Hourglass by Claudia Gray Page A

fingernails jutted out almost like claws. Their hair fell out. Constant hunger caused their fangs to show at all times. Worst of all was the madness; when vampires truly hit the point of blood starvation, their minds went. Instead of behaving more or less like human beings, they became like wild animals, immune to conscience or restraint. Even a good vampire could become a killer if deprived of blood for that long.
    Yeah, this is how your parents get you to clean your plate when you’re a baby vampire. The old stories were definitely scary enough to get me to drink my whole glass of O positive back in the day. Now that childhood horror had returned as I wondered every day, Can that happen to me, even though I’m not a fullvampire yet? How am I different? How am I the same? How am I supposed to go on, not knowing?
    Even while out on the Black Cross patrols I didn’t have a chance to eat. Time and again, I was partnered with people other than Lucas; night after night, we went to locations that offered me no chance to hunt for food. I was never forced to see a vampire being murdered, which was a small mercy, but by this time I was hungry enough to become selfish. I only wanted to drink, and I couldn’t.
    Within five days I was desperate. That was the night Lucas and I finally got to patrol together again.
    “We have got to come back here once we get some free time again,” Dana said as our group began patrol. The June heat radiated up from the streets, even though it was twilight; sweat beaded the small of my back. “Because this looks like a good place to party.”
    All around us were nightclubs and bars—some of which looked seedy to me, while the others looked sleek and expensive. There didn’t seem to be much middle ground. “I think I’d get carded.”
    “Slap some makeup on you and Raquel, and y’all would be set,” Dana insisted. “Hey, are you all right?”
    “Just tired. They had me do the climbing wall twice today.”
    Dana thumped my shoulder. “They’re making you tough.”
    Lucas glanced at our leader for the night—it was Milos, one of Eliza’s lieutenants, a rangy guy with white-blond hair and beard. He said to Milos, “I’d like to take Bianca along the eastside of our zone. Okay?”
    Please say yes, please say yes. Lucas can help me get something to eat, I know he can—
    “Suit yourselves,” Milos said. His smile had a knowing quality—almost a smirk—but I didn’t care. Let him think we were sneaking off to make out. I only wished we had that kind of luxury.
    Some of the others murmured and giggled, but nobody stopped us as I took Lucas’s hand and we walked together into the dark.
    As soon as we were alone, Lucas said, “You look like hell.”
    “Maybe I ought to be mad at you for saying that, but I know you’re right.” He was towing me along the sidewalk, beneath a few small trees that had been planted in open squares in the pavement. From the apartments around us, I could hear snatches of salsa music at different tempos, like competing heartbeats. “I have to get something to eat. It’s making me crazy.”
    “There’s a hospital not far from the HQ. I was thinking I could break into the blood bank, almost like we did last year, remember?”
    It was a good idea for the future, but I needed a faster solution. “Lucas, I can’t wait any longer. I mean it. I have to have blood tonight.”
    He stopped, and for a few seconds we simply stared at each other on the sidewalk. Sweat marked the collar of his white T-shirt, and his bronze hair had darkened to the color of night. His thumb brushed my cheek. I was startled by how muchwarmer his flesh was than mine.
    Haltingly, Lucas said, “I’m going to take care of you.”
    “I know you will.” My trust in him was absolute. “But how? Is there a place around here we could hunt?”
    “Come on.”
    Faster, driven by purpose, Lucas towed me along the sidewalk. After a couple of blocks, the neighborhood quieted down a little—we