Murrphy’s golden eyes slid shut as she touched his shoulder, savouring that relief for just half a second. She was here, he was no longer alone. At that thought he instinctively reached out for Lazarus and could still feel his sire moving further away. Every minute was more than a mile, going, going… gone.
“I know,” he breathed as Jeanne told him he needed to heal Andy. He’d been healed himself by Ben, by Jake, by numerous other vampires. He knew the technical details, but the thought of doing it by himself, without someone there? He would have had to taste his blood again.
“If I hadn’t stopped there I wouldn’t have, I had to stop tasting him,” he explained as he tugged the headphones from his ears, feeling terrible at the thought of it. If not for her voice he would have kept drinking until there was nothing left. He now had her permission to taste him again though, which excited him greatly. His own pain didn’t concern him right now – in the past hour and a half he’d felt more pain that he thought he’d be able to survive, but he had. Well, kind of. Not really.
Murphy twisted to face Andy more, and slowly lifted his hand to check the bleeding before moving faster to lick to blood from his fingers in a manner Jeanne would probably turn her nose up at. Once that was done - it only took seconds - he focused on the human’s throat, to lap at the blood on Andy’s skin, cleaning him carefully.
Calm, quiet, delicious, yes, calm, quiet, you’re ok. The mantra went around his mind into Andy’s (with the accidental addition) as he licked, savouring that taste again. Murphy could see the main wounds, and the first, smaller ones, and perhaps took a little more tome over it than was necessary, reluctant to stop getting that taste he craved.
But he could feel Jeanne right there, and her presence was enough to remind him of the task at hand before too long. Murphy bit at his tongue, making a small noise of surprise at himself and the sudden pain, then swiped his tongue over Andy’s throat, smearing the blood over Andy’s skin.
Murphy lifted his hand to cup the human’s cheek as he pulled back to watch his blood heal the abused neck. His thumb ran gently over Andy’s skin, reassuring him physically now, as well as mentally. A wave of relief came over him as he watched the wound’s heal and he glanced towards Jeanne with a satisfied, handsome grin (despite the blood cover his features), pleased with himself. Yes, given the right permission he would happy drink more deeply, but he’d had enough that he wasn’t quite as consumed by the need for it as he was earlier. He could think about Andy as a person, not just as a meal.
His focus turned back to Andy and he pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek.
You need to take it easy. You’re ok, but don’t push yourself. Call someone for a lift home. Call in sick tomorrow. He sent the final mental instructions without knowing whether they would really have any affect, before sliding himself out from under the weight of Andy’s body, leaning the human more towards the wall.
“Thank you,” he repeated, turning his golden eyes towards Jeanne. He knew very well that if she hadn’t picked up the phone that this could all have turned out a lot worse.
“Is that… is there anything I need to do? Will he be ok?” There was blood on Andy’s collar, but not too much. “Will you help him forget this?” He added as as after thought. There was the dog out there as well, would they get rid of that? There was so much to think about, it was overwhelming. And he knew he’d want more blood before the night was over as well.