Taming the Vampire: Over 25 All New Paranormal Alpha Male Tales of Contemporary, Military, Shifters, Billionaires, Werewolves, Magic, Fae, Witches, Dragons, Demons & More

by Mandy M. Roth

  “What are you doing, Selena?” Anger dripped off each word. “Give those to me.”

  “You’re going to tell me what the heck is going on or I’m dropping them over the edge.”

  “Damn it, Selena,” he said through clenched teeth. “I would…but I can’t.”

  She didn’t believe him. “Really? Is that so?”

  She put a hand on the rail and that’s when she heard a loud crack. Suddenly the railing was gone, and her body pitched backward. She scrambled to regain her balance, but it was no use.

  She lost her footing on the slick surface and screamed as she fell into the blackness.

  They say your life flashes before your eyes as you’re dying, but that wasn’t exactly true. All Selena could think about were the things she’d never get a chance to experience in the future, not the things she’d already done. She’d never get a chance to see her father eat lemon cake from her mother’s lost recipe. She’d never cater a wedding—hers or anyone else’s. She’d never hear the sound of her own child’s laughter. She’d never grow old with the man she loved.

  Suddenly, something strong and warm gripped her torso. The wind rushing past her ears stopped as her downward momentum came to a halt. She couldn’t have been falling for more than a second or two, but it had felt like an eternity.

  “I’ve got you, babe. I’ve got you.”

  “Mateo?” she croaked, hanging onto him for dear life. She opened her eyes a crack and saw that they were clinging to the side of the cliff.

  “Shh shh shh. I’ve got you,” he kept saying, making her think she must be crying.

  With the ease of a powerful swimmer cutting through the water, Mateo climbed up the side of the cliff face, left arm around her body like a vise, right arm and both legs propelling them upward. When they got to the top, he collapsed to the ground with her. She must’ve been in shock, because all she could do was hold onto him, her lips pressed against his neck, breathing in his musky male scent.

  “What…what just happened?” she asked in a shaky voice.

  “That fucking rail. I should never have let you go onto the terrace before checking things out first.” Rocking her gently, he stroked her hair over and over, as if trying to convince himself that she was fine.

  And she was. Here in his arms, she felt as if she was truly safe for the first time in ages.

  Teeth chattering, tears streaming down her cheeks, she looked into his handsome face. “I mean, how did you save me?”

  “I still don’t want to tell you,” he said, his voice choked and full of emotion, “but you deserve to know the truth. I’ll explain it inside.”

  Back in the sitting room, he wrapped her in a blanket and started to turn away, but she tightened her grip on him.

  “Selena, please,” he said. “Let go. I’ll tell you, but I’ve got to stoke the fire and—”

  She could tell that was just an excuse. The fire was fine. “Stay here.”

  He had a pained look on his face. “Trust me. You don’t want that. What I have to say will frighten you.”

  She couldn’t bear the thought of not feeling him next to her right now. She sucked in a few gasping breaths, trying to control her rising anxiety. “You…you think I could be frightened of you? Mateo, you saved my life. I’d be…dead if it weren’t for you.”

  He said nothing for a few long moments, then finally, he caved and sat next to her. She relaxed, resting her head in the crook of his arm as he began to speak. The sound of his voice reverberating in his chest soothed her even more.

  “Before I get started, I want you to know that I would never intentionally hurt you. I’d rather die a thousand deaths than have any harm come to you.” He paused for a moment then continued. “What I’m about to tell you is going to seem utterly impossible, but I swear, it’s the absolute truth.”

  Over the next hour and several more cups of tea, Mateo proceeded to tell her the most unbelievable things she’d ever heard. Things about vampires being real and her blood being addictive. He explained that contrary to popular fiction, most vampires lived peacefully among humans only needing their blood occasionally. Then he demonstrated how they could absorb a human’s energy just through touch, and she felt a subtle tingling sensation where his hands pressed against hers, before he abruptly pulled away. Any more than that, he told her, and she’d start to feel mildly tired.

  Honestly, if he hadn’t saved her life, she never would have believed any of it. Nope. Not in a million years. The stories he was telling her were that insane. That crazy.

  “And you came back because…?” She gripped the blanket tighter around her body, not sure she really wanted to hear the answer and yet knowing she needed to.

  He told her about Darkbloods, a hidden society of vampires that lived like their brutal ancestors did, killing humans and selling their blood. And how he’d discovered her blood on the black market.

  Hugging her arms close, she felt as if she might get sick. “Since I’m still alive, when did they do it? When did they come for my blood? When I was sleeping?”

  “That’s possible,” he replied.

  She shivered as she tried to imagine the evil creatures sneaking into her bedroom at night. Had they used the front door? One of her windows? She searched her memory for something, anything that would jar loose the memory of what they had done to her, but there was nothing. Only the fatigue that had plagued her for weeks.

  He continued. “However, I believe the customer who supplied you with the Sweet-laced rum is responsible, so it may have happened there.”

  “I don’t understand how I wouldn’t remember. I mean, I had to have been terrified. Why didn’t I notice needle marks or bite marks?”

  “I’m sure you were.” He cursed under his breath. “Our ability to wipe human minds has allowed us to live in secret among your kind, and feed from you, for thousands of years. With just a touch of saliva, we can heal any marks we make on our prey. Do you understand why I had to get you out of town tonight and why I couldn’t allow you to go home?”

  She sighed, nodding reluctantly. “But did you have to be such a…a pig-headed brute about it?”

  “Do you really think if I had told you then that you’d have believed me? My first and only priority was getting you away from a possible place of danger as quickly as possible. I sure as hell didn’t have time to elaborate why.”

  He brushed a strand of hair from her face and his gaze dropped to her lips, sending a deep, stirring need thrumming through her body. Although she’d been with a few men since Mateo, at that moment, she wouldn’t have been able to recall any of their names, including a man with whom she’d been briefly engaged, even if she’d tried.

  The sound of her heart pounded loudly in her ears. How would it feel if he took her vein? Would it hurt? He’d said that vampire couples often shared blood during lovemaking, so it had to be pleasurable on some level, but what about lovemaking between vampires and humans? She could’ve sworn she’d seen his gaze flicker to her throat then back to her mouth again.

  “Can you hear that?” she asked softly.

  He glanced around the room, drawing his brows together. “Hear what?”

  “My…heartbeat.”

  He looked back at her, a startled look on his face, before he closed his eyes and nodded.

  “I thought so.”

  She tilted her head up, needing him to kiss her. They had much more to talk about—she still had a lot of questions about the strange new world that had just been revealed to her—but that could come later. Right now, she needed him.

  He gave her a chaste peck on the forehead, however, and she groaned in frustration.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, concern knitting his brow.

  “Nothing, nothing,” she said quickly, trying to cover up this crazy desire she had for him, because he clearly wasn’t having any of it. “So if I’m a…a sweetblood and my blood is so hard for vampires to resist, why haven’t you tried to kill me?”

  He stiffened, t
hen his arms dropped away from her and he rose to his feet. She shivered from the sudden loss of his warmth. Striding to the fireplace, he poked at one of the logs, sending a spray of sparks up the chimney. Firelight flickered on the angles of his face, making it look even more chiseled.

  “Mateo?” she prompted when he didn’t answer.

  “I have,” he said with a harsh laugh, stabbing another log. “You just don’t remember.”

  She blinked a few times, confused. And then with a terrible realization, she knew the truth.

  She hadn’t almost died four years ago because of a car accident. No. She’d almost died because of him.

  Chapter 6

  Mateo needed a drink. A strong one.

  The decision to save Selena had been an instinctual one. She’d been in danger, and he did what he needed to do. No thinking, no logic, just action. Like his decision to come back in the first place.

  He wasn’t sure how he’d jumped off the cliff and saved her, though. It wasn’t as if he could fly. Wings hadn’t sprung from his back, nor had he flown the two of them back to the top. It was more like jumping and levitating and shit.

  He’d known a few vampires who’d developed supernatural skills after consuming the blood of their bonded blood-mates, but he hadn’t consumed Selena’s blood. At least not recently, and it was just the one time. And she certainly wasn’t his mate.

  She stood on the far side of the room now, clearly upset. He wanted to go to her but knew she needed this space. “I want to know what happened that night,” she said. “Everything.”

  It was a conversation Mateo had dreaded for years. Confessing what he’d done to the woman he’d once loved wasn’t exactly high on his bucket list.

  “I…almost killed you.” Saying those four words nearly split him in two.

  “On the beach?” she asked quietly, her tone measured.

  He didn’t want to relive that night, but he had to. “You cut yourself on a piece of driftwood. Remember? You were running barefoot on those logs.”

  She furrowed her brow, then shook her head.

  He continued. “There was some blood, but I wasn’t affected by it, so I thought, no big deal. But when we got into the closed confines of the car to head back, the scent hit me like a sledgehammer, and it was impossible to ignore.”

  He’d seen the terror in her eyes when he attacked her, but hadn’t cared. All he’d been focused on was her blood. Just like his parents had warned. When it was over, his car was in a ditch, their friends had scattered, and Selena lay lifeless in his arms. So he did the only thing he could do. He’d called his father for help.

  Selena remained silent for a few moments now, processing what she’d just learned. “Why didn’t you answer my texts and calls? Even my dad tried to reach you, but it was like you suddenly didn’t love or care about me any more. And then I heard you were gone.”

  Pain twisted his gut, sharp as the twist of a knife blade. “I wanted to call you, Selena—it fucking killed me—but I couldn’t. I’d made a deal with my father.”

  She spun to face him, eyes flashing with anger. “Your father? What does he have to do with any of this?”

  “It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that my parents didn’t approve of our relationship.”

  “Of course I knew that,” she frowned. “I just didn’t know why, but I guess I know now.”

  “They’d told me I’d never be able to resist you once I went through my Time of Change when a young vampire’s craving for blood begins. And they were right. The entire time we were together, they insisted I break things off with you. But I was stubborn and refused to listen. Thought I would be able to control the urges. Which I did for a while.”

  “And then,” she prompted.

  “And then…that night happened…and I made a deal with him. In exchange for your life, I was to leave the island and never try to contact you. So that’s what I did. He was able to revive you with a little of his blood, then he called in a few favors. Evidence was covered up, everyone’s minds were wiped. At sundown the next night, I left the island and never came back. Until now.”

  “You traded our future together for my life,” she said quietly.

  He didn’t see it as a trade-off or choice. It was the only option there was.

  Brows furrowed, she chewed on her lip. “Did your parents ever tell you I came looking for you?”

  “You did?”

  She nodded. “After I got out of the hospital, I came up several times, but they wouldn’t let me past the front gate. Said you were gone and they refused to tell me where or how to get ahold of you.”

  His father was such an asshole that it didn’t surprise him. “I’m sorry, Selena. The thing is, my parents were right, and I was wrong. I…I did almost kill you. Despite my best intentions, I wasn’t able to control myself.” He could still hear her screams. And yet he hadn’t stopped. He’d sunk his fangs into her neck and drank. And drank. And drank.

  He looked down and saw the hands of a monster.

  “But you’re able to control yourself now.”

  His head shot up. She was looking at him, not with revulsion in her eyes, but with compassion. Concern. “You call almost attacking you in your kitchen tonight being in control of myself? I tasted Sweet and wanted more!”

  How could hearing the truth about what he’d done four years ago not horrify her? With no actual memory of that night, maybe this was just a story, like reading a book where bad things happened to fictional people. Or seeing a movie. Listening to what happened that night didn’t feel like reality to her.

  “You could’ve attacked me tonight, but you didn’t. You’re stronger than you think you are.” Before he could reply to that nonsense, she asked, “What are your plans now?”

  “They haven’t changed. I’m going to find who’s responsible for collecting your blood and take them out.” And he’d start with her customer who had the Sweet-laced truffle fetish.

  “And then…”

  He looked at her, not sure what she was asking. “Then what?”

  “What about me? What about us? You said yourself that humans can’t know of your existence.”

  He pinched the bridge of his nose. There is no us. Not any longer. There can never be an us. “The Council’s rules on that issue are specific.”

  She was quiet for a few moments. When she spoke again, her voice was quiet. “So when all of this is over, you’re going to wipe my memory and leave.”

  He turned away from her. “Yes.”

  Chapter 7

  Mateo waited until Selena was asleep before he slipped out of the house and drove down the mountain. He needed to make a few calls, but he didn’t have any cell coverage up at Broadmoor. Soon he was pulling into the parking lot of an all-night mini-mart. After he finished, he’d run in and grab a few things for Selena.

  Zeph answered on the fifth ring, out of breath again. Maybe this time he was getting busy with some chick.

  “What do you know about the dakai?” Mateo asked. Prior to coming to New Orleans, his partner had worked with a group that helped female vampires escape the sisterhood.

  “Hold on a sec.” Zeph put his hand over the phone, mumbled something, and, wouldn’t you know it, a feminine voice replied. There was a rustling of clothes or sheets and then Zeph came back to the line. “The blood goddess cult?”

  “Yeah.”

  “They’re straight up crazy, is what they are.”

  Zeph told him that after a new member gave the group all her worldly belongings and renounced her family and friends, her goal was to become pure-blooded in order to be accepted by the Great Mother. Then when she died, she’d supposedly become a blood goddess, worthy of being worshipped herself.

  “How do they become pure-blooded?” Mateo asked. “What’s the process?”

  “At every full moon, they mix their blood, say a bunch of hocus-pocus shit, and drink from a special chalice. Why all the questions?”

  Mateo told Zeph what he’d learned fro
m Selena about her catering client who had a particular fondness for Sweet-laced rum. He’d had his suspicions, but it wasn’t until she’d shown him a picture of a cake she’d made for one of their events that he’d known for sure what he was dealing with. They’d had her decorate it with the dakai insignia, an infinity symbol above a red rose.

  “Are you sure?” Zeph sounded skeptical. “They’re generally not violent—when dealing with non-members, that is. And they keep to themselves. As far as I know, they use their own blood in the purification rituals.”

  “Then how does that explain the rum?”

  “Okay, well, they’ll occasionally use the blood of willing donors, but it doesn’t make sense how Selena’s blood got into the black market through them. They have nothing to do with the Darkblood Alliance.”

  “There could be sects out there that operate differently, like making deals with DBs in exchange for something they want. Protection, blood, whatever.”

  “Maybe,” Zeph said. “So what’s your plan?”

  “At sundown, I’m heading to their compound.”

  “On your own?” Zeph sounded skeptical.

  “Well, you’re not here, are you?”

  “For fuck’s sake, man. Call the local field office and get them to send a few agents. Or wait a few days for me to come up and help. What’s the rush? Selena’s safe with you, right?”

  He didn’t expect the guy to understand why this was so personal. Hell, he didn’t understand it himself. But he couldn’t wait. Not when the ones responsible for taking Selena’s blood were free, out walking around.

  Zeph continued. “If you’re right and this group is working with local Darkbloods, it’s too big a situation to handle on your own. The Agency needs to be in the loop calling the shots.”

  Normally he’d agree with his partner that going by the book and playing by the rules was what he needed to do, but this wasn’t a normal situation.