Page 58 of Witch Unbound
“That was…delicious.” Radu was staring at Bramble like she was an all-you-can-eat buffet. “We need to keep her.”
“Like hell.” I helped Bramble up and hugged her to my side. “The transaction is over.”
Radu’s face was healed, his skin smooth and unmarred, his eyes bright and filled with vigor. He pulled himself to his feet, and the tattered remnants of his shirt hung off his brawny chest like wisps of tissue paper.
“What are you?” Radu asked Bramble.
“Not interested,” Bramble snapped back. She swiped at her neck where he’d bitten her.
“I can heal that for you,” Mircea said.
“No. It’ll heal itself eventually.”
“Not before you bleed out,” Mircea replied. “There’s an anticoagulant in our saliva.”
“Great.” Bramble lowered her hand and tilted her head to the side. “Do it, then, but don’t get all freaky.”
Mircea crossed to her side and dipped his head to her neck to seal the wound with a lave of his tongue.
Bramble shuddered and stepped away from him as soon as he was done. I caught the flare in his eyes and the way he licked droplets of her blood from his lips. With a little too much relish.
It was impossible not to feel like a filet burger around these guys.
“We need to work fast,” Vlad said. “Before we run out of time.”
He turned to me and raised his hand. His nails grew long and razor-like. “I’m going to cut you now, Cora.”
Once again, he sounded a little too excited about it. “Go for it.”
He ran his thumb across my jugular and a hot burn sliced across my neck. Warmth trickled down my skin and my blood hit the air.
Vlad grabbed my nape. “You healed.”
Oh, shit. “I forgot. I tend to do that now.”
He frowned slightly, gaze skipping across my face. “Then I’ll have to bite you for the anti-coagulant to slow the healing.”
The thought of his fangs in my neck was a fist around my lungs and frost in my veins.
His throat bobbed. “One sip to get the blood flowing is all I need.”
I tipped my head to the side and clutched Wren to my chest like a shield between us. “Make it quick.”
He didn’t hesitate in sinking his fangs deep into me. I bit back a cry and squeezed my eyes shut against the tug of his mouth. It was over quickly, just as he’d promised, which was a relief.
He stepped back, crimson mouth parted, chest heaving, and it hit me how hard it must be for him to deny his nature.
“Thank you.” I hadn’t meant to say it, but it came out anyway.
He looked surprised but then he smiled, and the action transformed his face from forbidding and austere to beatific.
“You’re welcome.”
Mircea muttered something under his breath and then drew a symbol in the air. The hairs on my arm stood to attention and a shiver ran up my spine.
“Done,” Mircea said. “The scent of your blood is now amplified.”
“Stop fecking staring at me,” Bramble said to Radu.
