“Soon you’ll feel a tingling sensation in your arm,” I told her softly. “That’s how you know the bone is mending. We’ll need to set it properly and keep it at that angle through the process. Then it should return to normal in a few hours, if not sooner.” My blood was ancient, my immortality resolute. A human drunk on my essence should heal faster as a result.
I combed my fingers through her hair, belatedly noticing the blood coating my skin.
Oh well. We’d both need a shower after this anyway.
After several minutes of allowing her to acquire her fill, I eased her away from my wrist. “That should be enough.”
She didn’t reply, just gazed up at me dreamily.
My lips curled at the contentment in her features. “Yeah, that was definitely enough.”
She hummed something unintelligible in response.
“I think I like you in this state,” I murmured, pulling her carefully into my lap. Her head fell to my chest on a sigh, her body completely relaxed against mine. “There’s so much I could do, and something tells me you would approve so long as I just let you have a little more blood.”
My words had no impact on her, confirming my statement.
“The healing may disturb your euphoric state,” I warned her. “The bone-mending process is more painful than the original fracture.”
At least it wasn’t a gunshot wound. Those were a bitch to recover from, which the vampires outside would currently be experiencing. I really needed to take care of them before they woke up, and I needed to track down the final intruder—the one intelligent enough to run.
“I’m going to put you in a temporary dream state,” I whispered to Willow. “You’ll be safe, and you’ll heal faster.”
She hummed again, but it didn’t sound like a protest.
I stood with her in my arms and walked over to the couch to arrange her in a comfortable position that protected her arm. Then I carefully repositioned her forearm to ensure her bones healed accurately.
Willow didn’t cringe or complain, her mind lost to a dreamy state of euphoria brought on by my blood. It would change as the mending started, but for now, she just stared up at me with a sated appeal that I wanted to replicate in the bedroom.
Leaning down, I brushed a kiss against her temple and compelled her into a deep sleep to help soften the mending experience. My compulsion served as an apology of sorts, one I didn’t really comprehend. Had I protected her better, she wouldn’t have been injured. And yet, at the same time, I needed to know how she handled herself in dangerous situations.
“What am I going to do with you, pet?” I asked her for the thousandth time, bewildered by this odd little attachment building between us. It would pass, of course. But it temporarily intrigued me.
With a shake of my head, I left her to heal. I had a few bodies to decapitate.
8
Willow
Dark green orbs haunted my mind, smoldering and intense, reminding me of something I couldn’t quite grasp.
Another dream?
A dark memory?
I couldn’t say, the knowledge there and gone in a flash as something nudged me back to reality. My mind eagerly accepted the reprieve, not ready to indulge in the sadistic thoughts of my past.
Something about a—
“Willow.” The voice intruded on my thought, drawing me into a state of awareness and away from the experience I longed to forget.
I opened my eyes. The lights were all on, and he stood before me with damp hair and a towel wrapped around his waist.
Nothing else.
All that perfection on display had my throat drying and my tongue eager for a different kind of taste of him.
This was why vampires were dangerous. They were alluring and beautiful and lethal. He could snap my neck as easily as that monster had my arm and drink the life from my veins. Yet he could effortlessly bring me to my knees, his very appearance a seduction to the senses. And he knew it, too.
“Feeling better?” he asked me, his gaze going to my forearm.
I glanced at it, frowning. It was completely healed.
“How long was I out?”
“About six hours.” He helped me roll onto my side, then sat on the couch beside my hip and played his fingers over my arm. “Good as new.”
What is with this vampire? His actions and words made my head spin. They weren’t at all what the university had prepared me for.
Lycans and vampires broke human bones all the time at the university, and then they made the mortal suffer through the pain of healing. It served as a reminder of their power and their ability to injure those who stepped out of line.
From my experience, their cruelest punishments didn’t always equal death.
Torture could do a lot more to hurt someone. And forcing that person to live with the memories of their torment was the ultimate castigation.
Yet Ryder had healed me. Twice.
It didn’t make any sense. Royal vampires took what they wanted. They were savage creatures. And while Ryder exuded that same air of violence, he treated me as if I were something precious. Not just a snack.
His dark eyes captured mine as he drew his touch up to my neck, his fingers finding my pulse. “What has you so unnerved, sweet pet?” he asked, bending to run his nose across my cheek in a decidedly animalistic manner.
Because he’s not human.
“You smell distraught,” he murmured. “Is it your arm? Does it hurt?”
“No, it’s… you healed me…” I trailed off, having said the first thing that came to my mind, then didn’t know how to finish it.
He lifted just enough to stare down at me, his proximity a hot caress against my senses. “Yes. Are you wanting to thank me?”
The way he said it had goose bumps pebbling down my arms. I could only guess what he wanted me to do to show my gratitude.
His hand traveled from my neck up to my face, where he cupped my cheek. “Are you still in pain?”
I slowly shook my head.
“Good,” he whispered. “And how are your memories?”
His minty breath clouded the air between us, seducing my senses. It would be so easy to taste him, his lips only a few inches from mine.
Stop it, I told myself. He’s dangerous.
I recalled the way he killed those two vampires in his living area, how brutal and precise his actions were in destroying their lives. He hadn’t even blinked, so lost to his rage that he exterminated them without a second thought.
It was exactly what he would do to me when he grew tired of my presence.
No, my death would be worse. He’d drain me with a bite, take back all the blood he’d fed me and then some.
I trembled at the notion.
“Are they still foggy?” Ryder asked, drawing me back to his questions regarding my memory.
“Yes,” I admitted. “Like I dreamt my entire life before waking up in your basement.”
“Hmm.” He brushed his thumb across my cheekbone, then lowered his grip to my throat again. “You seem to have an adverse reaction to my blood, or perhaps it’s something with the drugs you were given at the breeding camp. Maybe a combination of both.” His gaze fell to my lips. “I’ll look into it for you next week.”
I blinked at him. “Why would you do that?” Why do you care? was what I really wanted to know.