Eternal Shadows Read Online Free PDF Page B

me.
    The girl, I think her name was Samantha, gasped and turned pale. I thought I saw Madge move, but couldn’t be sure. Then I smelled it.
    Blood. Fresh, warm, living blood.
    Oh, no.
    Madge pulled the girl closer and the smell grew all the more potent. Then I saw it. The bleeding wrist, covered in bright red and ever closer to my face. I turned my head away, shoving my nose back into the grass and dirt, but it didn’t alleviate the scent. The blood was all I could smell, all I could think about.
    Something dripped onto my cheek. It rolled slowly, painfully towards my mouth, warming its trail along my skin. I felt it coming, knew exactly when it would hit the very corner of my lips, and when it did, my world exploded. The drop crept over my tongue, down my throat and then I felt more join its traveled path along my face.
    I wanted more.
     
     
    “That’s enough, Kassandra.” I heard him, but still only had one thought— more . “Enough!”
    Everything came bursting back to life and my senses returned. The sun shone down on my skin, warm and no longer in contrast with the way I felt. I was breathing hard, but each breath was exquisite. The grass beneath me was cool and welcoming. My chest felt whole again, the final fibers stitching themselves back together. I felt perfect. Full, satisfied, relaxed…alive.
    I wasn’t thirsty anymore. And someone was laughing.
    “Kassandra.” Rhys grabbed my face with both hands and forced me to look at him. It couldn’t be possible that his eyes were actually a brighter blue than I had originally thought, could it? Actually, everything seemed brighter. The grass, the sky, the buildings in the distance. But the laughter bothered me.
    “What happened?” As soon as I asked I realized thinking had become simple again. In fact it was downright easy.
    Rhys’s expression looked like a strange combination of anger and concern. Naturally I assumed he was angry at me. That seemed to be the way of it. “You fed.”
    Even though I was positive I had heard him perfectly, I wanted to believe I hadn’t. “What?”
    “You drank blood.”
    “No, I didn’t.” I had sworn not to.
    “Yes, you did.” He wiped something from my cheek with his thumb then held it out for me to see. It was bright red.
    “Oh.” It was the dumbest reaction I could have possibly had. But that was exactly how I felt—dumbfounded. “How?”
    “Madge,” he said the name through his teeth. “She cut the wrist of the girl and let the blood fall into your mouth. Once you’d tasted it, you drank from the cut.”
    The laughter that sounded so much like dark bells faded into a cheerful tone. “You’re welcome,” Madge said.
    At first I wanted to rip her face off. Most likely I was capable of such a thing now, but then something else occurred to me. Something that almost made all my newly-found warmth completely disappear. I jumped to my feet and dashed around Rhys before he could stop me. I could see blades of grass darkened with blood and flattened to the ground, but nothing else. I searched my yard, so familiar and yet so alien now, and saw nothing. The gardens lining the fence were just beginning to bloom, the cobblestone pathways were clear of any obstruction as always, and my beautiful old brick house towered above it all, complete with its immaculate white trim and stone steps.
    “Where is she?” I started to panic. Surely I hadn’t. It wasn’t possible. Was it?
    Rhys stood. “I had her sent inside already.” I must have looked ready to bolt, scream, or do something else unacceptable because he quickly continued. “She’s not dead. You didn’t kill her, but her wrist needed attention.”
    “Not dead?”
    “Not dead.”
    Relief had never felt so sweet. The fact that I had tasted blood twice now paled in the knowledge that I hadn’t killed. I hadn’t even bitten. Perhaps there was a way to get around it forever…
    When had I decided to live? Looking toward the future proved that I had, but what