Unchained: Blood Bond Saga: Volume One

by Hardt, Helen;

  So fucking unfair.

  Erin turned into a complex of townhomes and then into a parking spot.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  She turned to me, biting her bottom lip. “My place. I’m not sure what happened. I know you said my place, but I didn’t intend to bring you here. Yet here we are.”

  “Perfect. I need to get inside. Quickly.” She could be anywhere, searching for me.

  “Look. You seem like a nice guy, and I’m sorry for your troubles, but I’m not a moron. I don’t invite strange men into my home.”

  If I had been able to mature naturally, I would be better at glamouring by now. I could only glamour someone when I needed to feed, and even so, I’d failed with Erin earlier. As much as I wanted to get inside her townhome to take cover, I felt a sliver of happiness that I wasn’t able to glamour her.

  I didn’t want to glamour Erin.

  I didn’t want to violate her in that way. So I resorted to begging.

  “I promise you I won’t hurt you, but I need you to take me inside. Please.”

  Erin pulled up her emergency brake. “I must be crazy as a loon. I hope if you were going to harm me, you would have done it by now. Come on.” She opened her car door.

  I followed her into her townhome. “You live here alone?”

  “Yeah. I sank everything I had into this place, and now I’m mortgage poor. But I love it.”

  It was a modest little abode, and I felt…at home.

  “Where do you sleep?”

  “Upstairs, master bedroom. And I’m exhausted. But I’m going to make some breakfast first. Are you hungry?”

  “Yeah, I could eat.” Contrary to myth, vampires were physiologically nearly identical to humans. Our nutritional needs were similar, except we required the added nutrients found in blood.

  “Make yourself comfortable, I guess.” She set her purse on the table and got to work in the kitchen, frying bacon and eggs.

  I inhaled. All I’d had since I’d escaped was crap from my dumpster diving. My stomach growled. I was indeed hungry.

  “Do you have a computer?”

  “Sure. A desktop and a laptop.”

  I arched my eyebrows. “You have two computers? For one person?”

  “Pretty much everyone does.” She chuckled.

  News to me. My father had one computer. He, my sister, and I had shared it. “Okay. Can I use it?”

  “What for?”

  “I need to do some research.”

  “On what?”

  “I need to find my family.”

  “Oh. They live here in town?”

  “They used to, but I’ve been gone for a while.”

  “Wouldn’t they have told you if they’d moved?”

  “Not necessarily,” I hedged.

  She placed two plates of breakfast on the table. “Hope you like bacon and eggs.”

  “Love them.”

  “Look. You seem like a decent guy. I’ll let you borrow my laptop. It’s an old one, anyway, and I’m only a couple dollars away from getting my new one. But you have to take it to a coffeehouse or something to do your research. I need to get some rest. I’m on again tonight.”

  My skin prickled, and my gums began to tingle. Couldn’t leave. Couldn’t let this woman out of my sight. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  Her beautiful green eyes widened. “I assure you that you are.”

  “I’m not. I promised you I wouldn’t harm you, and I won’t. But I need to stay here until I can figure out what to do next.”

  She stood and cleared her plates. Tension flowed off her body.

  I hoped she believed I wouldn’t hurt her. I could never hurt an innocent person, especially one who was helping me. Not after what had been forced upon me for so long.

  I’d need to feed off of her eventually, but right now, my body was reacting in a different way.

  My dick hardened.

  She was so beautiful. Her hair was falling out of a ponytail, and her eyes showed fatigue. Her clothes were baggy and didn’t give me a clue what was under them, but my imagination was vivid. I was attracted to this woman. I felt a pull toward her, the need to be inside her, a need I wasn’t entirely comfortable with. Though I hadn’t been a virgin when I was taken, my experience was limited to the awkward coupling of two sixteen-year-olds my sophomore year in high school. That was it. Chicks didn’t really gravitate toward late bloomers like me.

  Erin was not a virgin. I could tell by her scent. She hadn’t been with anyone recently, but she was far from untried. A growl lodged in the back of my throat. I didn’t want anyone else to touch her.

  She turned, regarding me, her eyes heavy-lidded. “All right. For the life of me, I don’t know why I’m saying this, but you can stay.”

  “Where should I sleep?”

  She let out a soft sigh. “I have an extra bedroom, but…”

  I stood. “But…what?”

  Her scent wafted toward me. Was it getting stronger?

  She didn’t answer, and when I inhaled, I smelled the beginning of her arousal.

  I wasn’t even close to ready for this, but my body thought otherwise. I strode toward her, wrapped my arms around her, and crushed my lips to hers.

  Chapter Six

  Erin

  His lips were surprisingly soft, in contrast to the hardness of his kiss. He thrust his tongue into my mouth, and I instantly responded. He tasted of the breakfast we just shared, but a tangy different taste, something I didn’t recognize.

  Whatever it was, it intoxicated me, disoriented me.

  He kissed me like an animal devouring its prey, and I reveled in it—the feral, primal nature of it.

  I’d had a couple one-night stands, so this wasn’t entirely new to me. Still it definitely wasn’t my norm. But if Dante was intent on taking me to bed, I wasn’t going to stop him.

  I slid my hands over his shoulders, up his neck, over his stubbly cheeks—cheeks I’d first seen covered in blood—up into his thick black hair. I threaded his locks through my fingers and pulled on them.

  He broke the kiss. “Feels good,” he grunted. Then he smashed his mouth to mine again.

  His erection pushed into my belly.

  This man was so gorgeous. What would his cock look like? Majestic… Just like the rest of him. And substantial, judging from the size of the bulge.

  He searched every crevice of my mouth with his tongue, and when he finally pulled back slightly, I pushed my tongue into his mouth.

  So sweet and delicious, every part of him. I traced his gum line, the inside of his cheeks, his teeth, and—

  “Oh!” I broke the kiss.

  A low groan emerged from his throat. “Need you,” he growled, his lips barely moving.

  I touched my fingertips to my tongue. Blood. The metallic taste meandered over my tongue. Something had nicked me. Something inside his mouth. Did he have a tongue piercing? Not that I had noticed when we were kissing.

  “Bedroom,” he said.

  His dark eyes glowed with electricity. I looked down to his crotch and gulped. It had nearly doubled in size.

  I took his hand and led him up to my bedroom. I hadn’t made my bed, but I didn’t care. Didn’t care that everything was in disarray. Only wanted to get my clothes off. His clothes off. Kiss him some more. Taste him some more. Puncture my tongue again. Get that massive dick inside me.

  He pushed me toward my bed until my calves hit the mattress, unsteadying me. He grabbed me, gripping my shoulders and keeping me on my feet. He gazed into my eyes. “You’re beautiful. So beautiful.”

  I smiled. “So are you.”

  He slid one finger over my bottom lip. “That kiss…”

  I opened my mouth, but all that came out was a soft sigh. He buried his nose in my neck and inhaled.

  “You smell so good. I could exist forever on your scent alone.” He inhaled again. “Almost.”

  Almost? I had no idea what he meant, but at the moment, all I wanted was his mouth on mine agai
n. Though the wet kisses to my neck were pretty awesome, too.

  When he made it back to my lips, I parted them for him immediately. He swept his tongue into my mouth, and I nearly collapsed into him, as if I were coming home after being gone far too long, acclimating to something familiar that had been denied me for years. I probed into him, aching for everything he could give me, everything I secretly desired.

  And like magic, he deepened the kiss. I met the forceful demand of his mouth with renewed eagerness, a bone-melting fire igniting within the deepest part of me. A hunger coiled inside me, a hunger that only Dante could sate. And when he sated it, I wanted him to consume me.

  My nipples hardened, pushing against my bra, yearning for his touch. Between my legs a party had started, the tickle morphing into a pulse of throbbing need.

  Our tongues tangled, our lips slid, and when I knew in my soul I’d do whatever he asked of me—

  He pulled away.

  “Can’t,” he growled.

  My mind was a maze. “What?”

  “Can’t…do this to you.”

  “No. It’s okay. You can.”

  “Don’t want to hurt you…”

  “You’re not hurting me. I swear. It’s okay, Dante. I’m not going to cry date rape.”

  He cringed. “I would never!”

  I reached toward him, but he cowered away.

  “I know you wouldn’t. Please. Trust me.”

  “I…do trust you, Erin. I wouldn’t have asked for your help otherwise. You could have had me arrested last night, and you didn’t. But do you trust me?”

  Did I? It went against all logic. Why was I drawn to him so completely? Was I just horny? Cory and I had broken up two years ago, and though I was far from promiscuous, I hadn’t been celibate since then. No, horniness alone was not the issue. I couldn’t deny that I wanted Dante with a raw desire I’d never known, but I also felt something else. A need to be near him, to protect him.

  And yes, I trusted him.

  “I’m not sure why,” I said, “but yes, I do.”

  “Then trust me when I say I can’t take you to bed. Not today. I thought I could. I thought I—” He inhaled deeply. “Your scent. Your arousal. My God…” He inhaled again.

  Then—

  “No! Not now!”

  Chapter Seven

  Dante

  An image swirled in my mind—an image I couldn’t forget.

  Get out of my head, you abhorrent bitch!

  Was I doomed to submit to her even after I’d escaped? Had she somehow made assurances that I could never be with a woman? That I’d always have some memory of her hovering over me? Taking from me? Making me submit?

  “No, damn it!” I said aloud, pulling at my hair, inching away from Erin.

  “Dante”—she reached toward me, her hand trembling—“what’s wrong?”

  “Where’s your computer?” I demanded.

  Her green eyes glazed over a bit.

  No. Please don’t. Don’t cry.

  “Did I do something wrong?”

  “No.”

  “Then why—”

  “I just can’t. I wish I could explain, but…I just really need your computer. Please.” My cock was hard as marble inside the too-tight jeans. “Fuck.”

  “What?”

  “These pants are too small. Your computer?”

  “It’s downstairs.”

  I tried adjusting the crotch to the jeans to give me some more room. Didn’t work.

  “I have some money,” Erin said, her eyes still laced with sadness. “You can go out and get some clothes that fit. I can’t do much more than that for you.”

  Regret pinched my heart. I’d hurt her. Hurt this sweet, kind woman whose scent had to have been created in heaven. She was offering me money for clothes when she owed me less than nothing. And damn, all I could do was inhale her sweet scent, stare into her beautiful eyes and at her chest, where her nipples were apparent beneath all the layers of her clothing. I wanted her so damned much.

  She deserved better than I could give her. Better than an inexperienced vampire who craved her blood.

  Her offer of money tempted me, but I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t go outside anyway. My skin had held up with the sunscreen, but I’d only been in the sun for about ten minutes. Most vampires could handle the sun with adequate sunscreen, but my skin hadn’t seen the sun in God only knew how many years. I couldn’t risk it. I had to rebuild my resistance to sunlight.

  “I can’t leave. Not until dark.”

  “Are you hiding from someone?” she asked timidly.

  “Yes.” The word tumbled out before I could stop it. It wasn’t a lie. She would have her goons out looking for me. I’d felt something sinister at the hospital, an odd chill, not unlike what I’d felt when I ran from the detective earlier. That was why I’d nearly forced Erin to take me to her car.

  And now…somewhere in this townhome.

  Something was lurking.

  Something I had to ferret out and eliminate.

  “Oh.” She closed her eyes for a few seconds and then opened them. “I’m harboring a fugitive.”

  “God, no!” Fuck. “It’s nothing like that. I can’t explain it any more than I already have.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest, covering her protruding nipples. “I’m sorry. I really am. But you’re going to have to leave.”

  If only I could glamour her into letting me stay. But again, the thought niggled at me that I didn’t want to glamour Erin. I wanted her to obey me of her own free will, though why I wanted her or anyone to obey me made no sense at all. I didn’t trust my glamouring power anyway. It hadn’t matured the way it was supposed to.

  The strong urge to possess her rose within me once more. My body took over my mind, and I grabbed her once more and kissed her with the ferocity of an animal.

  Then, pounding on the door downstairs.

  “Erin? You here?”

  Chapter Eight

  Erin

  I reluctantly broke the kiss.

  “Sorry,” I said to Dante. “That’s my brother. I’ll see what he wants. Don’t go away.”

  I hastily adjusted my clothes and went downstairs. Jay was helping himself to a bagel from my fridge. “I was going to bed, Jay. I work the night shift too, remember? What do you want?”

  “Sorry. I thought you might still be up. Didn’t you just get off—”

  “Please just tell me what you want,” I said, interrupting.

  “Okay, okay. Got any coffee?”

  “Of course I don’t have any coffee. This is my bedtime, remember?”

  He sat down at the table and spread cream cheese on a bagel. “A patient is missing from your hospital.”

  My mind went directly to Mr. Lincoln, the drug addict I had treated several hours earlier. No doubt he had gone out looking for a fix. “I’m afraid I don’t know where he is.”

  “He? The missing patient is a woman.”

  “Oh. Which one?”

  “She came in last night with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Do you remember her?”

  Oh, I remembered her. She was the reason I had been sent down to the blood bank for the O neg—the reason I’d found Dante there.

  A fact I had completely forgotten as I’d been launched into the most passionate make-out session of my life.

  I had been ready to take him to my bed. Not only that, I hadn’t even thought about using protection. I was a nurse, for God’s sake. Whatever had gotten into me had to go. Now.

  And here was my brother, the detective, sitting at my kitchen table while I was harboring a fugitive. Good work, Erin.

  “Yeah, I remember her. She went into surgery, but I wasn’t on the case.”

  “That’s the thing,” Jay said. “She never made it to surgery.”

  I eyed him as he munched on his bagel. “What?”

  “Yeah. The surgical team was waiting, but the patient never made it into the OR.”

  “Maybe her family came and took
her home. Maybe they don’t believe in medical care or something.”

  “Erin, what are you talking about?”

  “I don’t know.” God, I was a mess. My brain was still in a lusty haze.

  “Anyway, her name is Cynthia North, twenty-five years old, five feet six inches tall, slim figure, brown hair, brown eyes, fair skin.”

  “You’re talking like a cop.”

  “I am a cop, smartass.”

  I thought back to my shift. “Are you sure we’re talking about the same woman? I remember the EMT saying she was in her early thirties.”

  “That was probably their best guess. She may not have had any ID on her when she came in.”

  “How do you know it’s the same woman, then?

  “Her significant other told the cop who questioned him. Gave him her name and date of birth.”

  “How did she get shot?”

  “Domestic dispute, apparently. I wasn’t on the original call.”

  “Then I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in anything her so-called significant other says. He probably shot her.”

  “No. He claims he didn’t. It was another woman who he was having an affair with. Broke into their home and shot her.”

  I arched my brow.

  “Anyway, the woman disappeared from your hospital, so I thought you might have some information.”

  “Like I said, I wasn’t on the case, other than being sent down to get blood for her. The doc said she was a bleeder. Maybe she bled out before she got to surgery and ended up in the morgue.”

  “The surgical team would have been notified.”

  “Yeah, probably. But we’re understaffed right now on the night shift. It’s possible. Did you look into it?”

  “I didn’t, but I’m sure someone has. Still, it doesn’t hurt to double-check. Let me make a call.” He punched in some numbers to his cell phone.

  I yawned. It was past my bedtime, and I had the same shift tonight. I needed to get some sleep, but first I had to figure out what to do about Dante, and I couldn’t do that with my detective brother in my kitchen.