Sacrifice (Book 2)

Chapter 6.3 - Sweet Elixir

Cole had that look of determination in his eyes. "Listen to me! You have to eat!" he shouted.

Fury exploded in her. Wagging a finger at the miserable jerk she stomped toward him. "You had no right to put me in this situation! It was my choice not to take your blood. My choice! Now you've taken that away from me. Damn you, Cole!"

Cole stood at the foot of the bed, red spots beginning to soak through the thick cloth. "Calm down. I heard what you said. I can take care of myself. You don't have the right to protect me when I'm not asking you."

"You're impossible to reason with!" Madison steeled herself to the onslaught of desire about to hit her as she slowly unwrapped the cotton from his arm. "Damn you. Damn you, Cole," she whispered. "I wish you hadn't." She shook her head as she examined the large gash that ran from his wrist almost to his elbow. With no compression on the wound now the blood flowed freely.

"Madison, before I bleed all over this carpet and waste a perfectly good meal, I'd appreciate a little help here," he said with a smirk on his face. "Lie with me." Cole pulled her with his good hand towards the bed.

Her vision went telescopic and zoomed in on a single drop of blood that ran over the side of Cole's forearm, hung on the underside, then slow-motion style began to fall to the floor. Her hand whipped out and snatched the crimson pearl in midflight before it hit the ground. At that point she knew she couldn't fight it. And she couldn't very well stand there and watch the asshole bleed.

"Fine!" she said and a big grin spread across Cole's face. She growled at him. How did he always manage to reduce her to that single word?

Cole cradled his arm against his bare chest, climbed on the bed and laid down in the middle. "Come here," he held his injured arm out to her.

Madison crawled over the comforter to him and lay down.

Cole turned her around so her back was to his front and his arms were around her. They fit together as if they were meant to be. "Uhm, any time now," he prodded her with his bloody arm.

*

Lying on the bed, he tucked his injured arm under her, positioning the wound directly in front of her nose. The fragrant elixir drew her fangs down to full length. She had lost the battle. Closing her eyes, she took his arm in both hands and brought it to her mouth. There was no need to pierce his flesh. He made that unnecessary. Trying to avoid scraping the pointed blades of her teeth against the abrasion, she sealed her lips over the cut. Surrendering to the need, she drew his blood into her mouth.

An explosion of strength poured into her body.

Something was different. It wasn't just that she was starving and finally receiving nourishment. This was a transfusion of rich, pure, empowering blood. Mariposa was the only one she trusted to supply her sustenance. Had Mariposa's sources been contaminated? Had she been drinking tainted blood for the last four years?

Cole's life force wound through her desiccated arteries and veins, surging all the way out to her capillaries. Bones that had been frail and insubstantial were fortified. Her muscles received an infusion of might. It had grown dark in the room and she realized her night vision was once again superior, and her thermal imaging bright with unnatural colors. Car horns and sirens from the street outside the hotel now filled her ears. And her tactile senses, heightened to extreme sensitivity, made her too aware of the heart that pulsed gently against her back.

Cole's lips moved across her shoulder as she absorbed his élan vital. He was the only mortal from whom she had ever directly taken blood. And in all her years, with access to any type of plasma she desired at the bank, she had never encountered blood like this. His was more potent. More intense. It wasn't like this the first time she tasted him. His blood was different now. It carried the qualities of regeneration and rejuvenation. She hadn't experience this kind of healing in four years.