She ordered.
That’s when she noticed.
“Nobody is,” he replied, voice like gravel and honey. “We all just end up here.” lust ‘n dead
The jukebox at The Rusty Nail was playing something slow and swampy, a tune about love gone sour in the bayou. Ellie didn’t care about the song. She cared about the man at the end of the bar.
Ellie opened her mouth to scream, but only a sigh came out—long, slow, and strangely sweet. She ordered
“That’s why they stay,” he murmured, cupping her face with those cold, tattooed hands. “The hunger doesn’t care if the heart beats. It only cares if the blood burns.”
His heart wasn’t beating.
Tonight, she stopped leaning.