Forever and a Night

by Lana Campbell

  His mouth left hers to nuzzle her throat and then he pulled back slightly. A moment later she felt his teeth sink into her neck. She experienced a moment of pain, then her body went limp. She couldn’t move. He held her in his grip and she could hear him swallowing and knew he was drinking blood from her neck. She offered no protest because there wasn’t strength in her body to do so, plus desire swam through her system like salmon working their way upstream to spawn. At that moment in time, she wanted the sick thing he was doing to her maybe more than he.

  Her eyes flew wide open and she slapped her hand over her mouth. Guilt engulfed his features. Somehow, someway, Mia knew he’d put those thoughts into her head and they were real. They were actual memories hidden until now and she remembered them clearly along with the time frame which had been the night she’d met him and several thereafter. More of the same memories started filing through her thoughts again. Different incidents in his limo. Conversations about her life, her kids and things she’d never shared with anyone. Then more kissing episodes and him biting her neck and drinking her blood. Dear God! How many times had he done this abhorant thing to her?

  She bolted to her feet because she was going to be sick and she wasn’t going to make it to a bathroom. She ran from the room and into the yard, fell to her knees, vomiting violently. When she finished, her body was trembling so hard, she couldn’t even muster protest as Nathan silently pulled her off the ground and into his arms.

  “God, I am so sorry, Mia. So sorry,” he muttered as he settled her back onto the couch beside to him. “I never meant to hurt you or lie to you, but after it happened, I couldn’t find a way to tell you the truth because I was afraid I’d loose you. Please tell me I haven’t and that you still love me. That you can forgive me.”

  For minutes she just sucked in air and looked straight ahead at the wall, numb. Were those actual memories? If so, how on God’s green earth had she not remembered them?

  “You saw. Do you understand what I am now?”

  It took her a few moments to make her head turn his direction. Pain and guilt filled his eyes. It moved her to a degree, but too many questions remained. “No, Nathan. If what I just saw in my mind was real, it was fiercely ungodly. Please tell me you did not do those horrible things to me.” She remembered the marks on her neck now, which she’d thought were bug bites. Oh dear God. It had been real!

  He reached toward her, to caress her face. She slapped his hand away and stood. “Don’t you touch me. What are you?”

  “Vampire.” Mia could tell by his expression, drenched with pain and sorrow the spoken word to be the hardest he’d uttered in his life. She could scrounge up no compassion. In her mind that term meant someone who worshiped the devil. She knew the hollywood stuff all nonsense. However, there were people who believed themselves to be vampires, who drank blood and did all manner of sick, disgusting things for perverse, evil purposes. Mia knew scripture. Ingesting blood was an abomination to God. Unwittingly, she’d been party to it. How he’d managed to do this to her, she didn’t know, but God as her witness, he would never touch her again.

  “Please, Mia, let me explain.”

  She stood. “You’ve explained enough. I have no idea what sort of sick thing you’re into, but I want no part of it or you.” She stalked off, headed for the door, ready to walk halfway across the city in these heels to get home and away from him.

  “Mia, stop!” His voice was riddled with terror and when she glanced back, his eyes mirrored the emotion, however they weren’t focused on her, but some point beyond.

  She turned her head. A woman strode into the room. She was striking, tall, dark-skinned with long black hair and eyes, wearing a short dress the same color. She looked exotic, Spanish, maybe Italian and probably the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen second to Julia. A bit older though. Mia guessed her to be late forties.

  The woman’s gaze slid between her and Nathan. A grin slowly wreathed her face, but didn’t reach her eyes. “Caro, my apologies. I’ve interrupted your dinner. Care to share?” She stepped toward Mia and sniffed. “Oooh. She is far more than your dinner. I can scent you all over her.”

  The woman reached out to touch her. Mia heard a whooshing noise, then out the corner of her eye, Nathan just appeared and grabbed the woman’s wrist before she could make contact. She yanked free, her dark eyes pinning Nathan with an vicious look that promised fierce consequences.

  “Don’t, Isabella. I mean it. Don’t even consider it.”

  Threat laced his tone and Mia’s mind began to absorb the danger the woman presented. She thought herself to be a vampire too, she suspected. “You people are crazy.” She shared a disgusted look between Nathan and the woman he’d called Isabella. “I’m outta here.” She started to leave, but the woman grabbed her forearm.

  “Not so fast, Cara. You intrigue me. Who are you to Nathan?”

  She tried to jerk free of her hold, but it was like iron. “Nothing more than an ex-employee.” She tried again to free herself, but couldn’t. Mia was getting pissed. Long ago, Daniel had taught her and their girls a number of self defense moves. Mia was a hairsbreadth from executing some on the bitch.

  “Let her go, Isabella. She’s correct. She’s my chef or was. Nothing more.”

  Mia looked at Nathan. His expression was hard, unyielding, but she sensed fear in him. Obviously, Isabella held something over his head. Hatred for the woman literally rolled off him in waves throughout this encounter. This had to be the older woman he’d been involved with when he was nineteen. Maybe he hated her. Maybe not. Nathan had proved himself to be a skilled liar. Mia was curious, but not enough to deal with anymore of this nonsense.

  “I don’t believe you, Caro. Even as rich as you are, I can not imagine what she wears to be kitchen dress code. Let’s see what her thoughts reveal.”

  Mia watched her open her mouth in yawn fashion, seconds later her canines extended to sharp points. Mia gasped, astounded, yet mortified by the sight.

  What crazy-assed world had she just landed into?

  “Don’t you dare, you sick, warped, bitch,” Nathan snarled.

  Mia saw him grab for her neck. Isabella glared at him and the next instant, his body come off the floor and flew backwards. He hit the brick hearth of the fireplace with such force, it surely must have broken every bone in his body. She screamed, terrified for Nathan. To her astonishment, he was on his feet and next to her before her vision could capture the full course of his movements.

  “If you don’t let her go, Isabella, you’ll not get what you want from me. If you hurt her, and you know what I mean, just to spite you, I’ll end my own life.”

  That got her attention. She released Mia and studied her, then slid her dark, dead gaze Nathan’s direction. “So she is yours? Only a life-mated vampire or one on the verge would make such a comment. It appears I’ve found your weakness, Caro.”

  The smile that spread across her face was pure evil. Mia shuddered. Too much insanity encircled her. She raced toward the door, but somehow the woman appeared at the entrance blocking her. Mia had had enough. She shoved the butt of her palm straight into the woman’s nose, knowing instantly she’d broken it, when blood sprayed and she howled with rage.

  “Oh God no, Mia!” she heard Nathan holler.

  She didn’t bother with a backward glance, rushed the exit, knowing this to be her one and only chance for freedom. It wasn’t to be. The woman grabbed her by her hair, snatched her backwards and buried those horrific fangs deep in the side of her neck and ripped. Mia screamed from the ungodly pain, but she couldn’t fight. Her body had gone numb and she couldn’t move a muscle.

  Isabella growled and hissed and Mia could hear her swallowing her blood. The wound had to be very bad because she could feel her life force gush out of her body with every labored beat of her heart, into the female demon’s mouth, and she felt some trickling down her neck and chest.

  Her vision started to cloud and her gaze focused toward the ceiling, fixed and dazed
. In the background she could hear Julia screaming and Dimitri and Nathan shouting and cursing. There were sounds of furniture crashing and she could feel vibrations of whatever forces decimated them. Most poignantly, she knew she was on the verge of death. There was fear, not for her soul, but her daughters’ lives and future without their mother.

  Her last words were a prayer, a hoarse, barely audible whisper. “Jesus, save me, please. Save us all and protect my girls.”

  Chapter 10

  When Isabella finished with Mia, she tossed her on the floor like a discarded hamburger wrapper. “Feisty little, bitch. That will teach her,” she snarled, wiping the back of her hand beneath her bloodied nose.

  Nathan’s heart shattered at the site of Mia, crumpled on the floor, bleeding to death. He shook with rage and fear because he knew her wound was mortal and that feral bitch wouldn’t let him save her.

  Throughout Isabella’s assault on Mia, she continued to mentally slam him, Dimitri and Julia as they’d each fought to save Mia. Even the three of them together didn’t possess the telekinetic abilities of a feral as old as Isabella.

  Blood spurted out of the tear in her neck and pooled around her head and upper body. He had to get to her and he didn’t care how many times Isabella tossed him across the room. For whatever self-serving purpose, she didn’t prevent him from rushing to her side the next time he tried. Nathan dropped to his knees, ripped off his suit jacket, balled it up and put stern pressure against her wound.

  “Relax, Caro. She will not die as long as you do what you must to save her. When you can think logically, you will see I did you a favor. As you know, I was in her head and yours too. She had no idea you were one of our kind and she was none to happy to learn the truth. You were a fool to think her your life-mate. Her mind revealed to me that you disgust her. At least you’ll gain a fledgling. They may be boring, but the sex can be delightful for awhile as long as you maintain proper mind control.”

  Nathan was too focused on Mia, to have sported a reply. She bled profusely and her color was ashen. With his free hand, which shook profusely, he stroked her cheek. Normally, the scent of her blood would have enthralled him. Now, he was just horrified and physically ill. Isabella was right about what he needed to do to save her, but he had to get control of his emotions first.

  “Go to hell, Isabella,” Dimitri ground out, his grey eyes blazing. “And get out. You’re not going to accomplish what you came here for tonight after what you’ve just done.”

  Julia extended her fangs and hissed at her. “Heed my husband. You’ve done enough damage tonight, Isabella. If you mean what you say, then let us tend to the human.”

  Isabella rolled her eyes and waved a hand dismissively at them. “Fine. I will leave you to the turning process. I don’t know how the little tripe managed what she did.” She delicately fingered her nose and winced. “Nathan, I’m being extremely generous, as I’m sure you realize, by giving you this human for a fledgling after what she did. I expect you to reciprocate my kindness. If you refuse to exercise your stubbornness and give me what I want, the next time we meet, expect no mercy on my part.” She stalked from the room. The slamming of his front door echoed through the house.

  Julia glanced at Mia and cringed. “I will call, Christian. He will save her, Nathan, but stay strong and do what you must in the meantime to keep her alive.” She rushed from the room with preternatural speed.

  “Let me hold pressure on her wound,” Dimitri said, placing his hand over Nathan’s bloody one. “You know what you have to do, but we have to rouse her. She can’t swallow if she isn’t conscious.”

  Nathan nodded, then began to gently shake her and pat her cheek. She groaned and batted glassy eyes at him. She was in shock from loss of blood and Nathan felt himself on the verge of a different kind. He knew he’d be lucky to have mere moments to get his blood into her system. It had been a long time since he’d asked God for anything, but he prayed now for the life of this woman, like he’d never prayed in his life.

  He extended his fangs and slit his left wrist, placing it against her mouth. She began to squirm, trying to jerk free. Dimitri aided him, holding her head steady, while using his other hand to keep the needed pressure on her neck. His suit jacket was soaked with her blood, and there was a large puddle around her upper body. He now knelt in it as did Dimitri.

  Nathan loathed what he forced her to do, but he wasn’t going to let her die. Eventually, natural preservation took over and she began to swallow. Had she not, she would have drowned and her body instinctively knew it. The hatred in her eyes when she blinked up at him sliced through his soul like a double edged sword. He forced himself to look away. He couldn’t bare it.

  Eventually, she lost consciousness. Nathan stopped feeding her and flicked his tongue across the gash. Vampire saliva had an agent that stopped bleeding in small wounds.

  Julia returned with towels. She helped Dimitri replace Nathan’s jacket with them. “Christian is on his way. Fortunately, he was at his city clinic, delivering a baby earlier. He should be here any time. Unless there’s something else I can do, I will go watch for him.”

  “Just get him here.” He shot Julia a look to tell her he felt his life-mate clinging to her own life by a thread.

  Minutes later he heard the doctor’s voice and both he and Julia rushed to Mia’s side. Dr. La Mond gave the scene a cursory glance, sat a large box on the floor, and started digging inside with speed born of their kind, laying out all sorts of medical supplies and some various surgical instruments on a large blue thing that looked part clothe, part paper.

  Dr. La Mond glanced up at Dimitri with a worried expression no one wanted to see a doctor sport when a loved one was in such a critical situation. “Start an IV on her. Julia you keep pressure on her neck until I’m ready.” His gaze cut to Nathan. “Julia said you gave her your blood orally. She’ll need more IV. Dimitri, start an IV on him when your finished with Mia and draw two units.” He nodded toward the kit he’d brought indicating to Dimitri the necessary supplies were inside.

  Dimitri was quick and efficient, having started thousands of IV’s on his children when they were young. It was the norm for their kind’s offspring since the advent of blood transfusions. When Dimitri finished with Mia, he inserted one in him and began to draw blood.

  Meanwhile, Dr. La Mond gloved up and began what Nathan could only refer to as a field surgery. No anesthetic. He made a slight incision and started stitching her vein or whatever was bleeding. It roused her enough for her to let out a weak cry, then she passed out again.

  Nathan couldn’t watch anymore. He turned his back on the god awful scene.

  “I’m going to kill Isabella. If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to make it my mission and pleasure in life to send her black soul to hell.”

  Dimtri said from behind him, “I’ll be by you’re side to assist, my friend. Both of us should have pooled our resources and done so long ago.”

  Nathan said no more. If it were easy to kill a feral as mature as Isabella, someone would have done it already. She was a master of survival. There were modern methods to take down ferals. Weaponry one of them, if en mass, and he had the resources to buy them and the manpower to take her down. If he could just find her maleficent ass.

  He cursed himself for not having more security on hand tonight. It hadn’t been an oversight. Dominic had sent him the men he’d hired thus far, most humans and a couple young vampires, but obviously Isabella had discovered them outside and enchanted them.

  Julia told him how adversely Mia had reacted to his men that day, so Nathan had instructed his guards to stay out of sight when he arrived home with Mia. Foolishly, he thought the eight to be enough. He was an idiot. He should have had a small army in place before he ever hired Mia. Even that probably would have done no good.

  Whenever, you least expected Isabella, there she was, he thought. He couldn’t spend anymore mental energy on her. Mia living was all that mattered now and she would. She had to. Altho
ugh when she realized what she’d become because of his lies, his lusts, his determination to have her at any cost… He couldn’t finish the thought.

  He’d been so selfish. He knew anyone around him right now was in danger of becoming victim to Isabella. And he’d led Mia straight into the feral bitch’s hands.

  If Mia hated him now, she would abhor him when she woke up as the vile thing that had taken her life. The vile thing he was.

  ***

  “How much longer until she wakes?” Nathan asked Dr. La Mond, who stood on the other side of Mia’s hospital bed, messing with some valve on her IV line.

  The doctor’s gold gaze slid his way, where Nathan sat in a chair on the opposite side of Mia’s bed. It had been his permanent spot for the last three days, except for the few times the doctor shooed him, Julia and Dimitri out when episodes of her turning got nasty and violent. Dr. La Mond assured them she probably wouldn’t remember much if anything regarding her turning, due to the drugs he’d given her.

  “The morphine should be wearing off soon.”

  “You’re sure she’ll be okay?” His tone sounded a little desperate, but he couldn’t help it. The terror which had taken root in his soul the night Isabella ripped out Mia’s throat hadn’t abated since.

  He remembered bits and pieces of his own ungodly episode. Isabella had been with him the entire time, forcing him to drink blood from her wrist, then feeding from his neck when the mood struck her. He hadn’t had the luxury of pain killers to counteract the agony he’d suffered. At the time he’d prayed for death, but God had not been so generous.