“I’m sticky,” Toby kept saying as we hurried back to my dorm. “Just… everywhere. Sticky.”

After the pledges had moved on, he’d wiped himself down with a blanket before throwing his clothes on. But a thin film of jam remained.

We snuck back into my dorm--dodging students coming back from late club meetings and study groups--and I tossed a towel at him.

“Shower,” I said. We were lucky that Elle and I were the only women on the floor. The girls’ room was always empty.

I was so angry I almost couldn’t form words. Toby and I had put all our hopes into Nico’s ritual. I couldn’t get over the fact that Nico had made something up just to make Toby look stupid, right when we were at our most desperate.

Why would he waste our time like that? What kind of malicious game was he playing?

“I’ll be back,” I said.

“Where are you going?” Toby asked.

“I’ll be back.” It was my turn to growl.

Rage filled every cell in my body. I stormed out of my dorm building, ready to take on an army of Averus vampires if I had to.

Somewhere in the back of my brain I knew I wasn’t strong enough to fight even one evil vampire, but that fact felt irrelevant.

My feet directed me across the campus towards the woods. The football stadium came into view--the stadium we’d hidden behind for this stupid made-up ritual.

I was almost at the edge of campus. I’d passed students making the trek home from the library on my way over, but it was closed now. Quiet.

Too quiet.

Except… I heard a low cough from the shadows behind the library.

All of my anger vanished, replaced by a cold fear. How could I think I was strong enough to take on even one vampire? I was barely strong enough to take on a human. I’d never been in a fight in my life.

Against my better judgement, I drifted towards the corner of the library. Maybe it was just a sick student, hiding in the depths of the shadows behind the library? At 2am?

Or maybe I was going to be the next body found in the woods.

I racked my brain for hints to survive an attack. It had been centuries since vampires hunted humans. They were more likely to chase you if you ran, right?

Or was that dogs?

I leaned around the corner, into the shadows. My eyes adjusted slowly. As shapes coalesced in the darkness, the first thing I saw was Nico’s white coat.

It wasn’t as luminous as it had been when we’d first met. Blood and dirt had bonded to the fabric, turning it a dull grey--but it was the palest thing in the dark, shrubbery-lined alley behind the library.

Until the coat shifted to reveal Nico’s pale face.

Anger washed over me again.

“You!” I said, storming towards him. “How dare you--”

He groaned, and I hesitated.

“Why are you on the ground?” I said, and as he rolled over it became apparent why.

A puddle of dark blood underneath him caught the moonlight. I didn’t know that vampires could bleed--at least not that heavily.

He must have been here for a while.

He caught my eye, then immediately looked away--like a scared cat, ashamed to be caught in a vulnerable position.

“Nico,” I said, more urgently. “Nico, what happened--”

I dropped to my knees, trying to assess his injuries in the dark. As an EMT I was rarely called on to do more than get someone safely to a hospital. Doctors did the real work. But something told me Nico wasn’t going to go to a hospital.

I ran through my mental checklist for vampires. Checking the pallor of their skin didn’t apply--vampires were always pale--and blood loss wasn’t the emergency for them that it was for humans. It did weaken them, however; healthy vampires were prone to heal quickly, but prolonged blood loss indicated a bigger problem.

“Don’t,” Nico moaned, as I reached towards him. He’d propped himself up against the brick of the library, cradling one arm.

“Let me look at your arm,” I said, pulling my jacket off.

“No--”

“Nico,” I repeated. I’d perfected this tone in high school, when I wanted my younger brother to leave me alone. “I’m going to look at your arm.”

He looked away again as I reached out and took his hand lightly in mine, and ran my other hand down the length of his arm. He winced when I touched his forearm.

“What happened?” I asked, trying to keep my voice calm while I gently felt for any indication of breakage.

He hissed again--something was wrong with his forearm, probably the ulna. Broken or fractured.

“Nico?” I prompted. I looked around for something to splint his arm--there were sticks under the bushes. Some of them still had leaves on them.

“Draven came back,” Nico groaned.

“Okay.” My heart beat a little faster, and I focused on stripping the sticks. “Is he still here?”

“I think I lost him,” Nico said. “In the woods. Trying to get me to feed again--I wasn’t fast enough.”

“Okay. I’m going to splint your arm now.” I started tearing the hem of my t-shirt. “He wanted you to feed?”

“He thought if he weakened me--beat me…” Nico groaned as I lifted his arm slightly to get underneath it, and started splinting it in place.

“Did it work?” I asked, controlling my voice. I didn’t want to leave a patient in pain, but I didn’t want to die behind the library from a blood-starved vampire attack, either.

Nico coughed out a rough laugh.

“I’ve been starving for centuries,” he said. “It’s going to take more than this to get me to feed again.”

“Do you know where you’re bleeding from?”

“Stomach,” he said, through gritted teeth. I reached for his shirt, and he shifted under my hand. I pushed his shirt aside.

Dark blood oozed from a gash on his left side. Vampire blood was thicker and darker than human blood, but I could still see it flowing.

“Why hasn’t this healed?” I asked. I tore more of my shirt to press on the wound.

“Need blood,” was all Nico said.

I pressed the bundle of jersey I’d torn off my shirt to his wound to stem the bleeding. I didn’t have enough shirt to tie it down.

“Hold this,” I said, and Nico pressed his free hand over it.

I shifted onto my heels, and bit my lip.

“Where have you been sleeping?” I asked, distracted from his injuries.

“Forest,” he said.

I imagined him curled up under a tree, damp with dew. Somehow I suspected even my mental image was sweeter than the reality of sleeping on the dirt.

Nico’s injuries weren’t minor, but I couldn’t imagine taking an Averus vampire to a hospital. And what he needed most was a safe place to rest.

“Can you stand?” I asked. Nico’s face twisted, but he nodded, slowly. “You can’t stay here. Come with me.”

I pressed my hand over his semi-bandaged wound and slung his free arm over my shoulders, then slowly helped him to his feet. He gasped in pain and staggered--he was heavier than I expected him to be, and it took me a moment to stabilize him.

His starvation and blood loss was written clearly in the sharp lines of his bone structure under his pale skin--like Toby’s--but his shoulders were broader, his jaw sharper and more pointed. Up close, I could see a scar across his jawline. I wondered if he’d gotten it before or after he’d turned.

I didn’t have time to find out.

“Where are you taking me?” he asked, when he’d regained his breath. He started to limp alongside me as I headed back across campus.

“My dorm,” I said. “We have to get a better look at your injuries. Somewhere safe.”

We’d get him washed up. Treat his wounds. Get him fed. He could take Elle’s bed for the night.

It would only be temporary...

Toby was going to be furious.