Suck It Up

I've walked the corridors of this world for the last four years, but nothing surprises me anymore-not war, not science, not even the slow decay of human compassion. Hospitals are the perfect cover for creatures like me. So much blood, so much pain. So little notice.

Then she arrived.

Dr. Gayle Stone. Smart. Defiant. Intriguingly flawed. She walks through my hospital like she belongs here, challenging protocols, questioning me. No one questions me. Not anymore.

She doesn't know what I am. Not yet. But something in her blood sings to me-a melody I haven't heard since the night I was turned. She's familiar in a way that's impossible, dangerous. And worse, I want her.

Not just her blood.

Her.

But to want is to risk everything. Because the more she uncovers, the closer she comes to the truth-and to the past I've buried in the dark. If I let her in, it could destroy us both. If I don't, I might lose the only thing that's made me feel alive in centuries.

And monsters like me?
We don't get to feel.