Page 125 of Taste of Forever
“Please, Laith. Please!” My forehead bent down to his. “Please take from me. Please…”
Holding his head steady with one hand and feeding him with the other meant that I couldn’t check for a pulse. I brought my ear to his nose and tried to feel any whisper of breath possible. If he was breathing, it was too faint to detect.
“Rhain! Do you know CPR?”
A frustrated grunt came from the driver’s seat. “I can’t afford to stop. Keep trying to feed him. Your blood is the best chance he has.”
All my blood seemed to be doing was making a mess around the lower half of Laith’s face. But I wouldn’t give up until Temkra herself told me he was gone.
With a serious amount of effort, I pulled his jaws as far apart as they would safely go. After a quick swipe of my finger down his throat to make sure his airway was clear, I wedged my bleeding wrist between both rows of his teeth.
Rhain’s lead foot on the gas pedal and the awkward position of my wrist in Laith’s mouth didn’t make it easy to move him, but I managed to bring his head up with his chin slightly tucked for an easier swallowing position.
And while I kept stroking his throat, kept pleading with him to give me a sign of life, I prayed to a goddess I wasn’t sure could hear me.
Chapter 35
Laith
My entire body felt made out of stone. It took a tremendous amount of effort to crack my eyelids open, and even more to lift my hand to rub them. I groaned with the movement, and my throat rasped like sandpaper.
“Laith?”
My head had felt sluggish, booting up slowly like a computer from the 90s, until I heard her voice. Then everything came online all at once. A familiar bed, along with the scent, voice, and heartbeat I loved most in the world.
“Heather?”
I turned toward her voice and didn’t have to reach far. Her hands were already around my neck, soft lips fusing to my dry ones in a hard, hungry kiss. Her whole body pressed to mine, finding contact at every possible point. The feel of her brought life, lightness, and warmth to my stiff limbs.
My hands found her back, her waist, and pulled her into me as if we could meld into one being. There were no words and not enough kisses or intimate touches to express how fucking relieved I was that she was safe and alive.
Her lips broke away abruptly and I chased her mouth for more contact, more of her perfect, beautiful taste.
“How do you feel? Do you need blood?” She pushed her hair aside and lifted her face, extending the most gorgeous neck I’d ever had the privilege of drinking from.
I leaned in, already aching for the comfort of her flavor on my tongue. Her blood would be another reassurance that she was still here, still mine.
But something was wrong. My front teeth touched down on her skin, but my fangs didn’t fully descend and pierce through.
“What…” I was still drowsy, my mouth dry enough to stick my tongue to the roof. But I was awake enough to know that the inside of my mouth just felt weird.
“Let me see.”
Heather held my face and gently lifted my upper lip. She smiled, looking pleased at what she saw. A hell of a contrast to the memory that hit me right then—the sight of one my fangs held in a pair of metal pliers. Running my tongue over a bloody, sore gap between my teeth.
The pounding ache in my gums, my whole head. The shock settling in as Soren’s face came into focus, triumphant and smug as he held up those pliers. And the burning humiliation of it all.
“It’s okay, love.” Heather kissed me, drawing me back to the present. “They’re growing back. It’s going to take some time, but I can see your new ones coming in.” She edged a fingertip into my mouth and pressed it to a hard, dull point coming out of my gum.
“How?” My voice was hoarse as I felt them for myself. “These are my adult fangs. They’re not supposed to grow back.”
She smiled and drew her hands back to wiggle her fingers in the air. “Magic. The others are theorizing it’s because we’re blood mates. My blood is helping you regenerate damage that wouldn’t have been repaired otherwise.”
It was only then that I noticed small cuts on the sides of her neck. I grabbed her hands and turned her wrists over. Band-aids covered the delicate blood vessels just below her palms. An overwhelming swell of emotion created a knot in my throat, and the loss of fangs became utterly insignificant.
“You’ve been hurting yourself to feed me?”
Heather’s face hardened. “It’s nothing compared to what you did for me. We almost lost you, Laith.” Her eyes shone with unspent tears. “I would bleed myself empty if it meant keeping you alive.”
