Isabel and the Werewolf Beast (Vampire Tales #1)

26. Dante

Chapter twenty-six

Dante

W e ran most of the way back since I didn’t have to follow a scent trail and cut our journey down to a day with our supernatural speed. Maximus looked rather pale for a vampire but he didn’t stop and neither did I even though the muscles in my legs burned, my stomach ached like a hole was growing in the middle. My arms carrying Isabel’s head didn’t sense the weight. That was the only part of me that was comfortable. Her presence soothed me. Mate. So much in one paltry word.

As we dashed up to the castle, the door opened and a red-haired vampire woman ushered us inside. I took the stairs in gigantic leaps, not stopping until I found Isabel’s bedroom. Lucian jumped to his feet standing guard between me and Isabel’s body. A growl rumbled from my body so hard that my entire chest vibrated.

His eyebrow quirked. “Is that her head?”

“Yes. Fix her.” I caressed the bag lovingly then handed it to the vampire.

Maximus and the vampire woman burst into the room. Maximus stumbled a step, and the woman wrapped an arm around his waist.

“You need to feed,” she said.

“I will once Isabel feeds. Renee?”

“We have humans waiting downstairs,” she said.

Humans? Why did they have humans waiting?

“We’ll need them,” Lucian said.

He undid the sack and carefully lifted Isabel’s head out. Renee let out a strangled cry. I would have too, but it would be a more masculine howl of pain. Lucian drew the sheet back revealing Isabel’s headless body. He laid her head on the pillow and brushed the strands of her hair away from her pale face.

“She’s going to be annoyed about me getting blood on her sheets,” he said with a wry grin, and he lifted a knife and slashed across the skin knitted together at the wound site.

After his comment, I expected blood to pour from her but only tiny droplets rose to the surface. He lifted the knife and sliced it across his wrist. Blood gushed like a faucet was on bathing Isabel’s face and wounds in the claret spray. Her face, neck, and chest were covered in the bloody carnage. Lucian wriggled her head down until it was sitting on her neck and placed his wrist on the joint. More of his blood gushed until I couldn’t see the wound any longer .

Seconds. Minutes passed. His blood poured from him spreading further across the bedding and dripping onto the floor.

“Get the humans. She needs to feed now,” Lucian said, his face paling and his body swaying.

“You all need to feed,” Renee said, then ran from the room.

“Is that it?” I asked. “Is she healed now?”

“Yes and no. Until she feeds, she’ll remain in stasis.” Lucian sat on the edge of the bloody bed. He lifted his wrist to his mouth and wiped his tongue over the wound again and again until the bleeding stopped.

Renee rushed back into the room with three humans. All men. The animal inside me screamed at them to get away from his mate. My hackles rose. I bared my teeth. A warning growl rolled around the room.

The vampires studied me with their eerie gaze.

“She can feed from me,” I gritted out through my teeth.

Lucian motioned me closer. I inched across the floor until I was as close to Isabel as I could be without lying on top of her.

“She’ll be ravenous. There will be no stopping her. She’ll drain you dry,” Lucian said.

I glanced at the humans. “You were willing to sacrifice one of them?”

“For Isabel, any of my children, I’d sacrifice anyone, including you.” He held out the knife. “It’s your decision, werewolf.”

I didn’t want to die, but my animalistic urges wouldn’t let another man feed her. I was her mate and I’d take care of her needs. No matter what they were. I’d die before I could tell her what she meant to me, but maybe that was for the best. Vampires killed werewolves. How did I think a relationship would go between us? Me wanting her as my mate was pointless and at least this way I’d die knowing I’d saved her.

“Do it.” I nodded.

Lucian didn’t waste time, he sliced my wrist with the knife and crushed the gushing wound over Isabel’s mouth. My blood ran over her lips and down the side of her face adding to the macabre scene. I sensed a movement under my wrist. Isabel’s lips opened. My blood ran into her mouth and down the back of her throat. A minute later, her teeth sank into my flesh. The bite was harsh, a stab of fangs, and then exploded the euphoric sensation of her bite. Oh, to die this way would be wonderful.

Her hands lifted to my wrist and held it against her mouth. Her newly healed throat worked on deep swallows of my blood. I watched, fascinated by the way her mouth worked my flesh. This sight would stay with me until I died. Her blood-red lips. The dark fall of her lashes over her pale cheeks. The way her hair grew more luminous under the fall of the moonlight streaming in through the window. My knees wobbled, and I sunk onto them at the side of the bed. My heartbeat grew fainter in my ears. Every limb in my body ached over the euphoric sensation as though the act of dying couldn’t be overridden by whatever was in their fangs.

“Isabel,” I said with my last dying breath.

Her eyes snapped open. My beautiful vampire. So full of life. So beautiful. Mine. But now I was about to leave this world.