We lay panting and gasping for a few seconds before he got to his feet, helping me up. I waved the tickets at the conductor, who had given a mildly curious glance at our unorthodox entrance before we collapsed into a seat at the end of the car as my entire body screamed abuse at me, my mind numb with the events of the last twenty-four hours.
Adrian sat in the seat facing me, hunched over, his hand to his chest.
"Are you OK?" I asked. Stupidly. Of course he wasn't OK, he'd just been stabbed. Even a vampire had to feel a stabbing.
"Yes," he said, his breath shallow and fast. "Your head… I felt your pain. Is it better?"
I touched my temple. "All gone, but I don't think I'm going to try warding again."
The conductor wandered over to check our tickets. I gave them to him, scooting over to sit next to Adrian, casually leaning into him in a way that would hide the blood seeping out of his chest. I didn't want to think about at what point I'd gone from being captive to protector; I just wanted the conductor gone so I could see how badly Adrian was hurt.
After a few questions about where we were going, the man moved off to another car. I waited until a couple with two screaming kids passed us before turning to Adrian. "How bad is it?"
I pushed his shoulders until he was leaning back at a drunken angle, using my body to shield us in case anyone went down the aisle in the center of the car.
"It's healing. Leave it."
"I told you I don't take orders without a good reason." I brushed his hand aside and unbuttoned the black silk shirt that was glued to his chest, biting my lip at the deep slash in his pectoral muscle. The knife had barely missed hitting his nipple, and, going by my scanty knowledge of anatomy probably had come very close to striking him in the heart. The wound was still bleeding, but sluggishly. "You can heal yourself?"
"Yes," he said, his head back. I gave the wound a long look, then stripped off my jacket and pulled my arms from the sweater I was wearing. Beneath it, I squirmed out of the thin cotton camisole, taking it off and re-donning my sweater before turning to him. His face was still, his lashes thick slashes of black on cheeks gone pale with the loss of blood. Using my teeth, I tore a little hole in the bottom of the camisole, ripping off a couple of long strips before folding the remainder of the fabric over into a soft pad.
"This may hurt," I murmured as I glanced around the car before pressing the pad to the hole in his chest. His eyes opened to watch me as I slid my hands into his shirt and behind him, strapping the pad down with the strips of fabric. I tried my best to not notice the way the warm flesh of his naked back felt, but I couldn't resist spreading my fingers along the muscles before withdrawing my hands.
"Why are you doing this?" he asked, his eyes narrowing as I buttoned his shirt.
"I don't really know," I answered truthfully. "I was kind of hoping you'd be able to tell me."
His eyes closed again as his head sagged into the high back of the seat. "Every unredeemed Dark One has a Beloved, a woman who can save his soul."
"Yeah, Melissande told me about that."
"In order to be redeemed, the two must Join."
"You mean sex?" A warmth started in my belly, spreading out to the rest of my body as the wicked part of my mind indulged in some extremely detailed fantasies concerning him.
"No. Yes. Not wholly. A physical relationship is the fifth step, but there is more to a Joining than just lovemaking."
"So you think that because we can do the Vulcan mind meld, I'm your savior, and we're bound to end up having wild bunny sex together?"
He grimaced with pain.
"All right, I'll take back the wild bunny sex question since you're in no shape to even be thinking about that. Just tell me about this fifth step," I asked, leaning forward to brush a tendril of hair off the stubble on his cheek.
His eyes opened and caught me in a clear blue snare. I looked at his mouth, so near, so tempting. Normally held in a tight line, relaxed his mouth was sensual, the curve of his lower lip singing a sweet siren song that I couldn't resist. I kissed him gently, feathering light little kisses along his lips, watching in cross-eyed wonder as his eyes darkened to midnight.
"What was that?" he asked, his breath fanning my face. I shivered at the rough touch of his voice, my mind filled with erotic thoughts that I wasn't entirely certain were mine.
"A kiss. I think you're sexy, remember?"
"That wasn't a kiss," he said, his voice low, reverberating within me. "This is a kiss."
One hand tangled in my hair as his mouth claimed mine, the hot, sweet lure of his lips melting me into him as his tongue swept its way into my mouth, pushing aside any objections I might have wanted to make about the sinuous way it stroked me. I've never been one who found tongues overly stimulating, but the way Adrian tasted me, it was different, erotic. His tongue twined around mine, enticing mine to follow in a sensuous dance. Various and sundry parts of my body tightened and ached as I felt a need in him, a need in myself to taste him. I flicked my tongue over the corners of his mouth, tasting his skin before diving into unknown territory. His mouth was as hot as the rest of him, and oddly enough, just feeling his heat made me shiver. I slid my tongue around the glossy enamel of his teeth, pausing to stroke down the length of an elongated canine tooth.
Yeah. I know. How stupid is it to French kiss a vampire and not expect sharp teeth?
I jumped as the tip of the tooth pierced my tongue, blinking in surprise as Adrian stilled beneath me. Our mouths were still joined, but I knew I was bleeding. A roar of hunger swept through him, through me, screaming a demand that he couldn't deny. He suckled hard on my tongue, groaning deep in his throat as he sucked off the bead of blood.
I pulled my mouth from his, startled by the overwhelming desire that rocked him, feeling it as if it were my own. He stared at me, his eyes onyx now, and I knew what it was he wanted. Needed.
"You're hungry," I whispered, the background hum and clatter of the train all but obliterating the words. "You haven't… er…"
"Fed. No. There was no time before, and after, there was only you, and I couldn't…" He closed his eyes, his jaw tense. I was draped across him, careful not to put any pressure on his wound, the movement of the train rocking us together beneath the flimsy blanket made up of our coats. This close to him, I didn't have to open myself up to feel what he felt.
"Why couldn't you… er… feed off me?" I asked, turning my head so my lips brushed the bristled line of his jaw.
"We've already taken three steps of Joining." His voice was so raw it sent a shiver of desire down my back. "Four, if you count this. You could have left me to the hunters, but you didn't."
He touched his chest.
"I don't quite follow you on this whole step thing, but I know you need blood. You've lost a lot, and if your tank wasn't full to begin with, then you're really running on empty."
Midnight-blue eyes looked at me, a question in their depths, almost hidden by hopelessness and despair. It wrung my heart, my throat closing with tears as I accepted the pain that howled within him, my body shaking as I took his darkness and fought to make it light.
"Take it," I whispered, pulling his head toward me. "Feed."
"Nell." His lips brushed against the skin of my throat. "You don't know what you're saying."
"I know what I'm doing," I lied, tilting my head back. "Feed on me, Adrian."
Beneath my hands, his shoulders shuddered as he fought the red wave of hunger that swept through him. I knew, in a distant part of my mind, that I should be horrified, sickened by what I was offering, by what I craved him to do, but the truth was, I ached to have him feed off me.