“What are you doing?” I asked.
He shifted his body lower, so that the wide expanse of his torso pressed between my legs. I blushed, which, considering what we were about to do five seconds ago, was ridiculous.
“Checking your injury,” he murmured. He pulled back the sliced edges of my dress, and his fingers deftly moved over my skin. “The wound is almost completely healed,” he said, his breath fanning out against my stomach. He glanced up. “What happened?”
“I got shanked.”
His lips twitched. “I can see that.”
I filled him in on everything that had happened today, from the second murder to the events that took place downstairs while he’d been glamoured.
When I was finished, he pressed a kiss to my stomach. “I will find the people who did this to you,” he whispered against my skin, “and when I do, I will kill them. Slowly.”
A small shiver ran through my body at the menace in his voice.
“You’re going to have to get in line.”
Languidly he pushed his torso up until his face hovered over mine, and he slid a hand behind my head. “My bloodthirsty queen,” he said affectionately, smiling down at me, “I should’ve known my soulmate wouldn’t be some simpering damsel in distress.”
Queen. My heart skipped at the name. Then his words sunk in, reminding me of something I hadn’t mentioned. “I wanted to drink her blood,” I whispered. I bit my lip.
Andre stilled above me. “That’s … only natural, given your nature,” he said. “But that does mean that we’ll need to feed together, and soon.”
Feed on human blood. I grimaced. “How romantic,” I said, my voice breaking. It was really beginning to happen—my gradual transformation into a vampire. It would eventually end with my death.
It was all too much.
“Come here,” Andre said. He scooped me up and pressed me against his chest. Only then did I realize I was trembling.
“It’s all going to be okay,” he whispered into my hair.
Rather than calming me, his words caused my shoulders to shake and my trembling to increase. I leaned my head against his chest and let out a shuddering breath.
“Shhh,” he murmured, running a hand over my hair. “I’ve got you. It’s going to be okay.” I nodded against him.
We stayed like that for a while, Andre talking soothingly to me, sometimes in English, sometimes in Romanian, sometimes in Spanish. And it worked. My breathing gradually evened out and my shaking subsided.
Eventually he pressed his lips against my temple. “We need to go down,” he said. “I can hear the officers asking about you.”
I nodded and extricated myself from his embrace. Almost immediately my body ached from his absence. As Andre stood, I eyed him. My blood had stained his button down and the skin of his forearms, where the sleeves had been rolled back.
“I got my blood all over you,” I stated.
He grinned, and it was pure male smugness. “I don’t exactly mind.”
When I shot him a confused look, he explained. “This is what vampires would consider evidence of a good lay.”
My eyes widened and my mouth parted. Suddenly the room felt too small and too hot. Andre’s grin got a little slyer when he noticed how flustered I’d become.
I shook my head to clear it of my current thoughts. “What about the other vampires?” I’d sort of blown my cover at this point.
The smile dropped from Andre’s face and his voice took on a steely edge. “I will worry about them.”
Andre slung an arm protectively over my shoulders and moved his other to rest on my stomach where I’d recently been stabbed. We left the room like that and headed downstairs.
When we reached the main area of the club, the crowd was back to normal, meaning that they weren’t mindlessly dancing or trying to get near me.
I chewed on the inside of my cheek as guilt gnawed at me. I’d been no better than that woman; I’d glamoured the room right after she’d let them go. Because of the circumstances, I probably wouldn’t get charged for the unsanctioned use of it, but the memory of how I’d acted still made me feel unclean.
Caleb was the first to spot me. He pushed his way past a group of officers and enveloped me in a hug, knocking away Andre’s hands. “Jesus, Gabrielle, I thought they took you.” He must not have seen Andre whisk me away after the two women left.
Caleb stepped back and only then did he register the blood that drenched my dress and smeared across my skin. “Holy shit! What happened?”
I sighed. This was going to be a long night.
Chapter 10
It took me two hours to finally make it back to the inn. By that time Andre had returned to his trial, and every fiber of my tired, achy body missed his presence. It seemed stupid to stay away from him when we were both in the same city. Especially now that other vampires knew I was here.
I suppressed a shudder at the thought. Getting sucked into the coven’s archaic justice system was the last thing I wanted at the moment.
I muttered goodnight to Caleb in the hallway outside my room before stumbling inside. As soon as I closed the door behind me, I made a beeline for my bed. I collapsed onto it, clutching my pillow to me. I think I moaned a little.
“Oh I see how it is—the bed gets a moan, but you ignore your BBF.”
I shrieked at the voice and flipped onto my back, pillow clutched to my chest. At the sound, Oliver who stood in the middle of the room, screamed as well.
He clutched his heart, gasping. “Oh my God, Sabertooth, don’t do that to me,” he said. “You scream like a banshee.”
“I—I don’t do that?” I stuttered. “How about you don’t do that!” Oliver is in my room. Oliver, who I’d left back on the Isle of Man.
The door to my room banged open and a shirtless Caleb rushed in. “Gabrielle, are you … ?” His voice died away when he saw Oliver.