Blood Crave Page 38
Sharp pain in my stomach—burning pain. My eyes flew open. I gasped.
She bit me.
Danni bit me.
Heat spread from the wound like a chemical fire. I writhed around into a ball to see Danni above me, green eyes greedy and eager as she lunged for another bite. Then a blur of black fur. Lucas’s lupine body colliding into hers. The squelch of body parts separating.
My blood boiled beneath skin that felt like it was melting off of my bones. It was inescapable, irreversible, and all-consuming. Even my hearing was blocked out by the too-fast beat of my heart. Fear, anger—total hatred of everyone and everything—consumed my every sense, rocking my brain into insanity.
With what little vision I retained, I saw Danni fall to the dirt beside me. Dead. Then Lucas’s body shaking, transforming back to human.
I heard the distant sound of screaming—my screams. Something welled in my gut—something terrible and powerful that rippled through my muscles and clawed at the inside of my skin, demanding to be released. Lucas’s face appeared, his arms locking me tight in a prison of comfort I didn’t want. I tried to struggle away; I couldn’t lie still, couldn’t see anything anymore—it was all red. Inside, my organs were exploding, brain turning inside out with terror.
He released me, letting me shake—letting me tremor.
The something in my gut swelled again, this time with a greater intensity, squeezing itself into all of my muscles, my bones, my mind. Then my body began to lose its shape—my bones popped out of their sockets, my muscles tore in two and reformed into new, impossible shapes. Nothing was left untouched; my skin prickled in a million different places, fingernails burned and elongated, teeth grew, sharpened, my spine curved and lengthened.
In a blast of white, my vision returned—my body stopped shaking, stopped burning, stopped hurting. But it wasn’t my body anymore. It was a new body—a new world.
I was changed.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When you do something like write a book, you don’t do it alone. So to all of those people who helped me along the way, here’s what I have to say to you:
First, I’ve got to thank my amazing agent, Tamar Rydzinski, for her unfailing support and awesome advice. It was you who said yes, and I’ll never forget that.
While we’re talking about amazing women, I have to mention my editor, Lisa Cheng. You always bring a smile to my face during those moments when I want to give up (usually this is right in the middle of a massive editing session, where I can see more red marks than black ones). The occasional “LOL!” in the margins is what helps me keep going. Thank you for your continued support. This book wouldn’t be what it is without you!
To my amazing parents and sister, I give you ALL the thanks in the world. You deserve much more than my measly “thank you” for putting up with me throughout the writing of another book, but words are all I have. I hope you know how much you all mean to me. I especially want to thank my mom, because you slogged through that first draft like a champ and gave me so much love and support, even though we both knew it was garbage! Thanks for loving my garbage, Mom!
Husband of mine, thank you for listening to me as I plotted aloud, and rambled on about scenes you hadn’t even read yet. Having someone to bounce ideas off of has been invaluable. You rock!
Children, once again I thank you for giving up your mommy for days at a time so that I could write this book. I hope that one day you’ll read what I wrote and be proud of me. I love you both like crazy.
Everyone at Running Press, you’re all amazing, and I can’t thank you enough for all the hard work you did to make Blood Crave the best book it could be.
Lastly, I want to say thank you to YOU. If you’ve made it this far, gentle reader, you should know that you’re awesome. And you completely rock for choosing to read my books. I’m insanely happy that you picked them up, and I sincerely hope that you continue to do so! I couldn’t do this without you!
Copyright © 2012 by Jennifer Knight
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