From now until eternity, they would take care of one another.
Exactly as it was meant to be.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Turned out, it was true, vampires couldgo an extended amount of time without feeding.
Mirakel learned this the hard way. By refraining.
Now, he was as good as fucking useless, unable to move, more than likely on the verge of death. He figured his body was attempting a shutdown, his organs seizing up, and it was his own fucking fault. Kaj had been insistent, yet Mirakel had defied the order because he couldn’t fathom taking the vein of that Fae again, and the thought of feeding from anyone else…
He groaned, attempting to turn to his side, but it didn’t work. There wasn’t an ounce of strength to be summoned.
The knock on his door went unanswered because he couldn’t get his tongue to form the words or his vocal cords to relay the message. So he remained where he was, peering around the last place he would ever see. The sleeping chambers he’d been given had been simple at one time. A week ago, he figured. Back before those twoheurosphad taken it upon themselves to spruce it up. Now he had a room full of furniture, ridiculously soft sheets, a thick, heavy comforter to keep him warm, and matching drapes covering the steel shutters on the windows.
It was actually quite lovely, though that word wasn’t usually in his vocabulary. However, it suited the inviting space he had to lay his head.
Too bad he wasn’t going to get to enjoy it for long. Hell, he hadn’t even had a chance to check out the huge Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom.
Oh, well.
Didn’t matter now. He was letting down everyone he knew because he’d been an idiot, refusing to feed. As he thought about it now, he almost couldn’t remember why he’d thought this was a good idea. That night when he’d held that female in his arms and come like a fucking teenager as he took her vein … it seemed a lifetime ago, a distant, vague memory.
Another knock sounded on his door, and again Mirakel couldn’t summon the strength to answer. He listened, his hearing beginning to dim as a buzzing formed in his head. He waited to hear the sound of footsteps as they left him there to die, alone on this too comfortable bed, in this too big room.
The rattle of the doorknob had hope flaring in his chest, but he was too weak to do anything about it. His head wouldn’t even turn to see who it was.
He grunted softly, attempting to catch their attention in case it was aheurospcoming to tidy up if it was night, or to pull down the blankets if it was day. He had no idea which it was, and he honestly didn’t care.
“Sire?”
Mirakel’s eyes widened as that lovely face came into view beside his bed. She was just as lovely—there was that word again—as she’d been the first time he saw her. Purple eyes, that silky, shiny strawberry-blond hair. Perfectly set eyes, delicate nose, fucking perfect mouth.
Turned out he hadsomeenergy left because his fangs shot down from his jaw.
“Oh, sire,” she said softly. “You’ve waited too long.”
He tried to shake his head to tell her to leave him be, but his lack of strength rebelled against the instruction from his brain.
His eyes were about the only thing that still worked, so he settled on memorizing Briony’s delicate features. Maybe he could take that image with him into the afterlife, once he was in the vast beyond, wherever he was being sent.
When her wrist came in contact with his mouth, he moaned softly, but he lacked the strength to pierce her flesh.
“Here, let me do it.”
Mirakel watched as she lifted her wrist to her mouth and punctured her own vein before returning it to his lips. The first drop was an awakening, his cells seeming to realize he was not going to be relocating to whatever afterlife he’d been allocated to.
His body greedily took what she offered, and when his arms were strong enough, his hands found her flesh, circling her forearm and holding her wrist against his lips. Mirakel closed his eyes, attempting to keep the rest of his body under control, but it wasn’t working. She was just so soft, her blood the sweetest ambrosia, her scent… He could feel his sex thickening beneath the blankets. He was naked, a status he was not all that happy with considering what was going on down south.
Thankfully, the blanket remained in place as he fortified himself with the life that flowed from her vein. It wasn’t until he heard her soft gasp that he opened his eyes and looked at her face. There was a gray tinge to her skin, a sickly pallor that sent panic racing through him. He immediately released her though he wasn’t nearly close to getting his fill.
“I shall leave you now, sire.” Her head lowered as she sealed the wounds on her wrist.
“What ails you?” he asked, the words a gruff whisper, as though his diaphragm hadn’t quite gotten with the program.
“Nothing for you to concern yourself with, sire.”
To hell with that. Mirakel sat up. “Wait.”
