No point in denying it. The truth is written right there on my skin in ugly purple scars. “Yes.”
“I was under the impression dhampirs heal quickly.”
“Not as quickly as vampires.”
“That is not an answer.”
He’s like a dog with a bone. I don’t understand where he’s headed with this line of questioning. “Yes, I heal quickly.”
“And yet you have an injury like this.” His face takes on a forbidding look. “Explain.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. I shove at his shoulders, but I might as well try to shove a mountain. Frustration bubbles up inside me, hot and cloying. “As I’m sure you’ve probably figured out, I didn’t exactly volunteer for this gig. I tried to run. My father made sure I wouldn’t be able to again.”
He goes still in that predatory way that makes every instinct I have scream at me to flee, which might be laughable under other circumstances. Flee. Sure. That’ll work out great.
Malachi’s thumb traces the most prominent bit of the scar, the spot where my father beat my knee again and again, until the bones were little more than pebbles. “There is no quick fix for this type of injury.”
“Thanks for that, Doctor Malachi, but I’m already aware. Even with my accelerated healing, I’ll never walk right again.” It’s something I can’t think too closely about or it might be the thing that breaks me. My entire life has been spent running, even if it was contained within the colony walls. I’ve escaped beatings and worse because of my ability to flee. No longer.
He presses a hand to the center of my chest. “Stay.”
“I am not your dog to command.”
“Stay,” he repeats.
I don’t know why he bothers to tell me what to do. He moves so quickly, I barely have a chance to tense before he’s back between my thighs again, this time holding a knife. I freeze. “A vampire with a knife. How novel.” Which reminds me. I narrow my eyes, trying to ignore the blade glinting between us. “Return my knife.”
“When I’m sure you won’t try to carve out my heart, I will.”
“Looks like someone already tried and botched the job.” I jerk my chin at the mangled scars on his chest. “I’m more than happy to do it properly.”
He chuckles, a dry rasping sound. “What’s your name, little dhampir?”
As much as I want to dig in my heels instead of answering, it won’t serve any purpose. I’m here for the foreseeable future. Might as well be on a first name basis with my captor, willing or no. “Mina.”
“Mina.” He says it slowly. “It suits you.”
“If you say so.”
Malachi reverses the knife in a smooth move and presses it to the side of his throat. “You seem like a smart girl.”
I blink. “Um.”
“Too smart to deny yourself a tool, even if I’m the one giving it to you.”
I don’t know he’s right about that, but I can’t help staring at his throat as he drags the tip of the knife over his skin, leaving a thin trail of blood in its wake. My fangs ache in response. I might not require blood the way actual vampires do, but the desire is still there. “What are you doing?”
“Blood is power, little dhampir.” He leans in, pressing against me, until his neck is a few spare inches from my mouth. “Drink from me enough and your knee will mend itself.”
“Impossible.” I throw the word out like a life preserver. “It’s healed already.”
“Not impossible.” He tilts his head to the side, baring his neck completely. “Drink.”
I shouldn’t. It’s another tie linking me to him. His bloodline’s power might not be glamour like my father’s, but sharing blood back is what vampires do to mind-fuck humans. I’ve never drank from a vampire before. I don’t know what will happen if I do.
But if he’s not lying… If it can heal my knee…
My tongue snakes out without permission and drags over his neck. That small taste feels like a nuclear bomb going off inside me. I stop thinking, stop trying to rationalize my way through this. I simply act.
I bite him.
I have no finesse, like he demonstrated even when he was tackling me to the floor that first time. I’m too desperate for more.
His blood is like lightning on my tongue. It lights every nerve ending up. I swear I can actually feel the power rolling through my body. I want more.
Malachi digs his hand into my hair and gently pries me off him. “That’s enough.”
“But—” I can’t take my eyes off his neck. Even as I watch, the wounds close. “More.”
“Not today.” He steps back slowly, as if it pains him to put distance between us. “Get some sleep, Mina. You’re going to need it.”
I inhale. Even the air tastes different with his power flowing through my veins. “I don’t want to sleep. I want to…” I look at him. He really is sexy in a brutal sort of way. I can appreciate that, appreciate his strength and the way his eyes bleed to black when he looks at me. “I want to fuck.”
“Not that, either.”
“Why not?” Is this what being drunk feels like? It’s completely different than the bliss of his bite. That’s a physical thing and it eases almost as soon as his fangs leave my skin. This feeling is in my veins, searing me right to my very soul. I shiver. “It’s what I’m here for, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” He’s studying me, but I’m too loopy to read his expression. “But not yet. If you still want my cock when you wake up, you’re more than welcome to it.”
“I want it now.” I hop off the counter, but the world shifts, turning topsy-turvy on me. My bones go liquid and the last thing I feel before darkness claims me is Malachi’s strong arms closing around me.
4
I wake up in the same bed as before. Unlike last time, I don’t feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. I feel great. Like I’ve had a full night’s sleep and a month’s worth of well-balanced meals. I sit up slowly and look down. My dress is back in place, but a quick check shows the bite marks are healed as if they never existed.
I prod my knee, but though the pain is fainter than normal, I don’t feel much different. Maybe it was all bullshit, but I can’t deny I feel better than I have in months.
Maybe that’s the point, though.
Biting him drugs me as much as his bite does. The first dose was free, but he’ll demand I fuck him for another.
The thought should fill me with horror. Having sex with Malachi means playing out the scheme my father put into motion. But the thought feels distant. Malachi isn’t anything like I expected. Oh, he’s vampire through and through—arrogant and predatory and sure that might makes right. But if he was as much monster my father is, he would have taken everything he wanted from me that first time in the foyer. He’d have chained me to a bed somewhere and gotten down to business until I’m knocked up or dead.
But just because Malachi is taking a softer route doesn’t mean he’s a better person. I have to remember that. Even if part of me feels a thrill of anticipation at the thought of his hands on me again.