"The answer is no," he said firmly. "I'll patch you up so you don't have an episode, then you'll take a day off to rest. If you're in better shape after, you'll join them again. If not, you're grounded as long as it takes."
"I really hate you right now." Her words were spoken without heat. Rather than strain to be free of him, she averted her gaze and rested her cheek against his chest.
Her level of fatigue wasn't about to discourage him from his dinner, either. If anything, he knew draining her some would knock her out faster. "You ready for this?" he asked and nudged her head aside.
"Why not." Her pulse quickened beneath the fingers resting on her neck. She stiffened automatically, as if waiting for him to bite her as he had several times before - hard enough to hurt her.
But Jonny was gentle this night as last. He nuzzled her neck and breathed in her scent, aware of her hand tightening and twisting the material of his t-shirt. She hated the moment before he bit her. He relished it, the feel of her warmth, the simple intoxication of her smell, the hitch in her breathing that told him she was more affected by his touch than she let on.
His teeth slid into her neck, and he held her against him. She relaxed in his arms when no pain came with the bite. She was a mess emotionally and physically. The flow of her emotions hit him harder this time, and her body was crying out for rest she insisted she didn't need. Jonny assessed whether or not she was going to have a breakdown after her discovery at the warehouse or her sudden killing spree that followed. From what he could see in her mind, she had no regrets about the vamps - but she'd break if Brandon died.
It bothered him to see the truth. He purposely hadn't looked into the mind of anyone he fed from in years, and he recalled why. To see the emotions of another so intimately was to absorb them, and he didn't want that, even with Ashley.
He drank his fill and released a thrum of power into her as he finished.
Ashley's body responded instantly. She sagged in his arms, unconscious. Before he withdrew, he directed her mind not to awaken for a full twenty four hours or more, when she was rested and ready.
Jonny tucked her into bed before Traveling to his room, where Charles waited. His second immediately held out the phone Jonny left there.
"You might want to check this first," he advised.