Vail kept a close eye on Peter as he continued to treat Victoria. It was hard to tell if his father was affected by her blood or not, since the older vampire kept up such an unexpressive demeanor, but he wanted to be prepared to intervene if the clan leader suddenly decided to finish off the rest of the liquid pumping through her veins. Not that there was any point. He was stronger than most others of his kind, but Peter Hygrace was on a completely different level. It was the reason why he could control the rest of their family so elegantly and why the Order saw him as such a dangerous enemy to make. If his father really did sink his fangs into the vulnerable girl’s neck, there wasn’t much either of them could do to stop him. As Peter observed Victoria to make sure she wouldn’t drop the teacup on her lap, Vail relaxed slightly. The clan leader was still as unreadable as always, but he seemed to have enough control over himself not to kill his patient. The heir turned his head away as a weary yawn stretched his jaw. It was almost morning, when he would normally be settling down to sleep for the day. Idly, he wondered where he was going to lay his head while Victoria was recovering in his room. He would have been content sharing the bed with her, since he trusted that she wouldn’t take advantage of his unconscious state, but he was sure his father wouldn’t allow it. Not when he didn’t even want them within two meters of each other. “Sit still,” Peter instructed Lady Crest while he reached for the ice on the nightstand. “This will sting, but the cold will encourage your blood to clot.” He may not have liked her nor what she had been doing with his son, but he was still a professional physician. Narrating the process was a habit he had developed over decades of doctoring other people and would continue to do for the human in front of him now. As he’d described, he pressed the ice to the trickling punctures in her neck and held it there, ignoring any response she might have had to the hostile bite of the frozen water. While he did that, Vail slumped in a cushioned armchair to rest while he watched the others from a distance. As tired as he was, he refused to let himself nap until his father was no longer close enough to Victoria to feed on her. Even though he didn’t have the power to prevent it, he wanted to be awake to at least cause a disruption if the elder Hygrace lost control. So, he didn’t settle too comfortably into the seat in case he needed to jump up at the last second. Fortunately, it seemed he wouldn’t have to. Once Peter managed to coax the Crest heiress’s body to start healing itself, he made quick work of cleaning the blood from her skin and binding her neck in a snug dressing. “That should do it,” he nodded, satisfied with his own work. “As long as you don’t toy with the bandage, it should heal nicely.” Not as nicely as a vampire, who would recover in less than two days, but still nicely enough. He righted his posture and stepped back from the bed. “When you’re well enough to walk on your own, I’ll have you sent right back to be with your family.”