Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
I try to shake my head from side to side. I try to spit the blood out. But the vampire’s hand on my jaw keeps my head back and mouth open. I choke, and some of the blood splatters onto his face. I cough and the blood hits the back of my throat.
Oh God, no.
I swallow.
The first trickle of blood burns the back of my throat.
My throat seizes.
The empty bottle clatters to the bar, and Luther’s hand slaps across my lips. The bastard forces my mouth closed, and his fingers pinch my nostrils.
I can’t breathe.
The remaining pool of blood congeals in my mouth. The rancid smell of it overwhelms my senses. My throat is unwilling to swallow anymore.
Creepy, gentle fingers caress my neck.
“Swallow,” he whispers in my ear. “It’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay. Swallow.”
Liar.
The whole situation reminds me of when I give Dexter a worming tablet. Shit, regulated to pet status. I am so sorry, Dexter. I wonder if he needed worming what with being a fae monster cat. I am lucky he didn’t eat my face.
Now this idiot thinks I have a blood aversion. That is psychological, psychosomatic. It isn’t. Black wiggly lines fill my vision. “Drink, damn you.”
I hate him. I hate him for doing this. Luther slams my head back against the bar.
I swallow the blood.
Cold claggy, congealed blood gushes down my throat. My stomach twists and turns. “Now that didn’t hurt,” Luther coos.
Ha, says the man who hasn’t just had his head slammed against a bar several times. Perhaps if I returned the favour, it would knock some sense into him.
He lets me go, and I scramble to the other side of the room.
I cough and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.
A lone tear runs down my cheek. I can’t look at him.
I have the strongest urge to go home, crawl into bed, and hide underneath the covers.
Or kill him. I wouldn’t mind getting my hands around his throat.
Now isn’t the time. My legs wobble as I step towards the door.
“Don’t leave yet. Until I can trust you not to do something stupid, you won’t be going anywhere. At least until I know the blood is in your system.” He pulls out his phone with dismissal. He’s all business. It’s as if he hasn’t just… My inner voice whines in my head… I feel violated.
Everything inside me wants to run away, but the thought of him touching me again is revolting.
God, I feel so vulnerable. I place my back against the wall, wrap my arms around myself, and hunch forward. I hide my face from him so he can’t see the tears in my eyes.
I want Story. I want my cat. I want… Xander.
Not even five minutes after I’ve drained the bottle, my body revolts.
It starts with a tremble. My body seizes, and it shakes. A sharp pain hits my stomach as if a knife is stabbing me in the abdomen. The pain is excruciating. Unable to stand, I slide down the wall. My bottom hits the dirty carpet—thump.
“Xander,” I groan. I need his help.
“I will call you back,” Luther says. I tuck my knees to my chest, and a small whimper leaves my throat. Luther’s lip curls, and he shakes his head. He tucks his phone into his jacket. “Don’t be so dramatic. You can go in a minute.”
Ants are crawling underneath my skin, and I’m now shaking so hard my teeth rattle and my head snaps back, smacking against the wall. For fuck’s sake, my poor head. I’ll be lucky if leave here without brain damage.
I slump to the side and roll into a ball. “Xander,” I say a little louder. I need you.
Outside the room, my ears pick up the sound of a scuffle. I feel a wisp of a breeze rather than see the door fly open, and a familiar big warm hand touches the pulse in my throat.
He came back.
My eyes close with relief. Seeking golden magic glows around me. Instead of its usual flood, the angel’s magic is just a trickle. Crap. It doesn’t feel enough to battle through the conflict going on in my body. The magic inside me is going haywire, and even my angel’s magic can’t compete.
“Her eyes are bleeding.” Xander tilts my head back, and I groan. Huh. Now he mentions it, my face is wet, sticky. “And her ears. Vampire, what did you do?”
“I gave her blood,” Luther replies drolly.
“I’m not dying from this. Don’t you worry, I’ll be on my feet in a minute.
” I rasp. My chest burns and my heart stutters.
I lurch away from Xander’s warm hands and flop back onto my side.
I cough and choke. A rush of hot liquid burns a path up my throat, and more blood violently sprays out of my nose and mouth. I can’t…
Shiny shoes approach my head. Luther chuckles. “My, my. She wasn’t kidding about blood making her sick. How unusual.” Still chuckling, the bastard walks away. Unconcerned about the bleeding girl on his floor.
“Good luck with that,” he says helpfully.
“Ross, Lord Gilbert gave her blood, and she’s having an adverse reaction.”
“Adverse, how adverse?” Oh, hey Doc. Look at that. I can hear him… The doctor must be on speakerphone. This is all your fault, Mr Stripey Shirt, leaving me with that creepy-ass vampire. Would it be petulant to tell him I told him so? You shouldn’t have told the vampires my secret.
“Did you just give her one bottle?” Xander asks the retreating vampire.
“Yes. Let it be known that the vampire council formally relinquish our claim. She’s defective and useless. You have ten minutes to get her body out of my club,” Luther says. A door slams shut.
What. A. Dick.
“She’s bleeding from her eyes and ears, and she’s vomited more than she drank.
The blood is dark”—as if I am going to die, I violently cough out more blood—“with chunks. Her heart rate is rapid, and her breathing has become seriously laboured.” Xander gently strokes my hair.
“My healing magic has had no effect. I can heal everything. Why can’t I heal you? ”
I try to take a breath, but I keep on inhaling the blood, and I can’t… My lungs aren’t working; I feel like I am drowning. My chest burns, my eyes fly open, and panicked, I claw at his arm. Why can’t I breathe? Fucking hell. I knew he’d be the death of me.
Blood has always made me sick, but I didn’t think it would kill me.
“I am on my way.”
“No time… Tru? Fuck, she’s stopped breathing. What the hell have I done?”
My hands fall uselessly to my sides as Xander rips my top down the middle, and there’s a splash of something on my chest. An empty potion vial lands on the floor by my hand.
“Healing potion?”
“As yet no effect.”
“Give her your blood,” the doctor demands.
“What? No. Blood got us into this mess… I’m starting chest compressions.” Xander’s warm palms settle on my breastbone. Liquid bubbles in my throat, and my chest rattles.
“Xander, give her your blood,” the doctor growls. “Trust me.”
There’s a strange whoosh, and something soft, like a feather, tickles against my throat. Warm hands pull me up from the floor, and I’m back in his arms. My head flops to the side and Xander tucks me against his chest.
He lays a gentle hand on my cheek and traces my blood-covered lips with his thumb.
“Drink.”
Urm, no, thank you. I have enough blood for a lifetime, more isn’t going to do shit.
The scent of sunlight and metal hits me.
It’s the most beautiful, delicious… What the fuck?
How can I smell if I can’t breathe? I can’t believe even after everything I dreamed of being in his arms, and now that I am… Well, this wasn’t what I meant.
Not this.
He cups my jaw and presses my lips against the crook of his elbow.
The taste in my mouth makes my eyes roll to the back of my head. Boiling hot, golden sunlight fills me while Xander’s golden magic floods my chest and laps at my soul.
I feel full, warm. Safe.
I gasp. It’s then that I realise my nose is clear and I’m breathing normally. I’m no longer shaking. No longer dying.
Yay, go me.
Feathers brush against me, and my eyes flutter open. I am cocooned in velvety darkness. A gentle hand brushes my hair away from my face, and I blink so I can focus on his worried, sad honey eyes. “It’s okay, my shadow. You’re okay. Take as much as you need.”
Take as much as I need? What?
Oh… OH.
My mouth is clamped against skin. Warm glowing angel skin. A muscular forearm, to be exact. My teeth… my fangs are sticking in a vein at Xander’s elbow. I am gulping the angel’s blood down like a milkshake.
Ha. Oh crap.