Pretty When She Dies (Pretty When She Dies #1)(59)

Leaning down, he licked her wounds. His saliva would stop the bleeding and began the healing until her own body could take over.

Despite popular modern vampire mythology, vampire saliva was not an anti-coagulant. It actually healed. That was why the vampire bite was always such a powerful, brutal event. They had to pull hard to draw out what they needed.

The fresh blood filled his mouth and he gasped with the pleasure of it.

But she needed to feed. She lay limply in his arms, staring blankly at the ceiling.

“Amaliya, feed,” he whispered.

“Rob,” she answered in a muted voice. “He's dead. I killed him.”

“Drink,” Cian said, and tore his own wrist. He held it over her, watching the rich blood drizzle into her mouth.

“Rob is dead.” Her bloodied lips and tongue seeming oblivious to the vitae that would heal her and give her life.

“It was The Summoner who did it. Do you hear me? He sent the dead to attack you because he knew it would do this to you. Either kill you or terrify you. Amaliya, do you hear me?”



Her gaze finally flicked toward him. “I sent him away.”

“Yes, you did.” And he had no idea how she had done it. “He's gone.

You won.”

Slowly, her tongue ran over her lips and teeth. She slowly rolled toward him to take his wrist in her mouth. Weakly, she began to drink from him and he leaned over her with relief. He licked the blood from his bloodied hand, then leaned down to her to run his tongue over her bloodied shoulder. To his relief, the blood was sinking back into her flesh and he could feel her power growing again.

She released his wrist and looked up at him. “I can't do this. I can't win against The Summoner. He sent Rob.”

Cian brushed her hair back from her face and whispered, “Yes, you can. I promise. You can do this.”

Exhausted, she lay down on his bed and stared up at him. “Maybe he should just kill me. Or maybe you should. I can't do that....deal with dead victims ripping my head off my shoulders.” She covered her face with trembling hands. “I can't.”

Cian leaned over her and kissed her hands, then drew them away.

“Yes, you can deal. I want you to.”

“Why?”

Cian stared down at her. “Because you make me feel less alone.” And the answer changed everything and nothing in that moment.

Samantha still stood on the other side of the wall with her hands on it, scared out of her mind and he knew it. And Amaliya lay in his bed, a reminder of everything he was and that brought a terrifying sense of completion to him.

“I need to go then,” she said after a long moment.

“I know,” he answered. He lay down beside her and drew her close.

Her arms slid around him and they held each other as her body healed. His fingers slid through her hair and he sighed heavily. They lay there until she fell asleep.

Kissing her cheek, he felt a heavy pang of regret. But he had fought too long and too hard to have a normal life. A human life. His future lay on the other side of the wall.

*

“Let me open it,” Samantha hissed, and tried to get away from Roberto.



The lean Hispanic man had grabbed her just before she was able to enter the code to open up Cian's sleeping chamber.

“That would be an immensely bad idea,” Roberto said firmly.

“He needs me. There was so much blood!”

“It's not his. It's hers.”

Samantha hesitated in her struggles, contemplating this, then tried to wiggle away anyway. “I don't care. He needs me. Did you see his face? Something bad happened!”

“And because something bad happened, we need to let him take care of it,” Roberto said firmly.

“No, we need to help him!” Samantha squirmed even more and almost succeeded in twisting out of his grasp.

“She's lost blood and if she goes crazy she'll kill us if Cian can't stop her,” Roberto hissed in her ear.

Samantha frowned deeply, but stopped struggling. “What do you mean?”

“She's a new vampire. If she doesn't drink enough blood or gets badly wounded and loses too much blood, she'll go insane and kill everything in sight. That includes you.”



Roberto released her abruptly. She stumbled forward than whirled around. She felt helpless and frustrated. Clenching her hands at her side, she stomped her foot then said, “I don't like her! She's mucking things up.”

For once, Roberto didn't make a snarky comment and just sighed.

Looking a bit nervous himself, he sat down in a chair and crossed his legs. “Just wait for Cian to handle it. He is an old and wise vampire.”

Tugging on her hair a little, Samantha stomped over to a chair near Roberto and sat down. “I know, but he looked so scared.”

“He's going through a difficult time.”

“I don't like her,” Samantha said again firmly.

“I noticed.”

“We were perfectly fine before she showed up. Yeah, I have to deal with you being a snarky bastard but she...she...” Samantha couldn't even put into words how Amaliya made her feel. And it wasn't just her tattoos, unique looks, or strange piercings. She lived in Austin. She was used to that. It was how Cian was acting since the new vampire had arrived.