The Last of the Red Hot Vampires - By Katie MacAlister Page 0,38
ceiling. I crawled over to Theo, trying to shield his head from any falling objects. He was crumpled in a heap, filthy with dirt and blood, but alive.
"Oh, that's not good," Noelle said from the other side of the room, where she'd gone to look at the demon.
"Are you all right?" I asked Theo, propping him up on my lap in order to gently wipe blood and debris from his face. "Are you hurt badly? You're bleeding a lot. I should call a paramedic."
"Erm...Portia...I'm afraid there's a situation here," Noelle said from where she squatted next to the wall.
I ignored her as I peeled back the shredded remains of Theo's shirt. "Sweet mother! We have to get you to a hospital."
Theo grabbed my arm as I was about to leap to my feet, not sure of where I was going to go for assistance, but driven to getting him help. "I'm all right, Portia. The wounds are not fatal."
"Your chest is torn to shreds," I started to say, but at that moment, Theo turned his head. I had pulled him up slightly, and his head was resting on my chest. He eyed the breast that was a scant millimeter from his mouth.
"I heal quickly." It was just three words, but my nipples tightened with the feeling of his breath on the thin silk that was the only thing separating my flesh from his mouth.
"That's...you're speaking into my breast," I said, oddly loathe to move.
"Yes, yes I am," he said, his eyes fixed with fascination as my nipple hardened even more, little waves of heat rippling outward from my breast across my chest before heading downward to pool in my stomach...and locations further south. "I'd like to do other things to it, but now is not the time or place."
The air in the room seemed to evaporate into nothing. "There's going to be a time and place?" I asked, inwardly wincing at the moronic question, but unable to keep from asking.
"I fervently hope so," he said before looking down at his own chest.
It took me a moment to wrestle my mind from the images of just what I'd like Theo to do to my breasts, but the sight of his chest healing before my startled eyes did a lot to bring me down to earth.
"That's...that's impossible," I said, reaching out to touch a long welt which had been a deep gash just a few minutes before. His flesh was hot, fever-hot, radiating heat that indicated a lot of energy was being used to heal his wounds. "This is...it's...it's just not possible!"
"Welcome to Wonderland, Alice," he said with a smile that stripped the air from my lungs, and left my heart racing.
Life as I knew it ceased to exist. Life as I never believed possible began.
"This is real, isn't it?" I asked, gently touching another now-healed welt. As I watched, several more scratches merged together, healing to thick, raised patches that melted away into smooth flesh after a few minutes. "All of this is real. I'm not insane."
Theo sat up as the last wound disappeared. His eyes expressed mingled pity and an unexpected sadness. "No, you're not insane."
"Then you're..."
"A nephilim. Immortal."
I swallowed hard. "And I'm..."
"A virtue. Soon to be immortal, as well, once you are accepted into the Court of Divine Blood." He got to his feet, and pulled me to mine, holding onto my hands.
It was too much, too much to take in at once. I shook my head, not at what Theo was saying, but at the fact that my brain was trying to process all this new information so quickly.
I just couldn't believe it was real...and yet, finally, I admitted to myself that the evidence piled up indisputably pointed to one conclusion: everything I had believed impossible, everything I knew could simply not be, now suddenly was. It was as if a whole new part of life opened up before me, beckoning me to go forth and explore all the mysteries it had to share.
It was frightening as hell.
"And that teenager, that kid who was here tearing you apart..."
Theo gave me a slight smile, the corners of his mouth curling up in a manner that, despite my bemusement, made my stomach lurch uncomfortably. "...was no teenager, but a demon, which you handily defeated."
"I hate to interrupt, but I feel it necessary to correct that statement." Noelle got up from where she had been looking at the wall, and came over to us. "Portia didn't defeat the demon."