Forsaken by the Others Read Online Free Page B

about it.
     “What’s happening to me?”
    “It may be your body still fighting off the lycanthropy virus. What I tasted in your
     blood last night—I assumed it would fade over time.”
    I still couldn’t open my eyes, but I would have glared at him had I been able. Snarling,
     I punched his shoulder, though it was about as effective as hitting a stone statue.
     “You asshole! You knew there was still something wrong with me last night and didn’t
     say anything?”
    His grip shifted from my jaw to my upper arms, keeping me from twisting away or hitting
     him again. “Stop this foolishness. Do you know how unusual it is for someone to be
     both bound to a vampire—two vampires—and then infected with lycanthropy? I did not
     want to start you needlessly worrying about something that we may not be able to change.
     I don’t want to meddle with your blood and can’t be certain what side effects you
     will experience, because this does not happen. You are an anomaly, Shiarra. A very unusual anomaly, and all of the normal methods
     I would use to deal with human sickness do not apply here.”
    I would have plied him with more questions, but a more severe bout of coughing wracked
     my body. He helped ease me to the tiled floor as I bent double, a pulsing pain building
     in my stomach and sinuses. The cramping wasn’t so bad, but the abrupt onset of the
     sinus headache made my head feel like it would split in two.
    The water washed away the secretions of blood and whatever the hell the black stuff
     was. When Royce realized I was clutching at my head because of the pain there, he
     carefully moved my fingers and gently stroked over the parts where the pressure was
     the worst. He could probably see the black stuff under my skin, because he knew exactly
     where to rub. It helped, because the choking wave of crud that flooded out of my nose
     and mouth a minute later made the headache all but disappear. Though I was still coughing,
     breathing came much easier, and the stinging in my eyes, nose, ears, and throat was
     fading far faster than it had the night before.
    The vampire gathered my trembling hands in his and pulled me to him, using the cloth
     I’d dropped to carefully wipe the stuff from around my eyes and mouth. Blinking a
     few times, then squinting at him through my lashes, I took in the angry knot between
     his brows and the way his jaw muscles had tensed. He wouldn’t meet my eyes, but I
     could still tell his thoughts were racing by the determined way he stared at me.
    I said his name, the sound mangled by the lingering crud lining my esophagus. Then
     cleared my throat, trying again. “What’s happening to me?”
    “You,” he said, voice thick with what sounded like regret, “are no longer entirely
     human. Nor are you quite Other. This is some kind of transition. I cannot say how
     long this will last, or what the end result will be.”
    Tears—real ones this time—trickled down my cheeks, mixing with the condensation from
     the shower.
    “I would not have asked you to become permanently bound to me until you had more time
     to adjust, but it is possible if you take more of my blood that it will keep you from
     succumbing to whatever this sickness is. I cannot promise it will work, but it may
     help.”
    Swiping my hand under my nose, I closed my eyes and bowed my head. I’d already known
     that I’d chosen a hard road, but I hadn’t expected my descent into becoming less than
     human would include permanent servitude to the vampire. Or, at least, that it would
     come this soon.
    While I would remain attracted to him for the rest of my life, no matter what I’d
     felt about him before, and while he could call me to his side or influence me in other
     ways if we were in close proximity, agreeing to being permanently bound was a whole
     new ball game. I wasn’t ready to take a leap off the edge of that cliff.
    “I can’t, Royce. Not now. Not this soon.”
    He didn’t say anything else,