Winning the Legend by B. Kristin McMichael

Arianna
asked, changing into her night human form. Andrew’s grip weakened.
Her night human form was irresistible. Andrew remained day human
and let her overpower him so that she straddled him on the bed. Her
night human form flickered but remained.
    “You didn’t take enough blood,” Andrew
coaxed, relieved that he had won this fight of wills. He wasn’t
going to be able to say no to her for too much longer. She was
everything he ever wanted.
    Arianna sighed. Andrew was right and she
knew it. All her enhanced senses faded slightly. She had gone too
long without blood and not taken enough from Turner and Devin.
Andrew turned his head slightly, giving her complete access to his
neck. Arianna hesitated. She didn’t want to affect Andrew’s
strength again, but she wanted to believe that his strength decline
during training had as much to do with her as it did her feeding.
Andrew smiled, sensing that he won this argument. Arianna leaned
down and kissed his neck gently before biting down.

Chapter 12
     
    Two days later, after sleeping off the large
amount of blood she had taken from three different people, Arianna
sat beside Andrew in the empty dining hall for dinner. She had been
missing home quite a bit lately and would give anything to have a
meal cooked by Captain Lou, the head chef in her aunt and uncle’s
diner. It had been a few nice, quiet days without the competitors.
Rhys had stayed behind, but she had yet to see him. She was
essentially alone with her own family. Devin and Turner entered the
room, joking like normal. It had only taken a day for them both to
recover, but Arianna wasn’t recovering quite as well. Her power
continued to fluctuate as much as it did when she had only
partially turned a year ago.
    Devin sat down across from Arianna and
examined her as he talked with Turner. He was analyzing every part
of Arianna as he always did. He’d been studying her for years and
now he felt that he needed to look closer since he missed the fact
that she wasn’t feeding.
    “And then my brother was completely soaked,”
Turner explained. “And of course it was my fault, but how could he
blame me without admitting that he was the cause.” Turner laughed
as he ended his story abruptly, realizing that Rhys was entering
the dining room. Rhys sat alone by the windows on the other side of
the room.
    ‘Ari, you need to feed
more,’ Devin said to her only. ‘I can tell you aren’t doing it
again.’
    ‘I am,’ Arianna complained. ‘I’m just a bit
off. I think I went too long between feedings. Yes, I get it. You
can stop scolding now. I think I am just getting sick or
something.’
    ‘Not possible. After
drinking the five’s blood last month, you can’t get sick,’ Devin reminded her of the mess that started
everything. Arianna was the night human of legend and to be so
needed the blood of five different night human keepers. With the
five’s blood, she would never get sick and would become the most
powerful night human ever. Unfortunately, she now doubted that
legend since she did kind of feel sick and was nowhere close to
being able to save everyone by being all-powerful.
    ‘Why do you keep refusing?
Can’t you see Turner and I are fine? Stop being a martyr.’ Devin brought her attention back to their
conversation.
    ‘I am feeding,’ she insisted. Devin was good at lecturing, but
she was telling him the truth. If he didn’t want to believe her,
then Arianna didn’t need to sit around being analyzed by him
either. She stood abruptly and joined Rhys at his table. Andrew let
her walk away as he glared at Devin and began his own silent
conversation with him.
    “Life is not so swell as the only princess
at the ball?” Rhys asked, making room so that Arianna could sit
beside him with her back to her keepers. Rhys hit the nail on the
head with his assumption.
    “Not really,” Arianna replied as Andrew
stood and moved closer, but not right next to her. “Why does
everyone want to tell me what to do