Page 342 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 1

“Hold him tight,” he said grimly. He caught sight of the duct tape they'd used to bind Kate and he snatched it up. “I'll hold him, you wrap his wrists and ankles,” he instructed, taking over trying to contain the struggling vampire. Stella made quick work of it. They shoved Fox down in a chair.

“Unbind her,” he barked at Stella, indicating Kate.

He put his hands on Fox's shoulders. Then adjusted himself so he could put one hand on his chest and one hand behind, on his back. He felt a current of energy flow between the two hands. He sent up a spire again. The blackness parted this time and he felt a stream of light flowing down into the top of his head. Tears ran down his face at the grace of it. He made his request. His intention that Fox's essence be restored to him. He felt nothing change. Oh God. Why not? Was it too late? He tried again. He changed his intent—to clear Roxanna's blood and essence from Fox. This time he felt movement. That same sense of chaos he'd felt in his own body. A sickness in his belly. Fox convulsed under his hands. He held them steady, held his intent steady. After what felt like a long time but was probably more like ten minutes, he felt the energy smooth out again.

Fox was weeping. Sobbing actually. He didn't know how to verify that Fox was truly himself again, but there was no question in his mind that he was. He grasped Fox's head and pulled it against his chest, holding him tightly as he wept, stroking his head.

Stella and Kate were crying too. Kate knelt at Fox's feet and held his hands in her own while Stella cut the tape that bound him. They huddled together like that—the four of them all hugging and weeping. Then he scooped Kate up into his arms and carried her to the bed where he cradled her in his lap and rocked her like a baby. Not that she needed it—it was for his own comfort.

“Mi dispiace, amore mio. I brought this on you. I'm so sorry.”

Stella had dropped into Fox's lap, and they curled in together, giving and receiving the same comfort.

“You saved me,” Dom murmured. Then he couldn't help but smile. “You were brilliant. You saved us all.”

She slept the entire night in Dom's arms, with him alternately applying and removing ice packs to her face, staring at her bruises with grim concern. He had tried to take her to the hospital in case she needed x-rays or stitches, but she refused. They had argued back and forth about it.

In the end, he used his intuition to analyze her. He had just held her head in his two hands and closed his eyes. Then he had opened them and said there was no fracture to her orbital bone. Fox had murmured “are you okay?” to Dom afterward, but he had just shrugged with a little smile. “I guess so,” he'd said with a surprised tone.

Her face really did hurt, so after showering and eating breakfast, she took three ibuprofen and crawled back in bed next to her sleeping vampire to watch movies until he woke. When he did, he scooped her back into the circle of his arms and inspected her face with the same concern he'd shown all night. “How do you feel, bambina?”

She tried to smile, but winced at the pain. “Happy to be back in your bed.”

For some reason that put a wistful look on his face and he got up abruptly to use the restroom and take a shower. Upstairs, they found Stella, Fox and Randolph in the kitchen, eating a delicious stir-fry of chicken and vegetables over brown rice. Stella urged her and Dom to join them so they filled their plates and sat down.

“So how did you do it?” Randolph asked Dom with a broad smile.

“Kate told me how,” Dom said softly, looking at her with a loving look. Then he shrugged. “I just refused to allow the change to happen. It was sheer will.”

Randolph looked at him like he didn't believe it. “And how'd you change Fox back?”

Dom considered for a moment. “These are things, Randolph, that there aren't good words to describe. It seemed to me that I felt into his body and then asked his cells to change back. Whether that's the reality of how it happened, I couldn't say. Perhaps it was just that I said a prayer and God answered.”

Randolph raised his eyebrows at that. “God, eh?” He shook his head like he didn't believe in any such thing.

“What I felt was that I was two people trapped in the same body,” Fox said. “My real self was still in there, thinking, seeing, but unable to act or speak for myself. And then there was the self that belonged to Roxanna. I couldn't break past that self.” He turned to Kate, “When I was holding the knife to your throat, the real me was still there, but I just couldn't stop myself from doing Roxanna's bidding. I couldn't stop myself from attacking Dom, and the whole time the real me was praying you two wouldn't drive a stake through my heart,” he said, looking ruefully from Stella to Dom.

Stella shook her head. “There's no way we would do that.”

He raised his eyebrows, challenging that statement. “You would have if you had to.”

“It would have killed us and you know it,” Stella said, dead serious.

“Of course I know it,” Fox said gently.

After dinner, Dom continued to treat her like a princess, running to the store to buy Godiva ice cream, which she ate in bed. She felt much better the next morning, but still didn't stray from Dom's house, still feeling like she needed to be close to him after the trauma of the recent events. When he woke, he began making love to her reverentially, kissing along her neck down to her breast, which he teased with his lips and tongue until her nipple stood at attention. He continued to worship her body, leaving no part of her unkissed, caressing her until she felt as warm and fluid as melted butter. Only then did he enter her, still holding the same reverence, looking her straight in the eye with an intensity that burned into her soul. She almost didn't climax—it was too delicious and slow, but then his climax was so beautiful that she shuddered around him, feeling the spasm of her muscles drawing his seed deep within her. Afterward she felt as relaxed and warm and loved as she possibly could imagine feeling.

He got out of bed, showered and dressed and then sat in an armchair in his room and pulled her onto his lap. “Kate,” he said, sounding very serious. “You almost got killed because of me.”

She shook her head quickly. This wasn't the kind of thinking that was going to be helpful.

“No, listen. I told you before that vampires and mortal relationships don't mix. That's only become clearer to me. I'm bad for you, and you deserve so much better.”

What? Panic filled her chest. What was he saying? “No.”

“Listen to me. You're young. Your whole life is ahead of you. You're going to want children someday, and a husband that will grow old and die with you. I can't give you any of that. All I have to offer you is danger and heartache.”

Her eyes filled with tears. “That's not true. I know we haven't been together that long, but—my time with you has been everything to me. You're my real-life fantasy.”

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