A Fire in the Blood(38)
“Not this one,” he said.
Fangs bared, eyes burning with rage, Katerina glared at him. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I won’t let you kill her.”
Katerina loosed an unladylike snort. “You think you can stop me?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re a fool if you try.”
“Maybe. But I’m not a killer. Not anymore.”
Katerina charged toward him in a blur of movement, so fast he barely had time to push the girl behind him before his sire’s fangs ripped into his throat.
The pain was excruciating.
With his strength rapidly draining out of him, Andrei grabbed the girl’s arm, focused all his energy on Tessa, and willed himself and the kid to her apartment.
* * *
Tessa was about to go to bed when she heard a faint knock at the door. Fear spiked through her. Andrei wouldn’t knock. Had Katerina found her? Walls, Tessa thought as panic speared through her. She had to build walls.
Hardly daring to breathe, she drew the curtain away from the window and peered outside.
A teenage girl stood on the landing, her face deathly pale in the glow of the porch light, her brown eyes wide with fright.
“Tessa?” The girl knocked on the door again, harder this time. “Tessa? Are you in there?”
“Who are you? What are you doing here?”
“A man brought me. He’s bleeding. He said you’d take us in.”
A man? Bleeding? Andrei?
With a stake clutched in one hand, Tessa unlocked the door, gasped when she saw Andrei slumped against the railing. “Help me get him inside.”
Between the two of them, they managed to drag him into the living room. Tessa immediately closed and bolted the door.
Kneeling on the floor beside Andrei, she grabbed the dish towel she had left on the coffee table and pressed it against the ugly wound in his throat. The cloth, once white, immediately turned dark red. “What happened?”
Face pale, voice trembling, the girl said, “You probably won’t believe this, I can’t believe it myself, but a vampire wanted to feed on me.” She jerked her chin toward Andrei. “When he tried to protect me, she attacked him.”
“She?”
The girl nodded. And then, as if she were a puppet and someone had suddenly cut the strings, she dropped to the floor. Arms wrapped around her waist, she rocked back and forth while tears streamed down her cheeks.
“You’re safe now,” Tessa said, sitting back on her heels. “What’s your name?”
“Bailey. Is he going to be all right?”
“I don’t know.” Tessa bit down on her lower lip, wondering what she should do. Vampires were supposed to heal quickly, but when she lifted the towel, the wound was still raw and red. Still bleeding profusely. “Andrei?” She stroked his cheek. “Andrei, wake up.”
He blinked once. Twice. “Tessa?”
“I’m here.”
He looked up at her, his body tense, hands clenched at his sides. “Take care of the girl. Don’t let Katerina have her.”
Tessa glanced at Bailey, who was perched on the edge of the sofa, watching everything through eyes wide with disbelief.
“Don’t worry, I’ll look after her,” Tessa assured him. “But . . . why aren’t you healing?”
“Katerina bit me.”
Tessa frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“The bite of a master vampire can be deadly to us.”
A chill ran down Tessa’s spine. “Deadly?”
He nodded.
“What can I do?”
“Nothing. I need her blood to heal.”
“Then call her.”
“No!”
“Then take my blood. It won’t hurt you. Maybe it’ll help.”
His tormented gaze searched hers. Only Katerina’s ancient blood could save him, but if he was going to die, what better way to go than with the taste of Tessa’s blood on his tongue, her scent surrounding him?
He reached for her hand. Kissed her palm. Then bit into her wrist.
Tessa moaned softly, surprised by the sting of his fangs. His bite had never hurt before.
Eyes closed, Andrei drank slowly. Each drop sang in his veins. Warm. Sweet. It moved through him, reviving him. Strengthening him. Healing him.
Tempting him to take it all.
When he dared take no more, he sealed the wound in her wrist, then released her hand.
Feeling a little light-headed, Tessa took a deep breath before lifting the towel from his neck. The bleeding slowed. Stopped. The ragged edges of the ugly bite knit together even as she watched.
Shaking her head, Tessa looked at the drops of dark crimson smeared across her wrist. What kind of blood did she have, that it could cure a vampire’s wound? A wound that should have been fatal? Was Madame Murga’s prediction true after all?