I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 72 - Message from Work

Evangeline panted a few times as the intensity of what just happened washed over her and she could breath again.

"What the hell is that?!" Sigismund declared, horrified.

"Vamprire trick," Valerian said, then ran his tongue round his mouth before leaning forward once again to place his mouth over Evangeline's wound. She couldn't help it, a moan of pleasure escaped her before she could slap a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide with her own horror.

"You can't eat her!" Hagor shouted, grabbing Valerian's shoulder to yank him forcefully back.

"I'm not! Not in any real sense," he shouted back, slapping off the druid's hand.

"Then what are you doing?" Sigismund asked, for the first time with a plea of understanding instead of accusation. "Just explain it to me, please."

Anxiety washed Valerian's features as he looked from one of them to another, until his gaze landed on Evangeline. Searching her own feelings, she didn't detect any sense within her that burning a Meta Point would explain Valerian to her. Clearly, this was something else she hadn't managed to learn in her life before.

She gave him an encouraging nod, squeezing his hand with her fingers. "It's okay, Valerian. We're your party. We are with you no matter what you tell us."

"It's..." he swallowed. "It's a feature of being a vampire." He stuck a finger back into his mouth and scooped out a little of his spit. Between the two fingers as he pulled them apart, were strings like spider webbing. "It's a coagulant. A way natural way for us to close the wounds of those we feed on. It also has a disinfecting quality." He wiped the his fingers on the edge of Evangeline's wound, adding to the liquid bandage he had made there. "It will speed up your healing, not as fast as a healing spell would, but faster than natural. And unlike magic, this won't prevent you from getting a scar, necessarily. For a puncture this large, it's probably going to scar without magic to stop it."

"How does your wound feel?" Artmond asked, fascinated.

"A lot better," Evangeline assured, truthfully. "The pain is far less. I wouldn't even call it pain at this point. I'm just... aware of it."

Valerian nodded. "It's because the would is so deep. If it was more surface you wouldn't feel much of anything at all. In fact, I should probably try to tongue it as deeply as a I can, to make sure it doesn't get a deeper infection." His cheeks and pointed ears were actually burning a light pink, which in a vampire was akin to the brightest of reds.

Evangeline's eyebrows pinched with worry. "Will I... make more noises like I did before?" she asked, her own cheeks burning.

He loosely nodded. "There is also something in the saliva that stimulates the pleasure in your skin."

"I suppose it helps your victims remain more compliant," Sigismund said, again with more of an inquisitive air than a judgmental one.

"Yeah, that's the idea," Valerian sneered, taking offense at the cleric's comment anyway. Then he regarded Evangeline again. "We don't have to though. We can just wait until we get you to a cleric and get that healed properly."

"No, it's okay. I think this is fine," Evangeline said, reaching up toward her shoulder, not touching it, but resting her fingertips on the edge of the goo. Their gazes touched, and something complicated passed over Valerian's expression. Then clearing his throat, he scooted closer to her, pulling Evangeline the rest of the way into his lap so that she was turned so that his mouth could more easily reach the wound. It was very sensual, made even more awkward by the audience they had.

"Hey look at this!" Artmond declared.

"Gods bless Artmond," Evangeline whispered. Valerian chuckled in his throat, the only one who had heard her comment. Then his mouth went over her wound and her mind buzzed out for a second.

"What is it?" Sigismund asked, ignoring Evangeline's indiscrete breathing.

"There's a message around the dart," Artmond said, only glancing up a second, then focused his eyes firmly on the dart in his fingers. Delicately, he picked at the edge of the tiny shaft, pulling away a black covered sheet. A slip of paper pulled away, only to wind itself back up into an minuscule scroll.

Then Valerian's tongue probed and swirled into the wound the dart had made. Bonelessly, Evangeline sank back against his chest, her inhibitions and modesty banished. It felt sooooo gooooood. She made a little mew as he retreated, lathing his tongue one last time to reseal the hot-cold goop over the wound. Now, when she looked down, the puncture was much smaller, her life's blood held back behind a smoother surface like melted glass.

"What does it say?" Valerian asked, wiping his mouth with the edge of his hand, his tone practical. The disconnect jarred Evangeline back from the euphoric haze she had been melting in.

Feeling abruptly shy, she sat up, pulling herself away from Valerian. Clearing her throat, she forced her clearing mind to refocus. "Yes, Artmond. What does it say?" she asked.

The nobleman's son unfurled the scroll again, casting his gaze over it before shrugging. "I have no idea. It's just covered in symbols," he said.

"Let me see that," Valerian said, scooting back from Evangeline to stand so he could snatch the note away.

Evangeline moved to do the same, but since her bath sheet wasn't properly wrapped around her, she found it more awkward to try to stand, a reminder lance of dull pain cutting through her wounded shoulder, a belated reminder that she was still wounded.

Hagor came to the rescue as always, coming up behind her to sweep her up into his bear-like arms, before setting here back onto her feet. "Allow me, little rabbit," he said, gentlemanly.

She managed to shift the bath sheet to cover herself more comfortably, tucking it under arm pits and folding an edge into an impromptu wrap. "Thank you," she said warmly.

"Ah crap," Valerian said, cutting into the moment she was almost sharing with Hagor.

"What is it?" she asked, reaching for the slip of paper that he held out to her. At first glance, she saw it was covered with familiar symbols.

"It's Thieves Moniker," Valerian said.