Page 13 of Bite of Passage
She glared skepticism.“I don’t buy it.You have all the symptoms of depression.”
He glared right back at her.“Vampires don’t get depressed.”
“Everyone does.”She rolled her eyes.“Death isn’t the answer to get free of the awfulness in your life.You need a vacation.”
“A what?”
“A break.I don’t mean you should run down to town and have a three-day orgy with a bunch of random women or do a beach trip.I’m thinking bright light and sand wouldn’t be good for you.You need some time off from killing…” She waved in the direction of the dead wizard.“Things like that.Spend time with people you like.Good food.Good conversation.Good wine.Lots of wine.Try not to fight anything evil or twisted for a week or a month, maybe six months.”
She got a blank look.
“You have people, don’t you?Someone other than those three hunter kids who seem more interested in chasing danger than actually giving a rat’s ass about you or safety?”
No comment from him.
Maybe he didn’t know how not to be the warrior.Maybe he also didn’t know how to do relationships, not only with women, but with everyone.
“Have you ever said no?”she asked.“Have you ever said, forget all this, I need some time off to rest before I resume missions to do gross stuff like this?”She glanced at the dead wizard, half expecting it to come back to life.“Everyone needs some relaxation time.You have to take care of yourself once in a while.No one else cares about you other than what you can do for them.”She squared her shoulders.“You know what?I care about you.You can’t handle an epic battle right now.Your mind isn’t in the right place.”
Still no reply.
“Hello?”She waved a hand at him.He might be going into shock from blood loss.Step one: stop his hemorrhaging.Not like she knew anything about vampire medicine, nor could she cleanly rip a line of cloth off her scrubs to serve as a bandage.Her top?Not going topless.That was out of the question.Too cold out here.
She shimmied out of her bottoms.
“What are you doing?”He took a step backward.
“Obviously, we’re going to have speed sex right here next to this dead, bloody body that smells like a rotting animal.”She wrapped the thin scrub pants around his midsection beneath his coat and tied it, albeit there wasn’t much to actually tie since he was so wide.“I’m trying to slow the bleeding so you can get out of here.Go home.Sleep this off.Then you can think clearly and decide later if you want to storm Petra’s castle to quench your need to fight.”A brief peek upward found him focusing down…way down.“Are you checking out my legs?”
“You stripped.”
“That doesn’t mean you can look.”She squinted at him.
“What are those underthings?”
“It’s called a thong.Stop looking.”She tugged at her scrub top to stretch the fabric farther down on her thighs, not that it helped.
“No.”
She glanced down to find all of him at attention.“Sure, let’s strip and get our freak on in the slushy ice-mud next to the body.We’ll give the impending army more of a show than they bargained for.Aren’t you worried your dick might freeze off?”She rubbed her arms.“It’s cold out here.”
A startled choke-laugh shot out of him.
The thunderous sound of a lot of somethings moving closer meant time wasn’t on their side.She went on tiptoe and put a hand on either side of his face to force eye contact.Beard stubble prickled her fingers.It surprised her.In the multitude of vampire stories she’d read, creatures like him usually had little to no facial hair, but not Skarde.She slid into that light-headed and dippy state from before.
She managed to choke out, “Leave this place.Please.Swear to me you won’t face off with the army tonight.I can’t handle it if you died.I’m honestly not sure why, but I don’t think I’ll get over it.”
That sounded like a lot of soldiers.
“Choose to live,” she pleaded.
He touched her cheek.“So soft.”Then he hooked a hand behind her head to grab her ponytail and gently arch her neck.A lean in, and his nose touched the skin over her throbbing jugular vein.He lifted away, mouth parted and those huge fangs glistening.He whispered, “Tempting.”
The hairs on her arms and the back of her neck lifted.Her heart raced to the point it hurt her chest.“Don’t bite.I’m not interested in becoming a vampire or donating blood tonight.I think a friend of mine who’s a witch, not a highly talented one since she’s only junior level, cast a love spell on me.Something about worthy love and rocking the bedroom.I think that’s why I can cross over and why you’re feeling…” She leaned in and pressed against his erection.“I don’t think this attraction is real.”
“I’ve never smelled anyone I wanted more.”He leaned close and touched his nose to her neck again.His Scottish-type accent thickened as his voice grew hoarse.“Love spells are amateur shite.They dinnae work on creatures like me.”
She clamped a hand over her throat.For a few seconds terror washed through her at the thought of his teeth in her neck.They’d shred her skin and probably cut her head off.
