“You will in a minute.” Bennett pulled the dagger from her boot and drew it against her palm. As her blood pooled, Bennett raised her eyes. “Many, many years ago, I was where you are now, so I’m going to tell you what Max told me. You have an instinct now, Lisa. It’s strong, and it’s undeniable, and once it’s awoken, it will never sleep again. Tonight, I’m going to help you unleash it, and then you need to follow it where it takes you.”

Bennett dipped her finger into the pool of blood in her hand and brushed the crimson lightly across Lisa’s lips. In an instant, Lisa’s baby blue eyes morphed into neon azure, and her canine teeth extended into fangs.

“And there it is,” Bennett said softly.

Lisa sucked in a quick breath. The adrenaline rush was like no other she’d felt before. The screeching of the junk and the howling of the breeze disappeared, and another noise took its place. Lisa turned toward the camp, unconsciously wetting her lips at the sounds of heartbeats and blood flowing through veins. Lisa stood up and wet her lips again. Her new self had arrived.

***

Bennett crouched in the shadows for twenty minutes until she heard the crunch of frozen ground, and as she stood, Lisa came into view. The cowl neck of Lisa’s sweater was stained with blood, as were her cheeks and chin, and as soon as their eyes met, Lisa dropped to her knees and vomited.

Bennett rushed over, rubbing Lisa’s back until the heaving stopped.

“Oh crap,” Lisa said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “Please don’t tell me I have to go back and get some more.”

“No. You got what you needed,” Bennett said through an unstoppable grin. “Max actually told me this is a good sign. It means you haven’t lost all of yourself to this affliction.”

“Well, that’s good to hear,” Lisa said, standing up. “You wouldn’t happen to have a wet wipe, would you?”

Bennett chuckled. “No, but knowing you, I’m sure you have something in the car,” she said, looking around. “And if this were the sixteenth century, I’d leave the bodies where they lay, but I need to go take care of them so as not to sound any alarms. I won’t be long.”

“Oh, don’t bother. I know the tricks of the trade. I sealed their wounds with my saliva. They won’t even know I was there.”

Bennett jerked back her head. “What did you just say?”

“What? Are you saying I had to kill them?”

“Well, no…no, of course not, but…but how could you not have?”

“I don’t know,” Lisa said, shrugging. “I just listened to their heartbeats, and when they began to get weak, I stopped.”

“You stopped.”

“Yeah.”

“Just like that, you stopped.”

“Bennett, did I do something wrong?”