Chapter Eleven
Everything hurt. Sabrina rolled her head on the pillow. It was the perfect time to tell Tobias the truth. This was what she’d wanted, a chance to tell him who she really was and explain why they needed to be more careful. But she hesitated. The truth was that she was greedy, selfish. She was afraid he’d push her away.
It had become real for her when she’d seen him shift. Nothing about the transformation was easy, but he had become the beast for her. Although she’d been almost blinded by pain at the time, she remembered his dragon was absolutely lethal. She’d seen herself in that beast, realized that she and Tobias shared much more than an interest in healing. She wished things were different. She wished…
Her gaze fell on the bright red blood dotting the white cotton covering her. “I’m sorry about your sheets.”
He shook his head. “I don’t care about the sheets, Sabrina. Answer me. Why? Why did you let the wolf stab you?”
Oh, how her heart ached to see him like this. Or maybe the ache she felt that cut to her bones was from what she’d been through. She was hungry. Her fangs descended, and she ran her sandpaper tongue across her lips.
“I’ve put your life in danger twice now,” she rasped.
“I’m not the one who was almost killed today. Given a battle between werewolf and dragon, the dragon always wins. Why didn’t you stay behind me?”
She wrapped the corner of the sheet around her finger. There was no turning back. She must tell him, and she must tell him now. Her voice was barely a whisper as she answered, “Because I realized he was right.”
Tobias stilled. “Right about what?”
“I told you I was half vampire,” she began, her vision going blurry with her tears. “What I didn’t tell you is that my father is master of the Chicago coven. I am the heir to his throne. I will become master at the end of the month, when my father moves to Racine to manage our new territory, the territory we took from the wolves.”
“That’s why he called you princess. You’re a vampire princess.” Tobias drew back, his expression turning impassive.
“Yes.” Sabrina licked her lips again. “Vampires are extremely territorial. It’s true what I said, that the wolves started it. Frenwald murdered my mother in cold blood.”
“I remember.” Tobias’s voice was tender.
“My mother was a necromancer, and her magic was what allowed me to be born, but the wolves thought I was an abomination. Frenwald came for me. My mother got in his way and ended up dead. Her last act was to raise my father from his day rest. He saved my life. Slaughtered Frenwald where he stood. I was five at the time. I remember it. I remember the blood.”
“Oh, Sabrina.”
“Don’t feel sorry for me. This is the life of a vampire, Tobias. We are born to be killers. We are predators.”
His jaw tightened. “If that’s true, why did you let the wolf stab you?”
She sighed. “After my father killed Frenwald, he demanded additional restitution for my mother’s life. The Racine pack turned over Frenwald’s father. They said the attack was his idea. My father killed him as well.”
“Justice,” Tobias said.
“The wolf today, he was telling the truth. It should have been enough. But my father’s lust for revenge wasn’t quenched. A few days ago, I watched the alpha of the Racine pack, his mate, and the pack shaman die brutally at the hands of my coven. We’d already slaughtered the rest of them. Every wolf dead but the one who stabbed me. We took their land. We took their lives. My father could have stopped long ago, but he wanted them all dead. Dead shifters do not retaliate.”
Sabrina watched Tobias’s throat bob on a swallow. His face paled. This was it. This was when he would know and he would leave her.
“It was cruel and senseless.” Her voice trembled, both from the pain still pulsing in her body and the torment overwhelming her mind. “But I can’t say that to anyone but you. Vampires who don’t have human hearts rarely feel compassion. Vampires who are destined to be masters cannot show mercy. It is not our way. It would be suicide.”
“You let him stab you because you felt you owed him?” Tobias scoffed.
“Yes,” Sabrina said. “He had a knife, not a stake. I didn’t know the blade was poisoned. I wanted to give him closure. If my suffering made him feel like the people we slaughtered are somehow avenged, then I did the right thing.”
Tobias reached out, his hand hovering near her face for a moment before stroking the hair over her ear. “I need to ask you something, and I need you tell me the truth.”
She lowered her chin. “Anything.”
“The wolf said other supernaturals are not allowed in vampire territory. I’m gathering that’s true. So, what did you plan to do with me? Force me from your territory or kill me?”
She couldn’t stand the disappointment in his eyes or the dejection in his voice. And still his fortitude made her heart swell. Given what she’d just shared, if he’d been a vampire, he might have killed her, ripped her head from her shoulders. He knew she was too weak to defend herself. But he was spreading his arms wide, waiting for the dagger.
“Neither,” she said, and she loaded the word with all the promise she could muster. “I planned to keep your secret forever. I planned to pretend I never learned you were a dragon. No one knows but me, and if we’re careful, no one will ever find out.”
“You’d keep my secret.”
“Yes. But the wolf who stabbed me today, he saw you. He saw what you are. He saw your face. And the amulet you used on Katelyn… Tobias, the coven has eyes everywhere, and now there’s a werewolf out there that might want to finish the job he started. I think we should stop seeing each other for a while, until I know it’s safe.”
“Not see each other anymore outside of work at all?”
“Right.”
“I’m not okay with that,” he said immediately.
“Please. It’s the only way. We’ve been lucky so far, but—”
“But nothing. You just told me the vampires in your coven are a bunch of heartless murderers. I’m not going to let you go back to that. Not when you are the kindest and bravest woman I’ve ever met. You’re not like them, Sabrina. You don’t belong with them.”
If Tobias could have reached out and snatched his words from the air between them, he would have. It was clear he’d offended her. By the look on her face, he’d plunged another dagger into her heart. By the Mountain, she was pale, almost as white as the sheet that covered her thin flesh. Her red hair was dull and her eyes heavy with the need for sleep. And now tears. Fuck, she was crying.
“All I meant was you are exceptional,” he said. “Special. Your human side makes you better than them.”
“No.” Sabrina shook her head, her voice thready. “You don’t understand at all.”
Tobias noticed for the first time how dry her lips were. He retrieved the bag of blood Raven and Gabriel had left for her. “Drink this. You need it.”
Her pupils took on that haunting silver quality he’d first seen in the stairwell. Their gazes caught as her fangs extended, and then she struck, quick and sharp as a snake. She closed her eyes, her throat working. The bag emptied. She crushed the plastic in her hand, drawing out the last drops in a matter of heartbeats. The entire process was brutal and feral.
“I am a vampire,” she said, handing him the remains of the plastic bag. “I love my father, and even though I am not like him and I have all the wrong instincts for one of my kind, I love my people. They’re my family.”
“So, you accept what your coven did to the werewolves.”
“No… Yes…” She shook her head. “I would not have done what they did. Do you think that means I’m too weak to rule?”
Tobias reached out and ran his thumb across her cheek. “You are tough and strong but capable of compassion. Compassion doesn’t make you weak, Sabrina; it makes you wise.”
“It is a weakness.” She shook her head. “I shouldn’t have done what I did today. I
have been tapped to take over the largest vampire coven in North America. How will I ever lead and protect a coven when I can’t even kill what is trying to kill me?”
Dumbstruck, Tobias simply stared at her. Was she truly convinced her savage heart, the one he’d always both feared and respected for its soul-piercing intuitiveness, was a weakness? He rose from the bed and paced the room. “Your humanity is an asset.”
Her body leaned heavily against the pillows. The blood had helped, but she still looked like a wrung-out dishrag. “Those are nice words, but that’s not how it works. A giraffe can’t lead a pride of lions.”
He narrowed his eyes on her. “A giraffe? Are you saying you don’t feel like one of them? That deep down, you don’t even feel like the same species? If that’s true, say no. Don’t become master.”
She looked exhausted, and he immediately felt guilty for pushing her. Her wounds had stopped bleeding, but they were still there, barely crusted over.
“When you let that wolf stab you today, you didn’t know if it would kill you or not, did you?”
She licked her lips. “I don’t want to die. I’m not suicidal. I wanted to do the right thing.”
Tobias had never considered himself to be exceptionally intuitive, but of all his siblings, he was the one the others came to with their problems, the one they trusted. He wasn’t afraid to call someone out on their bullshit, and when he kept a secret, he might as well have dropped it to the bottom of the ocean for how locked down the info was. Right now he saw the truth peeking out from behind a wall so thick it might have been his own.
“You don’t want to be coven master, do you?” As soon as the question had bridged his lips, Tobias wanted to slap himself. It was intrusive and presumptuous. It was too much.
“It doesn’t matter what I want.” She shook her head. “I am my father’s daughter. I’ve been groomed for this from the day I was born.”
“You shouldn’t have to do something you don’t want to do.”
Her gaze met his. “If I don’t do it, someone else will. The next in line is Tristan. Believe me, none of us will enjoy the results if he rises to master.”
“Tristan?”
“Second in line for the throne. He would love to find a way to usurp my role. He’s been trying for years.”
“Let me guess, Tristan has no problems with exercising too much compassion.”
She shook her head. “He has no conscience, even for a vampire.”
Tobias winced. Her coven had slaughtered an entire pack of werewolves. How much worse could it get?
“Tobias?” Sabrina rubbed her arms as if she were cold.
“Yes?”
Her gaze locked on his. “I know you have questions. I want to tell you everything, but… I’m still hungry.”
He glanced at the door. “I’ll get you something from the kitchen. What are you in the mood for? Soup? A sandwich? I can run out for something.”
Her eyes flicked to his lips. “I don’t want a sandwich.”
It took him a second to realize what she was talking about. He pointed to his chest. “You want to feed on me?”
She nodded.
“Last time, my blood made you pass out.”
She licked her lips. “Not blood. Energy. Like in the stairwell. The blood helped, but I need more.”
A slow, distinctly male grin spread his lips. He sat down beside her on the bed. “Do you want to kiss me, Ms. Bishop?”
Her green eyes pulsed silver around the edges. That look was predatory, almost frightening, but he didn’t pull away as she scooted toward him. He’d removed her bloody outer clothing to clean while she slept, and now the sheets slid from her black lace bra and pooled around her hips. When he reached out a hand to steady her, his fingers met the cool, smooth flesh of her back.
“Please.”
There was no way he could deny her. He ran his tongue along his bottom lip and leaned in. They were face-to-face, a breath away from touching. He arched a brow. “It’s the least I can do. I’m a doctor. I live to heal.”
His next breath was cut off when her lips met his. Soft. Wanting. He gathered her into his arms and settled her on his lap, brushing his fingers down her spine in long, easy strokes. The moment she began to feed, he felt it. Energy flowed over his lips and into her mouth in a hot rush, like a warm breath of air, an exhale of sunlight that kept going and going. The sensation was erotic, tingling. Draining, but in a good way, like the beginnings of a runner’s high.
As an immortal, Tobias had energy to spare. He reveled at the way her skin warmed under his touch. The thought of feeding her like this, of giving her what she needed, it made him hard. He adjusted her on his lap so she could feel what she’d done to him.
“Mmmm.” She moaned into his mouth, her tongue sweeping in. “Tobias…”
She shifted to straddle him on the bed. He hooked his hands behind her knees and pulled her closer, where she ground herself against him, hip to hip.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered into the kiss.
“You won’t hurt me. It’s helping.”
He tangled his fingers into the back of her hair, relishing the feel of her pert breasts pressed against his chest, her nipples mounding like pearls behind the lace of her bra. By the Mountain, she was lovely, perfect, a rare gem his dragon wanted badly to have and to hold.
“Be mine,” he said into her mouth.
The flow of energy stopped and she pulled her head back to look at him. He held her gaze.
“What?” She laughed a little.
“Be mine. Only mine.”
A breath caught deep in her throat and she pushed off of him. “We’ve been on a couple of dates, both of which have gone terribly wrong.” She ran her thumb along her bottom lip. “We are nowhere near a place where we can or should be exclusive.”
He stood, his attention fully on her. She was still covered in blood, and he had the urge to carry her into the bathroom, strip her the rest of the way down, and give her the bath of her life. “Why not? Are you denying this thing between us?”
Chapter Twelve
Everything slowed for Sabrina. The energy she’d taken in from Tobias made her head spin as if she were tipsy, but even half-drunk her heart was screaming, warring with her brain, which was sending up all sorts of warnings. Tobias’s feelings were not one-sided. He’d awakened things inside her she’d never thought possible. Hell, she’d never admitted her reservations about leading the coven to anyone else. She had hundreds of vampire friends and a handful of human ones, but none of them knew her as well as he did. It was strange. She’d always liked him, even when she’d thought he was human, but now… This was so much more. Now he was the one, the only one, who knew exactly who she was and accepted her anyway.
Only, could she say the same? Did she truly know Tobias?
Not yet. Not enough to make some harebrained commitment at the first whiff of romance.
“Tobias, you haven’t been listening. I will take over the Chicago coven from my father at the end of March. It’s done. Those vampires are my responsibility.”
“And?”
“And I can’t be yours, whatever that means, because I have to be theirs.”
Tobias backed off and held up his hands. “What if it was just us? What would you say if it were just you and me and the coven didn’t exist?”
Sabrina didn’t answer him. She didn’t know. It was too much, too fast. “Where are the rest of my clothes?” she asked. “I need to get out of here.”
He frowned. “They’re in my washer. You were covered in blood.”
“Can I borrow something to wear? I don’t think I’m strong enough to dematerialize all the way back to my apartment, and it’s too cold to risk it like this.”
“Don’t you want to take a shower? Get cleaned up? You should stay. Rest.”
She shook her head, her hands coming to rest on her hips. The motion reminded her she was standing in his bedroom in nothing but her underwear. Fuck. “If I stay
here, I might do something we both regret.”
His gaze bore into her. “I would never regret a moment with you.”
For a time she couldn’t move. The weight of his full attention was like a tractor beam. She fought the pull, the unwavering desire to fling herself into his arms and do something about the ache that had formed between her legs. All she could think about was the way the length of his cock had felt against her, how it might feel inside her.
His nostrils flared. She smelled it too. Her arousal was a perfume in the air, her vampire pheromones revealing her need for him.
“Please,” she said. “Please let me go, Tobias. I need to process what happened today. I made a mistake. There’s a wolf out there who wants everyone in my coven, me included, dead. I should have ended him when I had the chance. Instead, I let my human emotions get the best of me. Now I need to decide if I should warn my father or hope the knife in my chest was enough for the werewolf to feel avenged.”
“If you want to track him to know for sure, I can help you. If he’s left town, we let him live. If he’s still here, I’ll take care of him even if you can’t.”
“You’d do that?”
He stepped toward her. “Yes.”
The heat was building between them again. He hadn’t even touched her.
“Please, Tobias, a change of clothes.”
He started as if waking from a dream and nodded slowly. After digging in a drawer, he sighed. “Everything of mine is going to be too big. I’ll go ask Raven. She’s closer to your size.”
“Who is she to you anyway?” Sabrina wondered if the witch was a friend, an ex-lover, or if he’d called on her specifically to help her.
“She’s my brother’s fiancée.”
“Your brother? I thought you said you were alone here.”
“In Chicago, yes. He’s from New Orleans. Just visiting.”
Sabrina frowned.
“What’s wrong?”
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