Free Deliverance by Adrienne Monson

she’d been too weak to walk. She wasn’t sure how long ago that was.
    Nik was still carrying her around the streets, and there weren’t many people around. If she’d been more coherent, she may have been frightened to be walking in such a seedy part of the city. But she wasn’t scared at all; she just wanted to sleep.
    It felt as if they’d been walking forever. But she couldn’t bring herself to care. All she wanted to do was close her eyes, but whenever she tried, Nik would shake her and yell at her to open them.
    “That one,” Liam said to Nik. The boy was pointing to a man who was standing across the way. The man was slapping a woman who was barely dressed. Once the man finished yelling, the woman bowed her head and ran over to a group of women in similar dress. They ignored her and eyed Nik with calculating eyes. One woman pushed her breasts together and smiled at him.
    Nik lowered Samantha to the sidewalk, her back resting against the scratchy wood of a building. He disappeared from her sight, then reappeared a minute later. The vampire was crouched in front of her, holding the squirming man in his grip. His hand covered the man’s mouth and nose.
    The white of the man’s eyes showed stark fear against his black skin. He stared at Samantha with a mixture of hope and fear.
    “What?” It was all she could bring herself to say. Confusion muddled her brain and she felt like nothing around her was real anymore.
    Liam leaned forward while his claws extended. The boy cut into the man’s jugular as he gave a muffled scream under Nik’s hand. Liam then reached out and pulled Samantha’s head toward the gushing wound.
    When Samantha smelled the metallic substance, her mouth opened of its own volition. The blood called to her. It was life, her life. It would solve all of her problems and she had to have it in that very moment.
    Closing her mouth over the wound, she began to suckle. The man went completely still after a moment, either from loss of blood or lack of air. But he wasn’t dead. His blood was pumping over Samantha’s tongue with a strong, steady flow.
    The first swallow came easily. It was like drinking a nice smoothie after a long workout, and Samantha gulped as much as she could. As energy started to come back into her body, her mind was cleared once again. But then, the blood was suddenly thick and cloying. The overwhelming coppery taste, along with the thickness, disgusted her and she tried to pull away.
    A hand at the back of her neck held her immobile. “You must keep drinking, Sam,” Nik whispered. “You’ve not had enough yet.”
    The coppery blood was too hot for her to handle. It got caught in the back of her throat and she began to choke.
    “Just relax, Samantha,” Liam said as he brushed a hand through her hair. “If you relax your body, you can get it past your gag reflex.”
    Samantha tried, she really did, but just couldn’t handle it. She continued to choke and could feel the warm blood in her stomach mix with her bile and start to move up into her esophagus.
    Nik let go of her neck and she pulled away and wretched onto the building behind her. It was worse coming back up, mixed with her stomach acid.
    Tears streamed down her face and she sobbed in between gags. A large hand rubbed circles across her back and she knew it was Nik. She remembered what his touch felt like and it soothed her a bit. “You must try again, Samantha,” he urged. “You and Leisha will die if you don’t keep the blood down.”
    He was right. She already felt the fatigue returning. She had to force herself to do this. If she didn’t, she alone would be to blame for Leisha’s death. Samantha had to give her friend a chance.
    Turning back to the bleeding man, she put shaking fingers on his shoulders as she leaned down to his neck. Drinking the blood was even worse the second time. The thick liquid continued to trigger her gag reflex, but she forced herself to swallow it down and drink as much as she