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“Don’t make yourself sick,” she said. “Any of you.” She looked at the full blood bags on every tray but Blaire’s. None of them had touched their packets, and Charlotte suspected it was because of her. “I don’t want you to suffer, so please.”
One by one, they picked up their packets and consumed them as she asked. It didn’t scare her. It didn’t turn her stomach to see blood move up the tubing into their mouths. It wasn’t different from her ordering a steak and consuming a cow. They weren’t feeding off a human directly. They weren’t killing anyone. In a way, humans did worse by killing animals, but in the end, it was all for survival. Not sport or the desire to harm like the rogue from last night.
She stirred the grits on her plate as a thought occurred to her. “I forgot to ask you about Shark Week,” she said, looking over at Aiden.
His brows tightened in confusion. “What’s that?”
Layla swallowed a sip of blood before speaking. “Is it that thing on the Discovery Channel? My parents have old episodes on their computer from the nineties.”
“I think it still airs,” Riley said.
Seth nodded. “It does. I still watch it.”
“No, that’s not what I mean.” Charlotte’s cheeks turned pink. “Maybe I shouldn’t talk about it at the table.”
“Oh my god, I know what you mean,” Blaire exclaimed, turning saucer-eyed, drawing attention from nearby tables. “I forgot you called it that.” She giggled with glee.
Lukas observed her with a raised brow.
Blaire turned to him. “Remember when I got my period, how I freaked out?”
“Don’t remind me,” he muttered.
“That’s what she calls it.”
When Lukas looked at Charlotte, her face turned molten.
“Sharks aren’t actually attracted to human blood, you know,” Seth said.
“What do you want to know?” Riley asked, elbowing Seth in the ribs.
He grunted. “What? It’s true.”
She held her hand up in front of his face. “Anyway, Blaire thought everyone would want to eat her until we talked.” She laughed at Blaire’s incredulous look. “Hey, it was cute.”
Charlotte toyed with the tab of her soda can. “I mean, won’t they? Won’t it attract attention when it happens?”
“Nope,” Riley said, taking another drink of blood. “We have them too. Unless you’re bleeding from a wound exposed to air, most of the time we won’t notice. Or unless the covered wound is bad enough.” Her smokey blue eyes shifted to the bandage on Charlotte’s arm. “Like that, I can’t smell it. I did last night, though.”
It made sense. So as long as she kept herself clean and sanitary—which she always did—there wouldn’t be an issue.
Layla put her empty packet on her tray and pushed it away. “Do you think more humans will awaken like Charlotte has?” Everyone looked at her.
The prophecy was clear that Blaire becoming a Vasirian was the key to other human Korrena discoveries, but Charlotte’s awakening contradicted that.
“I wondered the same thing,” Charlotte whispered.
“All we can do is speculate,” Dominic said. “And with you needing to settle in and get used to this new world, it’s best not to dwell on it until we hear from the Oracle.”
As much as that sounded like a good idea, it was hard to not think about.
“Speaking of settling in,” Riley started, and Charlotte looked at her. “What about your parents?”
“My moms had to return to Atlanta to finalize some paperwork for my grandma, but I told them on the phone this morning about the scholarship, and that I’ve been staying with you and Blaire.”
Blaire leaned back in her chair. “So they don’t know about you and Aiden?”
“What am I supposed to tell them?”
