I stood when someone knocked on the door.
Jay looked up from his phone. “That’s probably my new partner. Good guy. He might be wondering what’s keeping me.”
“Then you might have rethought stealing my bagel.” I walked to the door and opened it.
A handsome man with short dark hair and brown eyes stood before me. He looked oddly familiar.
“Hey. I’m looking for Jay?”
“Yeah, come on in. He’s making a quick call.” I led him into the kitchen. “Sorry I don’t have any coffee to offer you. This is nighttime for me.”
“Me too. I just got assigned to work with Jay.” He held out his hand. “I’m River Gabriel.”
Chapter Nine
Dante
After trying, and failing, to make my stolen clothes more comfortable, I walked out of Erin’s bedroom and stood at the top of the stairs.
Erin sat at the table in her kitchen with two men. They both had dark hair. I waited.
One of the men looked up, and then his dark eyes turned round. “Oh my God. Who are you?”
Erin turned toward me. “Oh, he’s a friend of mine. He was just leaving.”
The man stood and came toward me.
This time my eyes popped open and my jaw dropped. I knew this man, had last seen him when he was a seventeen-year-old high school student. I’d lain awake so many nights, praying for him to find me. For anyone to find me.
My skin warmed around me as my heart sped up. Keep it cool, Dante. You don’t want questions from Erin. “River?”
“Yeah. Have we met?” Then he blinked his eyes a few times. “No. It can’t be.”
I inched forward. “It’s me, Riv.”
He continued to stare blankly.
“I swear. It’s me.”
He fell out of his stupor and grabbed me in a bear hug. “Christ, Dante,” he whispered in my ear. “Where’ve you been?”
“I’ll tell you what I can,” I whispered, “later.”
“That’s why you look so familiar,” Erin said. “You two are related?”
River still held on to me with a vise grip.
I pushed him away gently, even though I never wanted to let him go. “Yeah. River’s my cousin.”
“Oh, good,” Erin said. “Then you have somewhere to go.”
The other guy stood quickly and assessed me with a cautious gaze. “Wait a sec. You’re the guy I found with that naked homeless man last night.”
Then I recognized the detective, though I couldn’t smell him anymore, most likely because Erin’s scent still pervaded my senses. Jay Hamilton, he’d said his name was. What was he doing here with my cousin?
“I don’t think so,” I said, hoping he wouldn’t push it.
“That’s impossible,” River said. “Dante hasn’t been back here for years. If he were in town last night, I’d have known. Sorry I didn’t recognize you, cuz. It’s been so long.”
He was giving me the alibi I needed. Erin would know it was a lie, but I had to play along for River’s sake and hope she wouldn’t give us up. “I hardly recognized you either.” Then I turned to Jay. “Yeah, I just got into town this morning. I have a friend who used to live in this complex, so I thought I’d crash, but he wasn’t home.”
Erin’s mouth dropped into an oval, but thankfully she didn’t say anything.
“Then what are you doing here?” Jay asked.
Erin stepped forward then. “He lost his cell phone, and I found him in the parking lot when I was getting home from the night shift. He asked if he could make a call.”
“And what was he doing upstairs?”
“Just using the bathroom, Jay,” Erin said.
“Don’t you have a perfectly good bathroom on this level?”
“The toilet keeps clogging. I have to get a plumber over here.”
The story had more holes in it than swiss cheese, and this guy was a cop. Erin was protecting me. I was grateful, but why would she?
“Erin, what is going on here?”
“Nothing. Now stop going all big brother on me, okay? Don’t you guys have to get back out on duty?”
“Actually, the shift is over. We’re headed back to the station,” River said. “Dante, why don’t you come along with us, and then we can go over to Bill’s together.”
“Sure. Sounds like a good plan.” But as thrilled as I was to see River, I ached at the thought of leaving Erin.
I looked into her green eyes, trying to convey my thanks, trying to convey just how much these few hours with her had meant to me—her not turning me in, our kisses, the alibi…everything. As River led me out the door, something tugged at me.
Something was telling me to stay with Erin.
I pulled the hoodie over my head to help shield me from the sun and left with my cousin.
My grandfather held on to me for what seemed like forever, and I wasn’t complaining. River and my sister, Emilia, had already squeezed me to pieces.
Bill—short for Guillaume; we’d always called him by his first name—finally pulled back. “Let me look at you. You’ve changed so much, Dante. But I would still know you anywhere.”
“I never thought I’d see any of you again,” I said, my eyes welling with tears.
“That goes for the rest of us, too,” Bill agreed.
“How long have I been gone?”
“You don’t know?” Bill massaged his jaw. “Nearly ten years, son.”
Ten years? I’d had no idea. “That means I’m twenty-eight years old.”
“Yes, you are.”
“Over a third of my life. A third of my life was stolen.” I plopped onto Bill’s brocade couch—the most uncomfortable couch, still—and sank my head into my hands.
“Where have you been?” River asked.
But Bill quieted him. “He’ll talk when he’s ready.”
“He needs to be ready now, Bill. If someone did this to him, took him, we need the facts now to get on the case.”
“Stop being a detective for a few minutes,” Bill said. “Let him get his bearings.”
Ten fucking years. Her. As happy as I was to see my family, I knew I wasn’t yet free of her. She’d come after me. I had to leave town as soon as I could.
I stood. River, Em, and Bill. My mother and River’s mother had passed away before I’d been taken. But where was my father? My uncle?
“Bill, where’s Dad?”
Bill sat down on the sofa and patted the cushion next to him. I sat down again. He hadn’t changed much in ten years. He was now one hundred and two years old. His once salt-and-pepper hair glowed silvery white, but very few wrinkles marred his handsome face. He walked without aid, and he still looked as strong as ever.
“Where are Dad and Uncle Brae?” I asked again. “Are they at work or something? This early in the day?”
My grandfather closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, he looked to River. “You didn’t tell him?”
“No. We were in the car with my partner, and then during the drive here, I just couldn’t bring myself to…”
My heart sped up. “To what?”
Emilia sat next to me and grabbed my hand. “You can’t blame yourself, Dante.”
“How can I blame myself if I don’t know what you’re talking about?”
Bill let out a long sigh that ended on a groan. “When you disappeared, Braedon and Julian went after you.”
“They obviously didn’t find me. Where are they now?”
Bill waited a few seconds—which seemed like hours—before speaking. “We don’t know. They never returned.”
A brick hit me in the gut, and my blood turned to boiling acid. No. No. No. “You never found their bodies or anything?”
“No.”
They’re already on their way, sweet one. Something I was counting on.
Her. All this time, my father and my uncle were probably locked in the same compound I had been locked in. Maybe they weren’t.
Red rage consumed me, and I stood, balling
my hands into fists.
How dare she take a third of my life?
Take my father’s and my uncle’s lives?
A big part of me hoped they were dead. Better that than at the mercy of her.
I hadn’t known whether I’d see any of my family again, and here sat three of them. I should be happy. Ecstatic. But the loss of my father sank inside me, overwhelming me. My father had taught me everything. Taught me what it meant to be a man. He taught me how to be physically and mentally strong, while his father, Bill, had taught me wisdom. Or had begun to. I still had so much to learn, things River had known for ten years now.
My father was gone.
And it was my fault.
“Don’t blame yourself, son,” Bill said, as if he were reading my thoughts. “None of us blame you, like your sister said.”
Shudders racked my body.
“You need blood, Dante?” River asked.
It hadn’t been too long since I last fed, and I’d tamped down the blood lust after leaving Erin, but this news… “Yeah, I could use some. But how…?”
“Same as you remember. We have a discreet deal with a local butcher. It’s cows’ and sheep’s blood, but it does the job.” River stood and walked into Bill’s kitchen. He came back with a glass full of warm blood.
I took a deep drink of the thick red liquid. This had come from a steer. Only traces of testosterone and even less estrogen. The flavor was a bit plain, but I wasn’t complaining.
I finished the whole glass. No one was talking, and I expected a barrage of questions about where I had been—questions I wasn’t yet ready to answer.
I set the glass on the end table and looked at my grandfather. His eyes were dark like mine, but when I looked into them, knowledge shone in their depths. Knowledge laced with sadness. He’d lost both his sons. I didn’t want to tell him what had happened to me. And it was clear that he didn’t want to ask, which could only mean one thing.
He didn’t want to face it any more than I did. At least not yet. Not in this moment.
Finally River spoke. “I have to ask again. Where have you been? We all thought—”
“You thought I was dead. I don’t blame you. Just like you think my father and Uncle Brae are dead. And they may be.”
“You don’t have to talk about it yet, Dante.” Bill said. “But you will have to eventually. The sooner the better, so River can do his job.”
Fragmented images broke into my mind.
Yes, my queen.
Sinking my teeth into her neck, strong hands holding me there, forcing me to feed.
Then her teeth sinking into my femoral artery…
Chills skittered through me. If I talked… If I told them… Then I’d have to face the hard truth. This had happened. It hadn’t been a ten-year nightmare.
I couldn’t. Not yet.
“I need to sleep first. And some clothes that fit would be nice.”
“I keep a couple changes of clothes here,” River said. “We’ve always been about the same size, and from what I can tell by looking at you, that hasn’t changed. I’ll get them for you.”
“Thanks, Riv.”
River stood and headed toward the stairs, but then turned around. “How did you meet up with Jay’s sister?”
“It’s a long story.”
“It’s bound to be a good story. She lied for you. She lied to her brother, who is a cop.”
“You lied for me too, Riv. And from what I can tell, you’re also a cop. When did that happen? Last I heard you were headed to business school.”
“A lot of things changed,” River said. “I suppose it will take a while to get you up to speed on everything. Suffice it to say my priorities evolved.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“To quote you, ‘it’s a long story.’” He headed up the stairs.
Bill turned to my sister. “I think I could use a glass of that blood, Em. Do you mind?”
My dark-haired sister stood. “Of course.” She kissed him on the top of his head. “Be right back.”
Bill turned to me, his eyes serious. “I understand that you may not want to talk about what happened to you, and you don’t have to tell your sister and River if you don’t want to. But you’re going to need to be honest with me, Dante. I can’t help you if you’re not.”
Chapter Ten
Erin
I’d stayed up for several hours after Jay and his partner had left, taking Dante with them. I searched “Dante Gabriel” on the internet but couldn’t find anything. He clearly wasn’t homeless, just a vandal. But something was amiss. River had given him an alibi without even knowing where he had been last night. He was a cop, like Jay. Cops didn’t go around giving out alibis. Had they been in contact? Had Dante told River that he had vandalized our blood bank?
Memories of our kisses flooded my mind, making my heart race and my skin tingle. I’d have easily taken him to my bed had he not resisted.
Thank God Jay had shown up. Things were better this way. I didn’t know Dante, and I couldn’t just keep him at my house.
His cousin, the cop, could handle him.
So I had gone to bed, thrashing around until I finally fell asleep about three hours before I had to be up again, and then I’d woken up early.
Now I was driving into the parking lot for my shift that started at eleven p.m.
Dante hadn’t left my mind at all. I kept reliving those kisses we’d shared in the bedroom, how he’d made me feel so alive. I didn’t want to give that up.
But I had to. I didn’t know anything about him, other than that he made my body throb, and what I did know wasn’t exactly positive.
At least I knew he had a place to crash.
I was ten minutes early. Normally I was rushing to get in on time before Dr. Bonneville, who was on tonight, reprimanded me. I supposed I should be thankful I’d woken up early.
I got into the locker room and found Lucy already there and changed into her scrubs. She had her phone in her hands.
“Erin, thank God. I was just texting you. She’s on a rampage tonight.”
Dr. Zabrina Bonneville was a brilliant physician, able to diagnose and treat rare illnesses that eluded other doctors, but she shouldn’t have been allowed to deal with people. The woman should be in a lab somewhere, creating cures for cancer and AIDS. But no, she insisted on being an ER doc on the night shift.
“Really? I guess I got lucky. The only reason I’m here early is because I couldn’t sleep last night. I figured why not just get up and come in?”
“Someone was looking out for you.”
I hurriedly began to change.
“Hey,” Lucy said, “did you hear about that patient that went missing last night?”
“Yeah. Jay stopped by this morning and asked me a few questions about it. I wasn’t on the case, but I did see her when she got brought in.”
“I heard another woman went missing from the free clinic sometime yesterday as well.”
“Which free clinic?”
“The Harry Tompson Center. You know, that one on Gravier Street, where the homeless people hang.”
“Hmm.” I tugged my scrub slippers on over my shoes. “That’s weird.”
“I know. It’s got me a little freaked, to be honest.” She tossed her phone in her locker. “Come on. Let’s get up there.”
“We’ve got five minutes.”
“Yeah, but I warned you. Dr. Bitchville is in some kind of mental breakdown today. She’s yelling at everyone.”
“I wonder what got her riled up this time?”
“Steve says the cops were here earlier asking a bunch of questions about the missing patient. She didn’t take it well. Kept saying, ‘How the hell should I know? I wasn’t on duty last night.’”
“Well, there’s some truth in that,” I said.
“True,” Lucy replied. “I expect they’ll be around questioning all of us tonight. At least I have the same excuse she does. I was off last night.”
But I hadn’t bee
n. I had already told Jay everything I knew, but they’d likely have more questions. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be any help. I hoped someone else would be. The thought of a patient disappearing from the hospital was more than a little disturbing.
Lucy and I made our way up to the ER. Dr. Bonneville was already in an exam room on a case. I was almost pissed that she hadn’t seen me get on my shift early. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. She would’ve found something else to be upset about. For now, I enjoyed the reprieve with her being busy.
Steve grabbed me as I walked by. “Can you grab a few pints of B positive for the hag?”
“What’s she need it for? I was told she was in an exam room, not in surgery.”
“Hell if I know.”
“Isn’t that your job?”
“Nope. Because I’m making her a latte.” He rolled his eyes. “You know, the important shit.”
I rolled my eyes back at him as I turned toward the small refrigeration unit. No B pos. Were we out of everything? Looked like another trip to the blood bank for me. I left the ER.
The blood bank showed no trace of the ruckus from last night. A wave of sadness hit me. This was where I’d met Dante, who I’d most likely never see again.
The place had been scrubbed clean, and the bags were on their requisite shelves. Only problem? No B positive. Not an issue. We had plenty of B neg. I grabbed two units and hightailed it back up to the ER.
Dr. Bonneville was coming out of the exam room when I approached her. “Here’s the blood you ordered, Doctor.”
She took the bags and frowned. “This is B negative. I ordered B positive.”
“I know. There wasn’t any B pos in the blood bank. We’re out, apparently.”
“My patient requires B positive.”
“But…you know as well as I do that a B pos patient can take—”
“Yes. Fine.” She harrumphed and walked away with the two units, her bleached-blond ponytail swinging in tandem with her hips.
Lucy walked toward me. “Told you. Just stay out of her way today.”
“I’m a little confused,” I said. “Why was she so adamant about B pos? B neg will work on any B pos patient. That’s first-year anatomy.”
Unchained: Blood Bond Saga: Volume One Page 4
