She laughed, covering her mouth when she started to squeal. Pretty soon she doubled over with the effect. He hadn’t meant to be funny.
“I’m not sure that’s what I had in mind. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m glad you’re happy but….”
“I’m sorry. It’s just too ridiculous. Hit you? Pound on you? Not who I am. I was fighting monsters before adolescence. Hitting you is not going to make me feel better. It’s just a reminder of how futile the whole of my existence has been.”
Well, when she put it in those terms, it sounded downright depressing. “And this was funny how?”
“I don’t know.” She snorted. “It just was.”
He’d never understand women, especially not the one he desperately loved. He bent over and kissed her. Whatever else, they were in this together.
****
For a change, Trudy fell asleep first. Curled up against him, she breathed softly in his ear. He loved the sound. Not quite dawn yet, and he felt no urge to close his eyes and melt into nothingness.
He’d have to figure out what to do about Devin the next evening when he rose. After he fed and went to Kaden’s to drain the cows. He hated animal blood and winced at the memory of the last time. Intellectually, he could understand how it wasn’t any different than eating steak. Only it felt different. Very, very different.
Trudy rolled toward him as the sun rose in the horizon. He closed his eyes and let dreamlessness take him. For once, he didn’t go to sleep knowing she stayed awake contemplating the future without him.
A strange noise roused him. His mind wasn’t clear, and he knew instantly sunset had not arrived. He shouldn’t be awake. George closed his eyes, trying to settle the beast wanting to crawl out of his skin. His fangs elongated, and the need for blood, for the feeding, as strong as he had craved it since he’d been locked up, nearly overwhelmed him.
He tried to breathe through his nose, but nothing helped. George. Wanted. Blood.
But he wouldn’t terrify her. He’d sneak out of bed and….
He suddenly realized Trudy wasn’t there. A crash sounded somewhere in the house and a scream.
George roared, lunging out of the bed. His limbs were on fire, and his whole body felt like he’d gained one hundred pounds overnight and his muscles hadn’t caught up to the new heaviness. Still, Trudy needed him.
His mind faded to nothingness. Only his senses remained, and George realized briefly he’d lost control of his own thinking. For once, he was perfectly fine with the loss of control.
The fangs in his mouth elongated, and his senses extended. There were four men in the house. They were loud, they smelled like acrid smoke, which burned his nose, and they had made his female scream.
Something had to be done. No one would make the female upset and live to tell the tale. He would kill them, drink their blood, and leave the bodies where his enemies would see them so they would know never to touch his female again.
George snarled as he tore down the stairs. The light from the windows burned his skin, actual smoke rising from where he sizzled. What was pain? He was a creature of the dark. He would heal after he saved the female.
“George.” The female called his human name seconds before she kicked one of the males in the gut. The stench of dog filled the room. These were not only men attacking what belonged to him. They were filthy Werewolves.
He leapt into the fray, pulling the one who had been kicked into a chokehold. He grabbed onto his neck and in two seconds had pierced the beast’s skin, sucking down his blood. The world turned black and white. All color faded except for the red of the blood.
“George. Please.” The female swung out of the way of one of the other Werewolves. She looked strong, his female, impressive. Even so, the males could not be allowed to cause her any more harm. “Please go back upstairs before the light kills you.”
He heard distress in her voice. This could not be allowed to continue.
The Werewolf he held had perished. He dropped the body to the floor with a thump and stepped over it. Claws extended from his fingernails, and he smiled. He would do damage….
The world spun in front of his eyes; everything becoming a haze of anger. Time ceased to matter. It might have minutes or perhaps hours, but he eliminated two more of the creatures before he rounded on the last.
“Don’t do it, Vampire.” The werewolf snarled. The animal hadn’t shifted. How could he? They were only able to accomplish such a feat during moonlight. Pathetic.
The male who had an earring dangling from his left earlobe snarled while he held the female up against him. He wielded a knife and pressed the device against the female. She shuddered, and sweat broke out all over her body. He could hear the pounding of her heart. She feared. This was not acceptable.
“Do you hear me, Vampire? Or are you so lost in the haze of your own blood lust, you monster, that you can’t? I will kill her.”
“George.”
“Quiet, female.” He spoke aloud, although he found it hard to do with the fangs in his mouth. Speech was for humans. “You will let me deal with this creature.”
The door banged open behind them, but George didn’t turn to look.
The female’s eyes widened. “Devin.”
He knew that name. It was the brother. He would also have to be dealt with in a manner befitting what he had done. Or perhaps he would simply be drained as the lower life form he’d proven himself to be.
“Stay back, Devin. That’s the deal. We end her because she’ll never be able to keep quiet about what she knows, and you get to live. Don’t involve yourself in this.”
Enough was enough. He lunged forward, ripping the female from the clutches of the Werewolf. The knife dropped, cutting her arm as it went down. He smelled the garlic she took that she believed prevented him from wanting to drink her blood. She was mistaken. No amount of garlic could have kept him away. No, she was his female. His lust for her would never come from blood.
Although her brother smelled as if he would make a fine snack.
She crumbled to the ground, but she was not seriously hurt. If anything it would be better for her to stay down for a while. She’d be safe on the floor.
“You.” He turned to Devin. The male resembled his sister but taller, darker, and he had dark circles under his eyes and a wan look to him, which would never appear on the female’s face. He would never allow her to feel so desperate or lost.
Devin raised a gun and pointed it at him. “You’re a bloodsucker.”
What did the male want? Did he think the bullet would kill him? Bullets were useless on Vampires. He cocked his head to the side. “Yes.”
“Devin.” The female scrambled to her feet, her arm bleeding. “What are you doing? The gun won’t hurt George. He’s a Vampire. It doesn’t kill them. You know better than anyone. We learned it together.”
“Oh, Tru.” The male’s hand shook. He looked like he was in a haze. The stale odor of his drugged-up blood permeated through his skin and reached George's nostrils.
“Oh, Tru. Why couldn’t you have kept running? For years I kept them busy. For years. But I made a promise.”
The female walked forward. Why couldn’t she stay put?
“I know you made mistakes. We can work it out. George has just…annihilated four werewolves. We can figure all of this out. Together. Whatever you promised them, you can forget about it. We’ll deal with it together.”
Devin shook his head, tears coming down his cheeks. Why did the male cry? It made no sense.
“They’ll never stop hunting us. We thought we were the Hunters? Ha. What a big joke. We’ve always been the things they preyed upon. They only let us think we are making a difference at all.”
“Male…” Why wouldn’t this man stop talking?
But Devin kept speaking. “And I owe people so much money. They’ll come for you anyway, don’t you know, Tru? They’ll never stop. It’s better.”
“You make no sense, male.” And the sun had started to
bother his skin. Or maybe he’d only started to notice the sensation.
“You have to die, Tru.”
The gun fired. It took a few seconds to register in his Vampire mind that Devin had fired the revolver. Tru fell beside him, onto the floor. A red stain appeared on her stomach. There should not be blood seeping from his human female’s abdomen. It wasn’t acceptable.
Ending Devin had to be fast so he could get back to the female. He leapt forward onto Devin and tore into his throat. The male screamed but ceased struggling. He lay limp when life left him, but the beast in George couldn’t care less. Not one little bit.
She needed him.
“George.”
When Trudy called to him, he dropped her brother's body onto the ground. He whirled around, taking the one step until he reached her.
She extended her hand, and he took it. “George.”
She coughed, and he placed his hand on her stomach. There was too much blood. He roared to the heavens. No, that wouldn’t be allowed to happen. The woman who made the universe acceptable would stay with him. She would not leave. Not like this.
“George, can you believe it? My fucking brother shot me. I mean, who does this happen to? Who gets killed by their brother like this?” She laughed, and it came out a gurgling sound.
He had no words to give her. What should he say?
“No,” was all he managed.
“Your eyes. They’re so Vampire. And the sun is burning you.”
He shrugged. What did pain matter?
She laughed and it sounded like a gurgle. “I guess I know what happens when you get up during the day.”
Her eyes fluttered, and he knew she would leave. Trudy would go. And there would never be sunlight to his nighttime again.
“I love you, George. I know somewhere in there you can hear me, so please hold onto these memories. I loved you so completely in the short time we had together.”
Her eyes closed, and he knew what he would do. There wasn’t any question whatsoever. Perhaps she wouldn’t like it, but her concerns were not his then. She would forgive him eventually. A tear slipped from his eye, and he wiped it away. Why did he cry? He had no idea.
He bent over and bit down.
She would be with him. There could be no other way.
Time passed slowly. He rocked her silent body in her arms. Over and over again. Her heart had quit beating, and she no longer drew breath. But she was coming back. She had to be. The sun set, and he continued to hold her.
The door opened and Kaden strode in, holding a container of blood. His friend surveyed the room. The dead Werewolves, Trudy changing in George's arms, the burns all over his body.
“Shit, George.” Kaden’s fangs elongated. “I’m not going to kill you. I won’t. But you know the Council will. You can’t do what you’ve done her.”
He stared at Kaden. George had come back to awareness of who he was when the sun had gone to bed. But he could remember all of it. Every last second.
His hands shook. “You have to take care of her, Kaden. I won’t even resist. Call the Council. I won’t put up a fight. But you have to take care of Trudy. She had no choice in this.”
Kaden nodded. “If I thought we could cover it up, I would. I’d help you.”
“No.” The werewolves would be back. They’d come looking for their missing pack members. There would be no covering it up. There could be no peace. “Do it.”
He stared down at Trudy’s sweet face, and, even though he could see the horror of the day, even if he couldn’t quite reconcile the way his beast had taken over, he wouldn’t be sorry. He’d never be unhappy about how it had ended.
Because Trudy had to exist in the world. The earth couldn’t spin without her.
Chapter Eight
Trudy’s head pounded, and she’d never been so thirsty in her life.
“Here.” A voice spoke to her. “Drink this, Trudy. You’ll feel better if you do. Don’t fight it.”
Warm liquid hit her tongue and she sucked it down fast. It felt so nice to drink, but it wasn’t enough, not nearly as much as she needed. “More.”
“Give it to her. Don’t hold it back at this point. The next few days she gets as much as she wants.”
“Right.”
She jerked her eyes open, even though they felt glued shut, and stared up at the two men who looked down at her. Neither one of them had the face she most wanted to see. Not that she had any particular problem with James or Kaden. But an ache to see George spread from her chest to her stomach. Where was he? What had happened?
An ache caught her attention. “My mouth hurts.”
“Well.” James squatted down and placed his hand behind her neck, helping her to sit up. “You feel your fangs descending. You need more blood. That’ll be for a while, but the good news is it’s one of the first things most Vampires get control of.”
She let his words settle into her consciousness. Her fangs?
“Can you remember any of it?” James patted her on the back. “Some people can, and some people can’t. I don’t have any recollection of how I was changed. One second, I lived the dream, a big upcoming actor in movies, the next Vampire.”
“You were an actor.” She knew his profession was the least important detail in what he’d said, but her mind fixated on it just the same. “I knew I’d seen you somewhere before.”
“One more generation, and I won’t resemble someone everyone thinks they knew at some point.” He shook his head. “George can remember how he changed. Kaden there can, too, but then again Kaden petitioned the Council to change. There was very little trauma for him. His wife bit him, boom, he’s a Vampire. All very consensual. And the woman you saved in Portland? She can’t remember how she became a Vampire. Her name is Emily, by the way.”
“Oh.” Tears sprung to her eyes. “I hoped she’d be fine.”
“We all were, but she’s not dead and that’s something. Actually, when we told her about you, about how you rescued her, she wanted to thank you.”
She covered her eyes with her hand. “No thank yous. I do not think I can handle them. Not even a little bit.”
“Fair enough.” James stopped patting her back. “So tell me what do you remember about yours?”
She opened her eyes and moved her hand. What did she remember? How had this happened?
Her mind stuttered thinking of him. The whole debacle of—when? She had no idea how much time had passed—well, whenever flooded back to her. The werewolves had plowed through the door when she’d been making coffee. After that, it all had happened so fast. She’d been fighting them, knowing she could have taken one or two of them easily, but four—
No way.
And then George had come down the stairs like an avenging Vampire. He’d killed them. All of them. It had been such a relief even though she’d gotten stabbed. She stared down at her arm. No scar marred her skin. What had happened next? Her hands shook as the memories flooded in. Devin. He’d shown up and, oh hell, he’d shot her and, oh my god, she’d died. The tears she’d started to shed earlier flooded her vision. There had been so much pain, and George hadn’t been anywhere in his gaze. He’d been all Vampire then, but she’d been in his arms and somehow knowing he was with her had made it all okay.
She had died. Only apparently she hadn’t because, even though she couldn’t remember his biting down on her and changing into a Vampire, that must have been what happened.
“George changed me.” She wiped away her tears. “I was dying and he changed me.”
Kaden stepped forward and squatted down next to James. “Correct. Without your permission while you were dying. He did this. I found you several hours later, the both of you.”
“Is he okay?” He’d been so out of it, so animal in the moment, and she’d never seen him that way before. “Where is he?”
Kaden opened his mouth, but James cut him off. “We’ll get to George in a minute. He’s obviously not okay or he’d be here with you instead of me. The good ne
ws? I’m good at this. I train new vamps all the time. But, first, I need to ask you something, okay?”
She stood up, her fangs elongating in her mouth. She wasn’t even concerned about it since her vision had gone red.
“Ooh.” James laughed. “You’re a mean one, aren’t you? Showing aggression this fast.”
“I want to know where George is.”
“George is in deep shit. He’s going to be executed in the morning. He’s spent the last three days on trial, and they are planning to decimate his already nearly destroyed body—he somehow withstood the sun when he fought those Werewolves, something I’ve never heard of another baby vamp doing before, and his skin is still peeling off. Not that it matters, it’ll never get to heal —and he will be tied up at dawn and left to fry the rest of him away. Because he turned you.”
She gasped, covering her mouth, and Kaden handed her another bag of blood. She swallowed it down before she wondered how he’d known she needed it. Her fangs retracted.
James kept speaking. “So I need to know, and I’m sorry I can’t give you more time to think about it because I actually understand how horrible this is, if you would have given George permission if he had asked. Would you have?”
She stopped moving and, for the first time, knew exactly how absolute stillness felt. Her heart didn’t beat. Her blood didn’t flow. Her lungs didn’t gasp for air. She could hear sounds in the room she’d never noticed before. Somewhere an insect flapped its wings, and a coil in the air conditioning needed to be replaced.
Did she want to be a Vampire? Would she have told George to do it while she lay dying on his lap?
“I don’t know, James. I can’t possibly go back in time and tell George to bite me or not to bite me. I never got asked. But he never attacked me. It wasn’t his gun which ended my life.” She gritted her teeth. “But I won’t say that to the Council. I’ll lie. George isn’t going to fry, not while I am able to do something about it. See? I actually love him, and I get why he bit me. If the roles were reversed and he had been shot, I’d have bitten him, too.”
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