“Because,” he said at last, “If we are to keep Kaitlyn here with us at Nocturne Academy, it must not be known that she cannot drink bagged human blood.”
“But I thought you said her system just needed some time to adjust,” Avery protested.
He had been fussing around me like a mother hen, tucking a faded quilt around my shoulders and making sure I had plenty of pillows. He had also managed to find a box of tissues which I used to blot my still-leaking eyes. The bloody stains my tears left on the white Kleenex were mute evidence of my new condition.
“I lied,” Griffin said grimly. “If she was able to digest bagged blood, her system would have welcomed it immediately. Her body’s rejection of the small amount she drank makes it clear she can’t take it.”
“I still don’t understand,” Megan said blankly. “What’s going on with her?”
“Yes…” I cleared my throat, trying to pull myself out of the depths of despair. “What’s wrong with me?”
Griffin sighed. “I’m afraid you’re one of the rare Made Vamps who can’t drink anything but fresh blood. Which means we have to find you a donor.”
“A donor?” I stared at him blankly. “You mean I have to bite someone and drink their blood? I can’t do that!”
“If you cannot then you will die,” Griffin said bluntly. “I’m sorry, Kaitlyn, but there’s no other way for you to survive now.”
“There must be a way. I really think I could drink the bagged stuff if I just tried.” I reached out a hand for the glass. “Let me try again.”
“Here you go, Katydid.” Avery handed me the glass, but he had a doubtful look on his face. “Emma, maybe you’d better run out and tell Megan’s aunt that we’re all staying here for the weekend. She’s probably out in the parking area wondering what in the world is going on.”
“That’s a good idea,” Megan said, nodding.
“Okay, well…all right.” Emma nodded uncertainly.
I suddenly understood that my Coven-mates were trying to get Emma out of the Norm Dorm in case I puked again. If I started vomiting blood and she started heaving too, there would be a double mess to clean up.
Their obvious concern that I might not be able to hold down the blood made me doubtful myself. But I told myself I had to try. After all, I couldn’t go around biting people like a monster in a B horror movie! I had to get control of this situation—control of myself. And the only way to do that was to go ahead and drink the blood.
My hand trembled as I brought the glass to my lips. It was weird that the animal blood Griffin had given me before had smelled and tasted so good—so right—and this stuff in the glass smelled wrong, I thought. Maybe my body had still been in transition and the large amount of blood I’d ingested had tipped it over the edge into full-fledged vampirism. Maybe that was why I hadn’t been able to hold the animal blood down once my body changed completely…
I realized that I was stalling—just staring at the glass full of crimson liquid instead of drinking it.
Stop putting it off, I told myself. Drink it—prove you can do it. Otherwise, how can you live?
Holding my nose, as I used to when I was a kid and had to take a dose of particularly nasty medicine, I took a big mouthful of the blood.
I nearly spit it back out again. It tasted so wrong—cold and flat and metallic. It was like trying to drink a cup of liquid mercury or some other substance that wasn’t supposed to be food. My body knew it wasn’t for me, and it wanted to reject it. But I forced myself to swallow anyway even though my gut clenched like a fist.
“Avery,” I heard Megan whisper. “Avery, grab the trashcan. I don’t think she’s going to hold it down.”
“Of course I’ll hold it down,” I said in a low, choked voice. “I feel perfectly f…f…”
I was trying to say fine but suddenly I couldn’t talk. My stomach was twisting and knotting, rejecting what I had forced it to take. Avery barely got the trashcan in front of me before it all came out in a bright red gout.
I closed my eyes and pressed the stained and blotched tissue to my lips as I sank back against the pillows Avery had so carefully arranged.
“Oh God,” I whispered in a low voice. “Oh God, I’m going to die. I wish I was already dead.”
33
Kaitlyn
“Don’t say that—don’t ever say you wish you were dead!” Megan said fiercely. She knelt beside the couch and grabbed my hand. “I mean it, Kaitlyn—don’t talk like that!”
“Why not?” I said tonelessly. “I might as well be dead. I lost my parents and now I’ve lost Allegra too.” I looked at Megan, my vision washed with red, which meant I was crying the awful blood tears again. “I’ve been watching her since she was a baby,” I told her. “She’s like my own little girl. And Mrs. Breedlove just gets irritated with her—she’ll never play dolls with her or have tea parties or do Hooked on Phonics with her. And I…I’ll never see her again!”
I started to sob and Megan put an arm around me. Avery came to the back of the couch and put an arm around me from the other side.
“I know how awful you must be feeling right now, Katydid,” he said gently. “But you’ve still got us—you’ve got your friends and Coven-mates. And we’re never going to leave you.”
They let me cry again for a while and I went through nearly a whole box of tissues before Griffin said sternly, “This has to stop.”
“What—Kaitlyn crying?” Megan demanded. “She’s just experienced a big loss, Griffin. Let the poor girl cry!”
“I’m
