The Four Realms Read Online Free PDF Page B

  Look at me, I'm dying here.   I look terrible."
    Cassidy stood up, brushed the snow off her as she walked over and sat back down beside him.
    "We could try other things.   Maybe the rats don't work, but what about..." she thought for a moment, "...ducks?   Pigeons?   We haven't tried birds."
    He put his hand on her arm.   "Cass.   I know you're only trying to help and I appreciate it, I really do.   But you've got to remember I'm half-vampire."
    "But you're also half human."
    "But I'm also half vampire."
    Maybe that's the point , he told himself.   He hadn't been running from the Vampire Council, he'd been running from the part of him that belonged there. He'd been trying so hard to regain his humanity he'd forgotten about that vampire side of him.   He needed blood to sustain himself, it wasn't as if he was killing for pleasure.   How was that any different to people eating beef?   People - well people who weren't vegetarian like Cassidy - didn't have guilt trips about cows being slaughtered to sustain them.   He was wrong to deny that side of him.   He'd spent all this time looking for the human side of him when what he really needed to do was look for the vampire side.
    His mind was made up.   As much as it would pain Cassidy, he couldn't continue eating rats.   He'd find himself a nice human, preferably someone young where the blood would be sweeter, and he'd feast on them.   He could almost feel the Blood Lust rising in him at the prospect.
    Not now , he told himself letting the feeling subside, the throbbing in his head returning at twice the strength, but soon .
    #

    The squat was an abandoned scout hut. It was surrounded on three sides by a high chain link fence, presumably to keep out undesirables such as Cassidy and Darwin until such time as demolition of the building could take place.   At the rear, a huge bank led up to a railway line which trains rattled along every couple of minutes or so.   Overgrown bushes obscured the view of the scout hut from the road and the railway track.   This allowed people to crawl through an opening at the bottom of one of the chain link fences someone had cut.   The building itself had been boarded up and was now covered in graffiti, but someone had managed to prise the back door open.
    Inside, were a dozen or so homeless people.   The whole place stank of stale piss.   With the water turned off, the lavatories had soon overflowed to the extent that some people now just pissed in the corners of the main hall.   Everyone pretty much kept themselves to themselves, anyone getting too drunk and rowdy finding themselves at the mercy of the other inhabitants in some democracy of consensus.   Some had managed to find mattresses to give them some comfort, and Darwin had managed to liberate one of these, in a moment Cassidy still chided him for.   The guy was an arsehole anyway .   Darwin had set it up in a store cupboard, with a floor area not much larger than the mattress, and it had been their home for the last couple of months.  
    There was someone new here tonight though - a boy, late teens, possibly a couple of years younger than Darwin.   He looked like he'd only recently gone on the streets given the cleanliness of his clothes and how fresh that black eye looked.   Darwin saw Cassidy flinch as she first noticed him.   She looked up at Darwin, eyes full of sorrow and shook her head.   He could only shrug back, before turning his back on her and walking over to the boy.
    "Hi, you must be new here, I'm Darwin."
    #
    Cassidy was going to be so pissed at him in the morning.   Not just because of the boy, though he was still alive - for now - and pumping Darwin's arse with the rhythm of a drunk dad at a disco.   No, it was because after working his charm, Darwin had lead him into the little storeroom bedroom and shut the door, leaving Cassidy outside in the hall.
    Darwin wasn't a fan of sex, and if he was honest, couldn't really understand the appeal.