Redemption

by Erica Stevens

  "When we do get burned we usually heal quickly enough. I'm sure she'll be fine," Lucas murmured.

  Jack nodded as he dipped the towel into the water and dabbed at her back again. A small mewl escaped her, her left hand fluttered on the pillow while her right hand was beneath her stomach. Ellen burst into the room, an armload of blood clutched against her chest as she rushed toward them. Jack leapt up and grabbed the blood from her before she could get too close to Hannah. He was aware that his posture was defensive but he did nothing to change it as he remained standing in front of Hannah.

  Ellen frowned at him as she tried to step around him to get at her friend. "I can help..."

  "I'll do it," he grated. Her forehead furrowed but she retreated back to stand beside her friends. Jack studied them for a minute but Hannah's soft whimper brought his attention back to her. Placing the bags on the table beside the bed, he sat beside her again and picked up the towel. The sight of her beautiful skin so badly brutalized made his mouth curve into a snarl even as he dipped the towel back into the water and tenderly dabbed at the burns again.

  When he had succeeded in removing the last bits of the dress from her flesh, he wet the clean towels and gently placed two of them over her wounded body. He glanced over his shoulder at the others but they had already left the room. The door was still open but when he focused his senses upon the hall, he didn't hear them out there standing nearby.

  Grabbing hold of a bag of blood, he tore a chunk off the corner with his teeth and placed it against her lips. It was awkward trying to get her to drink in her position but he managed to have her swallow some of it. Placing the bag on the table he turned back to her and brushed the silken hair back from her face. She was even paler than normal, something he hadn't thought possible before she'd been burned, but he understood the pallor of her skin a lot better now.

  He traced her lips with his finger before jerking his hand back. What was wrong with him? Shaking his head he forced himself off of the bed. He grabbed hold of the wooden rocking chair in the corner and placed it beside the bed. Settling into it, he folded his arms over his chest. As long as she was defenseless, and in need of his help, he wasn't going anywhere.

  CHAPTER 10

  Hannah's eyelids felt extremely heavy as she tried to lift them. Her back felt like someone had taken a torch to it and she dimly recalled the heat of the sun burning through her clothes and blazing over her back. Memory finally assailed her as she remembered the shutter being thrown open and she'd once again known the misery the sun could inflict upon her.

  A small moan escaped her; she winced as she moved an inch. Cool hands pressed against her cheek and then something was lifted from her back. She heard water sloshing around before the delicious feeling of something icy being placed on her back caused a groan of pleasure to escape her. She finally managed to open her eyes and blinked in surprise at the pair of pewter eyes staring back at her. Black stubble shadowed Jack's square jaw as he leaned closer to her. His scent of earth and man engulfed her and she was assailed by a feeling of security even though she was lying on her stomach and almost incapable of movement.

  The moment of security faded away with the realization of everything he'd just witnessed and everything he now knew about her. Shame threatened to swamp her but she tilted her chin up as she met his gaze. She'd be damned if she let another man make her feel ashamed again. She refused to be beaten or broken by the rejection she knew was coming.

  "So now you know," she murmured.

  His gaze had been focused on the towel he was laying across her skin but he slowly turned his head to look her in the eyes. "If you had told me about this it never would have happened."

  "It's not exactly something that I tell every stranger I meet."

  "No, I suppose not, but there was no reason for you to be maimed."

  "I didn't expect for that to happen," she mumbled defensively.

  Her eyes flew back to his when his fingers touched upon her cheek. "It won't happen again," he promised.

  Her lips parted, despite the pain in her body, excitement fluttered through her as she recalled the kiss they had shared last night. His fingers slid off of her cheek and he turned to pull the towels away again before draping fresh cold ones across her damaged skin. It was a little bit of heaven against her burnt skin.

  "I have more blood here for you," he offered.

  The scent of it in the air caused her eyelids to flutter back open and her mouth to water as he held the bag toward her. She tried to move her arm forward but the motion only tugged on her healing skin. Her eyes flew to his as his large, strong hand enfolded hers and he placed it back beside her. A ripple of electricity seemed to flow from him and into her as he bent to press a kiss against her fingers. She became aware of the fact that she was lying on top of the hand Calvin had brutalized. It felt healed as she tugged it free and rested it on the mattress.

  Goosebumps broke out on her skin as Jack's eyes pinned her to the spot. He brought the bag of blood forward and pressed it against her lips. It had been strange enough feeding in front of him last night but this was something entirely different. She wasn't used to such kindness from strangers and she had never expected to experience such a thing in her lifetime.

  He knew about her though and he wasn't shunning her, he wasn't looking at her as if she were something the cat had coughed up. In fact, he was looking at her with an expression that she couldn't quite place. It was tender and compassionate, but there was a desire in his eyes that made her feel like she was more appealing to him than any amount of blood could ever be.

  He pulled the empty bag away from her lips and grabbed hold of her hand when she went to wipe away the trickle at the corner of her mouth. Hannah had no idea what he planned to do until he bent down. He was only a mere centimeter away from her, so close that she could see every individual blue speck in his eyes. She became as still as stone as his mouth pressed against hers and his tongue licked the blood away from her lips.

  Hannah couldn't even blink as he leaned away from her. A sexy smile curved his mouth as he tossed the bag aside and replaced the cool towels again. She was fascinated by his every move as she waited for some sign that he was repulsed by her. Some sign that this prince understood exactly what he was dealing with here, what he was touching; what he had just kissed again.

  "Why are you being so kind to me?"

  A frown marred his forehead as he studied her. "Why wouldn't I be?"

  "You understand what I am, don't you? Understand what you are touching?"

  Her voice broke on the word touching and she found herself staring at the wall as she was unable to look at him anymore. His hand splayed against her shoulder blade, nearly taking up her whole upper back. "I'm touching you."

  She hated the tears that burned her eyes, hated the fact that she felt so off balance. She didn't understand why he couldn't comprehend what she was, why he couldn't understand what he was doing to her. "That's not what I meant."

  "It's not contagious is it, your innate hypersensitivity to the sunlight?"

  "Of course not," she snorted.

  "Then I don't see any reason not to touch you." He bent so low that his lips were nearly pressed against her ear when he spoke again. "I'd still enjoy touching you even if it was."

  Her gaze flew to his. He was going to be the death of her, she was certain of it as his eyes twinkled with merriment and he sat back in his seat. There had to be some way to make him understand what he was and what she was, some way to drive him away, because that was what was going to happen one day anyway. He didn't belong here, amongst her kind.

  "You're a prince!" she blurted.

  The teasing glint left his eyes as a wall seemed to shudder over his face. She'd never seen anyone become so remote and emotionless so fast. "I am many things Hannah, it would be better for you if you learned and accepted that." His words rocked her; she remained motionless as he pulled the towels from her back and replaced them with cooler ones. "It's starting to look a lo
t better."

  "It will be fine," she said absently. "What other things are you?"

  "Well that's for me to know and you to find out." The wall seemed to come back down a little as a playful glimmer returned to his eyes.

  Her body warmed at his joking tone but she still sought answers. She grabbed hold of his hand when he reached for another bag of blood. "I'm fine, right now. What other things are you, Jack? You know... you know about me now so it's only fair."

  He was silent as his hand turned over within hers. For a split second she thought she actually felt her heartbeat against her ribs as his skin slid over hers, but the deadened organ remained un-beating in her chest. "What would you like to know Hannah?"

  "Everything," she said honestly.

  That smile could melt ice, she decided as his head tilted to the side. "You don't want to know everything. I've been alive for over nine hundred years, there were a couple hundred boring ones in there, believe me."

  "Then tell me the important stuff, the interesting stuff, the stuff that makes you, you."

  The muscles in his arms bulged as he sat back in the chair and folded them over his chest. It took everything she had to keep her face impassive as she surveyed him with a growing hunger that had nothing to do with the blood bags still sitting at his side. His beige shirt was loose fitting and he had rolled the sleeves up to his elbow to reveal his tanned skin. The brown pants he wore looked like they had been painted on as they clung to his well-muscled thighs.

  "I'm sure you've heard the stories of my father." Thankfully, his words tore her attention away from his body before she started to drool.

  "Some," she admitted.

  He gave a brisk nod as his jaw clenched and his eyes drifted past her. "They're probably all true and they probably don't even scratch the surface of the truth."

  She swallowed heavily and instinctively stretched out to rest her left hand upon his knee. Though his fingers slid into hers, she didn't think he was aware of the fact that he had taken hold of her hand. "Braith was originally the favorite target for my father's abuse. By the time I was born though, Braith was old enough that our father had stopped focusing on him, and I became the center of his attention."

  Hannah felt tears brim in her eyes again but she didn't shed them as his thumb traced over the back of her hand. She couldn't picture anyone being so deliberately cruel to him and didn't understand why they would. Especially since Jack had been born a perfectly healthy vampire and not something that was to be shunned and despised.

  "Thankfully once I reached maturity the beatings stopped and I faded into the obscurity that being the third born son allowed me to enjoy. Then the war broke out over a hundred years ago and everything changed." Judging by the lines on his face and the muscle that ticked in his cheek, what had happened back then bothered him more than his casual tone was letting on. "My father had secretly killed my mother and blamed it on the humans in order to start that war."

  Hannah gasped as shock coursed through her, but his eyes remained unwavering as they held hers. "I'm so sorry," she whispered.

  "It wasn't the worst thing that man ever did, believe me." Hannah believed him but there was nothing she could say to make what he had just revealed any better. "With most of the aristocrats scattered after the war, and most of his opposition dead, my father was free to let his cruelty reign. He instated the blood slave rule, kept the human and vampire races beneath his thumb, and allowed death and suffering to reign supreme."

  "It sounds awful," she said when he stopped speaking.

  He gave a shrug that she didn't believe for a second was anywhere near as casual as he tried to make it appear. "At least I wasn't a human."

  No, he was most certainly not human. Even knowing that, she had the sudden urge to drive her fangs into his neck, to taste him as she had never tasted a human or vampire before. Her tongue prodded at the edges of her fangs as they tingled with their craving to consume his blood. She mentally shook her head to clear it of the compulsion, but she couldn't quite make her fangs retract as her gaze slid to his throat.

  She wondered what he would taste like, but even as she thought it she knew he would be delicious. That he would be the best thing she had ever tasted or ever would taste. His head tilted to the side, his nostrils flared as a circle of red flashed around his irises before disappearing. Hannah was aware that her natural aroma had become enhanced by her yearning for him, but there was nothing that she could do about it as he bent closer to her.

  A knock on the door caused her to jerk. A low moan escaped as her skin pulled and she could feel some of the scabs breaking open again. "Easy," he said as he placed a soothing hand on her shoulders. "It's only William."

  Hannah frowned as she strained to hear or smell something that would confirm what he said, but his presence drowned out anyone else's. "How do you know that?"

  "I've lived with the guy for five years, I know his approach."

  "Really?" she asked.

  "Really." His fingers slid over her back before he placed fresh towels over her burns. "Come in."

  Hannah couldn't see the door but she heard it opening. Then she saw the worn boots, attached to a pair of legs clad in clothing similar to Jack's, before her gaze slid to William's torso and finally his face as he moved closer. He was paler than normal, his eyes shadowed as he studied her still form. "Are you ok?" he asked anxiously.

  "I'm fine," she assured him.

  "I'm sorry, I didn't know; if I had..."

  "I know you didn't do it on purpose," she cut in. "Really, I'll be on my feet again in no time."

  William remained hesitant and doubtful as he folded his arms behind his back. She frowned as she glanced between Jack and William. They were such a strange pairing. Most humans had always moved freely about their town and she'd always been friendly with them, but she'd never had a close bond with a human before. The friendship these two shared was baffling to her, but then she already found Jack to be a complex enigma that she was actually beginning to enjoy trying to solve.

  Jack removed his hand from hers and rose. William continued to study her nervously but he relented to Jack's hand on his shoulder as Jack pulled him away. She couldn't hear the words they exchanged but William nodded. "I really am sorry," he said to her before leaving the room again.

  She liked William, but she was glad to be left alone with Jack again. He closed the door before returning to the chair. "He's a good person," Jack said.

  "I can tell."

  Jack folded his arms across his chest as he sat back. "Lucas is like you, it's obvious that your uncle is the same as Saul, but what about Ellen?" Hannah had never revealed anyone's defects to an outsider before. Everyone in town knew what was wrong with everyone else, but when outsiders arrived they tried to keep their weaknesses hidden if it was possible. "If you would like to know more about me, then you'll have to reveal more about you," he told her.

  "That's not about me though," she pointed out.

  He quirked an eyebrow but gave a brief nod. "Ok, fair enough, but she is your friend and I would like to know more about you and your friends. I won't hurt her."

  "It's not that, it's just that we've always been private about our defects!" she blurted.

  "It's not a defect," he told her.

  "It's not normal."

  He frowned at her as his arms dropped down to his sides. "What is normal supposed to be?" he demanded. "I'm most certainly not normal and who would want to be anyway?"

  "My whole life all I dreamed of being was normal," she told him. "To know what it was like to walk in the sun, to feel the heat from it on my skin without being harmed by it. I've always hated the weakness that my reaction to the sun created within me. Always resented that I had to hide from it. I've always dreamed about traveling and seeing the land, to stand in the ocean, and take in the glimmering palace that everyone whispers about. I would love to not be scared that my children will inherit this defect. I worry that every normal human or vampire will reject me. It's h
appened before, a vampire named Bruce, when he discovered what I was..."

  She broke off as his hands fisted and his jaw clenched. "He what?" Jack grated.

  The lethal look in his eyes made her hesitant to continue, but she had to give him more about herself if she was going to get more from him. "The things he said to me were awful. It's what I'd always been told would happen but I still hadn't been prepared for it. I want to be normal but I know that's something I will never be. Over the years I've come to accept that."

  "I can understand that." Hannah's fingers curled into her pillow as she continued to watch him. "But I don't find it to be a defect Hannah, it is simply who you are and that makes you normal, for you."

  She didn't know what to say to that. She'd never expected such open acceptance of her abnormality from someone outside of this town. "Ellen has no vampire strength or speed. Other than drinking human blood, her superior eyesight, and hearing, she is more human than many of the rest of us."

  "I see," he said thoughtfully. "I can't believe I'd never heard of this town before."

  "We tried to keep it a secret from the outside world. You have no idea what it's like to not fit in anywhere but here."

  "Oh, I have a pretty good idea of what that is like."

  "You didn't feel like you belonged in the palace?" she inquired.

  "I didn't belong in the palace then, I'm not sure I do now either."

  "Do you not get along with your brother, the king?"

  "Braith and I get along just fine," he assured her. "He's an upstanding man and he'll continue to do noble things as the king, but that's his place. I have yet to find mine in this world."

  "You will."

  She didn't know how she knew it, but she was certain that one day he would find his place and though he may not be a king, he would do great things in this world. She thought he would pursue her line of conversation but she should have known better.