Mary hesitated, but then aware that he wanted to leave, just shook her head. “Maybe later.”
Nodding, he bent to kiss her again, then leaned past her to give Bailey an affectionate pet before straightening and crossing the room.
“Feed,” Dante said firmly as he opened the second door in the room to reveal a hall beyond. Glancing back he added, “I want all four bags empty when I come back.” Then he slipped from the room and pulled the door closed behind him.
Mary picked up one of the bags, but then just stared at it. She had no idea how to make her fangs come out. Before this, they’d just popped out whenever she was hungry. She hadn’t had to—
The thought died as she felt a shifting in her mouth. Mary waited, and then ran her tongue cautiously along her teeth until it rubbed up against a fang. Well, that was handy. But then she was hungry, although she hadn’t realized it until she’d actually picked up the bag. Or, perhaps, it was better to say she hadn’t been able to identify what she was hungry for until then. Although, Mary thought, she wouldn’t mind food either, just then. However, she didn’t have any, so she simply opened her mouth and popped the bag toward it, relieved when it landed correctly and remained in place.
Keeping her hand in place on the bag to support it, Mary glanced to Bailey then. The dog appeared to be asleep. She suspected it might have something to do with the pain pills Dante had mentioned. On the other hand, Bailey slept a lot. Most dogs seemed to. They’d run around like crazy chasing balls, animals and anything else that caught their attention, and then would drop and sleep for a while before getting up to do it again.
It was a tough life, Mary thought with amusement and glanced to the bag to judge how much more blood there was in it. It was going down pretty quick, and didn’t bother her as much as it had at first. She didn’t exactly like the feel of cold fluid moving up her teeth, and she wasn’t pleased to have to actually consume blood, but at least she didn’t have to actually drink it cold from a cup or something. That would have been disgusting. This way she didn’t have to taste it or anything.
The moment the first bag emptied, Mary tore it off and slapped on another, eager to get the chore over with. It seemed to take forever, although she knew that was probably because she was waiting through it with nothing to distract her. Still, she was surprised when she finished the next two bags and Dante hadn’t yet returned.
Tearing the last bag from her mouth, she scooped up all four of the empty bags, crawled off the bed and took them into the bathroom to throw them in the small garbage can there. Mary then went right back to the bed.
Her getting up had apparently disturbed Bailey and the dog had raised her head to watch for her return. Mary smiled at the shepherd as she climbed back into bed, and then settled back onto her side and ran a hand down her side.
“We’re a pair, huh?” she asked softly, petting her. When Bailey just closed her eyes on a little huff of sound, Mary stopped petting her and instead curled her arm around her, careful not to get anywhere near her broken back leg. She then closed her eyes, surprisingly sleepy again. She never heard the door open when Dante returned.
“I hear Mary woke up.”
Dante turned from watching Bailey sniffing her way around the yard and smiled when he saw Russell approaching.
“Si,” he said, before turning back to continue watching Bailey. Mary had been asleep by the time he’d finished talking to Lucian and returned to the bedroom. He’d lain down with her for a while, but hadn’t been able to sleep. Instead, he’d simply lain there, his mind racing.
He’d worried about Tomasso, wondered where he was, and hoped that the men Lucian sent to look for the warehouse Mary had mentioned found it and got some information that might help them find Tomasso. When those worries had proven useless and raised his stress level and concern for his brother, Dante had then turned his thoughts to Mary and the future he planned to have with her. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been doing that when Bailey had got off the bed and pawed the door, letting him know she needed to go outside.
Leaving Mary sleeping, he’d immediately got up to bring the dog out. She was a fine animal: good-natured and well behaved. Mary had done a fine job with her.
“How is her head?” Russell asked, pausing beside him and turning to watch Bailey as well.
“It is back to its proper shape,” Dante said with a frown. Nothing in his life had terrified him as much as seeing Mary with the top of her head caved in. It was not a moment he would ever want to relive.
“Any pain?” Russell asked.
Dante’s mouth tightened. “The first time she woke up, yes, but not the second. However, she was not long awake.”