“Thank you,” I say to him. “Did you find him?”
He shakes his head. “No, sorry.”
Great, he is probably lying dead and decimated somewhere. Stubborn fucking fool.
“Here,” Jess says as she hands the bowl of chopped flowers to CK.
Devon looks on in interest and Cole fills him in.
CK slashes his wrist and Jess turns her back, breathing in deeply. She wants him so badly. Not sexually, I don’t think, well maybe, he is very sexy, but Vampirically. He is like nectar from the gods to lesser Vampires. Mind you my own fangs drop as I smell his blood and Devon goes off to get me some from the fridge. He warms it up with a blast in the microwave and I smile at him.
“It’s not the real thing, but the closest I can get,” he says.
“I want the real thing,” I sulk as I accept the mug anyway.
“Well take that up with your husband,” he says with a look of loathing at CK that I catch for a second before he lets it go. CK has finished his part and hands the bowl back to Jess, oblivious of her attraction to him. I hide my smile behind my mug as I demurely take a sip of blood and watch her briefly bring the bowl up to her nose to take a sniff. Devon snatches the bowl off Jess in a temper about something and thwacks the bloody marigolds onto my wrist and holds his hand out for a bandage to wrap around my wrist. Once completed he, more gently this time, places some on my neck bite and adds a sticky bandage to it. At least he didn’t wrap one around my neck like some kind of mummy.
“There,” he says. “How long do we wait?” They all look at me expectantly as if it is an instantaneous thing and I shrug.
“I didn’t get a chance to ask,” I say.
“Twenty-four hours,” CK says. “We will have a look again tomorrow and see if there is progress or not.”
I nod and finish off my blood. My stomach rumbles loudly and CK has the grace to look apologetic for his Feeder ban.
“Let’s see how this goes and then maybe tomorrow,” he concedes, and I nod eagerly and will these marigolds to work so I can have some proper food.
“Dragon magick,” I say suddenly, and everyone looks at me like I have lost my head.
“Say what?” Devon asks.
“It must be Dragon magick. That is why she knows, and you couldn’t find it.” This logic just came out of thin air, but they all nod sagely as if I am talking sense. Now I am really upset about my mother not showing up to see me. She could have healed me months ago. I sigh and hope that She has a good explanation when She comes to see me in a few days. If She bothers to turn up at all.
I fall asleep soon after and miss Lincoln’s visit, which really pisses me off when I wake up and find out.
“He’ll be back shortly,” Cole says, checking the clock. “You’ve been asleep for hours.”
I blink at him and realize that for the first time in days, I feel better. Great, even.
We are alone and I decide to take full advantage of the situation, and him. I sit up, push him onto his back and climb on top of him. He starts to protest, but I silence him with a kiss which he wastes no time in responding to. He runs his hands up my thighs, bunching the loose nightgown I am wearing up around my hips.
“Oh, Liv,” he says. “I’m sorry, but I can’t stop.”
He flips me onto my back and once I am under him, he is inside me within seconds, with a hard thrust. I cry out as I wasn’t quite ready, and he grunts his apology but speeds up his thrusting. He comes seconds later with an orgasm that goes on and on. He drops his forehead to mine with his eyes closed in bliss.
“Sorry,” he says again. “I’ll…”
“No, it's fine,” I say, as I sense he is going to do something about my unfulfillment. I wouldn’t mind another go, but what I want more at this particular moment is to get these bandages off and see if I have healed. He climbs off me, very sheepish, but I ignore his continued muttered apologies.
“Cole,” I say, suddenly exasperated. “Stop apologizing, I said it's fine. I want to get these bandages off because I feel better. Much better, okay.”
He looks at me as if he had forgotten all about the flowers and I shake my head at him. I get to the kitchen under my own steam as I am far less shaky than I was yesterday. I leap onto the counter as CK joins us and he smiles and kisses me. He freezes and turns his furious gaze to Cole. “Could you not just leave her alone for another couple of days?”
Cole looks down in shame that he got caught with his hand in my cookie jar, but I placate CK by saying, “I feel better, my love. Please can we just get these bandages off?”
“Of course,” he says with another baleful glare at Cole. He pulls them off as Devon and Jess also come to have a look. They all peer at me curiously.
“It worked,” CK says as if he knew it all along. “Excellent.”