by Cat Miller
The Doc wasn’t forthcoming with whatever she had confessed to him, citing doctor-patient confidentiality. Greyson thought that was total bullshit. This wasn’t a human hospital and they didn’t live by human laws. But, the Doc wouldn’t budge.
“I need to know what happened, Pixie. Your blood came back positive for the paralytic used by the Rogue.” He stopped and rested a hand on her trembling fingers, “Do you trust me, baby?” She nodded and threaded her fingers with his. Her deep blue eyes filled with tears.
“I’m ashamed. I made a mistake. I know better than to go out alone.” She whispered miserably.
The sight of her fear and the pain lurking beneath tore at his protective instincts. He lifted her from the bed and crossed the room to the chair. He held her while she cried, explaining the events of the night before. She had gone out alone, which made him want to turn her over his knee, and she had been harassed by some old classmates. The guys had been ejected from the club for their behavior. She had fed from a girl and afterward felt drunk and disoriented, so she decided to go home. The guys who harassed her had waited for her to leave and assaulted her. She had been completely unable to fight back. Two of the guys were human and being controlled by the vamp. They last thing she remembered was being slammed against a wall. She woke this morning in the alley with nothing worse than a few bumps and scratches. She had been more concerned about the theft of her car than the possibility of a rape. She was sure that she would have known if she had been violated, but the fact that she had no memory for approximately twelve hours did nothing to reassure him.
The door opened and Doc entered. He looked at Brandi for permission to speak in front of Greyson. She nodded and Doc began. “I will assume you have seen fit to inform Greyson of your misadventures. So I will be blunt. Rape was a big concern for me given your lack of memory of events, so we ruled that out first. By exam it was obvious that you haven’t had intercourse recently, but I performed a rape kit anyway. It was negative for the presence of semen.”
Doc paused to allow that bit of good news to sink in. Greyson took the first deep breath he’d allowed himself since hearing of her condition. The thought of another man touching her made him sick. He didn’t know how he would have dealt with that situation and was glad to not need to find out. She was safe and relatively uninjured.
“Cayden made inquiries with a friend in the local police force but there were no calls to the area or reports of suspicious activity. He searched the area around the club and found your purse in an alley.” He arched an eyebrow at her, “I don’t know how you got out of this with just some scrapes and bruises, but I thank God you did. You are lucky not to be a guest of the Rogue. The only reason I can up come with for your release is your lack of an extrasensory power.” He glanced up from his clip board.
“Thanks,Doc. When can I go home?” She didn’t want to be there any longer than she had to.
“You can leave whenever you’re ready. I’ll go so you can get dressed. If you want to avoid your father, I’d be quick about it,” hesuggested before shutting the door behind him.
“I’d like you to stay with me tonight.” Greyson nuzzled her neck and held her tightly. “This isn’t the homecoming I was looking forward to and I have a few days off. What do you think?”
Brandi snuggled closer and gave him her mouth. This was the welcome home he had been hoping for when he unloaded his bags and gear earlier. Greyson had dreamt of his pixie loving him to exhaustion every night he had been away. Tonight he would bask in the fulfillment of those dreams.
SEVEN
Brandi had been in Greyson’s bed for three days making love, talking, sleeping, and just being together. He had been doing a fabulous job of making up for the time they were apart and making her forget how lonely being the girlfriend of a Wrath guard could be. She’d confided in Dani when her feeling of abandonment began to overwhelm her. Dani had dated Cayden for a time when he was newbie warrior. She sympathized with Brandi because Greyson was a Wrath newbie, which would mean even longer and more frequent stretches of absence.
“They are the guardians of our nation, the protectors of our families, and the enforcers of our laws. They are the police, and the army. They are our boyfriends, husbands, fathers and sons. It’s hard work being everything to everyone. I just hope you can give him the chance to prove who he is as a man before you count him out for being a soldier,” Dani had told her with sincere eyes that were too wise for her age.
It’s really hard to feel sorry for yourself for being the one left behind when you consider what life as a warrior must be like. Damn Dani for not letting her wallow in self-pity.
“What are thinking about, Nymph?” Greyson asked as he entered the bedroom with a tray of food and drinks.
“Nothing important. Just woolgathering,” she lied. He eyed her suspiciously. “What time do you report for duty?”
“In about two hours. Once I get situated and I receive my assignments for the week I’ll text you. I’d like to see you again as soon as possible.” He climbed over her on the bed. “I hate being away from you. You’ve ruined me.” He smiled and nibbled on her throat.
“Ruined you?” she asked indignantly.
“Yes. I’m ruined,” he huffed, “I never needed anyone before you. Now I’m a hopeless puppy nipping at your heels and hoping for some attention.”
“You are so full of it!” She rolled on the bed to look down on him.
Greyson’s expression turned serious and it scared the hell out of Brandi. He always seems to be making a great effort at keeping things light between them. She assumed that was because he didn’t want her to take their relationship too seriously. Brandi wasn’t blind to the fact that her age was still an issue for Greyson.
“You think I don’t care? You think I don’t miss you when I’m gone? You think I don’t know there are tons of guys out there that would love to keep you too busy to think about the guy that’s always gone?” He held her face gently in his palms and kissed her softly. Brandi couldn’t do this. She didn’t want him worrying about her and stressing out just before a long shift. He needed to be focused to stay safe.
“You want my attention? You’ve got it.” Brandi lowered her mouth to his nipple and bite gently.
Greyson reacted the way she expected. Using teeth with another vampire was dangerous business. If she broke the skin his blood on her tongue would bond her to him forever, but he liked it a little rough. It was almost a game for them and the game was called, How far will you go?
She nipped and nibbled her way down his belly, using her teeth to excite him while keeping her sharp fangs under tight control. When she reached his boxers she shocked him by releasing her fangs. They flashed in the morning light, causing Greyson to shutter. To see your lover’s fangs during sex was a huge turn on. It was dangerous but beautiful to know that you affected your partner so deeply. Brandi lowered her head and used one fang to slice his boxer-briefs down the front. Usually Greyson was in control. He liked to teach her how to please him. He loved showing her what a man of experience could do to her body. But today she was going to show him what she liked. She intended to take her pleasure from the old guy and show him what naughty little girls were really made of.
Greyson clawed at the sheets when she applied herself, demonstrating the skills he had taught her. She teased, licked, and inhaled him. She stroked him in time with the motion of her mouth and he seemed to grow impossibly larger. When he pulled on her hair to stop her she knew she had taken Greyson very close to completion. He growled at her, a deep rumble of longing and desire.
“I need you. I want to be in you,” he pleaded.
“Do you?” she purred.
“How badly do you want it, Grey?” Brandi crawled up his body and rubbed her wet heat against his length, “Will you beg me for it, Grey?”
His eyes flashed dark and dangerous. Brandi feared she may have pushed him too far. After a few tense moments of her torturing them both with the slick friction and leisu
rely searching strokes of her tongue, she retracted her fangs and began to nip at his neck, careful not to draw blood but hard enough to feed his need. Greyson moaned a deep pained curse before looking her in the eye.
“Please, baby. Please let me in? I need to feel you surrounding me. Please, let me in,” he begged.
Brandi felt dizzy with the realization of her feminine power over such a proud man. She gave him his reward and claimed her own by granting his request for more. When she began her slow purposeful ride Brandi didn’t want to miss a moment of his surrender so she watched him while he watched their bodies join. Greyson was fascinated by the sight of his length disappearing into her body.
“You’re so beautiful, baby, and so damn sexy,” he praised her and tried to encourage her to move faster, but Brandi refused. Keeping up the rhythmic pleasure-pain had sweat trickling down her back, but she maintained the pace. Greyson nipped at her breasts using his teeth to punish her and then his tongue to soothe the hurt. He promised to repay her for the game she played so sweetly.
Finally Brandi saw what she had been waiting for. Greyson’s face was breathtaking when he looked up at her with fangs bared, black eyes and an expression of utter torment. It was too much,and it wasn’t enough. He needed more, but he didn’t want it to end. It was time. She gave into the pounding need of her body to possess the man beneath her. Brandi rode him hard and fast. He clasped her hips and guided her movements in time with his upwards thrusts. Her climax rippled through her body and Grey bellowed his release to the rafters when she dragged him over the edge with her.
****
Tessa watched Reilly, Doc Stevens as everyone else called him, when he went to lock the front door to the clinic. He’d asked her to stay with him for observation until he cleared her to return home. That was fine with her, because it kept her close to Danielle. Her daughter was a married woman that didn’t need her mother to care for her anymore, but Tessa was having trouble cutting the apron strings. Tessa had become so bored in his guest room in the private apartment over the clinic that she had begun following him to the clinic to find things to do around the office. He had a receptionist and several nurses, but it was a busy practice and there was always something to be done. Tessa wondered how Reilly made time to do all the house calls required by the vamps. His patients were mostly human with a few vamps mixed in. The vamps were mostly pregnant women that needed the specialized care of vamp doctor for their delivery.
Every day Tessa got stronger and she knew she should have been released by now. She had no idea where she was going to go when it was time to go home anyway. Tessa had put her house in Perry Hall on the market. It wasn’t a safe place for her anymore. She had been home working on a set of proofs for a client the day a swarm of vampires had raided her house and hauled her off to the Rogue. He knew where she lived now and could use her against Danielle the way he had before if he caught her again. She had no home to return to now.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, looking concerned. Reilly came to check her for the return of the fever that had plagued her body off and on over the last months. “You look so sad, honey.”
He did that all the time now. They would be having a normal conversation and he would slip and call her a pet name. He had worked hard at first to hide his attraction to her, but now that she was quickly healing, Reilly seemed to be making a gentle effort to cross the line between a doctor-patient relationship into something more personal. It scared the shit out of her. She liked Reilly and thought that if she had a heart to give, he might have a chance at stealing it. He was an attractive man in an English professor kind of way with his average height, brown hair, and brown eyes. But Tessa knew from living under his roof that the firm, toned body of an athlete lurked under his business attire and white doctor’s jacket.
Reilly was a doctor who cared deeply for his patients. He made her laugh. He made her feel comfortable and at home in a way she hadn’t felt since her ill-fated relationship with Griffin. All she had to do was convince her heart that Griffin wasn’t out there waiting for her to love him again. After over twenty years of waiting, the stupid thing hadn’t figured out that she wasn’t good enough for him or his people. A whole nation of people that believed humans where lesser beings stood between him and her. Griffin had proved over and over again that she wasn’t worth the loss of his reputation. That made her wonder why Reilly behaved the way he did. Why didn’t he seem to mind having a lowly human contaminating his home?
“Why are you so nice to me?” she asked. Reilly’s eyebrows rose to meet his hairline and he looked puzzled by her direct question.
“I’m serious. Why don’t you treat me like the rest of the vamps do? With the exception of my daughter’s new family, most don’t care for me or the fact that I’m aware of your people. Why are you so kind?” She needed to know.
Reilly took her hand and led her down the hall to his office. The warmth of his large hand surrounding hers seem intimate and familiar now that he had made a habit of touching her whenever possible. He stopped in front of a wall covered in pictures of family and friends. He pointed to a picture of a gray-haired couple that smiled at the camera. The man had his arms wrapped around the woman a way that spoke of a long standing love.
“Those are my parents, Bob and Bonny Stevens.” He smiled wistfully. Tessa was shocked. She had never seen a vampire that looked older than fifty.
“But, they’re…”
“Old? I know. They’re both gone now. They lived into their eighties and died within six months of each other.” He touched the picture once before moving onto a picture of himself and another slightly older guy.
“This is Bruce. When I started college he was a junior. He took me under his wing and showed me the ins and outs of college life. He said that I should enjoy my college years, but be sure to keep my eyes on the prize. He was constantly riding me to pick a major. By the end of my freshman year I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I was just coasting by, taking general classes and happy to be getting good grades. As long as my parents were happy so was I. Bruce graduated the next year and went on to law school. We still kept in touch and he still rode me to make some solid choices, but I was happy the way things were.” He paused, seeming to be looking back through time. She was confused and decided to just wait for him to continue.
“I was walking to class the first week of my junior year when I had a massive seizure. I had been having some issues with missing time over the summer. I would be doing yard work one minute and wake up on the porch swing the next. Things like that. I had started getting these monster headaches but I ignored it. Like most twenty-one year olds I thought I was invincible. I was diagnosed with an inoperable brainstem glioma. In layman’s terms, I had a tumor on my brainstem. I was given about four months to live. My parents were devastated.”
Reilly went to sit in his high-backed leather chair and rock back in his seat while Tessa tried to steady herself. How would she go on if Danielle was diagnosed with such a horrible disease? Her heart broke for Reilly’s parents.
“Are you telling me you were human?” Tessa asked incredulously. “Because my understanding is that vampires don’t get those kinds of human diseases.”
“Yes, honey, I was human.” Tessa went to his side of the desk and leaned back, crossing her arms, waiting for the rest of his incredible story.
“I went home with my parents to wait for the end to come. The seizures began to come more frequently. The headaches got worse and one day I just couldn’t walk anymore. That was when Bruce showed up. He was irate that I hadn’t called him. He couldn’t believe I was going to go and die without clearing it with him first. He was bossy that way,” Reilly laughed, “Anyway, he told me this unbelievable story about him being a vampire that could save my life if I were willing to have a lifelong connection to him and begin to supplement my diet with a healthy dose of human blood. He explained that according to his research not everyone survived the transition from human to vampire,
but if I was going to die anyway it was worth the risk. After he did a few tricks to convince me of his sincerity, I agreed. We told my parents, which by the way is seriously against the rules, and they were willing to do anything if it meant they didn’t have to watch me die without a fight. We started the process that day. It took a few days to complete because Bruce didn’t want to overtax my body. It was a lot like having a fever. I was sweaty and hot with fever-like dreams while the vampire blood basically infected every cell in my body and converted it to replicate itself.”
“You are bonded to another man?” Tessa asked shyly.
“No, honey, but I do have a blood bond with Bruce. I took his blood but he didn’t take mine. I was human when I took his blood and that makes a difference as I’m sure you know from experience. It’s a very interesting topic that I would love to do a study on. The way vampire blood reacts with humans and other vampires in their family is different from the way it reacts in the bodies of other vampires. I get faint impressions of Bruce’s emotions from time to time. Even that has reduced since he took a mate.” Reilly pointed to a picture of Bruce and a cute little brunette wearing glasses.
“That’s Liz. She’s human, too. They want to try having a baby before he converts her, much the same way you and Griffin did. It scares the shit out of me. They want me to attend the birth. Anyway, back to my story. After I was turned, I returned to school with a new view on life. I thought about all the people in the hospital from the doctors to the nurses to the ladies that brought me my meals. That’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to make a difference in the lives of others. I wanted to be the strong shoulder my doctor had been for my parents and the gentle hand of comfort my nurses had been to me.” He cleared his throat.
