Free Dr. Wolf, the Fae Rift Series Book 2- Demon Spiral by Cheree Alsop Page A

that? You’d think a werewolf would have more of a sense of survival. You think you can have faith in my good nature? I’m a vampire. I don’t have a good nature, remember?”
    Aleric was aware of a hand roughly shaking his shoulder.
    A hiss of pain sounded from the vampire. “If I was dead, this wouldn’t hurt so much. I should point that out the next time Wolfie makes one of his pulseless jokes.”
    Aleric opened his eyes a crack. The light in the room felt like needles driving into his eyeballs. He closed his eyes tight and brought a hand to his head. A groan escaped him at the way his head pounded.
    “Of course you have a headache, you idiot,” Dartan said. There was something different to his tone, a hint of apology. “You let a hungry vampire suck your blood. That’s much different than a well-fed vampire sucking your blood. Trust me, I know the difference. Control has a great deal to do with it.”
    He heard the vampire crouch beside him. The hand touched his shoulder again. “Are you okay?”
    Aleric pushed up slowly to a sitting position. He was aware of how hot his clothes were. When he opened his eyes again carefully, he saw that the entire room was filled with sunlight.
    “Are you?” he croaked out.
    Dartan let out a single laugh. “Yeah, I guess. If you call sucking my best friend’s blood to the point where I almost killed him alright, then I’m fine, splendid, really.”
    “But how?” Aleric asked. He glanced back at his friend. The movement made his head hurt.
    Dartan stood in the corner of the room. Even at the sun’s highpoint, the sunlight cast just enough shadow that the vampire could stand on his tiptoes in the corner and avoid the worst of it. He definitely looked singed. His skin was red and a few patches showed black, but he was alive.
    “I guess they didn’t figure that the sunlight isn’t completely centered,” Dartan said.
    “I’m hoping they didn’t have a reason to test it out,” Aleric replied. He pushed back so he could lean against the wall.
    Dartan reached down to help him. Aleric could hear the sizzle of the vampire’s flesh in the sunlight.
    “I can do it,” he said. “Stay in the shade.”
    Aleric sat against the wall for a moment with his eyes closed. When he was certain he could open them again without the world spinning around, he glanced at Dartan. “So what’s the plan?”
    “That’s it?” Dartan asked with exasperation in his voice. “That’s what you’re going with?” He took a step toward Aleric. When the sunlight fell on his shoulders, he cringed and ducked back into the shade. “You let me suck your blood, Aleric. You waited until I couldn’t refuse, then gave me your bleeding wrist, and all you have to say is, ‘So what’s the plan?’”
    The vampire’s vehemence surprised Aleric. “I wasn’t about to sit there and let you die if I could do something about it.”
    “So what about me?” Dartan shot back. “How was I supposed to feel when I came back to myself just in time to realize I had probably just sucked my best friend dry? Were you really going to leave me with that?”
    “To be honest, I thought I could stop you before that,” Aleric said quietly.
    “Why didn’t you?” Dartan’s tone said he guessed why.
    Aleric pulled his knees up. He toyed with the rip in his scrubs. “I couldn’t, then I didn’t want to.”
    Dartan let out a growl and hit the wall. “That’s not how it’s supposed to be.”
    Aleric kept silent. His mind was clearing from the fog of blood loss. If he and Dartan were both still alive when the sun went down, that definitely changed things with the Archdemon.
    “We kill you,” he said aloud.
    Dartan snorted. “Now? It would have been easier to just let me die before.”
    Aleric glanced at him. “I don’t mean for real. I mean we fake your death. Make it look like you burned up. You were supposed to, right?”
    Dartan nodded. “I suppose.”
    “So let’s make it look like that’s exactly