Page 53 of A Bond Beyond Blood
Vinny moved quickly as promised, scooping me into his arms and cradling me against his chest as he raced down the hallway, depositing me into my bed before I’d even had a chance to register his familiar scent—or the discomfort that came from being jostled.The pain hit me in a wave and I groaned, squeezing his wrist as he stood beside the bed.
He waited for a minute as I breathed through the anguish, and when I opened my eyes, his sparkled proudly.“Did you stake a vampire king, sweet girl?”
I swallowed as that earlier shame returned, tightening a fist around my lungs.“I missed.”
“Is that what he led you to believe?”
I frowned, searching Vinny’s gaze.
“That’s not the way to kill abornvampire, Jacqueline, only one who has been turned.”
I blinked as I absorbed that information.If Eli was a born vampire, that meant he was royalty.
Oh god.
The kneeling made a lot more sense with that little tidbit.
But Eli’s echelon was a mindfuck for a different day.I could unpack that information when I wasn’t beat to shit.
Speaking of the fight...Eli had said I should have aimed an inch to the left, but was he just fucking with me?
“I didn’t fail?”I whispered.
Vinny’s face crumpled with an emotion I couldn’t put a finger on, but then he shook his head.“No, you didn’t fail...I—” He paused, then said, “I’m going to check your body now, okay?I want to see how much damage there is.”
Closing my eyes, I rested my head on the pillow and gave a slight nod.
With more tenderness than I would have expected from this former boxing champion, Vinny’s fingertips grazed my face, pressing gingerly around my eye socket and nose to assess the damage to my face.“Your nose doesn’t seem broken,” he whispered, breath fluttering against my cheek.He brushed a soft kiss to my temple as his fingers moved carefully to my chin.
He turned my head slowly and hissed as he assessed the side that had obviously seen the worst of the fight with Eli.“You might need stitches here.”His fingertips traveled down the column of my throat, pressing and nudging as he went.He trailed his fingertips along my collar bone from one shoulder to the other.“Any pain here?”
“No.”
“That’s good news.”He continued down my sternum, between my breasts, then tugged gently at the hem of my shirt.“Can I pull this up?”
I nodded.
Vinny rolled the hem carefully, lifting the shirt higher and higher as he did so, then he made an angry sound in his throat and I grimaced.
“Is it that bad?”I wasn’t sure I wanted to know...
He grunted in the affirmative as he lowered his face to my stomach, brushing his lips against my bare flesh before leaving a trail of kisses over my injuries.“The bruising is already pretty bad,” he confirmed as he continued leaving his trail of kisses.“But I can’t tell if anything is broken unless I touch you.”
His words sent a shiver down my spine, even though he hadn’t meant anything by them.He physically needed tofeelmy ribs to see if there were any breaks.“Go ahead.”
“It’s going to hurt.”
I inhaled deeply, then held my breath and nodded.
“Do you want me to distract you?”
Another nod.
Vinny’s lips brushed mine as he settled his left hand against my ribs on the right side, then his tongue darted out, licking across the seam of my lips.I opened up to him, and as his tongue stroked along the length of mine, he pressed his fingers into the groove between the lowest two ribs—
I cried out, arching my back as pain rocketed out from the spot.
Vinny pulled back and stilled his hand, waiting until I took a deep breath and relaxed before he moved up to the next groove.He didn’t kiss me this time, just pressed between the next two ribs, and again, excruciating pain followed.
