One of Them (Vigil #2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

at the yellow one. The urge to stampede over there and gorge myself was almost crippling.
    “I can leave if you need me to,” he said.
    My gaze remained locked on the bucket. “Do you know what I am now?”
    His feet shuffled. “I know that Jessup turned you into what he is. That means you need blood to survive. Why don’t you go ahead and drink it. I would never judge you, you know.”
    “Judge me?” I lunged toward the bars, covering the distance in a single, sizable leap. “I am not responsible for any of this. It was done to me. The urges I cannot control. I hate what I’ve become. Do you think I actually want to drink that shit?”
    To his credit, Mac kept his cool. “I think that you need to drink it, therefore you should. There’s no reason to torture yourself on my account. I care about you. I’m concerned about you.”
    I saw an opening, a way to take advantage.
    “They have been so cruel, Mac.” My fingers clutched hold of the bars and I shook them, for effect. “Do you see a toilet anywhere? I don’t. Until yesterday when Castellano decided to tell me his version of the truth, I had been pissing and shitting all over the floor. I had nowhere else to go. I think they wanted to humiliate me—what other purpose would that have served? The other bucket over there must be my new toilet. Castellano said there was going to be an upgrade, even though I hadn’t earned it.”
    “That’s sickening,” he said, through gritted his teeth. “I’d been told you’d been treated well.”
    “They’re a bunch of lying fucks. They’ve been keeping me awake with lights and noise, too. It’s just a matter of time before they get out the rack and strap me down on that.” I lowered my voice, just enough so that any microphone would have trouble picking me up. Mac could understand me, though. If not, he could read my lips. “I need your help. I know what I am and I know that I’m dangerous, but that’s no excuse for detaining me. I’ve committed no crime. In fact, crimes have been committed against me. I’m a cop for goodness’ sake. I have pledged my life to protecting the public. There’s no way I’m going to go off now and start killing civilians. That’s not who I am. There are other ways to get blood. There has to be. Especially if there are more people out there like Jessup and me.”
    “There are more,” he said. “Loads and loads of them. I’ve seen and met plenty.”
    “And are they all wild and murderous?”
    “No.”
    “Are most of them?”
    “No. Only a few.”
    “Do you think I would be out of control? Do you think I am out of control?”
    His eyebrow twitched and I could see the sweat bleeding through his shirt. “It doesn’t matter what I think. I’m not in charge. If it were up to me, you would never have been put in this position in the first place. Held out like you were—a worm on a hook for a freaking lunatic. It was stupid, the whole thing. We could have caught Jessup without you, but the bosses insisted.”
    “Castellano insisted?”
    “Somebody insisted. I don’t know who. I was just told to follow you. Jessup wanted you because you were beautiful.” He paused, and then clarified. “Are beautiful.”
    I let go of the bars, but continued to speak low. “Who told you to abandon the townhouse complex that night?”
    “It was a dispatch call. I never asked who. Maybe I should have. I thought I could trust these people.”
    He was with me. It might have been an act, but I didn’t think so. I had to lay it on even thicker. If he could keep seeing me as a damsel in distress, I was sure I could get him to do all kinds of shit for me.
    “Can you come closer?” I asked him. “I promise I won’t try anything. I just need to touch someone to know that all of this is real.”
    He hesitated, for good reason. “I was ordered not to. I was instructed to keep away from the bars.”
    “I understand. I wouldn’t trust me either.”
    “That’s not it.” His arm jetted