“I’m fine,” Takashi murmured.
“You’re not.” Zack cupped Takashi’s cheeks and made him look him in the eye. “How much did you give the girl?”
“If she’s going to survive, she needs to be strong.” Takashi put his hands on Zack’s elbows. Keeping his eyes open was a struggle.
“Fuck. Takashi, you didn’t have that kind of energy to spare.” Zack started to stand. “I’ll go find one of Seamus’s pets.”
Takashi held on to him. “Don’t.”
“You need blood.”
“I don’t have permission to drink from them,” Takashi said.
“Then I’ll get permission from him.”
“If you start asking for favors, he’ll use that to manipulate you.”
“Shit.” Zack sat down beside Takashi again. “Drink from me.”
That Zack had offered his blood freely, without restraint or second-guessing himself, threatened to kindle the ember of hope in Takashi’s heart more than his blunt observation had. He whispered hoarsely, “You don’t understand what this means.”
“Look, I remember what you said,” Zack said. “This can be dangerous and not very filling. But you’re drained, and that’s a problem. And I can fix this one at least a little. Please, let me help you.”
“It’s not only giving away power that makes this hazardous.” Takashi forced himself to hold Zack’s red-eyed gaze. Looking away would have been easier. Then he might pretend that whatever Zack’s reaction was whatever he wished to believe. But he had to watch him. Had to know if he understood and accepted what he heard. “If you’re too open, I will be able to sense all of you. I’ll know you in ways no one else ever has.”
“You’ve had my blood before,” Zack said.
“Not like this. I’ll know you on an instinctual level if you don’t guard against me, and you don’t have the experience to effectively block your psyche.”
Zack grinned. “Maybe then you’ll finally figure out how much I care about you.”
“Zack—”
“I got it. You’re Mr. Walls Are My Lifestyle, and it would freak you out to do this. But I can’t watch you suffer when I can help.”
Nothing changed in the way Zack met Takashi’s gaze. His concern remained, and his smile was half parts consoling andcaring. Zack was a clever boy—man, Takashi corrected for himself. As young as Zack was compared to him, the last week had matured him. Death and rebirth had changed so much and yet hadn’t robbed him of his ability to care for others.
How could anyone resist falling in love with him? How could anyone turn him away?
“Has anyone ever told you that you are incredibly charming when you’re playing the hero?” Takashi murmured.
“Naw. People are usually too annoyed at me for having morals.” Zack brought his wrist up to his mouth and tore into his tender skin with his fangs.
Dark red blood welled in the small cuts Zack had made on his wrist. The smell alone roused Takashi, though the blood was a magnet for his focus. Nothing else mattered. Why had he resisted this? He dipped forward and licked the wound.
Takashi’s mortal mother had made a soul-warming miso soup whenever he’d been sick as a child. Zack’s blood had that strange quality, not only tasting savory but reaching past the physical ails to soothe what Takashi kept behind the mental walls even he’d forgotten existed. His exhaustion melted away, and renewed energy brought more to his sense of taste, hearing—his everything.
When the blood stopped and the next flick of Takashi’s tongue across Zack’s skin revealed freshly healed flesh, Takashi whimpered. He had had a sip and only just begun to feel like himself. Already, the buzz in him was settling into a low,lowsimmer.
“You can have more,” Zack said gently.
Takashi glanced up, accidentally catching Zack’s gaze. Zack had always been easier to read than most, but there was a subtlety to him that Takashi had missed. The seed of who he would become had taken root. Yet for all the trauma he hadbeen through recently, he still had a genuine heart, one that was reaching out toward Takashi.
Zack leaned his head to the side, inviting Takashi to his neck.
Dignity didn’t matter as much as his delicious blood did. Takashi scrambled onto Zack’s lap, straddling him, and threaded his hand through Zack’s hair. He tilted Zack’s head farther and sank his teeth into his neck. Blood pooled into his mouth, and he slurped it down. Where the first sip had been comfort, this was electric. This was like a perfect kiss, one long and torturously slow, and stroked previously unfathomable places.
Every nerve lit up like a purr just before Zack moaned, his pleasure coming through his blood before his throat had a chance to voice it. And Takashi knew—he knew so many tiny little things now. Zack got a thrill from his superior speed, was terrified he was putting the wrong outfits together, hated some of the GLC’s upper echelons just from the way they scowled.
