Tudor Vampire Chronicles 03 - Mark of the Rose by Kate Pearce

Author:Kate Pearce [Pearce, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Fiction, Paranormal
ISBN: 9780451234520
Google: haPAGzndcR0C
Amazon: 0451234529
Publisher: Signet
Published: 2011-07-15T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

“Let me look at it again.” Rhys carefully shrugged out of his heavy jerkin and removed his shirt. Mistress Hopkins touched his left shoulder and pain sliced through him, making his breath hitch. Despite the healer’s care, his shoulder hadn’t healed as fast as he had expected. A thin, bloody discharge continued to seep from the bite marks.

As she probed the skin, her fingers felt cool against his heated flesh. Rhys set his teeth and stared out of the window. It had been more than a week since he’d been wounded and he felt no better. It was only at Verity’s insistence that he’d come back to see Mistress Hopkins. He didn’t think it would help. But at this point he would do anything to please Verity, anything that would make her look lovingly at him again.

He felt as if he was at war with himself. One part of him desperately craved Verity’s attention, while the other hated his need for her and scoffed at his own weakness. He wasn’t sure why such insidious thoughts now crowded his head, but his normal calm had deserted him. And it wasn’t just Verity he was conflicted about. All of his acquaintances suddenly seemed suspect and bent on deceiving him.

“Did you apply the salve, my lady?”

“Yes, and I made sure to keep his fever down.”

Rhys glanced at Verity’s profile. Truly, she had looked after him, but there’d been no intimacy in her care, only the calm of a healer tending to a patient. She’d accompanied him today only to bring back the clothes she’d borrowed and give Molly the gift of a new gown.

Mistress Hopkins sighed. “It seems that the Vampire had something in his bite that stops the wound from healing properly.” She sniffed Rhys’s skin. “Can you smell that, my lady?”

Verity leaned close and inhaled. Rhys wanted to slide his hand around her neck, turn her mouth toward his, and kiss her. They hadn’t kissed since the night of the festival. The night everything had changed for him, but apparently not for her. She was still pleasant and cooperative, but beyond that she seemed to view him as something that belonged to her past rather than her future.

He shivered as she exhaled over his skin and he caught a hint of her warm honey scent.

“It smells like Janus, the Vampire we seek,” Verity murmured.

Mistress Hopkins looked even more worried. “The one who wants to harm the dear queen and her child? Was he the one who bit Sir Rhys?”

“No, I don’t think so. But mayhap that Vampire was turned by Janus.”

“Why won’t the bite heal?”

Verity spoke slowly. ““He is different somehow. He smells not of wolf or fox but of decay and death.”

“Let’s pray those things are not in Sir Rhys, then,” Mistress Hopkins muttered. “I will consult with the Elders and see if they have any stronger magic we can use on him.”

“Are you saying you can’t make me better? Are you not supposed to be the best healer in this region?”

“Rhys!” Verity smiled at Mistress Hopkins.

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