Page 81 of Bleeding for the Prince
He pulled Gwil closer so his head rested at the crook of his neck. This time, there was none of the sexiness or glamour from before, but he’d meant what he’d said, and he wouldn’t let Gwil suffer.
“Are you sure?” Gwil asked, a little muffled.
“Yes. Get on with it so we can go home.”
Gwil kissed his neck, laved the surface. Hyax knew it was to provide some anaesthesia. He stroked Gwil’s hair in encouragement, a strange sensation as it wasn’t often a vampire needed comfort as they fed. The way Gwil’s fangs broke his skin was more exaggerated this time; it didn’t hurt as such, but it felt odd the way the fangs dug in. Gwil only took two long draws before retreating, and by the time Hyax was fastening his shirt, he could already see an improvement.
“Getting better?”
Gwil wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and nodded. The smear of red made Hyax queasy. “Yeah, much. But I wouldn’t mind getting home.”
He cast a couple of monitoring spells and was satisfied he could transport Gwil via a portal without causing further damage. “Let me help you up. Once you can stand, we can try a portal.”
His neck throbbed; the last time was nowhere near as bad, and he knew Gwil would feel guilty. He’d deal with the wound later, but first, they needed to get home, where he could make sure Gwil was okay. Gwil let him take his weight, but he wasn’t completely dependent, although he wasn’t fully recovered either.
He opened a portal directly to their bedroom, so he was able to move Gwil straight from the cave to lying on their bed in seconds. Gwil let out a relieved groan as he stretched out.
“Can I get you anything?” Hyax asked.
“No, let me sleep for an hour or so, and I should be fine.”
Hyax cast another quick monitoring spell and was happy with the result. Gwil was recovering and he thought some rest would be what he needed. Hyax would treat his wounds and send out a few messages about the success of their mission.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Gwil awoke with a sense of detachment, as if he were floating just outside his body. The spell had made him feel as if someone was drinking him through a straw, and he was sure Hyax hadn’t expected the reaction. He took a moment to work through a grounding exercise he’d been taught after a heavy coke session by a Californian yogi, and the world came back to normal. Unless he’d slept around the clock, he’d not been out more than two hours, and he was good to get up. He wished he hadn’t needed to feed from Hyax. He’d wanted to keep the act of feeding something special, not a first-aid treatment.
Whatever had happened had left him feeling like a freshly dug-up corpse, and he had a shower, which made him no less of a corpse, but at least someone wouldn’t follow him around with an air freshener. Hyax was sitting at the dining table sorting through papers. He didn’t do the admin side and Gwil had a horrible thought he’d been spending a long time searching for items Hyax had been trying to help with.
“Step away from the files. Some of the evidence I collect isn’t replaceable.”
“While I’m happy to see you back to your old snarky self, fuck you.”
He pulled out a chair and sat next to him. “You once filed something so badly I didn’t find it for seven years.”
“Six years, ten months. You always over-exaggerate. Besides, I’m not filing, I’m just putting the pack together for Howard Squire. He asked for a debrief once you were ready.”
Howard was only one of the people they would need to close out loose ends with, whether he wanted to or not. “What about Goya? I can’t imagine he hasn’t stuck his snout in.”
“Since he was there, he can’t claim to have been left out of the proceedings. But I did agree he could be present when we spoke to Howard—it gets it all out of the way in one go.”
He wasn’t sure he agreed, but it was a bit late to rescind the offer as Goya would think they were hiding something.
“When?”
Hyax checked his watch. “How about now, if you’re feeling up to it? Howard gave me some times he’d be available over the next few days, and Goya said he would prioritise the meeting if he could.”
“All right. Contact them and let’s say an hour.”
Hyax fired off a couple of texts. “Done. I wanted to apologise again about what happened with the spell. I didn’t think you were in any danger.”
“I gathered that. It was fucking weird though, can’t say I’d want a repeat.” He reached out and curled his finger around a hank of Hyax’s hair. “You would never do anything to hurt me. I just hope I didn’t do too much damage to your throat. I wasn’t in full control.”
Hyax shushed him. “I was a bit sore, but Simon sent me a special balm. He uses it when he and Robin dabble. I was surprised as I didn’t think vampires fed off each other very often.”
“We don’t. But I think Simon’s nature might change things up a little. And he’s a baby vamp. Hasn’t been turned a year.”
“I’m not sure you can technically call him being turned; more like the other side of him was released.”
