“You will not let go of this, Thomas.”
I nod, shuddering and clutching the egg even though the scales scrape against my naked chest.
Ketill waits, his fierce eyes locked on me, then drops to the ground with athud. His lips twisted, and each breath leaves him like it’s forced out. Thecreakingandsnappingare only getting louder.
“Y-you need to get warm, too…” I try to give him the egg, but he just shakes his head, wincing.
“I don’t need it.”
“But you must be freezing—”
“It isn’t the cold.” He swallows, his brow tightening. “My back’s broken.”
“WHAT!”
“It’s healing,” he grits out. “Don’t worry.”
Which is when I realise the cracking and snapping isn’t the ice…it’s coming from Ketill. His bones…
“O…Okay…”
Ketill winces again, his fingers digging into the soggy mud underneath.
“There’s something else, isn’t there?” Ketill doesn’t reply. “Tell me!” I demand, my voice coming out brittle.
He lets out a long breath. “I need blood.”
“Too…?”
“Help me heal.”
“Because…?”
“I’m a vampire, treasure. It’s kind of our thing,” he tries to joke, but it lands flat while the bones in his back scrape and crunch.
I saw his fangs and the blood. I knew he wassomethingsupernatural. But I wasn’t expecting a vampire, not that it matters right now.
I don’t think, I just move, so I’m lying on top of him, the dragon egg clutched to my side. His clothes are wet and scratchy against my bare skin. I don’t worry about that as I expose my neck.
“Thomas?” Ketill whispers, voice hoarse.
“Can you drink my blood like this?”
He’s quiet for so long I’m concerned he’s passed out, and look down into his pale grey eyes—always so strangely familiar—to find them wide open.
“I can’t feed from you after you were seconds away from hypothermia. Shit, you could still get it. No, treasure. Thomas.” His expression is serious for a man who is a terrible flirt and is way toocomfortable surrounded by enemies. “Anything—everything—is worth it to keep you safe.”
I cup his cold cheek. “But if you don’t heal, then I’ll most likely end up dead anyway.”
He nuzzles my wrist. “I’d never let that happen, my love, my heartbeat…”
I drop my forehead onto his, needing to be close. “Then let me protect you, too.”
There’s a beat of silence, where I think he’ll refuse again, and then pain slices into my wrist. I gasp, but that pain is quietly soothed away by a pleasure that wraps around my body, pushing away the ice to be replaced by…him. His breath, his touch, his heartbeat.
Ketill. Ketill. Ketill.
I snuggle into him, losing myself to the oddly satisfying way he gulps my blood and the warmth of the egg. Sheltered by a tree that rustles in the storm, raining leaves that land in Ketill’s hair. From where we are, I can see the train up on the bridge, only a meter away from falling into the blown-up end.
