No . . . this wasn’t good. Not good. He was taking too much. Drinking too fast.
“Thierry . . . stop.” I pushed at him. He responded by sliding his hands up my body to grab my wrists and hold them down against the table. He said nothing, continuing to focus completely on my neck.
After another moment, what started as a sensual experience began to hurt. It felt as if somebody had just bitten into my neck with long, sharp teeth, a searing pain turning to agony as his fangs dug deep into my flesh so he could pierce my vein. To drink my blood.
Not sexy.
“It is important that you stop me right now,”he’d said just a moment ago.
Maybe I should have listened to him.
I squirmed under the weight of him. “Thierry . . . let go of me . . . ”
But he didn’t. He held me there and drank from me until I began to feel weak, until I started to feel cold.
I stopped struggling.
“Thierry . . . ” my voice was weaker now.
Cranberry juice, I thought absently. He normally drinks cranberry juice. I’d never seen him drink blood before. Never.
Suddenly he jerked away from me, bringing a hand up to his mouth, but not before I could see my blood on his lips.
He shook his head and stared at me with wide black eyes. “No. Oh . . . Sarah. I’m so sorry. I . . . damn it.Damn it . I didn’t want this to happen. Not with you. Never with you.”
And then he turned and ran from the club.
I could barely move. I sat up weakly and pushed myself off the table, absently adjusting my dress. I had to go after him. He looked so distraught about what just happened. I had to go . . .
I took two steps before I fell to the ground unconscious.
When I woke up I noticed that somebody’s wrist was in my mouth. Which, to say the least, is an odd thing to notice. I grabbed the wrist and extracted it, only then realizing that, one, the wrist was bleeding,
and two, it belonged to Nicolai.
“Gross!” I scrambled away from him. “What exactly do you think you’re doing?”
“Saving your life.” He rolled his sleeve down and picked up his jacket from a nearby table.
“How do I know where your wrist has been? That’s disgusting.”
He stared at me. “I gave you some of my blood.”
“Yeah, got that. Thus my ‘disgusting’ comment?”
He frowned at me. “You are a very strange vampire.”
“Where’s Thierry?” For the first time since I woke up I looked around the club. It was still dark. There didn’t seem to be anyone around except for me and the Russian vamp.
“I don’t know.”
“How did you get in here?”
He didn’t say anything for a moment. “I have ways of getting where I need to be. And it’s a good job that I did. You had lost a great deal of blood. Too much. You didn’t have much time left.”
I touched my neck and flinched. What in the hell had happened? That was most definitely not the way
I’d expected things to turn out tonight.
“Thierry did this,” Nicolai said. It wasn’t a question so I didn’t answer it. He shook his head. “So many years and so little has changed.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Sarah, please sit. You should get off your feet. You’re still weakened. I can give you more blood if you like.”
I waved him off. “No thanks. If I need any more I can go tap a keg.” A wave of dizziness came over me and I swayed on my high heels.
“Sit. Please.”
“I think I’m going to hurl.” The backs of my legs found the nearest chair and I sat down heavily. I took a moment to compose myself before I looked at Nicolai. “What do you mean that not much has changed over the years?”
He took a seat across from me. “What happened tonight?”
I shook my head. “Who are you, anyhow? And don’t just give me that elder vampire Ring crap.”
He spread his hands. “I am simply someone who wishes to right the wrongs of the world. To make sure that those who are innocent do not pay the price for those who are guilty.”
“Right.”
“You don’t believe me?”
I rubbed my temples. “I don’t know what to believe right now. What time is it?”
“It’s twenty after seven.”
I looked at him sharply, feeling tense and more than a little bruised. “Were you spying on us?”
“I was concerned.”
I made a face. “You were spying. You’re a total weirdo. Well, I hope you enjoyed the show.”
“I saved your life.”
I nodded and tried to relax a bit. “Yes, I guess you did. Thank you.”
He raised a blond eyebrow. “I am surprised that one known as the Slayer of Slayers would find herself in such a predicament.”