Branded by Rob Cornell Read Free Book Online Page B

plowing into the concrete wall in the median. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
    “I got some vamp blood in me. Not a lot. A little spray.”
    “It doesn’t matter how much.”
    “I know. Calm down. They didn’t finish the ritual. I turned them all to ash first. I just need you to cook me something up so I can get this shit out of me.”
    Sly was shaking his head and muttering over and over under his breath, “Nononono.”
    “What are you freaking out about?”
    “You can’t get vampire blood out of your system,” he shouted. His face had turned pink. I could see it whenever we passed under one of the lights illuminating the expressway. “Once it’s in you…” He threw up his hands and the car swerved again. “…it’s in you.”
    I think I was deliberately not understanding him. What he said was simple and easy to grasp. I just didn’t want to do the grasping. “What are you talking about? I’m fine. They have to kill me, right? Kill me and then I rise. But…” I trailed off. I realized I didn’t really know the details of the turning process. I didn’t have any vampire friends to ask about this shit.
    Sly gripped the wheel again. He squeezed so hard his knuckles bulged. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
    “No,” I admitted.
    “You are infected. I assume you were fed on, right? Based on that nasty gash in your neck.”
    “Yes.”
    “Then the circle is complete. You have shared the liquid of life. You are bonded to the vampire who fed you. He’s the only one who can break that bond, but if he was trying to turn you, I doubt he’ll be willing to help.”
    A ray of hope rose in me. “What if he’s dead?”
    Sly shook his head. “Don’t even think about killing him. Then you are well and truly fucked.”
    “Um…” I swallowed. I felt like I had a handful of sand in my throat. “I sort of already killed him.”
    Sly groaned.
    “What?”
    “You’re locked in, brother. That’s it. Next time you go to sleep, you are waking up a vampire.”
    “No. No way.”
    Sly chewed on his lip. I had never seen such worry in his eyes. No. Not worry. Flat out fear. He kept his attention on the road, but that actually made me worry more. He didn’t want to look at me.
    “There has to be some way out of this. I mean, I’m not a vampire.”
    “Not yet.” He seemed to chew on something for a minute before continuing. “Look, the infection is in you. The killing ritual is a formality with these guys. All it does is speed up the process. But once you’ve exchanged blood there is no turning back.”
    “I won’t accept that.”
    He hitched a shoulder. “Probably the only reason you haven’t turned already is ‘cause some of your power is keeping the infection at bay.”
    I thought about the trick I’d done to keep the feeling of the stuff worming around inside of me from driving me nuts. Apparently, I really was having an effect on it. “Okay, so I hold off until we figure out something.”
    Sly shook his head and cut across three lanes of traffic to catch an exit ramp at the last possible second. Either he had changed his mind about where he was taking me, or he’d been too distracted until he had nearly missed his exit. We were getting off at John R, so I assumed he was taking me to his shop instead of my house.
    Fine by me. I still wasn’t sure how I was going to handle the mess back home. A lot of questions waited for me with answers I couldn’t freely give. The Ministry would probably have to get involved.
    “Maybe I can cook up something.”
    I nodded. “See that?”
    He held up a hand, then took a hard right onto John R off of Chrysler, barely slowing for the turn.
    “It’ll be a stop gap. Something to give your power a boost so you can keep the infection from turning you. But unless you expect to keep your power focused on fighting this back for the next century or however long you plan to live, the shit’s going to catch up with you. Basically, either