The smell of dark amber, oak moss and scotch wafted through the air. She thought she heard Luc’s voice, yet she couldn’t see anyone.
“Luc?”
“I am here, may I come in?”
“Yes.”
Her words were barely a whisper. Her throat felt raw as if she had screamed for hours. Luc came floating into the room. As least through her blurred vision, it looked like he was floating.
He sat beside her on the bed holding a hand in his. “I was upset to find out you were hurt. I would ask if you were feeling better; however, the machines attached to you would indicate otherwise.”
“I feel like shit.”
“You are bruised, but beautiful. Now, I have a plan.”
“What’s the plan?”
“You will drink some of my blood. It will heal you.”
Harley wanted to immediately say no way in hell. She realized he was right. It wasn’t a well-known fact that vampire blood could heal. If it were normal citizens would be bleeding vampires like you milked a cow.
“Will the blood have any binding or magical effects?”
“Yes, there will be some. I’m not going to lie. I will be able to know where you are and in general how you feel for several weeks. It will not bind us, in a way that you will be beholden to me in any way.
“The blood will make you stronger, faster and harder to kill for that time as well.”
“How connected to my emotions will you be?”
It was hard for Harley to talk. She formed her words carefully and spoke them with painful slowness.
“I won’t be able to read you like an empath would. I will know the extremes of your basic emotions. It will be easier for me to tell if you are lying to me. Then again, I have the gift of tasting lies.”
Harley wet her lips. She didn’t know if she should go through with this or not. She seemed to be hurt. The injuries were much more severe than she thought they were at the car lot.
“How do we do this Luc?”
“Just lie there. I will take care of it.”
Harley watched as Luc opened his mouth. She watched his teeth elongate into sharp fangs. She thought he was going to use them to open a vein. Instead, he used a long nail and slit down his wrist. She hadn’t even seen his nails grow into claws.
He held his bleeding wrist to her mouth. The taste was metallic. Harley had a tough time wrapping her mind around the fact that she was drinking blood.
The blood ran down her throat. When enough had pooled, she convulsively swallowed. Her lips began to heal as the blood washed over them, making it easier for her to swallow.
She drank for what felt like several minutes. Each swallow became easier. Eventually, Luc gently pulled his wrist away from her mouth.
“The doctors and nurses will be in shortly because these machines will go wild. I am going to go now. I will be back. We have much to talk about.”
Luc dropped a kiss on her cheek before going out the window.
Not a minute later the alarm on her monitors started to go off. Nurses and doctors rushed in the room to see what was going on.
Imagine their surprise to find her completely healed. The head doctor looked at her. “I don’t understand. Every wound on your body is healed. The stitches have dissolved. The staples seemed to have popped out of your skin on their own.
“There is no bruising. We will run a few tests to check on your cell count. You had previously lost a lot of blood. This is some kind of miracle.”
The doctors spent the next thirty minutes poking and prodding her and eventually, they left the room. She hoped they didn’t check her blood for anything paranormal.
She wasn’t sure if the ingested vampire blood would show up, but it was a possibility. Mrs. Reyes and Hector came nearly running in the room. Cash was right behind them.
Carmella Reyes threw her arms around Harley’s neck and sobbed. Harley put her arms around her second mother and held her tight.
Mrs. Reyes swallowed the tears so she could speak. “I called your parents. They are in France or they would be here. Your mama wanted to take the first flight back. I told her you would be okay. I knew you would. Oh, mija you had me so worried.”
“I didn’t mean to worry you, mamita.”
“I know, darling girl. Just, never ever do that again.” She hugged Harley’s neck again, her face still wet with tears. Harley looked up to find silent tears tracking their way down Hector’s cheeks. She held out her hand to him and he sat on the other side of the bed. Cash sat in the chair waiting patiently to get his chance to hug Harley.
Once Mrs. Reyes was satisfied Harley would be alright, she moved to stand next to Hector allowing Cash to come to her bedside. He took her free hand and raised it to his mouth brushing the palm of her hand with his lips, before moving to gently kiss her. “You gave us all a scare. I’d tell you to make it the last, yet I think we will find ourselves here again. Your line of work is sometimes dangerous.
“Not that I like it. I understand, though.”
His eyes met hers and silent words were exchanged. He really liked her. More than he had admitted to her. Perhaps more than he had admitted to himself. He kept her hand in his larger one and sat down on the edge of the bed. Mr. and Mrs. Reyes moved to the nearby couch.
A tech came in and drew several vials of blood. They
