"THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN SAVE HIM IS YOU."
Dr. Morrison's words hung in the air like a death sentence, each syllable reverberating through Mailah's mind with the finality of a judge's gavel.
She stared at Grayson's motionless form, her hands trembling as the full weight of what was being asked of her settled into her bones like lead.
Save him. By letting him feed on her. By becoming his willing prey.
"I..." she began, then stopped, her voice catching in her throat. The room felt suddenly suffocating, the sandalwood incense too thick, too cloying. She could taste it on her tongue, sweet and smoky and somehow wrong.
"I need a moment," she whispered, rising unsteadily from the chair beside the bed.
Her injured ankle protested, sending sharp spikes of pain up her leg, but she welcomed the physical discomfort.
It was something real, something concrete to focus on instead of the impossible choice that loomed before her like a cliff's edge.
