My blood boiled. “Her murder,” I clarified.
“You humans have such a narrow view of life and death. Not everyone can live forever, and when your time is up, all you can really ask for is a good death. To create a legacy that makes your life feel like it was worth something. What I’m giving to Melanie is a true honor. An honor no different than if you gave your heart to your dying child.”
That was the most absurd thing I had ever heard.
“Had you not reconnected with her, you would have continued thinking she was dead and would never know the difference. So, in essence, nothing is truly lost here,” he said.
I wanted to punch him. So much.
He was done with me and began to walk away, but I stopped him. “If you think so low of humans, why are you trying to be like us?” The way I asked it sounded spiteful, but I didn’t mean it to. I had no intention of poking the hornet’s nest, and taunting a vampire with a yearning to eat you was doing exactly that. But I had a habit of sticking my foot in my mouth.
The Master slowly peeked over his shoulder at me and then turned back around. “I don’t want to be like you, I want to be more than you. Imperfections, weaknesses…those are very human traits. I’m not human, Cora Nash, thus I should not have a single part of me that could lower myself to your level.”
“But you were human once.”
“Was I?” he asked with his head coyly cocked to the side. I didn’t know the answer to that question, and he wouldn’t tell me. His origin, his age, and his name remained a mystery. He could have been a newbie vampire or could have personally hung out with Judas. Heck, maybe he was a demon. I had no freaking clue.
“What do we do with her?” Molly asked him.
“Prepare her for the trade.”
Her bottom lip dropped. “You mean we’re actually going to go through with it?”
“She’s useless to me otherwise.”
“You can’t be serious. They can’t get away with what they’ve done to us, To Tiffany. They’re making fools of us!”
The Master’s eyes shifted toward hers and locked. “Speak out against me one more time,” he dared her, and I could almost see Molly shrivel up inside of herself. Her face squished with shame, and her arms pulled in at her chest as she looked to the floor.
Suddenly, The Master was turning his attention to me, only there was something strange and electric in his gaze. Despite his calm warning to Molly, his demeanor seemed to suggest that her words struck a nerve, and he was looking to blame me for it. I tried to get to my feet as quickly as possible, but he was charging right toward me.
Shit, shit, shit.
Suddenly, he was in front of me. He coiled his hands around my throat and yanked me toward him, promptly exposing his teeth and slamming them into the side of my neck. His fangs pierced through the holes that he had left on me from earlier, and the tissue and skin was still so sensitive that I felt like I was being torn apart. I screamed and beat my fists against his shoulders, but any legitimate fight seemed pointless or stupid. He was going to drink from me whether I wanted him to or not. If I made too much of a fuss, he could hypnotize me to stand still. Or worse, kill me.
Thankfully, it was just a quick taste. A few seconds after the bite began, he let me go, throwing his head back and sliding his tongue across the top row of his teeth to clean them of my blood. I fell onto the floor, weakened.
It was quiet, but I heard him chuckle. I got the impression he hurt me just because he could, and not because he was actually hungry. I’m sure a part of him hated what Molly implied and resented returning me in one piece. He wanted to make sure I was as banged up as possible.
Just as quickly as he appeared, he left.
I pressed the flats of my palms to the floor and tried to hold myself up, the whole time my body shivered and ached from his attack. I was in so much pain I wanted to cry. He probably would have left me alone if Molly hadn’t opened her mouth.
I already agonized over what them biting me meant for my fate, but this guy doing it again only worried me further.
“Don’t look so pouty,” Molly said. “He’s taking it easy on you.”
“I don’t deserve this and you know it,” I trembled, as I weakly sat on the floor.
“When has life ever been about what we deserve?” She hopped down from the altar and headed to the main doors.
I stopped her from leaving. “After what you guys did to me, am I…will I turn?”
Molly’s hand was on the doorknob when she looked back at me. “What?” she asked.
“I’ve been bitten. Will I be like you?”
The coldness in Molly’s eyes temporarily faded. “No. It’s more complicated than that. You’ll be fine.”
I exhaled and my entire body eased up. I had no reason to believe she was telling the truth, yet somehow I knew she was.
For whatever reason, Molly took away my worries. When I glanced up at her, I caught her staring, and there was sadness in her gaze. Jealousy even. Because while I would be fine, she never would be.
Chapter Thirty-Six
MAX
We put Priscilla into an oversized winter coat that we found in one of the closets upstairs, then tore holes into the interior and slid the silver knives inside of them. We had
