Page 98 of 'Til All the Seas Run Dry

“Go on,” she said, leaning down to kiss him before pulling back again and offering her wrist.

He took it, as gentle as he ever had been with her, somehow even more careful, and kissed the tender skin. Once. Twice. Three times with an open mouth before opening wider and gently, slowly, piercing his fangs into her wrist. He closed his mouth around the flesh and drank deeply. It didn’t hurt as much as she’d expected once the initial bite was done. She watched his throat bob with his swallows as he drank her, so gently but with a barely restrained, almost desperate thirst.

His eyes were closed, and she smiled. A glance at the clock showed that the sun was rising above them. She lay down on the pillow next to him, watching his profile as he took what he needed, grateful that she was able to provide it. She didn’t feel lightheaded or woozy. She knew that was in part due to the fact that she wasn’t human. But she also knew how very careful he was being. He looked drowsy and relaxed, but she knew he was counting her heartbeats, sensing her body and its signals. She knew he’d only take so much and not a drop more. Certainly not a drop too much. Never again.

After a few long, hazy moments, he released her, swiping his tongue over the puncture marks to seal them closed. He turned his head to look at her and she smiled.

But he didn’t smile back. Instead, she saw a drop of blood gathering in the corner of his eye. It dripped over the bridge of his nose and down the opposite cheek, leaving a red trail against his skin.

“Callum?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” he said, wiping it away with a hasty hand. “It’s fine. Fuck.”

She reached out and wiped the bloody tear with her thumb before pressing it against his lips. His eyes locked on hers, he closed his lips around her thumb, sucking gently. And when another ruby tear fell, she did the same. Again and again until they stopped.

Callum kissed her knuckles, one at a time, featherlight touches of his cool lips.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

“For the meal?” Jory answered lightly.

He looked at her for a moment before unfolding her fingers and speaking against the center of her palm.

“For everything,” he said.

He clasped her hand in his against his chest and she scooted closer, pressing her forehead against his. She smiled, loving the way he brushed a gentle thumb over the spot where his teeth had been.

“You’re welcome.”

And then, like a slow sink into quicksand, Jory felt him relax into sleep and followed him there. Just before she dropped off, she thought to herself that she’d follow him anywhere.

33

Jory sat on the floor with her back against the couch in front of a roaring fire in Magda’s little A-frame cabin. She was embroidering flowers onto a denim jacket for Esther. A surprise. Callum was awake and texting, but since the sun was still hovering above the horizon, he was stuck down in the vault.

Robbie was messing around in the kitchen. Jory heard cabinets opening and closing, metal banging on metal. Water running. Loud, bouncy pop music playing through his little jam box speaker. Robbie moved through the world loudly. His laugh was loud. His tattoos were loud. His energy was loud.

But Jory’s life had been so very quiet for the longest time. And now? Esther and Robbie added a wild sort of technicolor to the quiet that she loved.

“What are you doing in there?” she called out.

“Science!” he called back.

“What?”

“Science!” Robbie shouted triumphantly, and then, all of a sudden, the cabin’s main area was filled with a battery of popping sounds.

Jory shot to her feet. “What the hell is that noise?”

“Science,” he repeated.

“You’re gonna burn the house down, Robbie!”

“Psh,” he said with a casual wave of his hand. “No, I’m not. But what I am going to do is—hang on. Wait.”

He turned his back to her, shaking something over the stove and then dumping the contents of a pot into the biggest mixing bowl the cabin had before returning the pot to the stove and aggressively shaking it again.

“Are—” she began, smelling deeply. “Are you making popcorn?”