“I don’t know,” I say, picking up my head. Stars dot my vision.
“Can you get another washcloth for me?”
“Yeah,” I say before I stand and have to work through the dizziness again. I stagger into the kitchen and open five cabinets before I find the towels. I grab a handful of washcloths and towels and rush back into the living room.
Abby takes one, dips it in the water, and wrings it out. “Get one more,” she tells me. “And then a dry one.”
I do as I’m told and watch her clean up Lucas’s skin. Everything about this looks wrong. It’s like a corpse on an exam table in an episode of CSI that’s been sewn back together after an autopsy, yet blood is still weeping from the small puncture wounds.
“Vampire blood doesn’t clot at all?” She dabs the corner of the wound.
“No,” I tell her. “It will dry eventually, but it doesn’t have the clotting agents that human blood does.”
“Okay,” she says and looks at Lucas again as she thinks. “I’m going to need you to help me clean and dry the little punctures the best we can. I have wound glue—sorry, Lucas, this is going to hurt, too—and I think that might be enough to stop the bleeding.”
“Just tell me what to do.”
She gets out the glue, breaks off the dry tip, and then puts on more gloves. We work together to wipe away the blood and get a large dot of glue over each little hole in his skin from the needle.
She gives it a minute to dry and then bandages up the wound.
“Is there anything vampires can take for pain?” she asks, gathering up the bloody towels.
“No,” Lucas tells her and starts to sit up.
“Take it easy,” Abby says, eyes going wide again. It’s only then I see the stress on her face. She’s a good doctor, used to seeing bloody injuries, but sewing up a vampire with a sewing needle and colorful thread is new territory.
“Thank you,” Lucas tells her and slowly pushes up. He looks down at his stomach with an indiscernible look on his face.
Fear?
Annoyance?
“You need blood,” I tell him and sit down on the couch. “Now.” I move my hair to one side of my neck and pull Lucas to me. He doesn’t protest, doesn’t try to tell me he’s okay.
Because he’s not, and there’s no use in him lying to me this time.
His mouth meets my neck, and he takes just half a second to find the right place to sink his fangs into my flesh. I wrap my arm around him, bringing one hand to the back of his head.
Abby stands, staring at us, and gasps when Lucas sinks his fangs into my neck. I wince from the pain of his fangs popping through my skin but then feel instant relief when I know he’s replenishing some of what he’s lost.
Lucas licks up the blood that drips down my neck and then sucks down a mouthful, arms going around my body. He holds me tight at he pulls more blood from my body.
I let my eyes fall shut and keep his head against me, not allowing him to pull away yet if he tried. He can drink a substantial amount of my blood and I’ll be okay. A little weak, but okay.
“Callie,” Abby says, voice strained. “That’s enough.”
“I’m fine,” I tell her, and I start to fall back from Lucas’s weight on me. He sucks hard, and I know I’ll have a bruise in the morning.
“Cal,” she says again and steps closer. “That’s enough!”
“Not human, remember?”
“Not fully human. Part of you still is, and that part is still susceptible to human ailments. Like losing too much blood.”
Lucas pulls his head back and laps at the blood on my neck. “She’s right,” he tells me, licking his lips.
“Do you feel better?” I ask, bringing my hand to my neck, needing to cover the two little bite wounds on my neck. Unlike vampires, my blood does clot—faster than the average human. Lucas told me so, which works to our advantage.
“A little. I’m…I’m tired,” he says, almost as if the words are foreign to him. “But it’s not like how I normally feel tired.”
Lucas is on top of me, having laid me down as he fed off of me. He probably shouldn’t be putting that type of pressure on the wound.
“Lie down on your back,” I tell him.
He wiggles his eyebrows. “What are you going to do to me?”
“I’m going to make sure you didn’t pop your stitches.”
“Kinky.”
I shake my head. “You’re impossible.”
“That’s why you love me, isn’t it?” He slowly sits up, wincing as he moves.
“Partly. The other part is your money.”
“I knew it.” He laughs and makes a face.
“Yeah, that’s going to hurt,” Abby says, still standing there looking at us with shock on her face. “I couldn’t laugh for days after I had a C-section.” She turns her gaze to me. “I’m going to get you some water. You lost a lot of blood, too.”
“Not more than usual,” I say, which only makes Abby frown. She’s gone from fearing vampires to supporting my marriage to one in only a few months. I have to give her props for that. Getting used to the idea that Lucas drinks my blood is still hard for her to grasp. Hell, it’s still a little weird to me. Even weirder is Lucas liking when I drink his blood.
Lucas and I carefully resituate on the couch so he’s lying on his back. I’m hanging off the edge of the couch, but the discomfort is distant in my mind. All that matters is that I’m here, next to Lucas. I push his hair back again, tears in my eyes.
“Told you I’d be okay,” he grumbles.
“Right,” I reply, but we both know he’s far from okay. Abby stopped the bleeding…for now. “Close your eyes,” I tell him and rake my fingers through his hair. “Rest for a bit and then we’ll go home.”
He nods and lets his eyes fall shut, reaching up and taking my hand. I love him so fucking much. He has to be okay.
He just has to.
“Thank you, Callie,” he whispers and retracts his fangs.
“Of course, Lucas.”
“I don’t mean for bringing me here and having your sister sew my skin together with pretty pink thread.”
My lips twitch up in a half-smile. “You noticed?”
“Eliza will like it, at least.”
“Eliza is going to freak out,” I counter.
“Best not to tell her. Not yet, at least.”
“Can she sense when you’re in danger?”
He shakes his head and slits his eyes open. “She’ll know if I die.”
“Well, it’s not going to come to it.” I gently hook my leg over his, careful not to put any pressure on his stomach. “If you didn’t thank me for taking care of you, then what are you thanking me for?”
“For this.”
“Are you delusional from lack of blood?”
He smiles again. “Possibly. But the fact that you’re with me, that you love me enough to marry me…” His eyes flutter shut.
I blink back tears and press my lips to his. “Rest,” I whisper, and he nods before going still.
“Callie?” Abby says softly, coming back into the living room holding a glass of water. “Are you awake?”