Blood Fever: The watchers by Verónica Wolff Read Free Book Online Page B

swallowed hard and made myself say, “And the second thing?”
    “The second thing,” he announced, biting out the words in a glacial tone. “Stay away from me. If you won’t accept me, it is the only way.”
    Maybe I was stubborn, or afraid, or cautious, or just a romantic hoping for more.…Whatever my reasons, I hadn’t wanted to go with him. But now that he forbade me, well, that was a different story. It felt so final. I laughed nervously. “I thought I was your wee dove.”
    His eyes narrowed, his desire grown fierce. The quiver I’d felt in my belly shot through my whole body, heating me, weakening me, until my knees went shaky. He wanted me, and it was a heady thing.
    “I grow hungry,” he said, his voice hoarse, “and yet you wish to sever our bond. To be this close is to be too tempted.”
    This was the most he’d ever said about the bond, and it gave me strength. “You can break a blood bond?”
    “With effort,” he said through gritted teeth. “But there must be distance.”
    He leaned down, and I froze. His lips were perilously close to my neck. “You’re catnip, you know.” The air tickled across my neck as he inhaled. “I was your first kiss. It’s not too late for me to be your second, too.”
    I flinched back. “How’d you know you were my first kiss?”
    “I know many things.” He lightly swept the back of his hand down my arm, leaving a ripple of goose bumps in its wake.
    How easy it would be to let him scoop me up and carry me away. How much I wanted him to.
    But I also knew I didn’t trust the bond. If we could sever it, we had to try. My reaction to Carden was too powerful, and I didn’t believe it was real. I didn’t know him, but in our short acquaintance, I’d sensed the tension between him and Alcántara. What was Carden’s history with the Directorate? Until I understood this island more, I wasn’t ready to hitch my wagon to any vampire.
    “No.” I took a step back. “So is that it? If we stay away from each other, we can break the bond?” My voice came out sounding more bereft than I’d intended.
    His eyes lingered on me. Finally he turned from me.
    It felt like saying good-bye to a lover. Carden was my first and only kiss, so I supposed I
was
saying good-bye to a lover.
    He spoke over his shoulder, his voice cold. “This will be difficult for you. You must steal extra doses of the blood. But for now it’s late. Curfew is soon. Get inside, Acari Drew. And watch your back.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

    I was trapped. My limbs grew numb. I was helpless. Held captive.
    I was sitting in an audience, pretending to appreciate some early medieval musical stylings, played with almost comical solemnity by an ensemble of effete vampires.
    Master Dagursson was kicking off our semester of Medieval Musicianship with the Boringest Concert Ever. It seemed like the entire campus had gathered for the recital, and we were trying to be good students and sit silently, but the music was monotonous, to put it mildly.
    “What did Beethoven have as a snack?” Josh whispered in my ear.
    I didn’t answer, but that didn’t stop him from delivering his punch line, intoned to the tune of Beethoven’s Fifth. “Ba-na-na-naaaa.”
    I elbowed him hard. “Shhh…”
    Boring didn’t begin to cover it.
    And uncomfortable.
    I’d glimpsed Carden from the corner of my eye as I walked in. My pulse pounded at the sight of him, a dull throbbing along the surface of my skin. It felt like ages since I’d fed from him, and just the thought of it had me shaking like a junkie.
    I didn’t need to look to know he was standing near the exit. Probably glowering at the back of my head for talking to Josh.
    “You all right? You’re looking pale, D.” Josh had leaned close to say it, and the back of my neck prickled.
    There.
My Scottish vampire was definitely glowering at us.
    Thoughts tumbled into my head. Snapshots of Carden’s mouth. The touch of his hand. His breath on my neck.
    Sweat broke out on my