It makes me glad that I am not one of them.
“She’s acting like he—I don’t know—poisoned her or something!” He sits on the edge of the bed and cradles the back of her head. “C’mon, baby, what is it? What’s wrong?”
Sienna moans, her forehead knitting together as a thin layer of sweat coats her skin.
“She’s burning up,” Revyn announces, pressing his forehead to hers. “I don’t know what’s wrong.”
My lip attempts to curl, but I stop it. “Clearly.” Turning to our guests, I offer a polite but tight smile. “If you’ll give us a moment to sort out our mate...” I gesture toward the door. “We will update you when appropriate. In the meantime, please consider Sienna’s request for assistance. It would mean a great deal to her if we worked together to find a cure for Revyn’s...affliction.”
Although it would be easier for me if he died.
I wait only as long as it takes for the door to shut before returning to Sienna’s side. “She’s gone pale,” I note, pulling her hair off her neck and braiding it at her back. “She may need a bath and some fluids. I trust you can find some?”
“I’m not leaving her,” Revyn growls, his eyes flashing molten silver.
“Well you certainly aren’t helping her.” In any way, really. He’s like a thorn stuck in her side; buried deep enough to fester but difficult to remove and even harder to heal from. “Your presence is smothering her.”
“And yours isn’t?” He glares at me. “I don’t need avampire’s help. What can you do for her that I can’t?”
“Many things,” I assure him, showing off the sharp tips of my fangs. “But for now, I’m afraid all we can do is wait. Alistair formally rejected her.” Unease settles in my ancient bones. “Her body is going through shock.”
Revyn shakes his head but loosens his grip on Sienna. I help him lay her down on the bed. “That’s impossible.”
“And yet—” I sweep my arm out. “Here we are.”
We sit in stilted silence while Sienna whimpers softly.
“You can’t reject a mate without approval from your pack alpha.” Revyn suddenly appears much older, his shoulders sagging as he drags his fingertips along the inside of Sienna’s arm. “Then it’s not even you who does it—the alpha has to be the one to sever the ties.” His skin is a few shades darker than hers, golden like sunbaked wheat and twice as warm now that her temperature is dropping. She needs fluids and a warm bath—or a cuddle, I suppose, in a pinch.
Although vampires do not engage in mating rejections, they are not unheard of among other magical communities. Revyn isn’t stupid. Cautious and foolishly optimistic, sure, but he doesnot wish this pain on his beloved. Frankly, neither do I, but it can’t be helped.
“Alistair is nearly an alpha. It stands to reason that he may have enough power to sever the bond on his own, or to weaken it, at the very least.” Either that or the academy’s ancestral grounds amplified his powers for the rejection to hold. Regardless, Sienna is feeling the after-effects, and she needs support to make it through this unscathed. I place my hand on Revyn’s shoulder. “Let’s take her to the bath.”
Once he nods, I gather a fresh change of clothes and what few comfort items Sienna owns while he lifts her into his arms. We walk the hall in silence, but the student body murmurs as we pass. A few are hovering around a door down the hall, but I pay them no mind. Idle gossip matters little.
Helping my future mate matters most.
I step into the bathing chamber first and demand its occupants leave before Revyn brings in Sienna. They scatter, a few of the females shrieking as they cover themselves. How ridiculous. Once they’ve finally departed, I fill the basin with scalding hot water and enough natural salts to soothe every bone in Sienna’s body. “Strip,” I command Revyn, flicking my wrist to indicate that he do so. “I will place her in the bath, and you can climb in after.”
“Don’t want to get your hair wet?” he mocks, undressing Sienna before himself. Once she’s nude, he hesitates before passing her to me. “Don’t get any ideas.”
I admire Sienna’s smooth, flushed skin and rosy nipples. “The ideas are already there, I assure you.” I breathe in her scent as I lower her into the bath, careful to position her comfortably. Revyn climbs in and slips behind her to hold her in place. Only then do I shed my clothes and fold them neatly to the side.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
The water is ungodly hot, but I grit my teeth as I sink into its depths. “She needs fluids, or did you forget that you’re unable to heal her?” The basin is deep enough to cover mid-thigh, and I wade through the water to stand before the couple. It is easier to feed a conscious person one’s blood, but not impossible to do so while they are unconscious. Countless vampires have broken trust this way, turning unsuspecting victims into their spawn.
Or even their mates.
Tempting as it is to turn Sienna while she’s weak to the others’ charms, I’d rather her acquiesce without coercion so that we may bathe beneath a moonlit waterfall ...rather than stew in each other’s filth. I frown at the bathwater. A soft cream bath sprinkled in rose petals would have been lovelier than lavender salts and male wolf testosterone, but beggars can’t be choosers.
I’ll take what I can get.
I sink my fangs into my wrist and draw blood to the surface, the prick of pain minute enough to barely register. It drips into the bathwater, plumes of crimson swirling like ink. Hm. On a whim, I use my nails to puncture the skin at my thighs so that more blood fills the tub, its color rapidly shifting to a rosy pink.
“What the hell are you doing?” Revyn lifts Sienna higher in an attempt to remove her from the water, but I hold them both down until he sits on the submerged ledge.
“I am saving our mate from weeks of pain.” Reopening the vein at my wrist, I drink deep and hold the blood on my tongue. Warmth blooms inside my chest as I imagine Sienna sinking her fangs in my flesh and feasting to her heart’s content until finally, after countless centuries of waiting, I have my mate. The process shouldn’t take more than a night or two to complete...under normal circumstances.
