Fallen by Kelley R. Martin Page A

passenger seat of Gabriel’s Mercedes, staring out the window as tears welled. I wiped them away with the sleeves of my sweater.
    This had to be done, I kept telling myself. I had to leave him. Otherwise I could’ve really hurt him, and I refused to let that happen. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I had. And while I might hate myself for breaking his heart, it would’ve broken me if I’d harmed him.
    Maybe someday he’d see that I did this out of love for him… And maybe someday he’d forgive me for the poor way I’d handled it.
    “I almost forgot.” Gabriel’s voice brought me out of my head. He reached behind my seat and pulled out a small cooler. “Here.”
    I took it from him and opened it, peering inside to find a one-pound package of ground beef over some ice. There was also a Styrofoam cup with a lid and a plastic fork. “What the hell is this?”
    With his arm outstretched and resting on top of the steering wheel, and his aviator’s in place, he glanced over at me and grinned. “ This is breakfast.”
    “Wait—we can eat this?” I knew I could stomach some meat, but I was under the impression if it was raw, it had to be human. Sometimes I could also stomach regular food—like small amounts of jello or rice—but I was not about to tell Gabriel that. He could never find out I was only half Feeder.
    But if I could eat raw ground beef instead of people? I would, no doubt.
    A brown brow arched over the rim of his sunglasses. “Em…when did you find out about us?”
    I frowned. What the hell did that have to do with anything? “When I matured.”
    “And who helped you through that?”
    I bit my lip, suddenly interested in the scenery of the highway.
    He exhaled a long breath through his nose. “I should’ve known… And yes, we can eat this. We can’t live off it, but it’ll do in a pinch.”
    The hope blooming in my chest died. “Oh.” 
    I picked up the cup, feeling thick liquid move inside, like syrup. Sniffing through the lid, I asked, “What’s this?” It smelled… good .
    “Pig’s blood.” He said it so casually, like it was Coke or something else innocuous. 
    If it hadn’t actually smelled good, I probably would’ve been grossed out. Well, I would’ve been more grossed out. I lifted the lid, eyeing the thick dark liquid. If black cherry syrup existed, it would look like this.
    I stuck my finger in the cool fluid and brought it up to my mouth for a taste. It tasted like bacon. For. Real. I took a tentative sip, preparing for an onslaught of cold metallic salty grossness, but it never came. Cool, bacon-y goodness exploded across my tongue, slipping down my throat like velvet. “Mmm.” I licked my lips, seeing I already drank half the cup. Who’d have thought liquid bacon would be good? But it was. Really, really was. “This is good.” 
    “It’s shit compared to the real thing, but—” he shrugged “—it’ll do in a jam.”
    I dug out the beef and fork, setting the cooler on the floorboard in front of me. Tearing the cellophane off, I inhaled the raw meat. It didn’t smell any different than cooked ground beef. Sure did look different, though. It reminded me of brains. 
    Ugh, let’s not go there.
    I stabbed my fork into the hunk of meat and took off a chunk, grimacing as I took a bite. It wasn’t bad. Tasted like cold hamburger patties. “This would be better warm,” I muttered after I swallowed.
    Gabriel shook his head. “Only the live stuff is good warm.”
    I blanched, but continued to eat. A sick thought occurred to me, and I turned to Gabriel. “When you feed, where do you— I mean what part do you…?”
    He smirked. “Eat from?”
    I nodded and set my fork down. Better wait and see if this stayed put before I ate anything else.
    He shrugged. “Muscle is good. Thigh, calf, back. Or ribs, ribs are good. A little time consuming, but good. Depending on my mood, I could go for a liver or a kidney, maybe even a heart—”
    “Okay,