Page 10 of Kissed the Mark
I was light-headed from blood loss. “Pleaserestrain yourself,” I said weakly. “I don’t want to leave this lairas a dried-out corpse.”
The mattress shifted as Leandra stood. Shereturned with a half-full bottle of something. “This might help thepain.”
“Alcohol?” I asked. “Is that a goodidea?”
She shrugged. “If you let me lick it, yourbody will forget it’s in pain,” she said. Rifling through acabinet, she extracted a needle and some thread.
“Your saliva has numbing qualities?” Iasked. “Oh, God, I really am going to pass out. Please stitch me upso I can sleep.”
My body slumped backward when she sat backdown on the bed. “It’s not…numbing. It’s more, uh, confusing theskin about what the real sensation is. It’s a pleasant feeling.”Leandra cleared her throat. “Close to arousal? It’s so when we lickbefore biting someone they barely realize it’s happening.”
The needle pierced my back before I couldcomment on that. Her hands were deft as they weaved the needlethrough my skin. It was strange to think of her as someone who haddone this before, maybe a lot. I thought she thrived on ruinationand not healing. Maybe I was projecting. I took a swig from thealcohol—some kind of home-brewed liquor that didn’t taste good, butit wasn’t the worst drink I’d ever had. My body warmed almostimmediately between my empty stomach and the loss of blood.
“I’m going to bandage it up and we’ll findyou something to wear,” she said, very business-like. Almost like areal nurse. There was a lot I didn’t know about her, I realized, inspite of spending a lot of time together lately. She very wellcould’ve been a nurse when she was human.
“Fae heal fast,” I said, though that washard to imagine with how badly it hurt now. “It’ll be finesoon.”
She lifted my right arm to begin wrappingthe wound. I flinched at how the muscle bunched and reopened thecut. “Can you, um, spit on it or something?” I asked, embarrassed.“Use your vampire powers for good.”
“It’s an effect of my tongue, not mysaliva,” Leandra said. She gripped my left shoulder with one handand leaned in, her breath hot against the exposed skin of my back.“Just say the word and I’ll do it.”
My mouth was suddenly very dry. I licked mylips. “You promise it’ll get rid of the pain? All of it?” Iasked.
“I promise.”
I took a deep, unsteady breath. “And youpromise that you won’t get carried away and murder me?”
“Yes,” she said.
This was a bad idea. But the pain would goaway, at least temporarily. And I had to admit, there was thatdaredevil side of me that wanted to do it, just to say I had.Bucket list item: have your blood licked off by a vampire and liveto tell the tale. Check.
“Okay, do it. Make it quick,” I said.
She did not make it quick. By the time hertongue finished tracing the scar from bottom-to-top, bliss hadalready radiated through me, bursting in my brain and pooling atthe bottom of my stomach. I gasped and grabbed her hand where itstill gripped my shoulder. “Oh,” I said. “Ohh…” I couldn’t feel thepain at all now. It was like she’d replaced the stab wound with avery good kiss. The brain fog lifted. My mind was clearer than ithad been in a long time. I glanced back at Leandra, who wore anunreadable expression behind heavy-lidded eyes.
“I told you,” she said softly.
The air was charged. Electricity zapped overmy skin. I was suddenly very certain that if I leaned towardLeandra she would kiss me, but I didn’t quite dare. Wordlessly, shebegan to wrap my shoulder with gauze, each brush of her fingersburning desire against me until I almost couldn’t take it. I wantedto ask how long this effect would last, but I was scared of theanswer—if it would end too soon. Leandra secured the gauze andlowered her hand, fingers trailing to the small of my back.
“Should I leave you to sleep now?” sheasked.
“No,” I said without thinking. I releasedher hand finally and pivoted my body to face her, one leg danglingoff the bed, mirroring her own position. The playful tilt of hereyebrows told me she was enjoying my reaction very much.
Leandra set her hands in her lap patiently.“What would you like me to do?” she asked. We both knew clear asday what I would like her to do. Her gaze fell to my lips. “I’venever kissed a fairy before.”
“In a hundred twenty-four years?” I said,echoing her earlier snark.
“Well, you clearly have your wits aboutyou,” Leandra said with a laugh. “Just one.”
Her soft hair grazed my neck and chest whenshe swayed toward me, and then her lips were on mine, her bodydraped over me, pushing me against the headboard. It was overalmost as soon as it started, with a swish of her tongue that sentanother dazzling dose of euphoria straight to my head. I was onedge, dangerous and impulsive. If she’d asked I’d have let her bitemy neck and take as much of me as she wanted. I reached for herhand, lifted it to my neck, a silent message.
“I don’t think so,” Leandra said.
The bed was very cold without her.
?
“Sorry, you were attacked by vampires?” thereceptionist asked. She looked exceptionally bored, the blue glareof the computer screen reflecting off her glasses.
