Free Tainted Crimson by Tarisa Marie Page B

be damned to a life that couldn’t be ended. I didn’t blame her, though her decision to die rather than live and stay with me and our son, did break my heart.”
    “How do you make an immortal?” I ask.
    Jacob answers, “the person being turned must have immortal blood mixed with theirs. Usually it’s a mutual slice across the palm or something. In dire situations, if someone is dying and needs to be turned quickly, injecting the blood works the fastest. After the blood enters their system, they will soon become unconscious and when they wake up, they’re immortal.”
    I take a moment to digest this. How disgusting. I can’t even look at my own blood no way would I be able to intentionally cut open my hand and then hold it against someone elses bloody hand. I blanch. D sees me and smirks.
    “If you think that’s bad, wait til you hear how vampires are turned,” he murmurs.
    “You’ll give her nightmares, don’t,” Jacob warns, raising a hand as if he’s going to slap him.
    “What? She’s going to learn sooner or later!” D tries again.
    Jacob and my father sigh at the same time.
    “Tell me,” I say and swallow hard.
    “Well, it’s a lot like how immortals are turned in the sense that their blood needs to mix,” D starts. No one tries to stop him. “But since vampires are unable to control themselves when they see blood, they can’t just slice palms and exchange it because they’ll end up killing the person they’re trying to turn. So they feed the other their blood so they don’t kill the turnee if that’s what you want to call them. Which is also fairly fast, like injecting it, but much more revolting. Then, in order to gain strength and complete the process they have to drink blood from a witch, immortal, or human. Witch blood is the most potent and enjoyable to them, but they also drink human and immortal blood. They don’t drink each other’s blood because they can’t. For some reason they get sick if they do and anyways it’s very unappealing to them. I should also mention that an immortal can't turn a witch only Arianna, Marco, and some of their kin who can wield enough power can turn a witch. An immortal is still needed present for this because they still need to exchange blood, but since a witch is unable to get sick, this also stops them from being able to contract disease. A strong witch is needed to suppress the power of the witch who is being turned, long enough for the disease to turn them. It’s possible for some witches to lose their ability to wield power after turning because the disease can somehow eliminate the person’s power if their power wasn’t strong before being turned. Jacob is one of these. He no longer has power because he was weak when he was turned. He was only half witch.”
    When I don’t say anything my dad eyes me through the rear view mirror wearily.
    “Who helped turn Jacob?” I ask just to break the awkward silence and the even more awkward side-glances at me.
    “It was D,” my father says. While turning on the air conditioning. “Are you hot Ariella?”
    “I’m fine,” I say blankly and stare out the windshield. This is going to be the longest drive of my life.
    After a few more silent, awkward minutes, Jacob glances at Daymon and me in the back seat. “You should put your seatbelt on,” he says eyeing D.
    “I’m fine,” D scoffs.
    Jacob merely shrugs and then turns the music up a notch.
    “I like this song,” he says as if also wishing the awkwardness would end.
    “Me too,” my father agrees.
    D rolls his eyes, “Sounds sappy to me.”
    And then the song changes abruptly and an old rock song is playing. I glance confused at the radio screen and see the channel has switched without anyone moving. A chill runs up my spine.
    “Stop being an asshat,” Jacob cries out and is suddenly out of his seat and climbing into the back seat. He lands a punch on D’s shoulder and then gets back into his own seat.
    “I’m going to kill you,”