“That’s disgusting,” I informed him, swallowing repeatedly to get the last of the blood down my throat.
“You shouldn’t stop yet,” Cian said, putting his other hand to my shoulder and studying the wound. “You’re not healed.” He offered me his still-bleeding wrist once more and I curled my lips in disgust.
Fucking wonderful.
But I listened to him, forcing myself to swallow his blood and not spit it back onto the floor. The stab wound in my chest tingled, and I nearly let go of the blanket around my body to reach up and touch it. It wasn’t painful, just foreign feeling, and I wanted to feel what was going on.
My eyes widened as Aveline’s door shut, footsteps coming closer from the other end of the hallway. She waved, not even pausing at the sight of me on the sofa, before breezing right past us and into the kitchen. My eyes found Cian’s, wide, as I started to pull away again.
“Nope,” he reminded me, and I rolled my eyes. “Sorry, Aveline. I didn’t think to let you know we were coming over. Not that I know how to get ahold of you.”
My cousin shrugged, reappearing with a box of cereal that she rummaged through. She looked at me, one brow raised, and I wanted to die of embarrassment. “How’s that going?”
“I don’t think it’s living up to George’s expectations,” the vampire answered.
“I could’ve told you that,” Aveline said as the door opened and Indra reentered with Akiva at his heels. “It’s gross, right? And takes too damn long.”
My cousin had tried vampire blood?
I looked at Cian plaintively, begging him to tell me that we were done. He leaned towards me, free hand touching the skin around my injury. “Almost,” he said kindly. “I offered your cousin the means to go on a vacation for a few days while we take care of our vampire-and apparently, wendigo problem,” he said, looking back at the blonde witch. “She declined, but the offer’s open for you as well.”
Aveline finished her mouthful of cereal, chewing thoughtfully, then shook her head. “I have no interest in running away, but can I put that vacation on layaway?”
“You’re done.” Cian pulled his arm away from my mouth and I swiped my forearm across my lips with a scowl.
“That’s disgusting,” I said to anyone who might hear.
Cian shrugged, flicking his tongue over his wrist to close the wound.
“Close your eyes again,” I went on, and looked at Akiva and Indra expectantly.
“Why us?” Akiva asked. “We’ve seen you without your shirt.”
“Because I said so.”
Akiva seemed to consider this, then shrugged and dramatically fluttered his eyes before closing them.
I pulled the black shirt back over my head and pushed the sleeves up. Gingerly at first I moved my arm back and forth, expecting at least some of the pain from not five minutes before. Nothing. As Aveline watched I rotated my arm in a full circle, never once feeling any kind of discomfort.
“Wow.” I was surprised, to say the least. “That was fast.”
“Try not to get hurt like that again,” Cian advised. “I’ll give you my blood, but if we do it again soon, you’re going to have some side effects.”
I looked at him sharply. “Like what?”
He smiled sweetly. “Nothing that’ll hurt you, I promise.”
The sound of Aveline’s cereal box being shaken made me glance her direction in time to see her upend the box into her open mouth.
“Thank you,” I finally remembered to be grateful and stood. “Now I’m going to go put on some p dants.”
“Don’t get dressed on my account.” Aveline trailed me down the hallway, eyes accusatory. “Unless you were undressed for their benefit and I was interrupting?”
I graced her with a roll of my eyes before closing the door in her face and grabbing a pair of running shorts. She didn’t need to bring up being naked with the three men when my thoughts seemed desperate to tug me back to all the possibilities of what we could do here at the house.
Now that I wasn’t in a rush, I ducked into my closet for a shirt not out of the laundry basket, snagging the first t-shirt I could find.
When I reappeared, winding my hair into a messy ponytail, Akiva paused to eye my shirt. “Classy,” he remarked, obviously not appreciating my 100% that witch emblazoned tee.
“I can’t believe you got the floor clean.” Aveline was beaming at the lich. “Thanks, man. What did you use?”
Akiva smiled at her and not for the first time I noted that he was so much less arrogant around my cousin. It was confusing, the way he could go from teasingly mocking to ‘good neighbor’ with my cousin. Was he trying to get on her good side? Was I jealous?
“I’ll give you the recipe. It was something my mother came up with; she was a witch too, so I figured you’d have the right ingredients,” he replied.
I went to the recliner and sat, legs under me. “Your mother was a witch?” I asked. “How are you a lich, then?”
Akiva looked at me, a scowl tugging at his lips. “Liches are born witches,” he said at last. “But I’d rather not talk about it.”
Oh. I hadn’t known that. To busy my hands, I pushed stray hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ears.
“So I couldn’t get off work for tonight,” Aveline broke in, having abandoned her cereal box. “I traded shifts with someone, though, so I could get home earlier. I was going to try to work out a plan with you to come with me or something, but maybe not?” she glanced at Akiva. “Depending on your plans?”
Akiva shrugged, looking at Cian. “What do you think?”
“I think if George wants the company, we can stay.” The vampire stretched out his long legs, crossing his ankles. “Or you can come with us back to our place.” I didn’t answer right away. As he’d leaned back on the sofa, his shirt had ridden up to expose just
