reached under my blanket to grab my dagger. I was back to the top of the ladder in a flash, gazing down at everyone below, wondering if my words and actions would be enough to calm them. Would they trust me?
Only one way to find out.
With one swift slice, I cried out as I dragged the blade across my forearm, deepening the cut when I reached the inside of my elbow. Like I’d hoped, every vampire in our little group stood to attention, their necks snapping into whiplash when they sensed the fresh blood.
“Camille!” Gavin shouted, his eyes bulging from his head. He looked to the others and warned them with his eyes, puffing out his chest as he pulled his knife and flew to the top of the ladder, the blur of his quick movements making me dizzy.
“Just let me speak.” I yanked my arm away from him when he attempted to grab me and pull me out of sight; his eyes glazed over into a dead black when his fingers grazed the stream of blood. “Back away, Gavin.” I gritted my teeth and stepped farther away from him, turning my attention to the crowd below that had quickly quieted after my gory display.
“This is beyond …” Gavin muttered, running both hands through his hair while he struggled to step back, to distance himself a few feet. “You’ve gone too far, Cam. Don’t do this.” He huffed under his breath again, keeping his head low and his now-gray, pleading eyes on me, his fangs fully visible from the hunting-mode switch that had been flipped.
“I know why you’re all upset,” I addressed the crowd, not bothering to acknowledge Gavin’s disapproval. “You’ve seen Samira’s guards come into your villages and take lives, take your loved ones. And now this. So you’re angry. And usually, when you’re angry about something, it’s because deep down, you’re afraid. I know this because I’ve spent years being scared. And when I came to this place, met Samira …” I surveyed the room and threw my hands up in the air, exasperated. “Well, not even my nightmares could think this stuff up.”
My gaze moved to Scarlet’s voluptuous figure, then swept her face with my undiluted anger. She stared up at me, her eyes a subdued black, their color similar to the slate gray I’d seen on Gavin moments ago. The other vampires instinctively held each other back, restraining one another with an arm on each other’s chest or shoulder, providing a supportive stance for one another.
“I’ve had to say goodbye to everything,” I called to the crowd, “to trade it in for a new life and new love … but it’s not been without a price.” I clutched the silver knife tight at my side, allowing my other arm to drop to my side too; the blood rolled over the curve of my elbow like a thick malt. “I went from a comfortable home in Louisiana and a semi-normal life as a student to this,” I held up my dripping arm, “and I can tell you that I know the pain that comes with saying goodbye to earth, saying goodbye to your humanity. I might have come here human, but I left myself back in that Louisiana bayou. I barely recognize that girl anymore.”
Without meeting Gavin’s certain stare, I maneuvered around him and began climbing down the ladder. He followed me in a flash, was behind me again when I reached the floor below, but didn’t speak. The room was filled with deafening silence, but Scarlet’s glare was loud enough to shatter my eardrums as I continued.
“But what I think prepared me for this was my past—before I ever met Gavin and came into your world. I’d already experienced loss. And when you lose something, you get scared. Scared it’ll happen again, scared you won’t make it back from the shell of the person you’ve become. And then comes the anger … because you’re scared.”
“Cam,” Gabe ushered Audrey forward in front of him, both of them slowly moving toward me.
“Sshh ,” Audrey said, nodding her head to urge me on.
“Whatever’s going on with the blood supply, I can promise you my friends won’t take advantage of you, like Samira’s guards have. You’ve all been working together, day after day, with a common goal—and that goal hasn’t changed. If you’ve trusted my friends for the past few months, you can continue to trust them now. They’ll find a way to get what they need, and it won’t