Page 48 of The Vampire Debt

“Clara, what have you done?” he demands, crouching before me.

I flinch, expecting him to lose himself at the sight and smell of blood, but he doesn’t.

“I don’t…” I look from him back to my hand. There is so much blood on the floor. I don’t think it’s right. “I went to bed and there was glass…”

Alaric’s hands tightly grip my shoulders, almost painfully. “I will not let you take the easy way out of our agreements. If you die, then it will be by my hands and my hands alone.”

He grips my elbow and pulls my injured arm forward to examine it and I swear that the red in his eye threatens to swallow up every last bit of blue. Then without warning, he grips the hem of my nightgown and rips. I gasp at the violence of the motion, but his hands move deftly, wrapping the strip of cloth to stanch the bleeding.

I shake my head. Does he think I did this on purpose? My tongue darts out between my lips as I try to form words to explain what happened, but he picks up the piece of glass and stands before I get a chance to and says, “Do not move.”

Then he leaves the room. I have to blink several times. My eyes are playing tricks on me, because there is no way anyone can move that fast.

I hold my breath for a long moment, watching the blood seep through the white, darkening it, spreading… spreading… spreading. When my lungs ache, I release my breath.

“Clara,” he says my name, kneeling before me and setting a small black doctor's bag at his side. I scoot back, but he grabs hold of me, keeping me from retreating. “Be still,” he orders.

He releases my arm only to lift my hand to unwrap the makeshift bandage. Alaric’s fingers caress my hand and I want to jerk away. He is helping me, but it feels too intimate.

Instead, I turn my head and gaze at a small spot on the tile while he works. There’s pressure and the occasional sting as he takes care of it.

While he works, he mumbles something about it not being too deep. Already it feels better, but I can’t tell him that.

Then his fingers still for a moment, and when he doesn’t continue, I look at my hand, wrapped from palm to the middle of my arm, and he is holding my hand with both of his, staring at it.

“Thank you,” I say when he still doesn’t move or speak.

He looks at me and I tug on my hand. Reluctantly, he releases me, only to lean forward until he hovers over me. My gaze flicks to his mouth and I think he might kiss me until I see the look in his eyes—dark, and distant, and not a single spot of red.

He picks me up and carries me into the main room, setting me on a chair while he changes the sheets, then lays me on the bed. Once more he hovers, his gaze focused on my injury.

“Am I so terrible to be around that you would prefer this?” he asks.

My mind is still fuzzy.

“I—” I start then cut off, not sure how to answer.

“You need to sleep more now,” he says.

I try to speak again but Alaric straightens his back and pulls a white handkerchief from his pocket and begins scooping up what’s left of the glass vase on the bedside table.When had I managed to knock that over?I must have been far more tired than I realized if I broke it without noticing.

Then he leaves without so much as another word. The door closes softly behind him, and I am left feeling strange and melancholy.

Chapter Twenty-One

Alaric

I wishto go to her, but after what she attempted last night, I don’t think I can bear to look at her. There is something about what she did last night that haunts me, though I cannot put the feeling to words in a way that is accurate.

So far, she has not sought me out as usual. Though if she did, I am not sure what I would say.

Pulling back from the woman whose name I don’t know, nor care to learn, I wipe away the drop of blood at the corner of my mouth.

“Go, and do not return,” I say, infusing power into my voice, compelling her to obey.

She straightens and turns to leave, walking out of the glass doors of the atrium to the carriage that waits to take her back to her home. Once she has departed, I sit on a stone bench next to the raised pool of water in the middle of the room.

Roses grow all around, their petals beginning to close as the sun continues to lower. The sweet heady perfume of them is almost cloying. The warm light seeps in through all sides of the glass room, making the bronze arches that meet in the center of the domed ceiling glitter like gold.