Previously on Trancing Miranda:
Miranda passes out from blood loss and Nick administers B-12 without her consent. Nick reflects on her ability to cut the connection between them when he using vampire magic / energy because it is unusual. He notices her many scars and is tempted by her fae blood. When Miranda wakes up she wants to know why he has a medical kit, feeling that it’s an indicator he hurts his donors. He denies every seriously hurting anyone and she allows him to stitch her up. She asks him to swap with her as he stitches her and he declines. He gives her energy without her consent because she “needs it” and she falls asleep. When Nick is done suturing he goes into the kitchen and feeds on packaged human blood.
It Was Time
Nick looked up from his laptop to see Miranda standing in the doorway. She was unusually light on her feet, moving almost as quietly as a vampire. But that was where the resemblance ended.
Vampires bounced back fast. Fae did not.
The circles under her eyes were so dark it looked like someone had punched her. Her face was pale and the little black top was stiff with blood.
“I’ll get you a shirt.” He went down to his room and came back with a black T-shirt and hoodie. “Bathroom’s just off the front hall if you want to wash up.”
She took the clothes and disappeared. A few minutes later, she was back, looking a little neater, but not necessarily better.
“You should keep the bite covered for the next forty-eight hours,” he said. “Don’t get it wet. The stitches can come out in five or six days.”
“I know.”
Of course she did. “Do you want something to eat?”
She rolled her eyes. “You can swap with me, or take me home. But I don’t want to hang out.”
He smiled. Miranda O’Malley wasn’t impressed with him at all—and there was something in her attitude and the lift of her chin that reminded him of another fae girl, long dead.
Arianne.
For a moment, Nick could almost see her. With her long, pale hair and her bright purple eyes.
In the memories, she was always laughing, even though in the end there was nothing but silence between them.
“Last chance,” Miranda said, bringing him back. “Do you want to swap, or not?”
She was nothing if not persistent.
“I can’t.”
It was time.
He’d done all he could. There was no reason to keep her.
Once, not that long ago, a reason wouldn’t have mattered. But the world had changed, and Nick had changed along with it.
“I’ll get my keys.”
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