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A light chuckle escapes her. “That tickles. Don’t be a wimp, just go ahead and get it down you.”
I ignore my weak stomach and drink deeply, my hands clasped around her wrist. I expect it to taste coppery, the way blood tastes when you’ve got a nose bleed and it goes down your throat, but it doesn’t. It tastes sweet, sort of like honey but not quite. It’s nothing like what I expected, but then again, vampires are a whole other species, why would their blood taste anything like that of a human?
I take another two gulps and fall into a minor state of calm. Dru pulls her wrist away and I’m almost inclined not to let her. I haven’t felt this chilled in a long time. Dru studies me with sparkling hazel eyes as she wipes her wrist on her trouser leg.
She laughs quietly. “Easy there sugar, we don’t want you draining me dry,” she jokes and then helps me to my feet. “How do you feel now?” she asks.
I take a deep breath and run my hand down my chest, stopping to prod a little where I’d been hurt, nothing stings anymore. “Really good, actually,” I answer.
“I told you it would help,” says Dru. “No need to thank me.”
Now that I’m focusing on how I feel, I am actually better than I have been in quite a while. I feel energised, alive. It’s an amazing feeling. Dru begins walking in the direction of the main street. I grab her arm and pull her back. “Thank you,” I tell her sincerely, truly grateful that I’m not going to have to spend the next several weeks in pain.
Her eyes pierce me, and one side of her mouth quirks up in a slant ways smile. She runs a hand gently down the side of my face, before replying. “Not a problem, darlin’.”
“Where are you going now?” I ask.
“We’re going back to Crimson,” she answers, emphasising the fact that she’s not going to let me wander off on my own. “The others have taken Antonia there. Theodore injured her in the scuffle. Lover boy told me that if I found you I was to take you back to the club.”
“Lover boy, you mean Ethan?”
“Yeah, he was pretty freaked when he couldn’t find you. You really have him wrapped around your finger, what have you got, chocolate flavoured blood or something?”
We’re walking down an empty street now, where only every second street light is working. “Ugh, I’ve never let him drink from me. Have you considered that maybe it’s my winning personality that he’s after?” I joke.
Dru smirks. “I’m not saying that you haven’t got one or anything, but I highly doubt that’s the reason Ethan Cristescu is interested in you. It’s more than likely the way you smell.”
“What way do I smell?” I ask with int
erest.
“Like the sun,” Dru answers without missing a beat, “and flowers, but that’s probably just your perfume.”
“I’m not wearing any.”
“Well believe me, you don’t need it,” says Dru, with an intense expression.
It’s funny how she says I smell like the sun, since a single drop of my blood could erase her sensitivity to it.
“How do you know what the sun smells like? It’s bright, but I never really considered it to have a smell.”
“If you had to spend your life without it, you’d know what it smelled like too,” she answers solemnly. I’m almost inclined to feel sorry for her. We continue our walk in silence.
Chapter Seventeen
Runs in the Family
It’s a long walk to Crimson, and a couple of dhamphirs nearly jump on Dru when they catch her on the North side of the river. All she does is reveal the gun strapped to her waist and they back off immediately, but not before calling her a dyke for good measure. Jesus.
It takes us another twenty minutes to get to Davis Street, and bizarrely we spend the time talking about art. We’re both big Giger fans. The conversation reminds me of how much I actually miss my studies. It makes me ever more determined to get back to college, if I ever get free of this vampire mess.
I’m beginning to like Dru, past the fact that she is quite gorgeous, in an androgynous kind of way, but that’s just my shallow side giving its opinion. She’s the kind of girl I could see myself being friends with, if it weren’t for the fact that she’s a vampire bodyguard. She probably kills people as part of her job on a daily basis. That fact sort of makes me re-think my evaluation of her.
When we get inside the club the place looks like the casualties section of a war zone. Antonia is laid out on one of the tables, her trouser leg ripped off to reveal a gaping wound that one of her male bodyguards is working on cleaning up. It appears to be slowly healing before my eyes. The barman with the dreadlocks is attending to Delilah and Lucas who sport various scrapes and wounds.
I nearly gasp in surprise to find Finn and Gabriel among the numbers, however they don’t seem to be injured. I wonder why they are here. There are also several vamps present who I’ve never seen before. Ethan comes striding across the room the moment I enter, there’s a healing cut running down his right cheek, but a scab has formed already. The vampires must heal very quickly.
“You’re all right,” he breathes, clasping both of my hands in his. “I’ve been going mad with worry.” He turns to Dru. “Thank you for bringing her here.” Dru nods and leaves to see to Antonia.
