Page 124 of Taste of Forever
“Laith, I’m here. We’re all here.” I didn’t know if speaking aloud would help, but I would do anything at this point. “Please hold on. We’re right here. Just hold on until I can give you my blood.”
Only silence and stillness answered me. I was starting to feel an intensely dangerous urge to jump out of the van and run up to the cabin to see for myself what was happening. But no, that could put the other guys in danger as well. They didn’t need an extra liability to deal with.
“Temkra, if you’re listening...” I hesitated, swallowing. Faith in a deity had never been my thing. My parents weren’t religious and raised me to always be curious and skeptical.
“Cite your sources, young lady,”my dad, a history professor, would always say jokingly whenever I made dramatic claims as a kid such as,you never let me have any fun!Their influence on seeking knowledge and proof made me the woman I became.
But Laith believed in Temkra. All of the vampires seemed to believe in their deity quite literally. For all I knew, the vampire goddess didn’t acknowledge humans at all. But I was Laith’s blood mate, which had to mean something.
At this point, I was desperate enough to beg any and all entities beyond my scope of reality to protect him.
“Temkra, if you can hear me,” I tried again, “you must know how I feel about him. You must know…how much I love him.” The ache in my chest shook my breath. “He is…so pure. He has brought so much joy and light to my life in ways I can’t even express. I don’t know many vampires very well, but I know he is one of the best. I love him so much, but I’m not asking you to save him for me. I’m just some human asking you to save him because…he’s Laith.” Tears made hot trails down my cheeks, but I didn’t dare loosen my grip on my knees. I was afraid I’d completely unravel if I let go. “He deserves the world just because of who he is. If you have any hand in what happens to him, please…please let him survive.”
When I ran out of ways to plead with a deity, I took a shaky breath and lifted my forehead from my knees.
Through the windshield, under a quickly lightening sky, I saw movement in the shadows coming toward the van.
“Unlock!” Rhain hollered, carrying something large over his shoulder as he ran to me.
My fingers shook so hard, it took forever to hit the button on the keyfob. I then climbed between the two front seats, scrambling through the gutted out van to the rear doors.
While still shaking, I managed to unlatch the doors and push them open. A sob escaped my throat as Rhain gently placed a limp and bloodied Laith into my lap.
“Oh my God!” My hands hovered over his face out of fear of hurting him worse. He was barely recognizable with eyes swollen shut, mouth and head bloodied, and so much bruising.
“Cut your wrist on one of his fangs. I need to start driving.”
He helped me bring Laith further into the van, then shut the rear doors. Gingerly, I used a fingertip to push up Laith’s upper lip, but didn’t see a fang. The van was so dark and Laith’s mouth so swollen, I couldn’t see much of anything.
I ran the same finger over his teeth, trying to find one that was especially pointy, and froze when I found a gap instead. My trembling finger kept going over his front teeth and found another gap on the other side of his mouth.
Rhain opened the driver side door then and buckled himself into the seat. “Is he drinking?”
“No…” The word left me in a whisper of disbelief.
The seat creaked as Rhain turned around. “Is he alive?”
“I don’t know…They took his fangs.”
“What?”
“They…they pulled them out. He doesn’t have them.”
Rhain leaned over for a closer look. I was in such shock that I still had Laith’s lip pushed up.
“Fucking barbaric,” Rhain growled. “We killed them too quickly.” With a quick look at me, he pulled out a small knife. “We still need to get your blood in him. Do you want to do it or should I?”
I held my arm out to him. “You do it, please.”
Rhain swiped the blade across the blood vessels in my wrist with one quick draw. “There’s a first aid kit back there with gauze.” He returned to facing forward in the seat. “I’ll try not to jostle you too much, but I need to drive fast. Dawn is right on our ass.”
“Go as fast as you need to.” I cradled Laith’s head with one hand while holding my bloodied wrist to his lips. “He’s not out of the woods yet.”
My blood filled Laith’s mouth, but his lips didn’t seal around the wound and he didn’t swallow.
“Come on.” I tipped his head forward in my lap and rubbed at his throat. “Come on, Laith.”
A trail of blood dribbled over the corner of his lips and down the side of his face.
