Elijah bent over Sabrina and cringed. He hadn’t had human blood in a year, at least not fresh from a warm body. He’d raided blood banks on a regular basis, but it was like comparing a hot meal fresh from the oven to a meal that had sat out for two hours on the table.
He was worried he wouldn’t be able to stop once he started feeding, but strictly reined in his doubts. He had to do this; he had to save her. Isaac would understand. He would see he had done what he felt needed to be done. Elijah couldn’t allow Isaac to do what was against his laws and get himself killed in the process. Not when he had it in his power to save her as well, minus dire consequences, any more than he could sit and watch Sabrina die.
Not bloody likely.
Elijah leaned over Sabrina and cleared her wet hair away from her throat. He could see her pulse beating, faint and slow. She was barely alive, so time was certainly of an essence. Elijah leaned into her neck to kiss her while taking one final, fortifying breath.
He could do this.
Elijah bared his teeth and bit into her tender skin. She jerked in response and gasped beneath him. He knew he hurt her, but still he couldn’t contain his moan of delight. He lapped up her blood greedily. He’d never tasted anything so sweet in his life, and he devoured every drop he could manage. It wasn’t until she went limp beneath him and fell silent that he remembered who she was, and why he was doing this.
He gasped and jerked away, and in a panic searched her pale face for signs of life.
Was she drained, and dead? If so, he’d wait here for Isaac to awaken, and let him kill him as well. He would not, could not, go on.
Sabrina moaned, and he looked at her in renewed hope. He guiltily pushed down the animal instinct telling him to finish the rest of his meal. Instead, he bit his own wrist, drawing blood, and pressed his wrist to her mouth. The blood trickled in, and her eyes flew open in response. She arched her back in protest and tried to move her head away from his blood, but he held her firm. She whimpered, and tears rolled down her cheeks. When color came back to her cheeks, he allowed her to have her way, and he pulled his wrist back. His blood was smeared on her face, and he fought the surge of possessiveness that came over him.
Mine.
“It hurts.” She gasped. “So bad.”
Elijah bent over her and smoothed her hair back from her face. “I’m sorry, Sabrina. So sorry.”
Isaac stirred next to him and Elijah tensed. He was going to get hell from his brother, and Isaac might well kill him.
But he wouldn’t kill Sabrina, right?
Elijah shuddered and pulled her into his arms. If he was going to have to run from Isaac, he was not leaving her behind. He knew Isaac loved her, had even been prepared to transform her himself, but things always changed in this world. He could have not gone through with his plan, could have remembered his duties and allowed Sabrina to die on this cliff. Elijah acknowledged he’d taken the choice away from Isaac and he feared the consequences. Not for himself, but for Sabrina.
Elijah looked down into her pain-wracked face and love swelled over him. He couldn’t risk her life, and he couldn’t trust Isaac. He didn’t know how his brother would react to the “new” Sabrina, and she was too weak and vulnerable to withstand attack. Enforcers often hunted down new changelings avidly, for they were easy prey.
Without further thought, Elijah lifted her and sprinted away from Isaac. He needed to keep Sabrina safe, at all costs.
Even from the man she loved.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Isaac moaned, disoriented, as he sat up and cradled his head in his hands. Why was he lying outside in the cold night in the first place? In a horrifying sequence of pictures, he saw it all. Sabrina lying in the clearing, pinned down by the tree his storm had knocked down, Sabrina getting thrown into the water, Sabrina dying by the cliff’s edge. He’d wanted to save her, to bite her. But they hadn’t allowed him; they’d knocked him out instead.
And let her die.
He growled and jumped up, looking around madly. Had Sabrina died when he’d been unconscious? Or had she allowed Elijah to bite her, after having denied Isaac the chance to do so?
No, the right to do so. She belonged to him, and he to her. Yet she refused the one course of action that had been open to him. He tried not to allow it to hurt him, but it was like trying to stop the rain from falling or the wind from blowing. It wasn’t possible. He heard the ground crunching beneath footsteps behind him, and he swung around in excitement. Were they still here? Had they not left him, after all?
He saw a woman and man walking out of the darkness of the trees, and tensed in apprehension. It couldn’t be Sabrina. She wouldn’t be able to walk. He cursed when he was able to recognize the pair approaching him.
“Sheila, Connor. What brings you here?”
Sheila looked at her companion, and Connor nodded. Sheila spoke eagerly. “We could sense a new vampire was nearby, and so we followed the scent. It led to this spot, and we saw you. Are you okay?”
He stiffened and felt rage come over him. So Elijah had changed her. Had she allowed him—nay, welcomed him? Thunder boomed overhead, and he cursed.
“I’m fine. There was a fight, and Sabrina was badly injured. I was here, with her, and Elijah struck me. I just woke up. I suppose he changed her while I was unconscious, and ran from me. Louisa was the culprit, and she’s dead.” All the time he was explaining, his mind was on Sabrina and Elijah. Where were they? Did Elijah actually think Isaac would harm Sabrina? The woman he loved?
Sheila chuckled, and he looked at her inquiringly. “You find something in my story amusing, Sheila?” He let his anger show.
“No, in your thoughts!” she exclaimed as she gestured at his head.
Shit, he’d forgotten to guard his thoughts, had completely forgotten her power was to read minds. Was he insane? He quickly remedied the problem and guarded his thoughts from nosy ears. Sheila would like nothing more than to get revenge against him for past wrongs. He knew it as well as she did. “Get out of your king’s head, Sheila. I didn’t give you permission to fish around in my thoughts.”
Despite her bravado, she paled in the face of his ire. “I know what you think, Isaac, and this has nothing to do with revenge. But I do know what I see, and I see you were going to change her yourself, and the only reason you didn’t do so is because Elijah stopped you.
“I know also how much you love her, and so I wonder if the lines are still drawn strictly. You have always said if there was a newborn vampire, we must hunt it down and kill it before it gains strength. ‘A dead vampire is the only good vampire’, as you said.