Page 20 of Bitten By Mr. Darcy
The other figure on her bed scrambled up and he saw her fangs glinting in the light from his candle and he let out a cry as he sprang forward and caught her.
She struggled. “Cor meum,please—”
“Don’t you dare call me that,” he snarled. He slammed her body into the wall. “What have you done, Caroline?”
She fought free of him and fled, leaving him there with Elizabeth’s very still form.
He sprang onto the bed, gently pulling her body into his arms. She was not as warm as she should be. Her heart was barely beating. Her breath was shallow. Her cinnamon scent was muted and barely detectable.
Damn him to the blazes of hell itself, she was very nearly dead!
He let out a mangled noise, and he wasn’t sure why it hurt him so badly to think of the death of this woman. Humans died all the time, after all. They were fragile. Their lives were brief. He was saddened when humans that he had loved died, but he had become rather accustomed to it, for it was a frequent occurrence. Elizabeth’s impending death made him feel frantic, however, and he let out his fangs.
He tore at his own wrist and placed it against her mouth, letting his blood drizzle into her mouth.
She didn’t swallow, not at first, and he began to feel panic that it was too late, but then, she did, and her mouth closed over the wound he’d made there and she began to suck.
He let out an affected breath. “Good, then, just like that, take what you need,” he whispered to her.
He must be careful, however. Giving a human vampire blood was always a dangerous gambit. She would not turn, not unless she died with the blood in her system, but it was always fraught because the vampire blood healed a human, so humans felt as if they were sturdier than they actually were, and they might do things that they wouldn’t have done if they hadn’t been healed prematurely. She must be careful with herself for the next day or so, until the blood had cleared her system, because she might otherwise turn.
And also, giving her his blood…
Well, vampires did not go around healing humans with their blood as a general rule, mostly because of the various side effects of such a thing. With a sirensong, it could be even more intense,a bonding that would mean he might feel her and she might feel him as well for years on end before it faded out.
But he could not have let her die.
And he liked this, her in his arms, her little mouth attached to his wrist, drawing the blood from him, drawing strength and healing from him.
He may have let her take more than was strictly necessary.
Finally, however, he gently urged her to detach.
Upon doing so, her eyes opened, and she sat up in the bed, scrambling away from him. “Mr. Darcy, sir!”
He got up. “You’re all right.”
“You… what…” She looked about. “Where is Miss Bingley? She was here, I thought.”
“Go back to sleep, Miss Bennet,” he told her, formal as he eased out of her room. “I shall see to Miss Bingley.”
“You should not be in my room, sir,” said Elizabeth in a shaking voice. “You should not be in my bed.”
“I am leaving,” he said. “Sleep, I charge you. Sleep.”
Also, having given her his blood? Well, she could not be charmed now, not by any vampire.
Blazes! Everything was going badly now, and it had not been going well to begin with.
He stalked out of her room and went looking for Caroline, who was not in her bedchamber, but had scurried in to hide with Bingley.
“Protect me,frater meus,” she gasped when Darcy flung the door open.
Bingley sat up in bed, Caroline’s face buried on his bare chest. He ran his hand over her hair. “There, there,ma belle, it is all right. I shall keep him off you.”
Darcy stood in the doorway, arms folded over his chest. “It was you, all those years ago in Ireland with Maeve.”
Caroline did not lift her face from Bingley’s chest.
