The Crucible: A Lawson Vampire Novel (The Lawson Vampire Series) by Merz Jon F

Author:Merz, Jon F. [Merz, Jon F.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2016-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

21

We stumbled back into the maintenance closet and paused. Xuan Xiang, despite being in amazing shape, was bruised and battered. His legs weren’t working nearly as well as any of us would have liked. Xuan Xiang especially.

“Sorry, they did a number on me with their truncheons.”

I glanced at Jack but he was staring at m with a look that said, I Told You So. “Give him some of the juice.”

Jack shook his head. “That’s supposed to be for us.”

“We’ve got enough. And more importantly, we won’t need it if we get discovered. He needs a hit and so do I. Might be a good time for you to fuel up, too. This way we don’t have to worry about it later.”

Jack grumbled as he reached into the pack, but did it anyway. He took several sips before handing it to Xuan Xiang.

“It’s been a while,” said Xuan Xiang. He sucked at the thermos like a newborn and I almost had to pry it away from him.

I sucked some down, winced, and kept swallowing, forcing myself to overload because it might be a long time before I got the chance to do so again. If things went the way I thought they might, I was going to need as much help as I could get. I finished and handed it back to Jack. “Stow it.”

Xuan Xiang was bent over double, feeling the hit of energy envelop him. I felt mine a moment later and closed my eyes. The buzz we got from the life force energy was amazing, no matter how old or how used to it we were. There was simply nothing like it. As much as I hated drinking blood, it was necessary for me to do so. And sometimes, it felt okay.

Xuan Xiang stood looking a lot more confident.

“Better?”

He took a deep breath in and then exhaled in one slow smooth stream. “I feel ever so much better. Thank you for that.”

There was an edge to him now that I wasn’t quite comfortable with. It was almost as if a piece of him had returned with the ingestion of blood: a more lethal piece. I was going to have to keep an eye on him. If the Chinese had really imprisoned him, then he was certainly persona non grata with them. But I wasn’t foolish enough to think he’d go down the straight and narrow. Xuan Xiang had made his living by doing whatever he wanted with whomever he wanted. I didn’t think that was going to end just because he’d run afoul of Beijing.

“You ready to do this?”

Xuan Xiang nodded so we donned the Cloak again and stepped out of the maintenance closet. The corridor was exactly how we’d left it: virtually empty save for one or two technicians walking here and there. I looked at Xuan Xiang who motioned we should head back toward the ring. I glanced at Jack and nodded. Then we moved off in unison.

The effect on Xuan Xiang of drinking blood was obvious.

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