A Secret In Your Throat

Chapter 13

I felt the color draining from my face. He looked sad, but he said softly, "He's alive, but only just. Come on. Get your bag, and I'll carry you down."
I stumbled for it, slinging my messenger bag across my body and pulling the strap of my duffel bag across me the opposite direction. My hands were shaking so hard, I could barely strap the bags on. I couldn't comprehend what he'd said. I couldn't think about it, or I'd start screaming. He stood patiently, looking somber. He knelt down and let me climb onto his back. He whispered, "He's regenerating, Rae. He'll survive, but it's going to take some time. The blood banks are empty. Without blood, it's going to take just a little time."
I nodded against his neck, his curls soft against my face. "Okay," I said in a small voice.
Ray jumped and, just like Gerard, landed cat-like on the pavement and began to run without missing a beat.
I turned to take one last look at my apartment, but with so many oil lamps burning in so many windows, it was impossible to tell which had been mine before we sped away.
Ray climbed the southern wall just as easily as Gerard had, and ran into the trees several miles outside the city. He set me down in front of a classic Corvette. I didn't have time to be impressed. I needed to sit down before my shaking knees collapsed under me. He took my bags and threw them in the minute space behind our seats. I collapsed into the interior, only barely remembering to buckle up. My hands were numb and shaking as he pulled the car onto the road and floored it, headlights off. It didn't scare me anymore.
It felt as though nothing could.
This car glided down the highway like a bullet. So much faster than the BMW. He reached over once and patted my hand, squeezing it. "He's going to survive." he assured me.
"What happened?" I whispered. I didn't think I'd be able to say anything else.
"The other vamps. They were ready for a fight - probably against a coven that wanted the camp for themselves. Gerard was trying to be everywhere - you know how he is. Anyway, they had honest to god holy water, which is bad news. Usually human priests just pass off regular tap water as symbolically holy, but this was the real shit. He looks rough, Rae. Just be ready. Frank and Mikey are off trying to find him some blood, but unless they get real lucky in a blood bank we haven't looked at, they'll have to bring him a victim if he wants to regenerate."
"No they won't. I'll do it."
He frowned, "You can't be drained first, Rae. You won't be yourself."
"Then I'll just stay human awhile longer after, until I've recovered, too. Call Frank and Mikey. Tell them to come back. I'm sure they have a phone with them, don't they? I don't want them to risk bringing a victim. That person could be missed. Someone could find you."
Ray snapped open a cell phone as he turned off onto the grassy path. I heard him murmuring into the phone, but the ride over the grass and through the woods was much rougher in this car then in Gerard's, and his words were lost to me.
As soon as I spotted the clearing, I was unbuckling my seatbelt. The moment the car stopped I was flying out of it and to the front door. I wrenched it open and ran up the stairs to his room. I stood outside of it, my heart slamming in my chest, and then opened the door carefully.
He was sleeping, and my heart went from hammering to stone cold. It looked as though the left half of his body had been set ablaze. Half of his hair was seared away. The skin was raw and burned, and it looked so painful I could hardly bear it. I walked slowly toward him and sat on the edge of the bed. He opened his right eye - the other looked as though it had been sealed shut. The right side of his mouth turned up just a little, and his hand found mine.
"Don't talk," I said, as Ray came up the stairs and set my bags inside the door. Hesitantly, he handed me a black hunting knife, and then backed out of the room, shutting the door.
I stared at the knife. I couldn't let him bite me. Too much venom for my system, if he was going to be taking blood from me.
Ray's practicality was incredible.
I looked at Gerard's one still open eye. Hazel. So beautiful. It steeled my resolve, made the decision even easier. Then I saw the dread dawn on his face, as he realized what I was about to do.
I slashed through my wrist without any hesitation, hissing at the pain, not even thinking about how I could eventually stop the blood flow. I didn't care. I needed Gerard to survive. I needed to do it before he tried to stop me. I held my bleeding arm to his lips, and his right hand held it there.
The feeling of the blood being pulled from my veins was electric. I gasped, shocked at the feeling zinging through me. I could feel so many things - his breath hot on the tender skin of my arm, the soft bed beneath me, his lips, his hair, the cold knife as it tumbled from my free hand. Everything was amplified, and I felt a hot stab of desire pierce me.
He drank and drank, moaning against my skin in an almost erotic way. His fingertips slid up to the crease at my elbow, tracing the vein, another slow groan coming from him. I wanted to live in this moment forever. The singing in my body. His fingers on these soft, vulnerable parts of me. His sounds of pleasure.
My life in his hands.
I was floating.
I felt his tongue sweep over the gash in my wrist and I sighed, the feeling so good and so intimate. I couldn't see anything. My vision was so blurred and hazy, but I felt him get up and cradle me in his arms. He laid me down on the bed, so tenderly, saying something in such a soft, loving tone that I no longer cared whether I lived. If I died now, it would be in total bliss.
My vision went black.