Blue Skin (Book 4): Blue Skin by Jenkins Steven

Author:Jenkins, Steven [Jenkins, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Dystopian | Vampires
Publisher: Different Cloud Publishing
Published: 2019-09-07T04:00:00+00:00

24

The young woman is sitting up on Rose’s bed, specks of dirt and small bloodied scratches on her face, and her brown hair is matted, resting on her grass-stained top.

“How are you feeling?” Rose asks softly as she sits on the edge of the bed.

The woman doesn’t answer, clearly still shaken up, disorientated.

“I’m Rose.” She motions over to me as I hover by the door, my stare on the bulge of her abdomen. The sight whisks me back to Mum when she was pregnant with Ben. “And this is Freya.”

“Hello,” I say, noticing the thick veins on the woman’s neck.

Full of blood. Ready for feeding.

“What’s your name, my lovely?” Rose asks.

The woman’s bottom lip quivers, her green, bloodshot eyes welling up.

Rose hands the woman a tissue. “Don’t cry, sweetie. You’re safe now. Nothing bad is going to happen.”

The woman tries to speak, but her words are muffled.

“What was that?” Rose asks.

With her hand over her stomach, the woman takes a breath.

“Take your time,” Rose says. “There’s no rush.”

There’s a glass of water on the bedside cabinet. “Here,” I say delicately as I pass it over to her. With a trembling hand, she takes the drink and swallows it in two gulps.

“They killed him,” the woman says, struggling to contain her anguish. “They ripped my husband to pieces.”

“I’m so sorry,” I say, sitting next to Rose. “Vampires?”

She nods.

“We ran out of petrol, so we had to walk.” Another surge of tears floods from her eyes. “There were so many of them. They keep coming, and coming...”

“That’s awful,” Rose says with tears of her own.

Sniffing, the woman sets the glass down on the bedside table, and wipes her eyes with her sleeve. “I thought they were going to kill me, too.” She pauses. “But they let me go.”

“Let you go?” I ask, confused.

With scuffed up hands, and dirty fingernails, the woman strokes her swollen belly. “Because of the baby.”

For a moment, the room falls silent as we stare at her unborn baby. In my head, I see its tiny features. Eyes closed. A ball of blue skin. Vulnerable. Desperate for its mother’s love. Protection.

“What’s your name, my lovely?” Rose asks once again.

Through the woman’s turmoil, a thin, quaking smile of gratitude tries to breaks through. “It’s Hannah.”

“Hello, Hannah.” Rose reaches over the bed and takes her hand. “You and your baby are welcome to stay here as long as you need.”

“Thank you,” she says.

There’s a tiny judder of movement coming from her stomach. She’s getting close. A month, perhaps. The memory of Ben’s horrifying birth fills my mind. So shocking. So unexpected. But through the madness, through the pain, comes life. And vampire or not, it’s a still baby. It’s still family.

And family is everything.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.