The Reluctant Vampire Page 0,65

at the sound that croaked out of her parched throat.

"You need more blood." He rolled away and sat up, then stood and moved around the bed and out of sight. Drina had to shi onto her back to follow him with her eyes as he moved to a set of coolers by the window. He opened one, retrieved a bag of blood, and returned, but, when she realized they were in her room, she turned her attention to the bed beside her own.

Seeing Stephanie sleeping in the next bed, she half sat up, whispering with confusion, "What are you doing in here?"

"You don't remember the accident?" Harper asked, sinking to sit next to her on the mattress. Drina opened her mouth to say no, but paused as memory came crashing in. She sucked in a breath as horror washed over her in the wake of the memories, and then fell back on the bed with a gu ural sound, her eyes running briefly over Harper to be sure he was wholly intact, and then to Stephanie again. She looked fine. Unmarked and pink-cheeked, her breathing even.

"She'll probably wake up soon too," Harper murmured, offering Drina the bag of blood he'd retrieved. Drina sat up and shifted up the bed to lean against the headboard, then accepted the blood.

"What happened to the brakes?" she asked, recalling Stephanie's saying something about them just before the accident.

Harper waited un l she popped the bag of blood to her fangs before saying grimly, "The brake lines were cut."

Drina frowned around the bag in her mouth.

"There's some worry it's Leonius playing nasty games before he tries to take Stephanie," he admi ed.

"So everyone's on high alert. Lucian wants you and Stephanie on your feet and Tiny turned as quickly as possible. He called Alessandro and Edward and asked them to bring their mates and come help out ll the turn is done," he added, and then seeing her confusion, explained, "Edward and Alessandro are the other two immortals who came in answer to the ad Teddy and a friend of Elvi's named Mabel, put in the Toronto papers for a vampire mate for her."

Drina immediately nodded. Harper had told her how he'd landed in Port Henry during their twenty-four hours in Toronto. While she hadn't recognized the names when he'd men oned them a moment ago, she knew who the men were and knew that they'd become good friends to Harper this last year and a half.

"Alessandro, Edward, and their mates arrived a few minutes ago," Harper informed her. "Teddy, Tiny, and Mirabeau went downstairs with Anders to greet them and coordinate everything. Un l then, we'd been feeding you and Stephanie bag a er bag of blood, trying to rush you through the healing. They were administering it intravenously before that."

Drina grimaced, suddenly understanding the dry mouth. The slower the blood entered the body, the slower the healing was, but it was also less painful. When the blood was fed through the fangs bag a er bag, it hit the system fast and sent the nanos into a frenzy of healing that hurt like hell. She'd probably been screaming her head off until the worst of the healing was done.

She turned and glanced toward Stephanie again.

"They were pouring it down her throat," Harper said quietly. "It seemed to work just as well."

Drina nodded and pulled the now-empty bag off her fangs.

"Do you want another?" Harper asked, getting up.

"No." Drina smiled wryly. "I think I'm probably good for blood, but water would be nice."

He leaned to the side at once and picked up a glass of the clear liquid from the bedside table.

"Thank you," she murmured, accep ng it. Drina was very happy to see that her hand didn't tremble as she raised the glass to her lips. She wasn't suffering any lingering weakness. At least she didn't appear to be, she thought as she drank half the water down in one go. Drina paused to breathe and smile at him, and then downed the rest of the glass before handing it back.

Harper set it on the table, then reached out to slide his hand into the hair at the back of her neck and pulled her forward to press his forehead to hers. "I'm sorry."

Drina nodded solemnly, bumping her forehead on his nose as she did. "You should be. You should have spun the wheel so your side of the car took the impact and saved Stephanie and me all this."

Harper pulled back with