My chest still heaving, I walked over to the side of Nolan’s hospital bed and climbed up into it, trying to catch my breath. His huge frame filled the entire bed. I had to straddle him.
And I could feel, as our bodies came into contact with each other, how very close to death he was. His usually hot skin was cold to the touch. The bandages wrapped all around his chest were red-soaked, wet and tacky and getting darker every second.
“Oh, Nolan,” I mumbled over and over. I placed my hands carefully on either side of his face, stroking the scruff on his cheeks. A tube was stuffed into his mouth and down his throat. It connected to one of the machines and was doing his breathing for him.
I had to take it out.
Nolan needed to drink my blood, and he wasn’t going to do it with that thing i
