Page 122 of Let Sleeping Vampires Lie

He resisted for a moment. Pride. Habit. Stubbornness.

“Con,” I said softly. “Do not make me pour this into you.”

His eyes opened a fraction.

Whatever he saw on my face convinced him.

He drank.

The first pull was shallow, tentative. Then his body kicked in. Hunger took over. He swallowed in long draws, throat working, fingers curling into the sheets.

Color crept back into his lips. The gray tint along his cheekbones faded slightly. His breathing steadied, still shallow but stronger.

I watched his chest, the rise and fall. Watched the muscles in his jaw flex as he fed. Watched the tremor in his hands begin to ease.

When the first bag emptied, I took it away.

He licked a smear of red from his mouth, eyes sliding closed again. “Another.”

I passed him a second.

He drank that one faster.

By the time the third bag was half gone, the tremor had fully subsided. His chest rose more firmly. His eyes opened without the glassy haze that had worried me.

He stopped on his own, turning his head away.

“That is enough,” he said.

I did not argue.

Isra exhaled a breath I had not realized he had been holding. Some of the tension bled from his shoulders.

“He will need rest,” Raven said. “A lot of it. Bones take time, even with our healing, and that much internal damage will not disappear overnight.”

“How is your magic?” I asked her quietly.

Her gaze flicked to my hands, still tinged with the shimmer of power from the fire earlier. “Silent. It went still when you burned the hall. Whatever surge you pulled from the bond drained what I had in reserve.”

Guilt pricked under my ribs. “I am sorry.”

“I am not,” she said. “You got the piece.”

Isra tore his attention from Con and turned fully to Marcus.

“You brought it back?” he asked.

Marcus set the case on a chair near the corner of the room, resting his palm on the lid a moment longer than necessary. “It was not easy.”

“I saw the fire from the club,” Isra said. “News feeds are already buzzing with reports of an explosion in the industrial district. They are calling it a gas leak.”

Raven snorted softly. “Of course they are.”

Isra’s gaze sharpened. “You said you would be careful, Marcus.”

Marcus’ eyes closed briefly. He looked suddenly very tired. “You know there is no such thing as careful when dealing with criminals.”

“That is not what I meant, and you know it,” Isra snapped.