Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [253]
“Okay.” Dante took the jar of homemade remedy and set it down on the nightstand. “Thank you. Both of you.”
The women gave him understanding smiles, then Savannah bent to pick up Tess’s soiled jacket and sweater.
“I don’t think these will be of any use to her now.” The instant her fingers closed around the clothing, her smooth features pinched. She closed her eyes, wincing. Her breath caught, then leaked out of her in a shaky sigh. “My Lord, the poor thing. The attack on her was so…savage. Did you know they nearly bled her dry?”
Dante inclined his head. “I know.”
“She was almost gone by the time that you—Well, you saved her, and that’s what matters,” Savannah said, adopting a serene tone that didn’t quite mask the discomfort she was feeling after reading the terrible details of Tess’s attack. “If you need anything at all, Dante, just ask. Gabrielle and I will do whatever we can to help.”
He nodded, already going back to work on Tess’s wounds with the damp cloth. He heard the women leave, and the space around him went still with the weight of his thoughts. He didn’t know how long he remained at Tess’s side—easily hours. He cleaned her up and toweled her off, then climbed in bed next to her and stretched out against her, just watching her sleep and praying that she would open her beautiful eyes for him again soon.
A hundred thoughts went through his mind as he lay there, a hundred promises he wanted to make to her. He wanted her to be safe always, to be happy. He wanted her to live forever. With him, if she’d have him; without, if that was the only other way. He would look after her as long as he was able, and if—more likely when—the death that stalked him finally caught up to him, he would have already seen to it that there would always be a place for Tess among the Breed.
God, was he actually thinking about the future?
Planning for it?
It seemed so strange that, after spending his entire life living like there was no tomorrow, convinced that at any second there would be no tomorrow, all it took was one woman to throw all of that fatalistic thinking right over a cliff. He still believed death was around the corner—he knew it with the same clarity that his mother knew her own death and that of her mate—but one extraordinary woman had made him hope like hell that he was wrong.
Tess made him wish that he had all the time in the world, so long as he could spend every second of it with her.
She had to wake up soon. She had to get better, because he had to make things right with her. She had to know how he felt, what she meant to him—and what he’d done to her, by binding them together in blood.
How long should it take for his blood to absorb into her body and begin its rejuvenation? How much would she need? She had taken only the smallest amount in the ride to the compound, just the few scant drops he could work into her mouth and down her slack throat. Maybe she needed more.
Using the dagger next to him on the nightstand, Dante scored a fresh line on his wrist. He pressed the bleeding cut to Tess’s lips, waiting to feel her respond, wanting to curse to the rafters when her mouth remained unmoving, his blood dripping down, useless, onto her chin.
“Come on, angel. Drink for me.” He stroked her cool cheek, brushed a tangle of her honey-blond hair from her forehead. “Please live, Tess…drink, and live.”
A throat cleared awkwardly from the area near the bedroom doorjamb. “I’m sorry, the uh…the door was open.”
Chase. Just fucking great. Dante couldn’t think of anyone he’d like to see less right now. He was too entrenched in what he was doing—in what he was feeling—to deal with another interruption, particularly one coming from the Darkhaven agent. He’d hoped the bastard was already long gone from the compound, back to where he came from—preferably with one of Lucan’s size-fourteens planted all the way up his ass. Then again, maybe Lucan was saving the privilege for