“Razvan,” the other Michigan said.
“Guilty as charged,” the Michigan holding Lucas said before shoving him away into the other Michigan’s arms. Lucas looked up into Michigan’s eyes then back at the other Michigan, only it wasn’t Michigan. It was another man. He had black hair that hung straight down to the middle of his back. His face was thin and his cheeks pronounced from malnourishment. His eyes were bright red and where Michigan was broad with thick muscles, Razvan was tall and lean with wiry muscles. Lucas wasn’t sure how he could have ever confused the two of them.
“Michigan? But—how? B-but. Y-you were…” Lucas shook his head, tears rolling down his face as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. He looked back and forth between the two men. “H-how c-could… b-but I s-saw… a-and y-you. I f-felt… Y-you k-kissed m-me… W-we were… W-we were…” He babbled as his mind tried to process the absurdity of the situation.
“Good luck completing your bond in time now, draga nepot, dear nephew,” the fake Michigan said. Or rather, Razvan. Oh god. Oh god. Razvan had been fucking him. As Michigan. Razvan had pretended to be Michigan and Lucas had fallen for it. Vampires could do that? Take on the form of someone else? So how did he know that Michigan was actually Michigan now? How did he know that Michigan was ever really Michigan?
“Your mate is damaged. He will never bond with you now. You will die of thirst and your parents will blame themselves. I may not have been able to ruin Dakota’s mating, but I can ruin the rest of yours until I finally rip your family apart.” Razvan chuckled and Lucas trembled in fear at the sound. “Have a good night.”
Lucas watched as he disappeared and he opened his mouth to scream but nothing came out. Why wasn’t anything coming out? Why couldn’t he scream for help? What had these damn vampires done to him?
He looked up at Michigan’s face and saw it blur into an image of Razvan’s face and unable to handle the fear that threatened to rip him apart any longer, Lucas embraced the darkness and passed out.
CHAPTER TEN
After licking the puncture wounds closed on Lucas’s neck and promptly spitting the vile taste of Razvan out of his mouth, Michigan let out a wail as his sufletul pereche went limp in his arms. He clutched Lucas to his chest, rocking him lightly back and forth. He gently lifted Lucas into his arms and carried the unconscious man over to his motorcycle to rest him on the seat.
“Please, please, please don’t die,” he prayed, his hand trembling as he reached back into the pocket of his jeans for his phone to call his brothers. He needed their help. There was no way he was going to be able to get Lucas safely to Gelreen Memorial Hospital on his motorcycle, and he needed to get him there quickly.
Colorado picked up on the first ring, amusement evident in his voice. “What’s up Mich? I figured you’d be balls deep inside of Lucas right now and we wouldn’t hear from you for a few days at least while the two of you bonded,” he said with a chuckle.
“R-Razvan got to him,” Michigan choked out.
“Where are you?” Colorado’s voice was instantly serious and Michigan was extremely grateful for his brothers in that moment.
“Lucas’s restaurant, O8, in the back employee parking lot.” Michigan inhaled deeply. “Col, Razvan looked like me. He’d bitten Lucas and was fucking him when I showed up.”
“Holy fuck.” Colorado got silent. “Don’t worry, frate. We’re on our way.”
“Thank you.” Michigan hung up the phone and lifted Lucas back into his arms before looking around the parking lot hoping to see a bench or table where he could sit and wait for his brothers to show up. Seeing a picnic table a few feet away next to trash can and a cigarette butt dispenser, Michigan headed towards it. He sat down on top of the table, pulling Lucas close to his chest, running his fingers through the unconscious man’s silky, brown tresses.
“You know,” he said softly talking to Lucas even though the man couldn’t hear him. “I’ve imagined our future together.” He pressed his lips against Lucas’s forehead, his tears falling onto Lucas’s face. “I picture us adopting a few kids. I’m thinking three or four. I mean, I want to have enough that the house is filled with laughter you know, but not as many as my parents to where it’s filled with chaos. I mean, thirteen kids? What were they thinking?” He chuckled, lifting a hand to wipe his nose. He wiped the back of his hand against the side of his jeans and kept talking. He knew that he was babbling to himself, but he needed to do this. He had to keep his mind off of what had happened or he would go crazy. He would absolutely lose it and he had to be strong for Lucas. His sufletul pereche was going to need him.
“I picture bringing the kids up here to have dinner while you’re working so they can see how amazing you are. Then I imagine all of us sitting around the house and watching Torchwood together. You would like that wouldn’t you?” He bobbed his head and smiled. “Yeah, I know you would.” Lucas loved that show. Maybe he should have asked his brothers to bring the DVDs with them so Lucas could watch them in the hospital?
“I think about you and me making love early in the morning and you trying to teach me how to cook. I imagine me taking you to one of my houses and letting you do some demo. I think you would like tearing down some walls.”
He heard the sound of cars pulling up behind him and relief poured through him, making his body shake. “I think about us saying I love you to each other every day. About waking up to your face every morning and going to sleep with you in my arms every night.” He looked down at Lucas’s face. There was no movement and his breath was shallow. “So I need you to make it okay? I need you to pull through this and come back to me. I need you to be strong enough to still want to bond with me, because I really want all of that to happen.”
Michigan turned at the gentle touch on his shoulder and looked up into Arizona’s compassionate gaze. “C’mon Mich. Let’s get him into the car and to the hospital.”
Michigan nodded and glanced down at Lucas before he rose from the table. He wished that Lucas had been conscious and then there would have been no need to wait for his brothers to show up to transport them to Gelreen Memorial. Riding on a motorcycle was delicate work and balancing the bike with an unconscious man in his lap was next to impossible. But, as he looked around at his brothers, all of them offering silent words and pats of sympathy, he was thankful that they were there. He was surrounded by all nine of his brothers as they ushered him to one of the two waiting SUVs. His Dodge Ram was also there and Carolina lifted his motorcycle into the truck bed before grabbing Lucas’s moped as well.
Michigan sat back, Lucas resting in his lap as they pulled out of the parking lot and headed towards the hospital. Concern and fear for his mate consumed him, his heart at the point of shattering, breathing was painful as he reminded himself it was in and out, in and out time and again.
But beneath the thoughts of his mate there was the rage. It was a snarling, clawing beast beating and ramming against his sternum trying to get out. It was seeking revenge against Razvan. It wanted death, blood. It wanted the fucker’s head on a stake in the middle of Loweston, Mississippi as a symbol to every other asshole out there that Michigan’s family was not to be fucked with. That his mate was not to be trifled with.
This rage was lethal and though he’d promised his mate that relationships were about fighting monsters for each other, facing the very idea that Razvan may have taken Lucas away from him, was slowly turning Michigan into a monster himself.
§ § §
Michigan’s ears were still ringing from Lucas’s shouts and screams. His heart shattered by the tears that had streaked down his sufletul pereche’s face as he’d begged for someone, anyone, to make the pain stop. There had been no internal damage, no need for surgery, for which Michigan was thankful, though there was some tearing to Lucas’s rear. It was just another reason for him to rip Razvan apart. He smoothed Lucas’s hair back from his face and prayed that he would be strong enough to see his mate through the next few months… years of his life. If he
made it that far.
He cleared his throat and swallowed, trying to wet his dry throat.
“So what are you gonna do about completing the bond?” Arizona asked Michigan softly, as Lucas slept in the hospital bed, his tears having finally exhausted him to the point where he could sleep.
“What do you mean?” Michigan asked as he turned to look at his brother. “I’m going to complete it with my sufletul pereche.”
Arizona looked around at Michigan’s other brothers and then back at him. “Mich, I’m just not sure that Lucas is going to want to have anything to do with you after this.”
Michigan gaped at his brother and then turned to look at the rest of his brothers. They all wore similar looks of disappointment, sadness, shame and uncomfortable certainty. “You all believe this?” he asked them.
“Mich,” Tennessee said as he walked over to Michigan. “He has just been attacked violently by someone who looked like you at first. His mind is going to play tricks on him at first and then his heart will get involved. We need to find a way to keep you alive. We need to be trying to look for a solution to your problem because I’m afraid that you will never have your sufletul pereche.”
Michigan shook his head and looked back at Lucas, brushing his hand across the sleeping man’s face. “You all don’t know what you’re talking about. Lucas and I will be fine.” He had to believe that. He couldn’t imagine his life with anyone else and he couldn’t picture Lucas being with anyone else either. Michigan would rather give in to the thirst and die than to find some “solution” where he had to be without the man he had come to care for.
Lucas groaned and his eyelids fluttered before he blinked them open slowly. He frowned at first as he looked around but when he gazed at Michigan he smiled broadly. Michigan wanted to jump up and crow at his brothers at how wrong they all were. Suddenly, as if a shade had been pulled down over his eyes, Lucas’s smile disappeared and he started to scream and cry. He trembled and pushed away from Michigan calling him Razvan. Michigan’s heart shattered into a million pieces onto the floor, melting into the linoleum beneath his feet as he watched his brothers try to calm his mate down.
When they were unsuccessful after a couple of minutes, Michigan stepped forward, unable to bear the screams and tears of his soul’s mate any more.
“ENOUGH” he roared.
Lucas stopped screaming and blinked at him, laying back down on the bed sniffling.
“Michigan?” he said tentatively.
“Yes,” Michigan said resignedly. Lucas didn’t say anything more, merely nodded his head.
“Maybe you will be able to complete the bond,” Arizona mused.
Michigan agreed. “We will because he will know it is me this time.”
Lucas sat up in bed and turned to glare at Michigan. “It was you last time!”
Michigan held up his hands in a placating gesture, “Yes, but this time you will know that it’s me.”
“I knew last time, dickhead! He smelled like you, walked like you, sounded like you, called me the same nicknames you did. Held me and kissed me like you did. He was you. You are him. It was you.” Lucas’s voice faded and he stared at Michigan. “How do I know that you’re really Michigan now? How do I or any of us know that you’re not really Razvan right now? How do I know that any of you are who you say you are?”
A sharp pain lanced its way through Michigan’s chest at Lucas’s words and without another word he turned and walked out of the hospital room, his strides angry. His footsteps ate up the distance between Lucas’s room and the entrance to the hospital. He could hear Arizona, Tennessee, Jersey, and Dakota behind him calling him back. He ignored them as he climbed onto his bike and roared down the street. He didn’t want them coming with him. He needed to do this alone.
He wasn’t going to allow his mate to live in fear, he was going to hunt for a monster.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Lucas stared at the door where Michigan or Razvan as Michigan had just left. He rolled his eyes at himself mentally. Oh, who was he kidding? That had been Michigan. He’d known it. And his own fear had caused him to act like a child around the man. He trembled as he remembered the feel of Razvan’s hands on him, and shoved away the thought of the man as he focused on Michigan.
“Where is he going?” he asked the other men in the room as he plucked at the blankets on his bed without looking at them. While his mind shied away at the thought of allowing Michigan to touch him, his heart ached with the need to have him near.
“I’d say he’s going to find Razvan in order to fight him,” Washington said. He sounded bored and looked even more so as he examined his fingernails.
Lucas gasped and turned to look at the other man. “Well?” How could Michigan’s brothers just stand there while he put himself in danger? While some of them had run out after him, the rest hadn’t even moved.
“Well, what?” Washington shrugged a shoulder. “He didn’t invite me to come along.” Now he didn’t sound bored, his tone was… petulant. Almost as if he was upset about that fact.
“Well, go stop him!” Lucas threw up his hands in exasperation. “Oh my god! Seriously? You’re pouting? What the fuck is wrong with you?” Why wouldn’t Michigan’s brothers have gone with him anyway? Regardless of if he’d extended an invitation to them or not? That just didn’t make any sense to him.
Carolina stepped close to the bed and Lucas tensed as he stared at the bigger man, watching him closely. Carolina held up his hands in a gesture of innocence. “Look, I doubt that Michigan is even going to find Razvan. He’s going to go and blow off some steam and then he’ll be back, but he’d want us to stay here with you. To protect you.”
Lucas’s eyebrows lowered. “Why?”
Carolina looked at Washington who shrugged and looked over at Kansas who blushed. “Because you’re his sufletul pereche.”
Lucas nodded. “That’s what Mich-Razvan called me too. And I remember what you guys told Nimo about him belonging to Dakota, but I don’t really understand what it all means.” He shook his head. “I mean, Michigan and I just started dating or whatever we were doing. We’re not like life partners or anything.”
Colorado snorted. “But you are, Lucas. A sufletul pereche is a life partner for a vampire. They are our soulmates. Created for us as we are created for them. They are the perfect counterparts to our beings. When we bond with them it is a soul commitment. A bond only broken through death, and vampires are very hard to kill.”
Lucas swallowed nervously as he surveyed the men standing around the room. “But Razvan bit me and f-fucked me. Does that mean that I bonded with him?” He felt his insides trembling at the thought that he might be committed for all eternity to that monster.
Kansas shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that. First of all, the bonding candle wasn’t burning when that bastard raped you and second of all, Razvan isn’t your mate and you are not his sufletul pereche. The bond would never click into place unless you were.”
“Are you sure? Has this ever happened before?” Lucas asked.
The brothers all looked around at each other apprehensively and nausea curdled in the pit of Lucas’s stomach.
“Oh god, I’m gonna be sick,” he said.
Carolina rushed over with pan and held it under Lucas’s face. Lucas looked at the large pink, half circle bowl and chuckled. He knew it was a hysterical laugh but he couldn’t help it. As he stared down at the pan in Carolina’s hands he had the urge to point out that if he threw up in the shallow container it was likely to splash back into his face and still get him dirty, so what was the point?
“Lucas?” Washington called his name hesitantly.
Lucas waved his hand even as he wrapped his arms around his stomach and continued to laugh. His life was so fucked. He’d been denying the existence of vampires since he was eight years old and his parents had been killed by one only to find out that he was destined to be mated to one. How completely screwed up was that?
“Lucas!” Ni
mo’s voice sounded from the doorway and Lucas looked up to see his best friend standing in the doorway, Zay held in his arms. Concern and sadness was stamped on Nimo’s face, his brown eyes shining with unshed tears. Lucas’s laughter stopped abruptly and he let out a choked gasp.
“N-Nimo,” he stammered before bursting into tears again. God, when would he stop crying? Would he ever stop crying?
Nimo hurried over and sat Zay down on the side of the bed before wrapping his arms around Lucas’s shoulders. Lucas wrapped his arms around his friend’s back and clung to him as he sobbed harshly. While having Nimo comfort him was nice, it wasn’t doing the trick. Lucas only felt marginally better as he pulled away from Nimo and stared at his friend, tears still streaming down his cheeks.
“Nimo, what am I going to do?” he whispered. “A part of me knows that Michigan would never hurt me but whenever I close my eyes, it’s his face and R-Razvan’s, melded together that I see.”
Michigan Page 9
