger than normal. As if hope and love filled them up like a balloon close to bursting.
“Saiden, what’s going on?” she asked, focusing on those vibrant irises. She remembered indulgent brown eyes with a fleck or two of gold, but now she found herself tumbling into wide pools of dark chocolate strewn with lacy ribbons of caramel and bursting with golden stardust. They were still his, just even more exquisite.
“I need you to listen very carefully, and try to remain calm,” he replied.
Those words were about as effective as tossing water on a grease fire, Cora decided when the thudding bass in the room cranked up a notch, and she realized it was the sound of her own heart.
Her heart shouldn’t be that loud, though.
“Something happened,” Saiden began in a low, steady voice. The kind of voice you only use when things have gone so far south that you might as well buy a piña colada and enjoy the beach.
“We were attacked last night,” he continued.
She knew that, but it didn’t have anything to do with her. She remembered something was wrong at the compound, but she was fine. She stayed in the car. She…
She didn’t lock the doors.
Fear detonated inside her like fireworks. Everything was high pitchwhistles, burning cinders, and shattering explosions. Saiden was still talking, but she couldn’t hear him. Didn’t want to hear him because what he was saying wasn’t possible.
Too loud.
Too bright.
Her mouth hurt.
She shook her head. Not possible. She was still dreaming. Maybe if she could find her way back to the circus, she could force herself to wake up. Maybe…
Too many maybes. None of them actualities.
She forced herself to look at Saiden. To look deeper into his eyes than she would have ever thought possible.
“Please tell me I’m not…” The words caught in her throat, and tears crept into the corners of her eyes. “Please tell me you didn’t…” No amount of pushing or pulling would dislodge the question. Once she asked, once she knew, it became real.
But it couldn’t be real. What she was considering was simply impossible. And she wasn’t scared of impossible things. She ate impossible things for breakfast. Or was that fear she ate? Both, she decided. Clearly, she had a very big breakfast.
So just ask, she commanded herself. Get assurance that the impossible is still impossible, then deal with whatever is actually happening.
“Am I a vampire?” Cora asked, the question holding more weight than the words deserved to be burdened with.
No taking them back now, though. They were out in the world, prepared to determine her fate.
Unfortunately, fate was a raging C U Next Tuesday who’d made it her mission to continually fuck with Cora year after year. She saw the answer in his eyes long before the soul-damning word escaped his lips.
“Yes,” Saiden whispered, the single word soquiet that the very fact she heard him was confirmation enough.
Something erupted inside her like a volcano, demanding to be released. It dug its claws into her throat, and coated her lungs in acid. Higher and higher it rose, ready to be unleashed on the monster in front of her.Murderer, it screamed.Killer. It climbed up and up, and when she could hold it in no longer…
Cora threw up her very big breakfast.
Chapter forty-one
Saiden
Saiden closed the door to his bedroom, and the resounding click of the lock sounded like a jail cell swinging shut on his life.
