Read Online Blood Sacraments by Todd Gregory - Free Book Online Page A

Cord, you must be doing something wrong. You’ve done this before a thousand times and it always, always works.
    But as much as I thought about it, hard as I tried to remember, there was nothing else I could remember doing differently I wasn’t doing now. It was very simple—you merely opened a wound and rubbed some of your own blood over the mortal’s wounds. Within seconds, those wounds would close just as your own would. I shook my head and punctured my thumb.
    I pressed my thumb over his wounds, rubbed gently, and pulled my thumb away. Even as the wound in my own thumb closed, the wounds in Jared’s neck remained clearly visible.
    I took a deep breath and tried not to panic.
    Jared opened his eyes again and smiled weakly. “Cord, buddy. I knew you weren’t dead.” He reached up with a cool hand and touched the side of my face. “I just knew. Everyone said you were dead, they had a funeral and everything, but I knew.” His face clouded with confusion. “But how…I don’t understand…”
    “Shh,” I whispered, my mind racing as I tried to figure out what to do.
    This was precisely why Jean-Paul had forbidden me to return to New Orleans. He was right again, as usual. Yes, I know you’re not from there, but you do know people who are, and they all think you’re dead. You cannot risk going back there. What are you going to do if one of them sees you? How are you going to explain being alive? There is no explanation, Cord, and you will have to kill them.
    And even though Jared had been one of my best friends, one of my fraternity brothers, I knew if Jean-Paul knew what was happening, he would order me to kill Jared. Kill him and make sure the body was never found.
    If you don’t kill him, you risk exposing yourself. And everyone else in the vampire world—is that what you want, Cord? To prove to them vampires DO exist? They would hunt us all down and kill us. It’s either him or us, Cord. You know what you have to do.
    “I feel funny,” Jared said, shifting around on the couch and his eyes opened even further. They weren’t as glassy and unfocused as they had been earlier; that was a step in the right direction.
    Maybe he would recover normally.
    I placed my fingers back on his wrist. His pulse felt stronger.
    The wounds on his neck were scabbing over.
    That’s a step in the right direction, but it’s still not normal. My blood should have healed the damned things! What’s wrong? Maybe Jared is somehow different than other humans?
    But that doesn’t make any sense.
    “Kiss me,” Jared whispered, smiling at me.
    “What?” I stared at him. “You can’t be serious.”
    “I want you,” he whispered. His lips spread in a smile. “I’ve always wanted you, Cord. Always.”
    I gulped. In the three years at Ole Miss I’d known Jared, I’d never once gotten the slightest inkling he was gay, or even the least bit curious. We’d pledged together, shared a room at the house, and been as close as brothers. Jared was the only person in the house I’d come out to—and he’d been supportive, even going with me to Memphis to a gay bar. It had been Jared’s idea to come stay with his parents for Mardi Gras, and he’d helped me break away from the other fraternity brothers who’d also come down so I could go to the gay bars. Neither of us had any way of knowing the trip would result in my becoming a vampire—well, Jared just thought I’d been killed, burned to death in the fire. I’d always been attracted to Jared, but never considered acting on it—no matter how drunk or high either one of us might have been.
    And it was very tempting.
    “Jared—”
    “I mean it.” He licked his lips. “I was too much of a coward to ever do anything. That time we went to the bar in Memphis…I wanted to kiss you that night. It broke my heart when you died, Cord. And now you’re alive. I’m not going to miss this chance. I’ve been sorry ever since you died I never had the courage to do anything with