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I wouldn’t, but eventually she stopped, and then the pain diminished to a low throb and I went back to sleep.
I woke up with the Scholar bent above me, for a moment unfocused before he blinked and smiled slightly. “You’re awake. Would you still like to come to Horace’s interview? I apologize most sincerely for the harm he did to you while you were under my protection. The situation would be quite different this time, since you would be behind a wall of reinforced glass imbued with magic while Horace was bound on the other side.”
I struggled to sit up, and his arms were around me, helping me upright while Pansy snored particularly loudly by my side. I stared into his eyes while we were like that, his strong arms holding me while his eyes became almost soft, almost human, and my heart beat faster and faster. Maybe this was a dream. Maybe this wasn’t real and everything that happened wouldn’t count. I leaned towards him so, so slowly.
He blinked, and the moment was over as he picked me up in the blankets, sending Pansy rolling over the bed. He woke up with a snort then followed with a wagging tail as the Scholar carried me out of the room, his sandalwood scent mixed with lavender soap.
“Does Horace remember who killed him?” I asked, trying to focus on anything other than the man carrying me. I should get up and walk, but falling over would be so humiliating.
“He won’t say anything unless you are there. He is very highly focused on you, Miss Morell, even after death, or he wouldn’t have awoken and targeted you almost instantaneously. I’ve never seen a freshly turned react like that. It’s his magical training during life, no doubt, reacting with the magic of immortality in unexpected ways. Still, there’s no excuse for putting you in danger. I know how much you dislike the idea of being turned.”
I blushed. Why did I blush? Because somehow my mind went back to him licking me, and how I wouldn’t mind being turned if he did it with his tongue. Not that I’d actually let him put his tongue on me if I wasn’t incoherent from shock. Too bad I had such strong convictions, because that really had been blissful. It wasn’t so bad to have him carry me around wrapped up like a blanket burrito, either. Humiliating yes, unpleasant, definitely not.
The Scholar didn’t look as pale or wan as he had before. He must have fed since Horace woke up. Then again, he’d probably had at least some of my blood, even if he hadn’t sucked it out of me.
I stiffened as I remembered what he said about my angel-touched blood being sweet and lethal. “My blood, did it hurt you?” I pressed my palms to his cheeks and turned his head until he was looking at me, and I was looking at him, searching his eyes and complexion for any sign of poisoning. He looked handsome, rugged, and his lips twitched in amusement, which were all signs of perfect vampire health as far as I could tell. Not that I was a vampire healer.
“Your blood is out of my system now, Miss Morell,” he said in a low rumble that I could feel through his chest. “It did make my reflexes and senses diminish, but it also increased my own feelings of contentment and relaxation. If I hadn’t had to chase down Horace and stop him from murdering all the librarians, I’m sure that it would have been even more pleasant.”
I gasped. “He attacked the library?”
He smiled, showing a flash of fangs that made my heart beat faster. Or was that from the thought of Horace, respectable, dignified chair of the board trying to suck everyone’s blood? “He barely threatened a librarian, Jessica, I believe, before we caught up to him and dragged him away. Still, it’s impressive that he was able to cleverly plot his escape, avoid recapture for long enough to make himself a nuisance in the library, and then fight brilliantly and boldly to escape our grasp again. I’ll have to hire him if I don’t end him. I do hope that he settles into a dull and respectable state or I really will have to end his life. He is too powerful, and he is my responsibility.”
“You’re his sire, so can’t you force him to bow to your will?”
He winced. “He is resistant to bowing, which happens from time to time to those of strong will who are turned in their prime.”
“He was at least sixty-five.”
“That is the prime age for human accomplishment. Age brings wisdom, control, and power.”
“And you’re sure that my blood didn’t hurt you?”
He sighed quietly. “It may have left me mortally wounded, but only time can say. Here we are. Is it all right for you to go in there? I know that you fear vampires, rightly so when we react so badly to you, but I promise that I will not let him harm you again.” His voice was low, barely a breath, but it rocked me anyway.
I swallowed hard and nodded, almost wanting him to think that my nerves were from Horace instead of him. “It’s worth the risk. You can put me down.”
“No, Miss Morell, I cannot. If you were to fall without my pillows to catch you, I would be very distraught.”
“Distraught? Well, we can’t have distraught vampires running around.”
“Absolutely not. I might start biting my nails, and then everyone will lose all respect for me and my field.”
“I suppose that you’ll have to carry me around indefinitely. You could spend eternity doing nothing other than hauling me from sushi bar to sushi bar.”
“Oh no, Miss Morell, there would be Cyrillic translators to hob nob with between sushi bars.”
I sighed heavily. “For the sake of the greater good, and your nails, I suppose I must remain here.”
I turned my head, brushing his nose and a spark chased down my spine, leaving me breathless and aching. He was too close. I couldn’t be so close to him, or I’d run down the hall screaming or do something even more humiliating, like kiss him, and then his fangs would cut my lips, and everyone would know that I’d been kissing vampires.
He walked through a door and put me down in the chair, the one that smelled like him, the one that had specks of my blood still in the fabric from Horace’s attack. I shifted uneasily in the chair while he took his position behind me. Through the glass wall, Horace sat in a chair, manacled hand and foot, with a thick collar around his neck, chained securely to two walls.
He looked young, handsome, and absolutely fierce. He bared his fangs at me and hissed.
I hissed back, but it lacked the same force. “Enough, Horace! Act your age. Do you know who killed you or not? I don’t have time for this, because someone tried to rip out my throat and almost succeeded.”
His eyes flickered red and then he leaned back and said, “The Book of Fates is what they were after. They believe that the one who burned the square will lead them to unleashing hell on earth once again, or perhaps it was heaven they were after, but it’s your usual cultists who obsess about the ideal world instead of dealing with the one they already have. I didn’t see any faces, because the five were cloaked and hooded. I was captured in a spell set just for me, in my library, so someone laid it who had access.” He yawned and tapped his nails on the collar. “That’s all I have to say that’s relevant, other than the beast who they summoned was truly ugly. Spiders mixed with cockroaches. Mandibles, pincers, and with spinner abilities. Your blood is very sweet, Miss Morell. Pity you already lost so much. You owe me for allowing my nature to be corrupted into this.” He stretched his hand into claws before relaxing and tapping the collar again.
