Blood Guard by Erickson Megan

Author:Erickson, Megan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2017-09-12T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Tendra

As I swam into consciousness, I groaned at an ache in my hip. I was lying on hard stone, my back was freezing but my front…was not.

I blinked my eyes open to see a small fire burning in front of me. I stared at the flames, waiting for my brain to come online.

I was in a cave. Outside Mission. And Athan?

A figure moved, and I squinted to see more clearly. On the other side of the fire, Athan bounced on the balls of his bare feet. He wore only his jeans, his chest glistening with sweat as he shadow-boxed. His shadow loomed large behind him on the rough cave walls.

He was magnificent as he extended those long arms, biceps straining, veins bulging, and he was surprisingly agile for a man that large.

He dropped his hands to his sides, flexing his fingers as he rolled his head. I was groggy from sleep, but my body remembered the feel of those hands. He hadn’t said a word about what happened yesterday and neither had I, because what did I even say? Thanks for the excellent finger bang. It’ll sure make future family dinners awkward.

I wished I could call Ruby. She’d laugh, and ask me if I returned the favor. Which, no, I hadn’t. Because his body language had been very clear afterward. Do not touch.

Brex sensed I was awake and pranced in front of my face. I reached out to pet him, and Athan must have seen me move, because when I withdrew my hand, he was there in front of me, crouched down.

I forgot how fast he was.

“Hey,” he said quietly, the ends of his hair dripping with sweat. “Did you sleep okay?”

I groaned as I tried to sit up. “As well as I can on a cave floor.”

He laughed. “Ah, already acting like a princess.”

I smacked him. “Look, Mr. I Don’t Sleep, you don’t know what it’s like, okay?”

He wrinkled his nose as he rose to his feet. “I don’t. Staying in the same position for eight hours? Giving up consciousness willingly? It’s weird to me.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Don’t talk to me about weird when you’re a vampire.”

He shrugged. “What’s normal to you is weird to me.”

He had a point.

I sat with my back against the wall and stretched out my legs in front of me. He plunked down a water bottle between my legs, then handed me a granola bar. As he sat down beside me, I said, “Thank you.”

“Sure.”

“Brex—”

“He’s been fed. Dish is over there.” He pointed to a small silver bowl along the far wall.

“Oh.” I took a bite out of my granola bar. “So where were you born? How did you grow up? If this is my new normal, then I want to know more about it.”

He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “I was born in the medical facility on the Gregorie compound.”

“So is this compound self-sufficient?”

“Mostly. It’s not like we keep food rations except for the humans. So we get those delivered about once a month.

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