Between Shadow & Ruin (Fangs & Fae Saga Book 2)

forty-four.

I could see the light pouring in through the open curtain as I sat up in bed. I must have found a way to get into my limbo after talking to Chris. I got out of bed and slowly walked downstairs. I was so incredibly hungry and nauseous and wasn't sure what the smell coming from the kitchen was. Aria was cooking.

"Hey!" she said, cheerily.

"...Hey..." I said. My voice was slightly raspy. "Do you have any coffee?"

"Yep! Here!" she said, handing me a cup. I sipped it, trying to control the pace at which I consumed anything.

"Where's Chris and Ray?"

"They went to the office. They told me to stay here with you." I nodded as I sat down. She placed a plate in front of me. "Here, it's eggs and bacon. Zane said you might like that?" This was his and Odie's favorite breakfast, so I copied the way they ate it by picking up the bacon with my fingers. It was crunchy but chewy at the same time. Very salty, but delicious.

"Is there more of this?" She laughed as she put a couple more pieces on the plate.

"Don't forget to eat the eggs; if they get cold, they taste like rubber." I grabbed the fork and stabbed a couple pieces. It was weirdly fluffy and seemed to melt in my mouth. I rubbed my tongue against the roof of my mouth and tried to figure out how it could do that. Aria laughed loudly.

"What?"

"You look like a puppy that just ate peanut butter..."

"How do they do that? They just disappeared."

"Well, when you make scrambled eggs right, they should feel like that, fluffy little clouds of protein..." I gave her a confused look before going back to the bacon. She let me finish eating in silence before I got up to wash my plate. "How's the hunger?"

"Okay for now, I guess. But this bloodlust is going to kill me... I can't think of much else and I'm worried I'm going to lose."

"Yeah... that's how I felt the first time I fed after you and Chris let Ray and I out of our cages after what happened with Odie."

"I'm scared I'm going to do that to Odie. I can't even think of them without thinking about how good they smell!" I slammed my fist onto the counter. "What am I going to do?"

"Push past it if you want to see your family again."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm not going to let you put your kids through what I put Odie through. That was the worst time of my life – and I'm not referring to spending months in a cage. Literally, all I could think of for a few years was Odie's face when I saw what we did to him. Do you want that on your conscious for the rest of eternity? Because I still think of that every once in a while."

"No! But you've never gone Ripper. You don't understand!"

"I don't understand being a Ripper, but I understand the struggle of not feeding on your loved ones, Liz."

"I just need blood."

"No."

"What?"

"No, you don't. Not right now. You're not ready yet!" She stood up, standing between me and the door. "Liz, come on. You can't do this. If you give in, what's going to happen?"

"I don't know! And I can't keep fighting this!"

"You have to!" I let out a very low growl and my fangs dropped. Aria dropped hers and rushed me upstairs, throwing me into the shower. She turned the water on ice cold and held me in there until I retracted my fangs. I started crying as I gave in to her pushing and sat down on the floor of the shower. "Liz..." I pushed her hands off me as I buried my face into my hands.