Diana Lee A Taste for Blood

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and tried her weight on the bottom stake. There was some slippage on the side where the blunt end of the stake
rested in a groove of earth, but Ryan thought it would work.
It took the rest of the night to place the stakes as high as Ryan could reach. She had had to step on the bottom
two rungs to pound in the higher ones, and these, in turn, had to be reset because they gave under her weight.
She looked at her handiwork in the early morning light. Her ladder reached almost six feet up the wall now.
She should be able to use the extra stakes as handholds to make it up to the last rung. From there, she could
reach the edge of the pit and pull herself out. Or so she hoped. She kept having to stop to rest, something that
hadn't happened to her since she had become a vampire. Her head swam from fatigue Now, and she knew she
could not make the attempt to climb out that day. Instead, she curled up in the hollow and pulled her tattered
cape over the opening like a curtain. She could not even find the strength to care whether the shelter was
sufficient. She slept.
Ryan woke feeling somewhat better the next night. The pain had diminished to mere aches, and for now she
could stand without having to hold onto the wall to keep from falling. Vampires need neither to eat nor drink,
yet Ryan's throat was completely parched. She swallowed convulsively and went to her ladder. It took three
tries to climb out of the pit. The first time, one of the stakes broke under her heel, and rather then risk taking
out the entire ladder, she allowed herself to fall hard onto the solid earth. Ryan felt her ribs grinding when she
got up. She cursed the hunter and all his generations for the trap he had built. She replaced the broken stake,
ignoring the pain in her side as she worked. Luckily it was one she could reach from the ground.
Ryan's second attempt ended when she found there was nothing to hold onto when she reached the top of her
ladder. She could barely lift her elbow over the edge of the pit, but she could get no purchase to pull herself out.
Stoically, she carefully climbed back down the ladder. She tore some strips from her cape and made a rope. At
one end, she tied one of the remaining stakes securing the rope at the middle of the stake in a groove she carved
with her dagger. She tucked the rope under her belt and climbed back up. When Ryan reached the top, she
carefully pulled the rope free from her belt and tossed it so the stake caught in the fork of a sapling. She pulled
herself up by the rope, and it held just long enough for her to get one knee over the edge. From there, she could
reach the tree itself and she gratefully climbed out of the pit. She lay exhausted on the ground. For an eternity,
she could not move. Then she began dragging herself back to her cave. It was a near thing. It was well past
dawn when she finally stumbled into her cave. Every inch of her body that was not protected by her clothing
was covered with blisters. She pulled herself just far enough inside to be out of the light, and then she collapsed
senseless.
Brynn had been worried about Ryan. She had been back more than a week, and still she had not seen any sign
of her lover. It was just not like her at all. Making an excuse to her husband, Brynn packed some food and
made her way to Ryan's cave. She had been there many times before, but that day she felt a special urgency.
She found Ryan collapsed just inside the entrance. She pulled her lover to her bed and nursed her as well as she
could, placing cool compresses on the blistered flesh and dripping water into the cracked lips. She could not
imagine how her lover had been hurt in this way. If Ryan had been in a fire, her clothing would have been
burned. Yet although there were great rents in the cloth, there was no sign of it burning. She examined the pale
flesh carefully and found trace scars she had never seen before, but when she went to examine them again some
hours later, they had all but disappeared. She sat next to her lover, not knowing what to do, or even what Ryan
was anymore.
Ryan woke slowly, in stages. Her body ached as it hadn't since she was human, but even the pain could not
drown out the demands of her hunger. She could feel the hot blood nearby, and the demon that lived in her
core snarled with anticipation and impatience. Ryan moved slowly, not wanting to startle the prey away. She
didn't care if it was a rabbit or a badger, or even a snake; any source of blood would do. She opened her eyes,
and was astonished that her lamp was lit and she was in her bed. She knew she had not done that. Turning her
head, ready to pounce, she was all hunter. The form's back was turned to her, stirring something over a fire. It
was clothed in shadows, and truly all she saw was the hot blood swirling in all of its intoxicating patterns. She
reached out her hands to grasp it, her fingers trembling with weakness.
"Ryan, you're awake," Brynn called joyfully.
It was as if she had been struck. She fell back against the bed, unable to move. Her hunger pounded at her,
demanding, but she could not move.
"Are you all right, my love? How did you get so hurt? Here, I made some broth. You need to drink it to get
your strength back." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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