Page 40 of House of Crimson Hearts
“Baby.”
“Cow.”
She laughs out loud, throwing her head back. “You’re quite something, calling your dhampir healer a cow.”
I smile. There was no malice in my tone, and she knows it.
“I take it back. What’s next, dhampir?”
“I’ve made you a salve to rub on your ankle, and I want you to strap it up tight for at least three weeks. I suspect you’ll be able to walk just fine after that.”
“Thank you,” I say.
She applies the salve and binds my ankle. Her touch is as gentle and tender as always. By the time she’s done and releases my leg, I’m quite disappointed, I’d grown used to her warmth.
She holds out her hand to help me up and I take it.
“Well, thank you again,” I say.
“Was nothing.”
I give her the coins and she hands me a bag with the medicine.
“Goodbye…” I say.
But she just smiles at me. “Maybe.”
And as I leave, I wonder what she could possibly have meant.
Chapter14
RED
When I wake, it’s like being pulled from the depths of hell. Sleep was a void of nothing. And when I peel my eyes open, it’s with a sharp intake of breath and the cold shiver of goosebumps crawling over my entire body.
I leap off the bed I was lying on. My heart drumming in my ears. Blood throbbing so loud I can’t hear or see or think about anything else. A pounding headache claws at the inside of my mind like someone battered me in my dreams. I grip my temples and buckle, trying to remember if I got in a fight or was attacked by vampires.
No.
Worse.
This is withdrawal. That little cunt dealer did me over and Octavia fucking Beaumont saved him. Not something I’m going to let go easily. I stand up and glance down at my body.
“What the fuck?” I hiss. I’m in my underwear. And… and… What the actual fuck. I slip my hand in my underwear. I’m soaked? I pull my hand out and slide it over my painfully hard nipples.
Why am I so… so aroused?
I must have been dosed in my sleep. It’s the only solution because the shivering sweats are gone and even the headache I woke with is receding. I feel far more myself. And whenever I’ve dosed, I’ve been unbearably horny for hours after. Half the time I end up busting my vibrator batteries or draining bottles of lube trying to get rid of what I can only describe as blue balls, only that sounds like the patriarchy. So blue ovaries? Blue pussy? Gross. How about a painful lady boner.
That will do.
There’s a rustling outside the door. Shit. I glance around fast, hunter instincts kicking in.
Assess. Find the exits. Estimate the number of enemies.
Where the ever-loving fuck am I?
I’m in some kind of posh bedroom. I look over my shoulder, I was in a four-poster bed. I spot my blades on the bedside table. I lunge for them, grabbing one in each hand. But where are my clothes and who the hell took them?
