by Unknown
“Tell you what?” she asked him, picking up her towel and wrapping it around her from the waist down only.
Julian swallowed hard, his eyes fixed on her. Carissa parted her hair, twisted the water out and laid two thick strands over her shoulders. When she turned to face him those strands covered her breasts. Julian gave a silent thank you.
“That you’re a vampire. That you were leaving to become a Guardian.” He managed to answer, forcing his eyes up to her face. “You could’ve told me.”
Carissa headed towards him, her strides even, confident, and her eyes bright. She stopped in front of him, her head tilted to one side. “Your life went one way and mine another. That’s how it was always supposed to be. You were born to a life that didn’t include me.”
Julian shoved his hands into his pockets, mostly to help prevent him from reaching out and touching her or even worse, pulling her into his arms. Just standing there, that close, had him wondering when the last time was that someone held her. Hell, where were those feelings coming from? He should be yearning for Serina, not thinking about holding his distant past.
“You took my choice from me,” he stated.
She sighed. “I helped give you a life.”
He frowned at her, “You think I had one. For eight years my life consisted of looking for you.” His tone was sharp, and his temper rose. “I needed to know what happened to my best friend.” He saw a small flicker of pain cross her cold eyes, but it was quickly replaced. “I’m still wondering what the hell happened to her.” Julian didn’t hold back the bitterness from his voice. He raised his hands towards her and huffed. “Who the hell are you? What happened to that girl I knew?”
She crossed her arms under her breasts and leaned on one foot. “Finished yet?”
Julian shook his head before running both hands in his hair. “Damn!” he rushed out. Where to begin asking and demanding answers he knew for a fact she wouldn’t give. “No! I’m not done yet. You don’t get to walk away and come back acting like nothing changed. Look at you.” He waved his hand up and down in front of her.
“Okay.” The statement had him stalling. “You get one.”
“One?” His hands went to his hips. “One what?”
“One answer to one question.”
Julian licked his lips and thought about which one he wanted the answer to the most and knew only one wasn’t going to be good enough. He shook his head. “No. I get to know more than just one answer.” She shook her head and made to walk away. Julian grabbed hold of her arms, stopping her. “Not this time. You don’t get to walk away again without giving me some damn answers. I’m entitled to know the truth.”
“Fine.” She jerked out of his hold and took a step back. “You want to know why I left? You! You were the reason I left. Are you happy now?”
Julian frowned. “No, I’m not. What the fuck did I do to make you run away?”
Carissa backed away from him, put distance between them, and at the same time got closer to the stairs. “You’re a damn Noble, Julian.”
“What the hell does that have to do with anything?”
“You still don’t get it, not after all these years.” She took a step forward, her chin going up. “Your father wanted you to take Ambrose’s place to use you to disband the Guardians. Nobles hate the order. We’re a disgrace.” She took a deep breath, let it out and rubbed her face. “I’m a disgrace, a half breed-freak.” She sighed, taking a step away from him.
He let her go, the words ringing in his head. I’m a disgrace. Closing his eyes, shaking his head, he looked when the door slammed. He still didn’t have the answers he needed, but at least he had something. Being a Noble ran her off, but something told him there was way more to the story.
* * * *
Dimitri stood pressed to a dark corner. Hiding in the darkness, he watched a conversation between Carissa and Julian. Carissa stalked off, ending it. Being extra quiet, he waited as Julian took the stairs two at a time and left also. Something was still between those two. He saw it, but the question was would she? And would that something affect her ability to function and still protect?
He pushed off the wall, opened the door to take another route to her quarters where he assumed, from her lack of clothes, was where she was headed. He ran into someone. Preoccupied and at the speeds he moved in, it was enough to knock him off his feet. He went down hard, holding to what he’d ran into, dragging that someone right on top of him.
“Oh, God, I’m sorry!”
Dimitri closed his eyes briefly. Claudia again. “Seems we are destined to bump into each other,” he said, trying to smile but couldn’t seem to muster one up.
“I guess I should warn you that I’m a klutz.” She giggled. “I swear, at times, I trip over my own two feet.” She pushed off his chest to her feet and held her hand out to him.
Dimitri waved her off and went to his feet without her help. Scattered around them were clothes from the laundry basket she dropped.
“Where were you heading?” he asked, crouching to gather and toss the clothes back into the basket.
“I was trying to find the door back up to the house,” she answered, picking up the rest. “This place is so confusing.”
They reached for the basket at the same time, faces mere inches from touching. The urge to lean in and kiss her was strong and got stronger by the second. Hell, the taste of her seemed to fill his mouth, almost as if he had fed from her vein. That made things even more complicated. He wanted her.
He could feel her pain at night. Nighttime, it was the strongest, but she somehow managed to do her bleeding and suffer through the pain. He could feel her need to find the vampire who would help take it all away.
“Dimitri?”
Dimitri snapped out of the vision that, for whatever reason, popped into his brain. Looking up, Claudia stood with the basket in her hands. “Sorry.” He cleared his throat, standing up straight.
“Everything all right?”
“Yeah, fine.” Again he cleared his throat. “I’ll, um, I’ll take you to the door you’re looking for.”
Trying to stay away from her was going to be harder than he anticipated. Naw, it was going to be torture if they kept banging into each other. Love to really bang into her. Where the hell did that thought come from? Maybe it’s time for me to get laid.
They reached the door. He opened it, and stood to the side for her to go before him, being polite, but he didn’t feel like a gentleman. He watched her ass all the way up the stairs. His damn hand itched to touch her, to run his fingers through her hair to test if the softness he imagined was real. His cock pressed against the buttons of his leather pants as it rose to the need. Even his fangs started to lengthen, and his senses heightened. She needed to bleed. He could smell it.
At the top of the steps, she stopped and smiled down at him. “Thanks. I don’t think I would’ve found it without your help. I think I’m going to need a map to get around.”
Out in the hallway, he stood next to her. He felt the corner of his lips tug, like he was about to smile. “Once you get your bearings, it’ll be easier,” he told her. Not able to control himself he leaned closer for only her to hear. “You should bleed yourself early before it becomes too painful tonight.”
He walked around her and headed for the office, leaving her where she stood. Now if he could only get his damn cock to go down and let him focus on work, he’d have it made.
Chapter Three
Claudia dropped down on her bed in her small room, tired and in pain. The pain wasn’t from working in the house or helping out in the clinic. Nor was the pain the usual. The ‘I need to bleed pain’ was there, but somehow different.
She rolled over, stared up at the ceiling, and thought about the day. Not only had she seen Julian again, but she also met someone who interested her very much. Dimitri. Something about the man intrigued her. He seemed just about everything any woman would ever want in a man, except he was a Guardian.
That facet wo
uld have bothered her father if he was still alive, though strangely, it didn’t bother her at all, no more than it had as a child. Her father had been in favor of supporting the Nobles in their efforts to disband the Guardians, until people started to go missing. Some were fortunate to be brought back by a Guardian, others not. A Guardian brought her brother home, only for both to be killed when her home was raided by breeds, killing everyone but her.
She couldn’t think about that. The memories were too hard to bear. She needed to concentrate on the here and now, take a shower, and bleed herself. Sitting up, Claudia reached for the knife on the nightstand but hesitated. For some strange reason, she just couldn’t bring herself to do it immediately. She needed to feel the pain for a bit, just to feel she was alive.
Tucking the knife in the pocket of her robe instead, Claudia left her room for the showers. She entered the hall when Carissa, Shadow, and Dimitri rounded the corner at the far end, three abreast and moving fast. Claudia pressed herself up against the wall, as did a few other bloodmates who were still up.
“Okay, mates, here are the new toys.” Shadow held out items in both hands. “Use them well.”
The group halted. “Improvements.” Carissa said with a smile that gave Claudia the chills. “Nice.”
“Made that one special for you, love,” Shadow added.
“What’s going on?” Claudia whispered to one of the other girls.
“I don’t know,” she replied, shaking her head and shrugging.
Claudia watched in fascination as the woman pressed a button and the thing in her hand unfolded into a bow. Dmitri took hold of something that looked like a stick. With a sharp flick of his wrist, it extended, but it wasn’t a stick. It was a sword.
“I’m impressed.” Dimitri stated.
“And the last of my special goodies,” Shadow smiled, taking something out of his pocket too small for Claudia to see. “Now we can talk as you play.”
“He’s getting good.” Carissa took whatever it was in his hand and put it in her ear. Dimitri did the same.
Ahh! Earpieces.
“Don’t want to lose my special love now.” Shadow smiled before kissing Carissa on the cheek.
“Stop fucking around,” she retorted, swinging a backhand at him.
“Let’s go.” Dimitri turned, and his gaze locked right on Claudia.
Her breath caught in her throat. Time seemed to stand still for her as he froze and stood there looking at her. As fast as it happened, it ended. His eyes moved away, and he took off at a run, away from her, down the hall that would lead them outside.
Claudia caught Shadow by the arm. “What’s going on?” she asked softly again, not able to tear her eyes from the spot where Dimitri had disappeared.
“Breeds,” Shadow stated. “Got word on where we might find some.”
“How close?” She could barely get the question out. Memories of what the breeds had done to her family overcame her, and she thought she might faint.
Shadow put his arm around her, steadying her. “Ah, don’t you worry none, love,” he told her, his accent thick. “They’re not that close, but we ain’t going to let them get closer.”
“It’s nearly dawn.”
“Don’t you worry none.” He gave her a smile along with a pat on her shoulder and pulled away from her. “We’ll make it back in one piece.”
Claudia nodded and forced herself to turn away. She went to the showers, placed her robe on one of the many hooks, and turned the water on. As she stood under the hot sprays, she made a deep cut into her wrist.
Pressure instantly released. With each drop, each rush of blood that slipped out of the cut, the pain lessened and was pushed back for yet another day. With the pouring of her blood down the drain, Claudia felt a sense of loss. Something was missing in her life, the vampire that would be her bonded mate, the one her body produced that excess blood to feed.
Closing the cut, she finished showering and wrapped a towel around her body. Slipping her robe back on, she returned to her own little space in the safe house.
Even though she’d bled, she still felt the pressure of needing more. There wasn’t more for her to have, not until she bonded. She had no recourse, no alternative cure. She had to deal with what she had, a knife and a cold bed.
Claudia finished drying off, changed, and sat on the bed to brush her hair out. As she worked on the tangles she thought about where the Guardians were headed. With only a couple of hours before the dawn, they rushed out to fight.
Would they come back?
Would they be okay?
She hoped so.
Her mind brought up the past again. Images of her family filled her head. She saw her mother and father’s looks of horror when their home was invaded by the breeds. Claudia closed her eyes, pressed her hands to her head, and tried with all her might to block out the remembered screams of agony from her mother.
The memories were interrupted by a welcome buzzing. Claudia lowered her hands, turned her head, and looked at the small beeper given to her by the doctor. For a few seconds she only stared at it, frowning. When she glanced at the clock, she saw that it was past daybreak and stood up. She’d been sitting on the bed thinking about her past for over three hours. She turned off the beeper, hurried to change her clothes, and dashed from the room to the clinic, knowing if she was being beeped in the morning, it was an emergency.
“I’m fine!” Dimitri’s voice boomed in the hallway and was even louder when she went through the double doors.
All three of the Guardians were in the clinic, and all three were hurt.
“I told you not to blow that shit up!” Dimitri yelled. He leaned against the wall, his entire side touching the surface, and blood oozed down his back and leg. His face was as white as one of the sheets. “Why the hell didn’t you stay put like I told you to?”
“I didn’t know that shithole was going to explode,” Shadow snapped back. He yelped when the doctor pressed on his side. “I wasn’t about to let you two have all the fun. Besides, Ambrose told me to go check on you two. Dawn was coming, so bite me!”
“I think a few ribs are cracked,” Ivy said as she pressed her fingers into Shadow’s side again. Her eyes found Claudia, and she smiled “Good, you’re still awake. Dimitri needs some stitches. Check his leg and more than likely his back as well.”
“I’m fine, I said,” Dimitri growled.
“Bullshit!” Ivy yelled back. “Get your ass on that bed now and let Claudia see to your wounds, or I’m going to knock you out.”
Carissa lay on one of the other beds with ice packs covering her face. Another bloodmate was checking her out, and she seemed to be the one in the best shape.
Taking a deep breath, Claudia picked up one of the large surgical packs and went over to Dimitri. He sat down with a heavy sigh on the side of the nearest bed. Putting on her best professional face, she knelt down at his feet. Without thinking or looking up at him, she started to pull off the boot at the end of his injured leg.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I need to look at the cut on your leg,” she answered, not looking up. “So I’m going to need to get your pants off.”
She heard the sharp intake of air from him, but ignored it. He helped her some, first by wiggling his foot out of the boot she held and taking off the second boot himself. When he stood up, she could swear his height hadn’t diminished in the slightest without the thick soles of his boots. When his hands went to his belt, she swallowed a gulp, stopped him, and made him sit back down. Taking a very hard second swallow, she made herself look up at him.
Dimitri’s dark eyes were intense and somewhat frightening. His nostrils flared, even though he seemed to relax. In fact, he slumped back on his side, one arm folded under his head. Time felt like it was standing still while the two of them just stared at each other.
Claudia broke the eye contact and went back to the task of undressing him. She pulled at his belt to release it, opened the buttons quickly, and
had his pants loose in the blink of an eye. When she tugged, he raised his hips enough to let her slip the leather down his legs.
Her mouth went dry.
Dimitri’s legs were like tree trunks, thick, strong, and so very long. No way would she have been able to get her hands around his thighs. When she glanced up she wanted to smile a bit. The boxer-briefs he had on were also black, very tight, and molded revealingly around a thick cock, which seemed to get thicker by the second. One small glimpse between his legs, and the sight quickly caused her to salivate. He pulled a sheet over, covering that part of him up, and she gave a silent thank you.
Clearing her throat, she put on some gloves and started to inspect the long gash circling from the inside of his thigh around to the outside top of his leg. The sheet he covered himself with was in her way, which meant the shroud over his manhood needed to go. She steeled herself to not gawk at his dick. Great! Nothing like a little pressure when I have to stitch up a handsome, mega-sexy man.
“This is definitely going to need a lot of stitches.” She turned to get the pack and opened it, making sure to keep her eyes and mind on her work, not the body spread out before her. Man, I would love to crawl up on his lap and just let him hold me.
Mistake one—he looked up at him.
Mistake two—he looked right at his dick again.
His eyes watched everything she did, looking where she looked. Hooded, shielded, coco colored eyes, but not shielded enough that she couldn’t see a bit of desire.
She gave him a quick smile, picked up the syringe to give him a local in a couple of different places around the wound to help with any pain. He didn’t even flinch when she stuck him. He didn’t hold onto the sheet when she moved it away either. Surprisingly, the shot she gave him did nothing to bring down the size of his dick. Shit, he’s huge!
“I guess with all you’ve had going on this evening, a stick with a needle isn’t anything.” She chuckled, laying disposable towels around his leg. Working hard to make it appear natural and not on purpose, she made sure one of the towels was big enough to cover his crotch.
