Free Sapphire Angel by Khloe Wren

grim smile, his father stepped back.
    The others released him and he sped across the grass toward the smell of his Eternal Bride’s blood. As he drew closer, he slowed and all thirteen of their team stopped around him.
    "I will rescue my Bride. You all need to circle around and take out all the Nobles in the area. They are stupid enough to think I would come alone."
    He didn’t wait for a reply but instead used his supernatural speed to rush over to his Darcy. The sight of her made his heart bleed. She was tied to a tree. She had slumped into a heap at the base, her arms pulled back at an uncomfortable looking angle. The hilt of a knife protruded from her right thigh and her precious blood continued to rush from around the blade.
    He ripped the shirt from his body and tore two wide strips from it, tossing the rest away he moved to remove the knife. Sliding the knife free he quickly applied one strip wadded up to the wound as he wrapped the other around her leg as tightly and as many times as he could. Once he tied it off he looked up at her ghost white face.
    His beautiful Bride.
    Tears pricked his eyes and he did nothing to stop them from falling. His heart and soul lay before him, near death. He picked up the knife and cut the ropes binding her wrists; collected her in his arms and ran with every ounce of his supernatural strength to the waiting vehicles they had left.
    As he opened the back door to lay her in, his father came up beside him.
    "Get in with her. I’ll drive."
    Angelo’s knees weakened as gratitude for his father’s perfect timing washed over him. He climbed in and kept Darcy on his lap, cradling her against his chest.
    "You may want to claim her, son. I can hear her heart and it’s not sounding very good. I know you want to get her to your apartment first, but I don’t believe you have the time."
    Angelo sighed, he could hear her rapidly weakening heart rate too.
    "I know, father. I wanted her to make the decision, to tell me she agreed. I don’t want to force this on her."
    "Boy, your mother and I raised you to use your brain—start using it! With, what she believed to be her final breath, she screamed to the world she’d love you forever. I take that as acceptance, don’t you?"
    His father’s words warmed his heart. Angelo knew he was right.
    He brushed her hair away from her now pale white throat and watched her pulse flutter, stop then flutter again. He was running out of time. He lowered his mouth to her neck, whispering his eternal love for her before baring his fangs and sinking them into her soft flesh.
    He groaned at her taste, she was exquisite. She tasted better than the finest wine, richer than the best quality dark chocolate money could buy. He drew pulls on her vein, three, four, five times, before he withdrew his fangs and licked the wounds closed. He then bit into his wrist, pumping his fist so the blood began to flow. He gently opened her mouth and pressed his open wound against her lips, allowing his blood to slide down her throat where it would be absorbed into her system. Healing her, binding them together. At the first tingle through his leg, he withdrew his wrist and licked closed his wound.
    A moment later a burning pain ripped through his thigh, he cried out from the agony. Damn, what Darcy was going through! He was suddenly very glad she was unconscious, for this pain—which he now felt as though it was his own—was almost enough to render him unconscious too.
    For the rest of the drive home he panted through the pain, watching his Darcy as her color slowly began to return to her skin. By the time his father pulled up in front of their apartment building, she was breathing easily, her thigh was nearly completely healed and her skin was looking a healthy pink color. With renewed strength gained from the knowledge his Eternal Bride was safe and claimed, he lifted her and carried her up to the apartment. He glanced at his father in the lift as they ascended.
    "Thank