Page 19 of Snowed in with the Vampire Prince

“What were you thinking?” I demanded, feeling a helpless rage ignite in my chest at the sight of his injuries.

Without even waiting for him to reply, I brought out my fangs and tore into my wrist yet again, making the blood come out in a gush. I held my bleeding wrist over his burns.

The blood hit his wounds, and he yelped, jumping a little. “It stings!”

“Wait,” I muttered, fighting the weakness that crashed through my body. I felt as if my own life force left me yet again tonight with nothing to replace it. James had saved us both. This was the least I could do. I couldn’t allow him to be in pain.

Even though I knew this was going to cost me dearly.

He let out a soft gasp a moment later as my blood caused the skin on his hands to heal rapidly. It was like watching a time-lapse of his burns that had been sped up to a breakneck pace, only in reverse. The blisters became lighter, the black edges vanished, and then his palms became pink. Then, at last, his hands were whole, smooth, and unblemished.

As easy as that. For him, at least.

“Holy hell,” James whispered, his shocked gaze rising to meet mine.

I couldn’t help the feeling of relief seeing he was no longer in pain.

I swayed on my feet, another wave of dizziness crashing through me as a combined result of my wounds and all the blood I’d given James to make him whole caught up with me all at once.

I didn’t regret it, though. Not a bit.

I fell to my knees.

“You’re an idiot,” I said, but I couldn’t stop myself from smiling at him again, even as little black dots swam into my field of vision. “You’re a brave, foolish human.”

James caught me, his eyes wide and his mouth forming into an adorable little ‘O’ of surprise. Then everything went black.

Chapter 10

James

Pierce slumped in my arms, unconscious. Not that I could blame him. He’d probably given up a solid quart of his blood tonight to ensure that I would make it through all this alive. He kept saving me for reasons known only to him. Plus, the wound on his neck looked so bad that I didn’t have any desire to examine it any closer because then I’d see just how inhuman he was. Nothing mortal could have survived having their throat half torn out like that.

I didn’t want to move him, so I set him down on the floor as gently as possible. I removed my coat, folded it into a makeshift pillow, and slid it under his head.

Was it my imagination, or did he seem even paler than before?

Also, his wound wasn’t healing.

Was that normal? I had no idea. It didn’t seem like it should be normal though, given that his blood had the power to undo my wounds in a matter of moments.

Blood.

Of course. He was a vampire, which meant he needed blood. My blood.

I hesitated, staring down at him. He looked so peaceful, so innocent, so open right then. All of the arrogance and surliness were gone.

I’d talked some big game earlier about trusting him that he wasn’t going to murder me. I still felt that way. He wouldn’t hurt me. On purpose, at least. But did I have the same assurances now, in his weakened state? What if he lost control and took more blood than I was willing—or able—to give him?

I couldn’t let him bite me then. So where did that leave me?

Like an idiot, I looked around the room as though the solution would magically be waiting for me. And to my immense surprise and relief, I wasn’t disappointed. My gaze landed on the wooden knife block he kept in the kitchen area, on the counter right beside his sink.

If he needed blood and I didn’t completely trust him in his current state to bite me to get it, that left only one option. I needed to feed my blood directly to him.

He had saved my life earlier. And then he healed my hands, saving me from the agonizing pain and the burn scars I would have had for the rest of my life. He had done it without even hesitating, even though he had been badly wounded, and that action had cost him dearly.

I shoved myself to my feet and lurched across the room toward the knife block. I picked up a small knife that looked wickedly sharp.

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