Page 18 of A Bond Beyond Blood (The Butcher’s Daughter Trilogy #1)

J ack

In the aftermath of Eli’s swift departure, my pulse thrummed rhythmically in my ears, fast and steady like...

Ugh. Like the wings of a hummingbird.

Petit colibri.

I closed my eyes in a long blink, annoyed that even when he wasn’t here and invading my head, Eli was still in my thoughts. Center fucking stage.

“Jacqueline,” Vinny whispered. He’d walked to the door, shutting it now as I watched, then he clicked the lock into place. He listened for a moment, inhumanly still, then he gave a curt nod. “He’s gone.”

My eyes closed again as a rush of relief filled me for the first time in hours.

“Please tell me I misunderstood, that he wasn’t inside your head.”

I opened my eyes and Vinny’s chestnut gaze was just inches away. He’d settled back onto the coffee table directly in front of me, hands resting on the tops of my thighs. I gave a slight smile and shrugged as much as I could without agony.

Vinny winced, almost imperceptibly, then his eyes bore into mine as seconds stretched into minutes of heavy silence. He searched my eyes as if he, too, might find a way inside my brain to uncover my every thought.

Honestly, I kinda wished he could. All the things I wanted to say, questions that needed answers, sat jumbled up in my mind.

“It’s okay,” he lied. “We’ll figure this out.” He squeezed my thigh and I winced as the pressure of his fingertips triggered a throbbing pain. “You need to rest now, little Fiorino.”

Sliding down off the coffee table, Vinny knelt before me on the floor, carefully cradling my face in his hands before I could even find the courage to attempt to lie back down.

“He’s right, you know.” His eyes searched mine, then flicked around my face, cataloging the bruises, no doubt.

“If you had even just a small sip of my blood—”

“No.” I forced all of my strength into that single word, that single syllable , praying he’d leave it at that.

“You’ve tasted me before, sweet girl. When I bit my lip?” Eyes pleading, he searched my gaze, but I shook my head.

That was different. I was caught up in the moment, dick-drunk and not thinking straight.

I’d had a taste, fine . But that didn’t mean I had to drink from him.

I wouldn’t do that .

Vinny closed his eyes, then nodded. “Okay.” He reached for the water bottle and the painkillers. “Double the dose, at least. Please.”

I nodded, then opened my mouth when he brought four ibuprofen tablets to my lips.

He placed them on my tongue, then carefully tipped the water bottle to my lips so I could swallow them down.

A bit of water trickled down my chin and he swiped his thumb over my skin to catch the droplet, eyes holding mine unwaveringly.

“I know I told you not to try talking, but I can’t read minds.” He laughed bitterly as his gaze flicked to the front door, then back to me. “You’re going to have to tell me about your pain.”

“It sucks.”

Vinny’s lips twitched. “I know, sweet girl. Where are you injured?”

I closed my eyes and chuckled, but the movement shook my torso and I winced at the renewed pain. “Everywhere,” I whispered. “My ribs. My tailbone.” I grimaced. “I think it’s broken.”

“Do you want to lie down out here or in your bed?” Vinny rested his forehead against mine. “I can carry you,” he whispered. “It’ll only hurt for a second.”

“Vampire speed?”

He nodded, the movement nudging my head. “Yeah, baby, vampire speed.”

“Okay.” I swallowed hard, braced myself, then said, “Bed.”

Vinny moved quickly as promised, scooping me into his arms and cradling me against his chest as he raced down the hallway, depositing me into my bed before I’d even had a chance to register his familiar scent—or the discomfort that came from being jostled.

The pain hit me in a wave and I groaned, squeezing his wrist as he stood beside the bed.

He waited for a minute as I breathed through the anguish, and when I opened my eyes, his sparkled proudly. “Did you stake a vampire king, sweet girl?”

I swallowed as that earlier shame returned, tightening a fist around my lungs. “I missed.”

“Is that what he led you to believe?”

I frowned, searching Vinny’s gaze.

“That’s not the way to kill a born vampire, Jacqueline, only one who has been turned.”

I blinked as I absorbed that information. If Eli was a born vampire, that meant he was royalty.

Oh god.

The kneeling made a lot more sense with that little tidbit.

But Eli’s echelon was a mindfuck for a different day. I could unpack that information when I wasn’t beat to shit.

Speaking of the fight... Eli had said I should have aimed an inch to the left, but was he just fucking with me?

“I didn’t fail?” I whispered.

Vinny’s face crumpled with an emotion I couldn’t put a finger on, but then he shook his head. “No, you didn’t fail... I—” He paused, then said, “I’m going to check your body now, okay? I want to see how much damage there is.”

Closing my eyes, I rested my head on the pillow and gave a slight nod.

With more tenderness than I would have expected from this former boxing champion, Vinny’s fingertips grazed my face, pressing gingerly around my eye socket and nose to assess the damage to my face.

“Your nose doesn’t seem broken,” he whispered, breath fluttering against my cheek.

He brushed a soft kiss to my temple as his fingers moved carefully to my chin.

He turned my head slowly and hissed as he assessed the side that had obviously seen the worst of the fight with Eli.

“You might need stitches here.” His fingertips traveled down the column of my throat, pressing and nudging as he went.

He trailed his fingertips along my collar bone from one shoulder to the other. “Any pain here?”

“No.”

“That’s good news.” He continued down my sternum, between my breasts, then tugged gently at the hem of my shirt. “Can I pull this up?”

I nodded.

Vinny rolled the hem carefully, lifting the shirt higher and higher as he did so, then he made an angry sound in his throat and I grimaced.

“Is it that bad?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know...

He grunted in the affirmative as he lowered his face to my stomach, brushing his lips against my bare flesh before leaving a trail of kisses over my injuries.

“The bruising is already pretty bad,” he confirmed as he continued leaving his trail of kisses.

“But I can’t tell if anything is broken unless I touch you. ”

His words sent a shiver down my spine, even though he hadn’t meant anything by them. He physically needed to feel my ribs to see if there were any breaks. “Go ahead.”

“It’s going to hurt.”

I inhaled deeply, then held my breath and nodded.

“Do you want me to distract you?”

Another nod.

Vinny’s lips brushed mine as he settled his left hand against my ribs on the right side, then his tongue darted out, licking across the seam of my lips. I opened up to him, and as his tongue stroked along the length of mine, he pressed his fingers into the groove between the lowest two ribs—

I cried out, arching my back as pain rocketed out from the spot.

Vinny pulled back and stilled his hand, waiting until I took a deep breath and relaxed before he moved up to the next groove. He didn’t kiss me this time, just pressed between the next two ribs, and again, excruciating pain followed.

“Vinny,” I gasped.

With a grimace, he ran his hand over my hair, cradling the crown of my head. “I think you need to see a doctor.”

My eyes flew open—I hadn’t even realized they’d been closed. “I don’t want to go through all that... what would I even tell them at the hospital?”

“I can call someone,” he suggested. “Have him come to us? There’s a guy that works out at my gym; he tends to some of the guys when they get too beat up in the cage. He won’t ask questions.”

“Okay.” I closed my eyes again as sleep threatened to pull me under.

“Hey,” he murmured, “be a good girl and stay awake for me, okay? Just a little while longer.”

I opened my eyes and Vinny smiled.

“I want to check your tailbone.” He tugged at the waistband of my jeans. “Can you help me get you out of these?”

I smirked, struggling to come up with a joke about getting me naked even though I knew there had to be one in there somewhere, then I just gave up and nodded. Vinny worked the button fly of my jeans, then began to tug them down. I winced and he froze, frowning as he met my gaze. “I’ll go slower.”

“It’s okay, just get them off.”

Vinny’s eyes twinkled with amusement, finding humor even when I couldn’t deliver a joke, but he focused on his task and moved swiftly, removing my jeans so quickly I barely registered the motion. He placed one hand beneath my thigh and the other under my shoulder. “Let’s roll you over.”

I braced for the pain and he rolled me onto my left side, then cursed under his breath. “I’m going to kill him.”

He said this as if he hadn’t just kneeled in front of Eli.

Twice now.

“I didn’t think there were kings in your world,” I said, thinking back to his earlier words. “Not anymore. You said I staked a king, and that he was born, which means...” My words trailed off as another sharp wave of pain stole my breath.

“You did stake a king, and we still have royals all over the world, they just haven’t been present here since Eli’s disappearing act.

And the media doesn’t want you to know about the others, so that information has been meticulously scarce for some time now.

” After a moment, he added quietly, “But I can explain more when you’re feeling up to it. ”

I nodded, and he added, “It’s your world, too, sweet girl. We exist together now, remember?”

I tried to smile, but my lips cracked at the slight motion.

Vinny gingerly ran his thumb across my swollen cheek. “I should kill him for the simple fact that I can’t kiss you like I want to.”

The possessive growl in his voice tightened my belly, but I was too weak for anything more than just lying here.

I closed my eyes and focused on breathing, only on breathing, pushing aside the endless array of questions I had for Vinny until I could gather my thoughts and keep my eyes open longer than three minutes at a time.

Vinny supported me on my side with his left hand, then ran his right hand downward, over the curve of my hip, around the fullness of my cheek—

“You can’t even help yourself, can you?”

He chuckled as he moved his hand to my tailbone. “Guilty as charged. It really is a perfect ass. Ready?”

I took a deep breath and held it, then nodded, and Vinny pressed the area gently—

I cried out as the pressure triggered a fresh wave of torment.

“I’m calling a doctor.”

“Okay,” I agreed through clenched teeth as he propped a pillow behind me.

He bent over me and pressed a kiss to my temple as he positioned another pillow between my arms, propping me up on my left side.

“Don’t leave me,” I whispered.

“Never gonna happen, little Fiorino.”