Tribe (Tribe 1) Read Online Free Page B

about it. Her emotions were calm and even.
    “I think that’s a good idea, just to be safe. You might just be coming down with a bug, but better safe than sorry. Let me help you up.” I held the lady’s hand as she stood. She was unsteady for a moment, then quickly recovered.
    “I feel fine, now. Thank you. I’m so sorry to have troubled you while you already were dealing with your own issue. You could have passed out!”
    “It’s okay, I took my insulin shot real quick while you were out of it. I’m much better now.” I smiled, but I was feeling too guilty to put my heart into it.
    I unlocked the bathroom door and walked out with the woman, and thanked her for trying to help. She returned to the kitchen to finish her shift, looking a bit puzzled.
    I hesitated as the girl waiting in the hall gave me a strange look before going into the bathroom. I stifled the urge to follow her. Though I needed more blood, I couldn’t risk keeping the bathroom locked for so long again. Women got testy when they had to wait outside a locked bathroom for long, and if some stranger got smart with me when I came out, it might have triggered the rage and thirst that roiled within me.
    I also wasn’t willing to play “Russian roulette” with my choice of blood donors, unless I had to. Mom was very choosy about our donors, and you never knew what someone’s secret habits were. If Mom had been there, she’d have taken me to the parking lot of the nearby health food store to pick the “donor”. She always picked places where there were no security cameras, and where she was the least likely to pick up someone on drugs. Diseases may not hurt us, but blood tainted with drugs would definitely get us high. Plus…it would be just…eeww.
    As it was, I was flying high on the fresh life force of the woman I’d fed on. Still, it wasn’t nearly enough. I needed to get home before I got careless and started taking even more risks.
    After all, you tend to get a bad reputation if the small community you live in finds out you’re a “vampire”.

4
    I hurried down the hallway and into the main hall. Scanning the room, I spied Jenna talking with the same boy—though they’d meandered over to a darker corner—leaning toward each other in a tête-à-tête. I scurried over, trying to breathe through my nose, keeping my eyes downward.
    The scent of their blood was intoxicating.
    “Jenna, I need to go.”
    She looked up at me, surprised. “The dinner part hasn’t even started yet.”
    “It’s…uh…an emergency. Seriously. I need to go.”
    Irritation flashed over her face. “You know how important this is to my parents—”
    “Yes! And I came, and I paid, and so did you, and we helped set up, and you can be back in time for the clean up, but I really need to go!”
    Jenna smiled apologetically at the boy, then shot up out of her seat and took me by the shoulder, dragging me several feet away. “What is your problem—?” she began. But once we were standing under the lights, she saw my face. “Whoa! What’s wrong with you? Are you sick?”
    I nodded, feeling the sweat beading up on my brow. “I’m not kidding, Jenna, you need to get me home.”
    “Maybe we should go to the bathroom, you look like you’re ready to throw up.”
    “No, I just…it’s…uh…my blood sugar.”
    “You’re diabetic?” Jenna’s mouth dropped open. “You never said anything to me about that!”
    “I know. Now let’s go.” I grabbed her by the shoulder.
    “Wait, they’re serving up the food now. You can eat, and stabilize your blood sugar…”
    “No!” I snapped, a little too loud. Nearby, two old ladies gave us the stink-eye. “I mean…my blood sugar is too high, not too low. And I don’t have any insulin here.”
    “Maybe someone else here has some—it’s forty minutes back to your house, Ember. That’s a long time to wait, if you’re that sick.”
    “It’s not like that. I can’t just use someone else’s insulin and