Blood Crave 2 by Jennifer Knight

well.
    A fire crackled on the moldy hearth, warming the room and casting flickering shadows across the walls. Everything seemed exactly the same as the last time I saw it—filthy, dank, and swathed in cobwebs. Except that there was one very new addition. Derek sat calmly on the dirty couch. His chalky face was bathed in orange light from the fire, making him look almost human. He might have fooled me, but his eyes gave him away. They were so, so blue—like a winter sky. No human on earth had eyes that blue. They widened when he saw me.
    “Remember what I said,” Lucas warned. “No breathing.”
    Derek nodded quickly, his gaze darting from me to Lucas several times. I saw his throat move as he swallowed.
    “I brought food,” Julian said, indicating a bag slung over his shoulder.
    Derek perked up as Julian reached into the bag and pulled out two extremely rare steaks. He tossed them to Derek, who took a ravenous bite.
    “I was so hungry,” he said with a moan. I watched a little color flow into his ivory cheeks, and I felt a weight lift.
    “You like the food?” I asked.
    Derek nodded, chewing. He finished the steaks and leaned back, rubbing his stomach just like he always did after a huge meal. I felt my heart lighten at the familiar gesture.
    Derek scratched his chin for a second, looked around at everyone and then said, “Okay, I’ve been pretty lax about this whole deal so far, but I’ll admit: my patience is running low.” He looked dead at me. “Someone tell me what’s going on.”
    “He still doesn’t know?” I asked, staring up at Lucas.
    His face scrunched up. “I thought it’d be easier for him to take coming from you.”
    “Well?” Derek asked. “I’m listening.”
    It felt so weird saying it like this—so clinically. Maybe if I could be near him, it wouldn’t seem so cold.
    “Can I sit by you?” I asked, looking at Lucas instead of Derek. “You’re all just two feet away in—in case.”
    Lucas didn’t look happy about it, but shrugged and dropped my hand.
    I sat down on the couch beside Derek. He still seemed calm, but his gaze was expectant. I could feel every eye in the room on us.
    “Derek,” I said, trying to sound more confident than I was. “I don’t know ... I don’t know where to start, really. This is going to sound crazy. I’ll just say that first.” I paused to inhale deeply and then said slowly. “You’ve been infected. On the last full moon, you were bitten by a vampire and fed his blood, right after that you were bitten by a werewolf. You passed out for three weeks and woke up last night.”
    The word dumbstruck didn’t even begin to describe Derek’s face. It was dumbstruck times a million. Then, amazingly, he began to chuckle. I winced at the sight of his teeth. They were blindingly white and the incisors were elongated just enough so that they didn’t look quite human.
    “This is a joke, right?” he asked. “You all are playing a joke.”
    I shook my head.
    “So what?” Derek said. “I’m supposed to believe in vampires and werewolves now? Is that it?” He laughed again. “Come on, Faith. I’m not the smartest guy in the world, but I’m not an idiot either. I know that stuff is fake.”
    “It’s not fake,” I said evenly. “You spent last night as a wolf, didn’t you? How else do you explain that?”
    Derek stopped laughing and his forehead wrinkled up like white satin sheets. “I was expecting you to tell me I’m crazy.”
    “You’re not crazy. You saw Lucas change, right? And you heal quickly, run faster, the sun . . .” Something caught in my throat at that and I started again. “The sun hurts you. All of that is new. It’s all because you’re a . . . a crossbreed between a werewolf and a vampire. A hybrid.”
    “That’s impossible,” Derek said. He looked around the room for confirmation, but found only the steely gazes of three werewolves. “It’s impossible, isn’t it?” He was begging me, pleading for me to say it was