Moonlight's Ambassador (Aileen Travers Book 3)(92)

"Caroline!" I screamed, rolling over on my stomach to crawl to the edge.





CHAPTER TWENTY

LIAM WAS BESIDE me in the next moment, his arms scooping me up and quelling my struggles.

"She isn't dead," he said in a low voice in my ear. "That fall wouldn't be enough to hurt either one of them."

"How do you know?"

He chuckled. "I've thrown the alpha off much higher objects during the course of our acquaintance."

"Caroline's barely been a wolf for a few months. She won't have his healing," I returned as I tried to wriggle out of his arms. His grip tightened, and he dropped his head to run his nose along the side of my face, breathing deeply at the same time. He dipped his head further until he could reach the wound in my shoulder, his tongue darted out in a move much like the wolf's as he licked it once before straightening.

"No, hers is better. A consequence of her taint," he said, sounding unworried as he resumed walking at a pace that had the trees blurring around me. "They'll fight it out until the moon sets, at which point she'll be taken into custody. You can see her then."

I let my head fall back, looking up at his face. "What will happen to her?"

His eyes met mine. "That has still not been decided."

I set my forehead on his shoulder and closed my eyes. I'd survived, but it didn't feel like I'd won anything since Caroline's fate was still up in the air.

We reached a road that had several cars parked along it, including several black Escalades I assumed belonged to the vampires. Liam carried me to one car, barely pausing as Eric appeared to open the door for us. Setting me inside, Liam climbed up beside me as Eric shut the door, sealing us alone in the car.

Liam wasted no time, divesting me of my shirt so he could get a better look at my wounds. His hands were clinical as they pushed and prodded the tears in my skin, which still sluggishly seeped blood.

“I never did thank you for saving my life after the werewolf bite,” I said. “Even if I could have done without the coffin full of blood.”

His lips firmed. “I wasn’t going to let you die so easily. The blood bath was the best way to keep you alive. The wolf’s bite had spread and almost killed you by the time Brax returned and was able to pull some of its poison from you.” He gave me a meaningful glance when I opened my mouth to argue. Brax might have returned, but I suspected it was my trick with the tree that saved my life.

His eyes held a warning, as if telling me to keep my mouth shut about being able to see magic. For now, I’d listen. Mostly, because I was too tired to do otherwise.

"You need more blood," he said in a decisive voice before I could say anything else, rolling up his sleeve.

I turned my head away when he held his wrist up to my lips. I know he'd lost way more blood than me in the last twenty-four hours, and though weak, I wasn't at death's threshold. "I'm fine."

“Aileen,” he snapped.

The door on the other side of me opened, and Thomas climbed in, pulling it shut behind him and taking a seat beside me. He looked at the two of us, noting the frustrated expression on Liam's face and the mulish one on mine. He guessed the cause in moments. "You either take blood from Liam, or you take blood from me. Your choice."

My expression turned even more stubborn as he quirked an eyebrow at me, making it clear he wasn't going to budge on this. I had a sudden vision of being held down with one of them forcing my mouth open as the other dripped blood into it and knew that I would be on the losing end of any struggle. Faced with drinking under my own volition or being forced into it, I took the path that would at least leave me with some modicum of dignity.

Liam was smart enough not to let a smile cross his face when I turned to him, though there was a certain smug light in his eyes that made me want to throat punch him. He tugged me so that I was leaning back against his chest and facing Thomas, one of Liam's arms a snug band around my chest while he held the other to my lips.

"Drink, Aileen," he rumbled in my ear.

My fangs snapped down and I sank them into his skin, relishing the soft pop as they pierced his flesh, then the dark taste of his blood as it coated my tongue—better than chocolate, more decadent than the most delicious of desserts, aged to perfection and dancing across my senses with a maestro's expertise. My eyes slid shut as heat suffused my core, spreading with a lulling fire throughout my body, waking up parts of me that had long been ignored.

There was a heavy groan in my ear, one echoed by my moan moments later. I could feel him harden against my back where I pressed against him. I wiggled back, relishing the power it gave me when he muttered a curse in another language, the arm around my waist briefly tightening.

"That's enough, acushla." His voice was a tickle against my neck as he gently pulled his wrist away.

I opened my eyes as his thumb caressed my bare stomach in a gentle movement, sweeping back and forth as I returned to myself. Thomas watched us with an enigmatic gaze, his chin propped on his hand and his fingers tapping at his lips. The lassitude that had taken over my limbs was slow to fade. It was like I was a lion gorged on a good meal, nothing seemed too important.

"This is an interesting development," Thomas finally said to Liam over my head.

My guard snapped down, and I stiffened and would have drawn away if Liam hadn't held me close, his warm embrace suddenly turning tight.