Hearing a groan, I felt my body hit the cold, hard wall. My head thumped against it as I gasped under the weight of Alaric's body. Frowning, I opened my eyes and realized that my feet were not on the ground. The damned fool was trying to carry me down the street while suffering gunshot wounds.

"Alaric," I grumbled.

Slowly my body slid down the wall, Alaric moved to stand but staggered back. Reaching out, I grabbed his arm and dragged him closer before he fell over.

"When's Silas getting here?"

"Stuck," He groaned. "Gridlock."

Wrapping his arm around my neck, I guided the sluggish body to the end of the street.

"There's a park across the road, we can wait under the gazebo."

The rain was already beginning to fall. If we stayed out here, we'd be drenched very quickly. It was slow going but we crossed the road and tried not to slip on the wet grass.

"What happened to me?"

"Adrenaline stopped, then you realized what you'd done and passed out."

Alaric hissed as he sat down, ripping open his shirt. He pulled the balaclava off, I took it and the one I was wearing and stuffed them into the bag.

"Get a branch."

"What for?"

"To bite down on."

Oh, good lord, he's going to remove the bullets.

Stepping out into the rain, I ran to the nearest tree and found a branch that was almost ideal. Snapping off the ends, I rushed back to the gazebo. Alaric had pulled out a switchblade, holding it out to me.

"I seriously hope that you're not suggesting that I remove the bullet."

"I can't get the ones on my back, Emme."

While he stripped out of his shirt and the bag, I waited, counting the wounds. Five. Two on the back and three on the front.

"You've lost a lot of blood."

Alaric nodded and then bit down on the stick. I looked at the ones on his back, they were close to the surface and popped out with only a small amount of digging. His body was tight, struggling not to flinch.

"Sorry." I murmured.

I dumped the bullets on the table in front of him, the table that had massive scratch marks on them. Taking his hands, I looked at the bloodied and splintered fingers, giving him a frown of chastisement.

"You don't need to be losing more blood."

"Cut me some slack, you're a butcher."

I hummed a soft chuckle as I straddled the long bench in front of him.

"Three left and they're not sitting in the surface like the others. Ready?"

"No, but carry on."

The stick went back into his mouth. I looked at the street through the pounding rain and wished that Silas turned up so that he could do this. Unable to wait for him, I looked over Alaric's body and picked the first one that I was going to attack.

Pushing open the sides of the wound, I tried to look for it but the limited light wasn't helping. I'd have to go by feeling and nothing more. Alaric used the flashlight on his phone, lighting up the bloody mess. When he realized that he couldn't hold onto it and deal with the pain, he put it on the bench seat between us.

Carefully I pushed the end of the blade in and found something hard. Shifting to the side, I tried to lift it out as best as I could. Alaric was groaning, the scream of pain was muffled by the stick. His eyes were pure white except for the pupil. Blood streamed down from his bottom lip where his fangs were digging into the skin. The stick was not big enough.

As the bullet popped out, blood spurted out and hit my cheek. Alaric focused on it, the harsh white eyes stared intensely.

"Lick your chin first, jerk."

He pulled the stick out and wiped his hand over his chin. When he saw the blood, he licked his hand.

"You should try and keep your lips together."

"Yeah right."

The stick was returned and Alaric shifted so that I could get to the next one.

"Why weren't you wearing a bulletproof vest?"

"We are. These are vest piercers." He said then put the stick back.

Again, we went through the same thing. I dug the knife in, I searched without trying to cause too much pain and Alaric suffered as noisily as he could. He could scream the place down for all I cared, it was the look of hunger in his eyes that had me worried.

When the second bullet was out, Alaric picked up his phone, turned off the light and rang Silas again. He'd collected Nisha and they were halfway here but it wasn't going to be quick enough.

"You need to feed."

Alaric nodded.

"What are you going to do? I can't imagine there are many humans around at the moment."

"There never is." He returned. "Just get the last one out and we'll wait for Silas. He's got blood bags in the trunk."

This one was in his stomach, coated in blood. Well, everything was coated in blood. The flesh was softer than the other places that I'd pulled bullets from. I cut the skin several times, Alaric stared at me as he groaned his muffled scream. The bullet popped out and chinked on the concrete pad and fell somewhere on the grass.

"I just need to lay down." Alaric murmured.

"Is that wise?"

"No energy to do anything else. Revitalize through rest. You watch for Silas."

Alaric climbed up onto the table, laying down. I shifted back so that I could watch him. His eyes closed and I began to worry. Picking up the phone, I rang Silas.

"Alaric?"

"Emmeline. The bullets are out and he's resting on the table. How far away are you?"

"At least ten minutes. What's he doing?"

"Laying on the table. Eyes are closed, not moving."

"Wake him up."

The urgency in Silas's tone was worrying. I shook Alaric's body and roused him.

"Hey, Silas said you have to wake up."

"Go away." He mumbled.

"Emmeline," Silas began. "He's lost a lot of blood if he's trying to revitalize and it's failing. He needs blood."

I looked around at the park, it was void of life. Not even an animal.

"There's nothing. He said you've got blood bags."

"I do but I might be too late. Search for something Emmeline, I'm sure if you play the innocent woman you can find a man to corrupt you. Lure him to Alaric, when the blood source is close, it will wake him. Hurry now, I will be there as soon as I'm free of this traffic."

"Okay."

I ended the call and looked at the black screen, wondering how Silas thought that I could lure anyone out of a locked house of a night. Putting the phone back into the bag, I looked around the area. One side of the street was lined with office buildings and warehouses, all closed for the night. This side of the street was a park. Beyond the park was the soft lights of the city. There was no chance of getting back in time.

There was only one option.

Rousing Alaric again, I made him sit up and slide down to the seat in front of me. Shifting closer, I tried to keep a firm hold of him but he was so sluggish that he was flopping to lean on the table.

"Alaric, wake up. You need to feed on me."

"No." He groaned. "It will kill."

A tear slid down my cheek as I smiled at him.

"I know."

I wiped the tear away and shifted my legs over his so that we were closer.

"But it's for the best. You wanted someone that would do everything that they could to get you to where you needed to be and I'm doing that. Just bite me, don't think about it."

Alaric shook his head. Aside from the fact that he was being stubborn, he was also resisting the lure of blood. Silas said that the blood source would wake him so surely it meant that he could smell my blood easily.

Knowing that this stubborn mule wouldn't budge, I grabbed the switchblade from the bag and nicked the skin on my neck. He tried so hard to resist. I slipped the blade back into the bag and wiped the blood that was dribbling down my neck, tracing it over his lip.

Alaric couldn't resist anymore, his arms wrapped around me as his fangs sunk deep. I whimpered a soft cry, then stifled it to ensure that he wouldn't feel remorse until it was over. With my lips pressed tight, I tried to relax but I couldn't. Saying goodbye to life wasn't easy.

Alaric pulled his fangs out, the white in his eyes was receding. Blood coated his teeth and lips, grossly, he kissed me. I mean, the kiss was nice but I wasn't used to blood yet. Not that I needed to be used to it.

Lifting me to his body, Alaric laid me onto the table, still deeply kissing me. His arms were around me, shifting to under my neck as he laid beside me on the table. I couldn't resist, just one nice moment before the end. Smoothing my hand over his shoulder, I continued to the back of his neck and urged him deeper.

Even though I could taste my blood, I didn't care. It was nice that in the end, I'd found something that was close to love. I wouldn't go so far as to say that we'd reached that after such little time but I knew that he cared. It was the most that anyone had ever done for me.

As sad as it was, that was the life of an orphan that was destined for a life as a breeder. My father didn't want me, my mother didn't care. The people that ran the orphanage thought I was just another annoying child getting under their feet. The government saw me as a baby maker. I had no dependable friends, no family, no one. Until this guy.

So, if he was the one that would take my life then I say so be it. At least it was someone that cared enough to make it an easy death.

When the passionate kiss ended, I looked up into his eyes. The white was still showing, his hunger still obvious. There was another thing, something that I'd never seen before. Pain. Not physical but emotional. I knew he didn't want to do this but there was no choice.

"Just do it."

"I can't."

"Of course you can. Just another human, right?"

Alaric smiled, shaking his head.

"No, you're nothing like the humans."

"You have to do this, you have to win. Silas is too far away. He won't make it in time."

Pulling him down, I relaxed my body and waited. I didn't fight him, I just let him hold me while he fed. Death hurt, my heart raced harder to cope with the blood loss, my stomach turned with an ache that was caused by my suffering.

When I blinked, the world blurred. As the tears rolled down my temples, I said goodbye to life.