Holly wrapped herself up with both arms and held on tight. She wanted to look away, but couldn’t. Instead, her gaze was fixed on the way Rez’s head bobbed as he took down Wanda’s life force.
It should be me.
She squeezed her eyes shut. Where had such an errant thought come from? She’d never wanted to feed a vampire, even though she knew her father took care of her mother’s blood-needs as a matter of course. She knew it was a natural process.
It just wasn’t for her.
She finally forced her feet to move and pivot away from the feeding.
The other sight, however, caused her stomach to turn. Four dead Invictus. She took a new set of deep breaths.
The air was full of smoke and the smell of wet, burned wood. The firefighters had the blaze contained.
The villagers filled the square now. Since the mist was gone, more people drew clos
e to stare at the dead. A few of the mothers started ushering their children away from the gruesome sight.
She supposed the Vampire Guard would arrive soon to make sure clean-up was done properly. All wraith-pairs were taken to morgues and run through the missing realm-folk databases for possible identification. When a realm-person was abducted and transformed, he or she lost their essential nature and became something wild and beastly, even unrecognizable.
She wanted to leave, but she felt obligated to stay until she knew all was well in the village.
She turned back to Rez and his doneuse, hoping they were about done. But it was a mistake. As Rez sucked, he lifted his gaze to her. His nostrils flared and he sucked harder.
She tried once more to look away, but this time, she couldn’t. Instead, her heart began to beat harder than ever and her gaze fell to his lips. His scent wafted over her full of eucalyptus, thyme and what she knew to be Rez.
Sudden jealousy struck hard again. She didn’t want the woman donating to Rez. This was her job. Hers alone.
Her mouth fell open. She could hardly breathe. Her fingers once more curled into claws. Her gaze fell to Wanda who had her free hand on top of Rez’s head.
A raw, possessive instinct fired up like jet rockets. She didn’t understand what was happening to her, but she had to leave Millerell immediately or she’d do something she’d regret the rest of her life.
She shifted her gaze back to Rez, then pathed. I must leave, or I’ll hurt the troll.
She didn’t wait for him to respond. She closed her eyes, focused on the time-path and slipped inside. With a few more thoughts and waves of pathing energy, she was back in her home in the mountains to the north.
~ ~ ~
Rez blinked and paused in his feeding. As far as he could with his mouth still fixed to Wanda’s arm, he looked around for Holly. She hadn’t levitated. He would have seen her do that. So, where did she go? He only knew a handful of realm-folk who could teleport. Vojalie and Davido were two of them. He’d also heard Stone could as well as his new bride, Rosamunde.
But Holly? He didn’t think she was at their level.
“Everything okay, Mastyr?”
Wanda’s voice woke him to the important job at hand. He resumed nursing on the inside of her arm, taking her blood down his throat.
Her hand continued petting the top of his head. It was soothing in its way, except for one thing. He wished more than life itself he was drinking from Holly and that what he was feeling were her caresses.
When Holly had stared at him, he knew exactly what had happened with her, though he wasn’t sure he understood why. She’d grown suddenly jealous of Wanda to the point she’d had violent thoughts of hurting his doneuse.
A wave of Holly’s scent had then washed over him, that sweet geranium scent, though intensified with her desire for him. Holly had wanted him, maybe even craved him the way he desired her.
For a moment, he got lost in the awareness of his own lust as he suckled.
Wanda called to him. “Mastyr, too rough.”
He eased back. How messed up was it that he was thinking about Holly while drinking from another woman?
He had to end the session.