Sun Poisoned (The Sunshine Series) by Nikki Rae Page B

blood can’t be used in that way.”
    “ What?”
    He takes in a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “Michael’s blood,” he says. “It’s still in her system.”
    I swallow hard.
    I remember what it felt like. An electric eel in my brain.
    “ Wait,” I say. “How is that possible? How is she not in pain all the time?”
    “ She is,” he says. “It’s…complicated.”
    Myles doesn’t look uncomfortable so I wait patiently for him to continue.
    “There aren’t many ways to get rid of the infection once it’s in a human bloodstream,” he explains. “The way I treated you,” Myles places a hand to my temple and then lets it drop between us. “And the way Evan takes care of Ava.”
    “ How’s that?” I ask.
    “ He bites her whenever she’s in pain.” Myles shrugs, not able to find a better way to explain.
    “ That doesn’t make sense to me. Why would he have to keep doing it if she’s okay?”
    “ Because she isn’t,” Myles says softly. His gaze has switched from me to the newspaper-covered object in front of us. For all I know, he’s reading the funnies section. 
    “ Michael’s blood was in her body too long,” he says after some time. “If Evan doesn’t take it out of her system every time it emerges, she’ll die.”
    “ I…” I say. “I don’t think I get it.”
    Myles takes in another breath. “Michael’s blood infects healthy blood cells, destroys them, and brings them back as infected ones,” he says. He’s now switched to staring at the coffee table in front of us. “ We don’t even know how it works, but taking out the infected blood in increments like that, when it’s most painful, it helps a little.”
    Something occurs to me that hadn’t before. “So what does his blood do to you guys?” I ask.
    “ I was sick for a little bit. You and I evenly exchanged blood, so there are no long term side effects for me. Evan doesn’t do that with Ava. He’s infected too now.”
    “ And that means…”
    “ It means that there is no cure for him.” He pauses. “ Either of them. He’ll eventually get very sick and die.”
    “ Oh my God.”
    Myles shrugs. “It was his choice.” Then he smiles for a split second. “It won’t happen for a long time.”
    I don’t know what else I’m supposed to say.
    Thankfully, Myles takes care of that for me. “This isn’t how I imagined this night’s conversation going.”
    “ Yeah. Let’s fix that.”
    Myles stands up and rests his arm on the huge paper-covered present. “Will you open this now ?”
    “ I guess so,” I tease.
    I try to grab a hold of the material from where I’m sitting, but I soon find that I can’t get a good eno ugh grip. So I kneel in front of it, and Myles steps aside as I search for the seam where the newspaper has to be taped down in the back. I find familiar blue material there.
    “ Painter’s tape?” I ask.
    Myles shrugs.
    I turn my attention back to the enormous present and start to tear away the newspaper.
    The first rip only reveals more layers of paper underneath, so I have to shred through them. At first, I jus t see a black surface, but it takes me less than a second to recognize that it’s canvas beneath my fingertips, canvas with layers of thick paint over it.
    I glance at Myles for a moment and he’s still standing, staring intently at me, waiting for me to keep going. So I turn and continue to pull the wrapping apart, each torn piece revealing something new. Some color that wasn’t there before, a pattern or shape.
    I don’t realize what it is until the entire thing is in front of me.
    The only detail giving away that it’s me is the shock of magenta hair flying wildly around, blocking the view of my face and mingling with the rest of the painting. I’m sitting at a piano, my hands blurred in movement. The line of the piano’s glossy edge turns into a house, the shiny black fading into dark wood grain, then lighter shades of the same wooden pattern, my hair trailing a vine