Bound by Blood and Sand

by Becky Allen

  Kaitlyn turned onto her side, facing Zack. “Will she be the same? Will she still be my mother?”

  “Pretty much. Of course, there’s no telling how she’ll react to her new life. I imagine it’s different when you’re born a vampire. You know what to expect, or at least you know what’s coming.”

  “That’s true. I was nervous about the change, but I knew it was natural for us, so I wasn’t afraid. I’d seen it happen to others from time to time. Of course, with me, it wasn’t that big an adjustment. I could still eat and drink whatever I wanted. And my need for blood, after the first time, wasn’t overpowering.”

  “You were lucky. It’s different with my kind. Once you’re turned, your whole life changes. Everything is different. Some people accept it without a problem. Some aren’t so lucky.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Take my bartender, Scherry, for instance. She asked me to bring her across.”

  “Really? Why?”

  “She was dying. I’d never turned anyone before, and I was reluctant to do it, you know? I told her I was afraid I’d kill her.” He laughed at the memory. “She reminded me that she had nothing to lose but a few days.”

  “How did she know you were a vampire?”

  “I got careless one night. A customer came on to me and I kept her with me in the club after it closed. Scherry had a key and she came in while I was, ah, dining.” He shook his head with the memory. “Any other woman would have freaked out, but not Scherry.” He laughed. “Bold as brass, that girl. She asked me if I’d turn her when I finished eating.”

  “Still, it must have taken a lot of nerve for her to ask you. I mean, she had no way of knowing what you’d do. You could have been some horrible monster parading as a nice guy. You could have killed her.”

  “I tried to talk her out of it, but, like she said, she had nothing to lose.”

  “At least it turned out all right,” Kaitlyn said.

  “Yeah. But that first night, I thought I might have to destroy her.”

  “Why?”

  “She was blood crazy. I brought her three men to drink from and it wasn’t enough. I didn’t think that girl would ever get her fill, and then I realized it was probably because of her disease. She’d had leukemia. I guess it just took a lot to fill her up that first time. She was all right, after that.”

  Kaitlyn stared up at the ceiling, thinking about what Zack had said. Would her mother be one of the lucky ones? Or would she be blood crazy, like Scherry?

  There was a decided air of tension in the sitting room in Zack’s suite the following night. It danced over Kaitlyn’s skin like ants as she watched her father hover near her mother, his expression wary. Her mother was nervous and obviously on edge. Unable to sit still, she prowled back and forth between the sofa and the window. She paused now and then, shivering as if she were cold, and then she resumed pacing once again.

  After watching her for almost an hour, Zack said, “Elena, you need to feed. The compulsion will only grow stronger. And the longer you put it off, the worse it will be for your chosen prey.”

  “I can’t do that,” Elena said, her fingers twisting in the hem of her sweater. “I can’t . . .” She shook her head. “I can’t hunt someone like they were an animal.”

  “Yes, you can,” Zack said, his voice quiet. “It will come to you naturally. All you have to do is follow your instincts.”

  Elena bit down on her lower lip as she glanced at her husband and then back at Zack.

  “I will take you,” Drake said.

  Elena shook her head. “Drake, please don’t take this the wrong way, but I’d rather have Zack go with me this time.”

  Drake went still. Though he said nothing, Elena knew she had hurt him. “It’s just that . . .” She folded her hands and pressed them against her chest. “I don’t know what I’ll do, or how I’ll react. I don’t want you to see me in case I behave badly.”

  Drake frowned. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m her sire,” Zack said. “I don’t know how it works in your world. But in mine, it’s natural for fledglings to look to their masters for guidance, just like it’s natural for her to expect me to teach her how to hunt, how to survive her new lifestyle. It has nothing to do with her feelings for you. It’s part of the bond she has with me now.”

  A muscle throbbed in Drake’s jaw. His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides.

  The tension in the room was palpable as Drake absorbed what Zack had told him. And then, suddenly, it was gone.

  Drake took Elena in his arms. “I love you, wife,” he said quietly. “I will be here when you return.”

  “Thank you for understanding.”

  Drake nodded. “This will take some getting used to, for both of us.”

  “We won’t be gone long,” Zack said.

  Drake nodded, though it was easy for Kaitlyn to see her father was not happy with this unexpected turn of events. Not that she could blame him. Her parents had been devoted to each other for over twenty years. He kissed Elena’s cheek, and then looked at Zack. “Take good care of her.”

  “No problem.” Zack sent a reassuring look at Kaitlyn; then, taking Elena by the hand, he transported the two of them to a neighboring city.

  “So,” Zack asked. “How do you feel?”

  They were walking down a side street, headed toward Restaurant Row.

  “The same as always,” Elena said with a shrug. “Maybe a little better.”

  He frowned. He hadn’t felt anywhere near the same as always the night after he had been turned. On waking, his whole body, every fiber of his being, had been on fire with the overpowering need for blood. If he’d had someone to guide him, things might have turned out differently for the first mortal he came across. He still felt guilty for the lives he had taken before he learned he didn’t have to kill to survive, but there was no going back. He’d been a new vampire and he’d done what came naturally.

  “Since I feel pretty much the same, maybe it didn’t work,” Elena said, a note of hope in her voice. Pausing, she looked up at him. “Is that possible?”

  “Only one way to find out,” Zack said.

  Before she realized what he meant to do, Zack bit into his own wrist.

  Elena’s reaction left no doubt that she was now a vampire. Her eyes went red as she stared at the bright crimson oozing from the wound. The scent of hot, fresh blood filled the air. The coppery scent surrounded her; when she breathed it in, her lips peeled back, revealing a pair of sharp white fangs.

  Elena touched the pad of her thumb to the tip of one fang, gasped as the contact, slight as it was, drew blood.

  “It’s true,” she said, her expression one of mingled surprise and horror. “I’m a vampire.”

  “’Fraid so.”

  She stared at him, trying to sort through her jumbled feelings, and not knowing where to start. First and foremost, vampire or not, she was glad to be alive. The thought of drinking blood was not repulsive; she had been taking Drake’s blood for years. It was the thought of hunting for prey that was disconcerting. She was a wife, a mother, a homemaker. Women like her didn’t go prowling the back alleys for sustenance. The very idea was ludicrous. And yet, there was no denying that the scent of Zack’s blood was tantalizing her senses to the exclusion of all else. A taste would be welcome, maybe even necessary, but it wasn’t driving her mad with need.

  Zack regarded Elena thoughtfully. The red had faded from her eyes; he could no longer see her fangs.

  “You’re not behaving like a new vampire,” he remarked. “I wonder . . .”

  “What?”

  “Well, you’ve been drinking Drake’s blood for how long? Twenty years? I’m thinking that you were practically a vampire already, and the reason you’re not going crazy with the need for blood is because you’ve got twenty years’ worth of vampire blood in your veins already. I’m thinking you might need to feed tonight to make the transformation complete, and then you’ll probably be like Katy, not entirel
y human, but not a full-fledged vampire, either.”

  Elena frowned and he could see her turning what he had said over in her mind, examining it from every angle. And then she grinned at him. “I can live with that.”

  “Good. So, let’s get you fed and head for home. I’m pretty sure your husband and your daughter are going crazy worrying about you. And I’m still on my honeymoon.”

  “So that’s it?” Kaitlyn asked, glancing from her mother to Zack and back again. “You’re not like Zack and you’re not like Dad. You’re more like me?”

  “So it would seem,” Elena said, smiling happily. “Zack taught me how to call prey to me and how to drink without damaging them. It was really very easy. And quite enjoyable. But, all things considered, I think I would rather have a cup of peppermint tea.”

  Kaitlyn stared at her mother, then burst out laughing.

  Drake frowned at Kaitlyn and Elena for several moments, and then he smiled.

  Zack blew out a sigh. All was well with the Sherrad clan, he mused. Elena’s life had been saved. Kaitlyn’s was no longer in danger. The long-lost brother had returned to the fold and, unless Zack missed his guess, Stefan had developed quite a crush on Scherry, which, luckily, went both ways.

  Liliana had returned to the Italian Fortress, declaring that she had had enough of Lake Tahoe. “Too many people,” she had complained. “Too much sunlight.”

  Zack’s gaze lingered on Kaitlyn. His bride. She was beyond beautiful, he thought. Her cheeks were flushed with laughter, her eyes sparkling as she hugged her mother.

  The only question now was where and how he and Kaitlyn would spend the rest of their lives. Would she want to return to Romania and live near her parents? Would she want to stay in Tahoe? Whatever she wanted was fine with him, as long as they were together. He had been alone for far too long, had spent a dozen lifetimes waiting for her.

  And it had been worth the wait.

  Epilogue

  Kaitlyn stepped out of the shower. After wrapping her wet hair in a towel, she pulled on her favorite fluffy pink robe and padded barefooted into the living room. It was good to be in her own house again, to sleep in her own bed. Her parents had gone back to the Fortress a few days ago, with plans to return to Wolfram in the near future. Stefan’s romance with Scherry was heating up and he had decided to stay in Tahoe indefinitely. Kaitlyn had no doubt that there would soon be another wedding in the family.

  Construction had started on the new nightclub.

  Life was back to normal, and she was blissfully happy.

  “What are you smiling about?” Zack asked as she curled up on the sofa beside him.

  “Nothing much. You still owe me another wedding, you know.”

  “Yeah, yeah. How about waiting until our anniversary?”

  “Don’t you want to marry me again?”

  “Sure, but, let’s wait until the club’s built. We can have a grand opening, get married, and go away for a few weeks, anywhere you want to go.”

  She pretended to think it over, then nodded. “All right.” She grinned at him. “Maybe we’ll have a double wedding.”

  Zack chuckled. Stefan had fallen head over heels in love with Scherry. A blind man could see that.

  “You’ve lived a really long time,” Kaitlyn remarked thoughtfully.

  “Yeah.”

  “Even longer than my dad.”

  Zack nodded, wondering where this conversation was heading.

  “Existing for such a long time, you must have seen everything, done everything. Do you ever get bored with it all?”

  “From time to time, but, hey, who doesn’t?”

  “That’s true.” She slipped her hand under his shirt and ran her fingertips over his chest and across the rockhard ridges in his abdomen. If he wasn’t a vampire, he would have made a great underwear model. “Zack?”

  “Yes, love?”

  “Six hundred years,” she murmured. “There must have been a lot of women in your life in that time.”

  “One or two,” he admitted with a wicked grin.

  “More like one or two hundred, I’ll bet,” she said with a pout.

  “Kind of late in the game for you to be jealous, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. No. I don’t know. Maybe. Were there a lot of women?”

  “Not near as many as you seem to think,” he said with a grin.

  “Even one would be too many.” She knew it was unrealistic to think he had lived like a monk for six hundred years, but still, she hated the thought of him with another woman. Any woman.

  “Darlin’, even if there were thousands—which there weren’t!—they’re all gone now.”

  “You’re laughing at me.”

  “I’m sorry, love, but, really, what brought this up?”

  “I found an old copy of Romeo and Juliet when I was putting some of your things away. It was signed ‘I will always adore you, and no one else. Colette.’”

  “Ah.” Not everything had been destroyed in the fire. The construction crew had discovered his casket, intact, along with the iron box he had kept in his lair.

  Unable to think of a plausible way to explain why there was an empty coffin in a cement underground vault beneath the club, Zack had wiped the memory of his lair and its contents from the minds of all those who had seen it. He had destroyed the coffin and thrown away all the contents of the box, save for the book.

  He ran a hand over his jaw. “Do you remember when we first met and you asked me if I’d ever been in love?”

  Kaitlyn nodded.

  “And I said once? Well, it was Colette.”

  “You must have loved her very much to have kept that book all this time.”

  He shrugged. And then he cupped Kaitlyn’s face in his hands. “Think about it, Katy. In six hundred years, I never married. Why do you suppose that is?”

  “I don’t know.” He was a remarkably handsome man. Sexy as all get out, with a smile that could melt iron. He was fun to be with. And great in bed. And . . . She frowned. “Why haven’t you ever married?”

  “Don’t you know, Katy darlin’?” Swinging her into his arms, he carried her swiftly into the bedroom, lowered her gently to the bed, and stretched out beside her. “I was waiting for my Juliet. I was waiting for you.”

  Did you miss the companion story to this novel?

  BOUND BY NIGHT is available now . . .

  A VAMPIRE’S KISS IS FOREVER . . .

  Once featured in a horror movie, the crumbling

  Wolfram estate is said to be haunted by ghosts,

  witches, and worse. But Elena doesn’t believe

  a word of it—until she spends the night

  and wakes up in the arms

  of a compelling stranger . . .

  Tall, dark, and disturbingly handsome,

  Drake is the most beautiful man Elena has ever seen.

  For centuries, he has lived alone, and Elena

  is the first woman to enter his lair—and survive.

  And Drake is the first man to touch her heart and

  soul. By the time she discovers who he really is—

  and what he craves—it’s too late.

  Blood lust has turned to love, and Elena

  is deeply under Drake’s spell.

  But forever comes at a price for each of them . . .

  ZEBRA BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp. 119 West 40th Street New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2011 by Madeline Baker

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

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  ISBN: 978-1-4201-2533-7

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