Don't Stake My Life on It by Bailey Bradford

Author:Bailey Bradford [Bradford, Bailey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Erotic Romance Fiction
Publisher: Totally Entwined Group Ltd
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

“I’m sorry.” Radney would keep saying it until Claude believed him.

Claude didn’t say anything as he looked at the spots on Radney’s leg where the holy water had splashed him. That it had wetted his jeans was why the water had done so much damage. It’d been held against Radney’s flesh by the denim.

“This looks much better,” Claude finally pronounced. “One more treatment.” He bit his wrist. Blood welled up and Claude held it to Radney’s lips. “Drink.”

Vampires couldn’t usually drink from each other—unless it was a sire or coven leader providing the blood. They couldn’t use each other as sources of nutrition, except in those instances.

Claude’s blood had healed most of the damage done to Radney’s leg. It was too bad it hadn’t helped his heart. Somehow, that traitorous organ had gotten tangled up over Andrew. When Radney had seen Andrew coming toward him, concern etched on his handsome features, it’d done something miraculous to Radney. It’d made him feel hope, true hope. He’d let go of his plans to impress Claude and the other coven members. All he’d wanted, in that moment, was to take Andrew into his arms and hold him.

Then Andrew had asked. He’d asked three times, and the answer would have been ripped from Radney’s lips no matter how he’d have tried to hold it back had Claude not intervened.

Radney squeezed his eyes closed. That blank look on Andrew’s face after Claude had put him in thrall and erased Radney from his memory… It was the worst thing Radney had ever seen, and he’d seen, and done, some terrible things when he’d been with Beiste.

“Radney.”

Radney clenched his eyes shut tighter.

“Radney, open your eyes,” Claude said.

“Do I have to?”

Claude surprised him with a gentle caress to his cheek. “Yes.”

Radney opened one eye.

Claude pursed his lips.

Sighing, Radney opened the other. “I was resting.”

“You were hiding,” Claude corrected. He touched Radney’s cheek again then sighed. “Radney, perhaps I’ve been too hard on you, or, more likely, too easy. I’ve let you act out and hide away from your fears, much like you just tried to hide from me. Now that you’re healing from old wounds, I believe that you’re looking for how you fit into the coven, and…it’s difficult to make changes, isn’t it?”

“I thought you were going to say I didn’t fit in,” Radney muttered.

“All of us in this coven are misfits of sorts,” Claude said. “Think about it. We’re unlike most covens, where the members are strictly ruled by a leader, sometimes brutally so.”

Claude saw too much.

Radney shivered. “Yeah. Well.”

“Beiste was a known sadist,” Claude continued. “The tales of what he did to his own younglings and to humans were disturbing.”

“They were probably true.” Radney grimaced as his stomach turned sour. “He was awful.”

“You were very damaged when you came to me.” Claude touched his cheek again. “I remember thinking you might be a lost cause. I was pleased when you took my blood and your body accepted it. That is not always the case with vampires drinking from someone other than their sire or dam.

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