Are you going to die for some little human?
He looked at Penny, half-convulsing on the couch.
Forthatlittle human—yes. Oh, shit, yes, I would.
“When’s the last time—you ate?” Penny whispered.
“Pen! Oh, baby, you’re speaking! You’re awake!”
“I know. I feel like I had the flu. Like I still do. And I’m bleeding all over the carpet,” she slurred.
“I’m gonna get you in a nice tepid bath and get lots of fluids in you, and you’ll be right as rain in a bit.”
“Yeah. Okay. We didn’t die?”
“No.”
“When did you last eat?”
“I don’t know. Earlier.”
“Well, I’m leaking, it seems a pity to waste it,” she muttered, trying to sit up. “Oh, nope. Not happening, yet.”
“I’ll find you a bandage. Let’s get you in the tub.” Brax smiled, trying to stay steady. What little blood he had left in his system was running out, even though a drop of Penny’s blood had helped him more than a quart of animal blood, and the demon would subsist on will alone. Subsist meant “not turn into a pile of dust.” It didn’t mean a lot else. His body, while no longer meeting the qualifications to live in the freezer section, had also run out of the vampire equivalent of adrenaline. Everything twinged and pulled, like aftershock tremors following an earthquake.
He hoped he didn’t pass out on Penny. It wouldn’t look very heroic, nor helpful.
“You don’t have to pick me up!” Penny protested, eyes latched onto his face. “You look wobbly.”
“I’m fine.” He scooped her up, keenly aware that her fluttering eyes were still zeroing in on his faltering smile and catching the way his eyes twitched in panic before he could hide it.
Doesn’t miss a trick. One of the few humans in these parts—or in the world—with any damn sense of self-preservation.
“What happens if a vampire runs out of blood?” She frowned. “Did you tell me?
“Probably, sugar, but who knows what you remember. Your brain was damn near deep fried.” Brax tried to laugh. “Don’t you worry. It’s nothing good.”Skeletal body. Sunken eyes. Withered skin. Weakness.Marietta’s dream for him, of course.
“But you can’t get blood if you hurt someone?”
“No, I’ll get the metaphysical blow to the head times ten. Although maybe if Marietta’s kicked the bucket, her curses have gone with her. Still—I wouldn’t go about getting blood the same way as I used to. I’m not sold on hurting any tasty little humans, so you don’t need to worry.”
“But when I was biting you, you liked it.”
Brax stumbled, partly because of her words and partly because of the weight of her on his suddenly weak arms. “It felt good. It can.”
“It can?”
“If you want it.”
“I’M FEELING BETTER.” Penny tried to smile as Brax put her on the edge of the tub. Her muscles disagreed. They convulsed painfully, like runner’s cramps and charley horses were invading every part of her.
Brax didn’t call her on her lie. She supposed that she was better—comparatively.
“Called Minegold while you were ‘napping.’ He said that you had a triple whammy of a magical infection, the human body’s response to a fever, and then the aftermath of exposure—standing in an icy blizzard in next to nothing.” Brax ended in tones that sounded a lot like scolding.
“Yeah, that’s not a good thing.” Penny shivered and shuddered. The world was woozy again, and her body was... what was the word? Refracting? Recoiling? Maybe ricocheting! Ricocheting, yes, bouncing from being boiled like a live lobster to settling into normal temperatures, hissing and pinging like a radiator cooling down.
Brax, on his knees, leaned heavily on the tub. “Just warm enough,” he muttered.
