“You’re right.” She returned her gaze to the dying human, stroking her thumb down the woman’s hand.
“Hi,” she whispered. “My name’s Vivienne Beaumont.” Following vampiric tradition, she’d taken her Maker’s last name after leaving her mortal life behind. “Can you understand me?”
A long, drawn-out moment passed before the injured woman opened her eyes. They were shockingly blue, like clear water on a sunny day. Her lips parted, but the movement caused more blood to rush out of the wound on her neck.
“Don’t try to speak,” Vivienne said hurriedly.
Reaching over, she grabbed the hem of the prince’s cloak. He seemed to understand what she was doing, and together, they ripped off a strip of material. She held it against the woman’s neck to staunch the blood flow. It seemed unsanitary, but it was betterthan nothing.
“Just blink.” Vivienne held the woman’s blue gaze. “Once for yes, twice for no. Can you do that?”
She held her breath, a holdover from her mortal days, until the injured woman closed her eyes once before reopening them.
“Good,” she murmured. “I know you’re in pain, and I’m sorry.”
The woman whimpered, the sound hurting Vivienne more than the ache in her fangs.
Marius leaned forward. “Is your home nearby?”
One blink.
“Okay, good.” Vivienne brushed back a lock of the woman’s sable hair, her stomach twisting as she prepared to ask the next question. “Do you have a family?”
She wasn’t sure what she wanted to see—one blink or two.
A long moment passed before the woman closed her eyes once.
Somehow, that made things worse.
Pressure built behind Vivienne’s eyes, and she blinked away the tears. “Does your village have a healer?”
One blink again.
That was a good sign.
Vivienne glanced up at Marius, who exhaled.
“Good.” The prince’s voice was low, laced with a gentleness she hadn’t heard before. “Do you want us to bring you back? If not, we can… ease things for you. Make you more comfortable.”
He understood.
This man, who craved adventure and danger and made her want to pull out her hair, knew this world was filled with pain and suffering.
Vivienne’s heart clenched. She wasn’t too full of herself to admit that perhaps she’d misjudged the prince. He understood just how dark life could be, and that was at once the best and worst thing that could have happened.
Keeping those barrier between them would be harder than ever, now.
Those blue eyes crawled between them, and it felt like an eternity passed before the human lowered her lids.
Just once.
“H-h-home,” the human croaked.
Tears broke through the floodgates of Vivienne’s eyes, and she didn’t stop them. “Okay,” she whispered through a watery curtain. “We’ll bring you back.”
Hopefully, they would get her there before it was too late.
Vivienne reached over to pick up the woman, but Marius beat her to it. His arms wrapped around the injured woman, one hand circling her back and holding the cloth against her neck and the other looping beneath her legs.