Eat Me

ChapterFifteen

JustinPOV

Unshed tears filled her eyes, threatening to spill. By a thin thread she was holding it together, but I wasn't leaving until I had gotten what I wanted. I moved forward, enjoying watching her flinch and eye the door. If she tried to run, she wouldn't make it far. I'd let her get to the stairs at least, give her the illusion she'd make it to safety.

I sank down on her sofa, motioning for the armchair across from me.

"Sit," I growled.

She moved to the chair, sitting on the edge in case she needed to make a quick getaway. Her hands toyed with one another in her lap, her dressing gown loose around the tie, leaving a small amount of skin on show over her thighs. I understood the puncture marks the higher up the thigh I saw, it had Nathan written all over it.

"Tell me what you do know," I threw my legs up on the coffee table, "because I tasted her, and I can tell you for a fact that she isn't only human." I hated laying my cards on the table, but if she was going to keep evading my questions, I would have to prove that I knew there was something different about her. The only way I could back up my claims was if I had actually tasted her.

"You... you drank from her? But-she didn't freak out when-"

"If you're asking me if she knows what I am, then no." I ran my hand over my face. "The other night she left the club with some guy. The waste of space had drugged her so he could stick his f*cking d**k in her." I spat.

Her gasp gave me hope that she wasn't completely uncaring of her friends' well-being.

"He didn't have a chance to finish," I smirked, recounting his last moments. "I found them before it was too late."

For a moment I pondered what would have happened had I not been there. The drugs in her system had subdued her but she still tried fighting back. A couple more minutes though, that would have been a different scene I would have stumbled upon. My skin prickled at the thought.

"I-I didn't know." The unshed tears finally spilled.

Quietly, she sobbed into her hands, struggling to calm herself down.

"I saw her leave with some guy and I was happy she was actually putting herself out there. Then you went looking for her, so I assumed you both'd gone back to her place." Her puffy eyes focused on me but I didn't have time to say anything before she spoke again. "She never replied to my messages," her sleeve collected the snot and tears running down her face. "I've been cooped up in bed all day thinking you'd drained her and, and I'd have to carry on like nothing happened."

She was asking me without asking me, it was there in her eyes. I wasn't stupid, expecting gratitude for saving her friend was pointless. After all she'd heard about what had happened, I was still the monster in all of this.

"She's alive." Not that I left her in the best condition, but she definitely wasn't dead.

I sat forward and rested my elbows on my knees. "You think I would go to all that trouble of saving her ass, only to go kill her myself? No, she was in a state when I took her back to her place, barely coherent when I drank from her." I knew how it sounded, and normally I wouldn't care, but I wasn't proud of my actions, not this time. I sighed, "she thought I was someone else."

Warren.

A pang of what I could only assume was jealousy settled in my chest.

Beverly let out a huge sigh of relief. She really thought I'd killed her.

"What are you planning on doing with her once you get the information you're looking for? I mean, that's not me saying I'm withholding anything from you. I'd tell you if I knew something, I swear."

What was I planning on doing with her?

I had no idea. I wasn't going to give her up though. That much I did know.

Maybe I could turn her?

No, I couldn't do that. If she became a vampire then I couldn't drink from her anymore. But then, as she grew older, would her blood age like a fine wine or turn stale and bitter?

"She's been through a lot," once again her eyes met mine, "she isn't as strong as she makes out to be. Please, don't hurt her."

A million questions bombarded my thoughts in a brawl over what to ask first.

What sort of life had Cassy lived?

"First, I need to find out why she tastes the way she does before I make any decisions on what to do with her."

Maybe she was a witch. I had drank from plenty of witches before, sampling them in their final moments, but I'd be damned if I'd gone that sloppy not to tell if I was drinking from one. All their blood had a fizziness to it that grouped them together. There was nothing of the sort in Cassy's.

The tears had finally ceased and Beverly's sleeves had soaked up the majority.

I watched her intently. In her defense, it didn't look like she had an answer to what I was asking. I would have to take any snippets of information I could and try to piece it together myself.

"I can't make any promises. How is it though that you're close enough to have pictures together that look like they span a few years, yet she doesn't know anything about your comings and goings at Izzy's or about the supernatural world in general? Isn't that something women would gossip about?"

Her laugh fell from her lips and died instantly, knowing the look on my face helped with that.

"We've been friends for years, seen each other through some of our darkest moments. What I get up to with your kind, its been going on so long that if I tried to explain it all to her now... I don't want her to think differently of me." She whispered the last part but I still heard her. "She doesn't have many people close to her, usually by her decision. If she couldn't handle finding out about the other part of my life and that vampires, shifters and all the others existed, then she'd be one step closer to being by herself and I know how her mind works. She doesn't do well by herself for too long."

"Parents?"

"Dad's dead and her mum may as well be," she shifted in her seat. "All she really has is me and Warren."

Fucking Warren.

I couldn't hide my interest in the guy. His name kept coming up but I was still no closer to finding out anything about him.

"Boyfriend?"

Her face said it all before she even opened her mouth. "Pfft, I mean, they definitely have something. But in short, no."

She paused, eyes scanning my face. I tried to mask any emotion I might have been showing, letting the monster inside me push forward. Noticing the modest rise and fall of her eyebrows, I knew I was being read like an open book.

"Oh."

"Oh?" I replied.

"Nothing... It's just, I knew there was something going on between you guys at the club. I'm not blind. Look, the sun will be up soon and I'd really appreciate it if you weren't hauled up in my flat until it gets dark." She stood and slowly walked towards the door. "She works at the diner on the outskirts of town, works lates too, so that is perfect for you." The door opened and I stood from my chair, following her footsteps. She was right, my time was running out.

"Whatever it is you want with her-" she paused, " like I said, she's fragile. And I know it might sound like an unarmed threat coming from me, but if you hurt her, I'll find you when the suns out and stake you myself."

As I passed her, she took a step back, her back colliding with the wall. I was both impressed and pissed she had the balls to talk to me like that.

"Remember, doll, I know where you live. I'd have your heart ripped out of you, still beating in my hands before you made a move."

I didn't need to look back to know she was scared, her fear ripened the surrounding air. The door slammed behind me and I made a note to stop at the diner one of these nights. But for now, I had home on my mind.