The Vampire Awakenings Bundle: Books 1-5

by Davies, Brenda K.

  “Don’t play stupid with me,” he told Karina.

  Karina’s expression became one of boredom as she realized the lower lip wasn’t going to get her anywhere. “Fine, I’ve heard rumors of them cropping up all over the city, but I don’t think they’re true.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because no one is going to be stupid enough to get mixed up in that again. I mean, everyone knows Ronan and his group destroyed every vampire who was mixed up with it all those years ago. I’m sure some idiotic vamps have been secretly feeding on drugged humans over the years, but no one would flaunt it in the way the rumors say they are.”

  “Have you heard where these places are located?”

  A crease ran across her forehead; she glanced between him and Abby. He moved to keep Abby blocked from her view. “I’ve heard they move about. Few know where the next location is going to be. Another reason to assume it’s nothing but a rumor.”

  “Who knows where they are?”

  “No one I know. That’s not something I’m willing to get mixed up with, Brian.”

  He believed her on that. Releasing her wrists, he took a step away from her and straightened his shirt. She sat up, pulling her dress down over her thighs as she rubbed at her wrists and pouted prettily at him. “You hurt my feelings,” she murmured.

  “What feelings?”

  She flashed a grin as she leapt off the desk and ran her fingers over the front of his shirt again, her hurt feelings already forgotten. “When you’re done with virginal princess, you know where to find me.”

  Abby’s fingers flicked over the grains of the wooden stake. Would anyone really be upset if she staked this bitch or Brian if he kept letting her touch him like that? Lucky for him, he grabbed hold of Karina’s hand and pulled it away from his chest.

  “Keep an ear out for anything unusual or for someone who knows where those parties are,” he told Karina.

  Karina leaned against the desk once more. “Did Ronan put you up to this?”

  “This is my own mission, for now.”

  “I don’t want any trouble, Brian. You know Ronan and I don’t have the best history. He’d happily shut this place down on me.”

  Brian reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash. “I promise nothing will come back on you.” Grabbing hold of her hand, he shoved the money into her palm. “Call me if you hear anything.”

  Her eyes lit hungrily at seeing the hundreds in her hand. The only thing Karina loved more than sex and blood was money. “Whatever you want, gorgeous. Are you going to stay up here and enjoy the place for a bit?”

  “I think it’s best if we return downstairs,” he said, and stepped back to take hold of Abby’s hand.

  Abby’s head had been bouncing back and forth between them during the exchange. Her mind spun from how swiftly it had gone from a life-and-death situation, to a stay-and-have-drinks one. She’d been born a vampire, but some of her species truly confounded her, Brian being the number one leader in that category.

  “Free bottle of champagne to loosen things up a little,” Karina offered with a suggestive waggle of her eyebrows at Abby.

  Yep, she officially hated this woman.

  “Another time,” Brian said, and tugged Abby in front of him, using his body to shield her as he moved her toward the door. He pulled the door open and removed the stake from her hand. Turning, he tossed it to Karina. “Next time you pull one of those on me, be prepared to have it driven through your heart.”

  Karina caught the stake and placed it on the desk. “Next time, the only plan I have for the two of us is zero clothes and hours of carnality.”

  Abby shot a look over her shoulder. She was contemplating going back to beat the woman to death when Brian closed the door. He rested his palm in the small of her back as he propelled her forward.

  “Is she going to stab us in the back or have her guys jump us?” Abby inquired.

  “Karina may be a lot of things, but she’s far from stupid. None of her men are enough to take me on, she knows that, and she knows it would mean her death if she had them try anything.”

  “Did you ever date her?” she demanded as he led her down the hall.

  “No.”

  “Did you ever have sex with her?”

  An amused smile actually quirked the corners of his full mouth when he glanced at her. Abby’s nails dug into her palms. “No. Would it bother you if I had?”

  Abby snorted and forced herself to relax her hands. “Of course not,” she lied with far more ease than she’d believed possible. “But it’s good to know you have some standards.”

  He laughed, actually laughed as they stepped into the main part of the upstairs again. All of her annoyance with him vanished as that deep, baritone laugh rumbled out of his chest and his eyes sparkled with amusement. His laugh was better than she’d imagined it would be, and she decided then and there that she would try to make him laugh as often as she could.

  She couldn’t help but smile as he slid his arm around her waist again. She was so focused on him that she didn’t notice the vamps and humans in the room when they passed through this time.

  “I do have some standards, but they are few and far between,” he told her as he led her down the stairs.

  The massive bouncer at the bottom stepped out of their way. “Now what do we do?” Abby asked as her delight over his laugh vanished and she realized they were no closer to finding Vicky than they had been before coming here.

  “Now, I’m going to talk to some of the people and vamps here before we go. There may be someone who knows something.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Abby’s feet were screaming to be free of her boots by the time they returned to the hotel. She was going to burn the boots and her clothes as soon as possible, but first she was going to scrub herself clean of club Dracul.

  Her fascination with the club had waned the more time they spent in it. By the time they were ready to go, she’d never felt dirtier in her life. It was a world she’d never known existed, never could have imagined. She was glad she knew of it now, but she never wanted to see anything like it again.

  Unfortunately, she had a feeling they’d only encounter worse if they didn’t find Vicky soon. Brian kept his arm around her waist, his eyes shooting daggers at the man who turned to watch her pass. He’d spent the better part of the past two hours scaring off any man or woman who came too close to her, his mood had worsened with every would-be pursuer he chased off.

  He hadn’t spoken to her since they’d left the club, and she was okay with that. She was too tired, dirty, and disheartened to have to deal with him on top of everything else. In the elevator, he released her and took a step away to hit the button. He stood, his platinum hair falling forward against one of his chiseled cheeks as he stared at the buttons.

  The set of his shoulders made him look as if he were carrying the weight of the world. Her fingers twitched with the impulse to soothe some of the tension from him, but she kept them at her side.

  Turning away, she watched the floors light up until they arrived on the twentieth. The doors slid open with a ding, but she found herself reluctant to step out of this elevator and go to her room, alone. Loneliness, like she’d never known before, assailed her. The urge to cry hit her so fiercely that tears burned her eyes.

  I’m just overtired and stressed. She tried to convince herself of this, but she knew it was more. Gripping her coat around her, she forced herself to step from the elevator. Brian hesitated before following her into the hallway. Bronze sconces lined the hall, and lights danced from behind their glass casings as she walked toward her room and pulled her keycard from her coat pocket.

  Abby’s fingers trembled when she slid the card into the slot. She held the door partially open as she turned to face him. “Thank you for your help tonight.”

  His locked jaw jutted out as he ran a hand through his hair, watching her. The wooden step he took toward her indicated he’d been fighting against the action. He rest
ed his hand beside her head on the door jam, and his chest brushed against hers when he leaned forward. The feel of his body so close to hers made her sigh with longing.

  “Anytime,” he murmured, his head bending closer to hers.

  Her gaze latched onto his full lips, her body thrummed with the need to feel those lips against hers, to taste him, to know if he would leave her cold like the others, or if he would set her body ablaze. There was nothing cold anymore about his usually icy blue eyes as they burned into hers.

  She didn’t dare move, didn’t dare breathe, as he remained looming over her. His head bent closer to hers, and his breath warmed her cheek before she felt the heat of it against her lips. Then, his arm dropped and he took an abrupt step back.

  That awful urge to cry rushed over her again, but she lifted her chin to stare at him. Confusion flitted over his face as he tugged at his hair.

  “Goodnight, Abigail,” he murmured before turning and walking to the door next to hers.

  Unable to stand there and watch him enter his room, she shoved into hers and hurriedly closed and locked the door before leaning against it. Her chest heaved as she struggled to keep her tears suppressed. She failed as one trickled down her cheek to drip off her chin.

  “Pathetic,” she cursed herself as she wiped the tear away and stalked toward the bed. She tugged her coat off and threw it over the desk chair before jerking off the now-hated boots. “Idiot!”

  She kept her voice low so he wouldn’t hear her, but she fought the urge to scream and kick and rant as she destroyed this room and everything around her. Instead, she yanked off her clothes, pulled free the chain around her waist, and stormed toward the bathroom.

  “Keep it strictly business, Abby,” she muttered as she turned on the water in the shower.

  She stepped beneath the stinging drops when steam began to swirl around the room. Standing under the punishing waves of water, she was torn between sobbing in misery and screaming in anger. It didn’t help that she was still aroused by the mere thought of what his lips against hers would feel like.

  * * *

  Brian stood in the hallway for a minute after Abby had closed her door. He took a step toward it, his hand resting against the wood as he fought the overwhelming impulse to knock on it and kiss her like he should have.

  She’s too good for you.

  It was no longer thoughts of her family keeping him from her; it was his own thoughts and fears that kept him away from her now. He wasn’t much in the mood for taking on the Byrne clan, but he could deal with them if he had to. He wasn’t good enough for her though. He wasn’t a man; he was a monster who relished delivering death to those who deserved it. The souls of many stained his hands, so many he’d lost count of the numerous lives he’d taken over the endless years.

  There were too many out there who wanted him dead, too many who wouldn’t hesitate to use her against him if they thought they could. They’d be right too; they would be able to use her against him. Little had passed between them, and already he felt more protective of her than anyone else he’d encountered since becoming a vampire.

  Abby had stared around the club in curiosity, but also with a burgeoning disgust that had darkened her striking eyes and had her pulling away from any who came near her. If that club disquieted her, what would his past do to her?

  She already knew much of who he was and what he did. She knew he’d killed humans, knew he was a mercenary for hire, knew he destroyed their own kind in order to gain power. Granted, they were the evil ones of their kind, but he still happily took their lives and hadn’t any intention of stopping. She deserved so much better than someone like him. The thrill of the kill and the power that came with it were all he had in his life.

  He banged his fist against the wall before turning and entering his room. He listened to the sound of running water next door, his shoulders heaving at the image of her in that shower with the water sliding over her silken, bare flesh. To follow those beads of water with his tongue would be heaven. He’d nudge her thighs apart, his hand dipping between her legs to ready her for him, before he followed his fingers with his shaft.

  His erection throbbed in his pants as he took a step toward the door dividing their rooms. She was on the other side of the door, nude, and oh-so willing. Too good for you.

  It occurred to him that Issy had accepted Stefan knowing his past. Stefan had managed to keep her safe and protected from those who may also be hunting him. Maybe Abby could do the same for him, and he could keep her safe from those hunting him while she was with him; for he knew one time inside of her would never be enough for him. No, he’d take her repeatedly until he was branded on her inside and out, until every vampire in a hundred-mile radius knew to whom she belonged.

  Shaking his head, he rested his hand against the door separating their rooms. He was thinking like a mated vampire, and he most certainly was not mated. They’d never kissed before; they couldn’t possibly be mated. Besides, from what he’d heard, there was an instantaneous pull toward a vampire’s mate when they encountered each other.

  Yes, he’d barely been able to tear his eyes away from her since she’d opened her dorm room door to him. However, he’d seen her in that hotel years ago and felt no such pull. Yet, when she’d called him, her voice alone had kept him fascinated enough to continue talking with her. All he’d wanted was to help her, to ease her distress.

  Still, he’d seen her before, they’d met before now, if only briefly. Wouldn’t he have felt something then if she were supposed to be his mate?

  His fingers dug into the wood of the door. She was a child then. A fifteen-year-old vampire who’d not yet matured when he’d first met her. She hadn’t been a woman who radiated innocence and sensuality in a way no other woman he’d ever encountered could. Vivian’s hair had drawn him in the day they’d first met; everything about Abby drew him to her and had him on the edge of breaking down this door in order to get at her and claim her.

  He knew how the mated thing worked, but perhaps it was different with pureblood vampires, maybe they couldn’t be mated until they were older. He may not know the answer to that, but he knew someone he could trust who would. Forcing himself to step away from the door before he broke it down, he pulled his phone from his pocket and called Declan.

  “Little late, don’t ya think?” Declan inquired, though he didn’t sound as if he’d been sleeping.

  “New York never sleeps,” he replied.

  “Thought you were going to play Mountain Man or some shit.”

  “Change of plans.”

  “Interesting. Woman?”

  “How did you know?” Brian inquired.

  “Only a woman could make a man go from the mountains to the city in a day.”

  “If I ask you something, will it stay between us?”

  “Do you have to ask that?”

  “I do.”

  “You know I don’t divulge secrets.”

  No, that Declan didn’t do, and he carried more secrets than anyone Brian knew. Out of all of Ronan’s men, Declan was the one with the most baggage, and not just his own baggage, but also the baggage of others who had come and gone throughout his life.

  “How does the mate bond work with purebreds?” Brian asked.

  “Same as with you turned vamps,” Declan replied with a laugh. “Once you’re caught in the trap, it’s impossible to break free, or so I’ve been told. I’ve been lucky enough to dodge that bullet these six hundred years. Do you think you’ve been shot?”

  What an accurate way of describing it. “The recognition of a pureblood mate is instantaneous?”

  “The attraction is, yes, but that doesn’t mean love will follow it or ever come from the pairing. It only means fate thinks you’ll be a good match,” Declan replied slowly. “What’s going on?”

  “Let’s just say, hypothetically—”

  “Oh, of course.”

  Brian continued as if Declan hadn’t spoken. “The first time two mates encountered each
other, one is a purebred who is only a child and isn’t fully matured yet. Would there be an instantaneous connection then?”

  Declan didn’t answer right away, but Brian heard the squeak of a chair as he settled in. “Are you attracted to children?”

  “Of course not!” Brian snapped.

  “Then no, there would be no recognition. Not to mention, she would be too young and unable to bear children. Purebred female vamps cannot get pregnant until they hit maturity.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Brian muttered as he ran a hand through his hair.

  “Few do. Don’t forget, most of you are turned and human women are different than our own, even after they become one of us.”

  “So, the mate bond is to produce offspring?”

  Declan chuckled, his boots thudding when he propped them on something, most likely his desk. “Perhaps that’s what nature intended it as, but few vamps choose to have offspring, so a lot of times it doesn’t end up quite working out that way. The mate bond may be a biological drive that recognizes another as being well suited to reproduce with, or it could simply be lust, or perhaps love at first sight. Like I said, I’ve been lucky enough to dodge the bullet, and I’m not looking for someone with a gun.”

  He hadn’t gone looking for someone with a gun either. He’d never envisioned another woman in his life—someone he could lose and who could shatter his heart yet again. And children… The idea of more children made his heart stutter.

  Not one day went by that he didn’t think of Beatrice and Trudy and still grieve their loss. Their deaths had left a hole in his heart that could never be filled. Never had he considered having another child. He’d endured the loss of his children once, he wouldn’t do so again, and Abby was a Byrne, she would want children.

  “What happens if the bond is never sealed?” Brian asked. “If no steps are ever taken to complete the mating?”

  “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?”