“All right, Dante. That’s how we’ll leave it. For now.” Bill stood. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed that scarring on your wrists, though.”
I looked down. Ten years of chains and leather bindings had left their mark on my wrists, and also on my ankles, though they were covered at the moment. I’d eventually stopped resisting. The marks weren’t overly obvious, but my grandfather’s acute vision missed nothing.
He didn’t believe that I couldn’t remember. I could see it in his eyes. I’d never been any good at lying to my grandfather. I used to be able to manipulate my father every once in a while. But Bill? He saw through me every time.
“Aren’t you going to tell me all of the coming-of-age crap?”
“Not until you call it something other than crap.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by that.”
“I know you didn’t, Dante. But I want you to think about two things first. Think about who you are and where you came from. You’re the son of Julian Gabriel, firstborn son of Guillaume Tyrus Gabriel, the oldest living male pure vampire on this planet.”
“I know who I am, Bill.”
“But you don’t, really. You don’t know how precious you are.”
Precious? I’d spent the last ten years being told I was lower than pig shit, that my only reason for existence was to provide sustenance for her. Precious was not a word I’d ever use to describe myself.
“Our kind is rapidly dying out.” Bill closed his eyes. “We’ve been able to continue to exist by lying low, perpetuating myths about vampires so that human memory has forgotten our existence for the last hundred generations. We’ve all done our part for our own survival. We learned to live among humans, to pass for humans. We send our children to school with human children. We can breed with them, bring children into the world with them. But still our women are rarely fertile compared to humans. And when they do conceive, one in ten don’t survive childbirth.”
I hadn’t thought about that in a long time. My own mother had died giving birth to Emilia. Although River’s mother hadn’t died in childbirth, she’d died from complications from an ectopic pregnancy when she’d been lucky enough to conceive again. I blinked back tears.
“We’re truly dying out?” I’d known humans were plentiful compared to vampires, but I hadn’t realized we were an endangered species.
“It is what it is.” He shrugged. “We are stronger and faster than humans, but they are so much more fertile. I’ve come to realize that it’s not strength that matters. It’s not our superior senses. Fertility has always been a problem for our kind, and evolution hasn’t corrected it. We’ve been dying out for centuries. The world doesn’t seem to have a place for us anymore.”
“But we still exist. We exist in their DNA. Lots of humans have a vampire high up in their family trees.”
“Yes, but they don’t know it, and they’ll never know it. Those with our blood don’t share our nutritional needs. We’re just a legend to them now, like King Arthur and his knights, and the way the world is today, it’s better that we stay that way.”
I couldn’t disagree with that assessment after what I’d been through. If a vampire could be as evil as she who’d stolen my life, tortured me, reduced me to nothing more than a bag of feed, maybe there was no place left for us in this world.
“Take your time, Dante,” Bill continued. “You can stay here as long as you need to. It will belong to you someday anyway. When you’re ready.” He stood and went into his study.
I had already showered and changed into River’s clothes. Bill had given me money and a credit card to order some new clothes to be delivered. I could take care of that. Yes, that was what I should do.
But instead, I walked to the door.
Chapter Fourteen
Erin
After dragging me away, Dr. Bonneville decided she didn’t need my assistance after all. The night had gotten quiet. Only the one ambulance had come and gone so far. Other than that, we’d treated some bangs and bruises. Nothing major.
I joined Lucy at the computer station.
“Hey,” she said. “What did Dr. Bonneville want you for?”
“Nothing. She changed her mind.” A giant yawn split my face. “I got basically no sleep last night. I’m a mess.” I logged in to my computer and started working on some records.
“I need to do some rounds,” Lucy said. “See you.”
I looked at the clock on my computer screen. “Only a couple hours to go, thank God. You want to get some breakfast after work? Camellia Grill opens at eight.”
“Sure. I’ll meet you down in the locker room, okay?”
I nodded, and she left.
I’d been working for about half an hour when the phone rang. I picked it up. “ER records. This is Erin.”
“Hey, Erin, it’s Charlene up at the front desk. There’s someone here to see you.”
That wouldn’t go over well with Dr. Bonneville. “Who is it?”
“Can you give me your name, sir?” A pause. “He said his name is Dr. Gabriel.”
“Dr. Gabriel?”
“Sorry. I didn’t hear him right. He said Dante Gabriel.”
My heart lurched. No person in his right mind would come back to the place where he’d committed a crime, even with an ironclad alibi. Either Dante wasn’t in his right mind, or he had come back to see me. He was certainly not crazy, not that I could assess—although I wasn’t a psychiatric nurse—so it must be the latter. He’d even gotten up in the middle of the night because he knew I worked the night shift.
I smiled.
Dr. Bonneville wouldn’t approve, but I didn’t care. I ached to see Dante again, to finish what we’d started yesterday morning in my bedroom.
I quickly logged out of my computer, wishing I had time to go to the bathroom to look at my hair. I walked up front toward the waiting room.
There he was. Wearing jeans that looked perfect on his muscular thighs. A lighter denim button-down shirt accentuated his broad shoulders and amazing chest. His hair was even darker than my own and hung in soft waves nearly touching his shoulders. His face was a true creation of beauty—strong jawline, sculpted cheekbones, and a graceful aquiline nose. His dark-brown eyes widened slightly when he saw me.
Did they widen in disappointment? He looked delectable, good enough to eat with a spoon, and here I was in green scrubs, my hair falling out of my ponytail.
“Hello, Erin,” he said in a low, husky voice.
“Hi. What can I help you with?”
“You can help me with this.” He pulled me into his hard chest and pressed his lips to mine.
Behind me, Charlene gasped. Were there people in the waiting room? I hadn’t noticed, and I didn’t rightfully care, not when Dante’s mouth was on mine. I opened to his kiss, letting my tongue touch his.
I wanted something from this man. Something that went beyond kissing, beyond sex even, though I had no idea what it was. I fell into the embrace, forgetting where I was, why I was here. All that mattered was this man, his lips sliding against mine, his teeth nipping at me. His—
He broke the kiss abruptly with a loud smack and inhaled, pulling me toward the door. “We need to leave.”
I yanked my arm away, though I didn’t want to. “I can’t leave. I’m on duty. I shouldn’t even be out here.”
“When do you get off?”
I looked at the clock in the waiting area. “Two hours.”
“I’ll meet you at your place.” In a flash, he disappeared into the night.
A few seconds later, Dr. Bonneville came out into the waiting room. “Erin! What the hell are you doing out here?”
“I’m sorry, Doctor. I—”
“She came at my request,” Charlene said. “I was having some trouble with my computer, and everyone knows Erin’s a tech wiz.”
That was a good one. I was a tech idiot. But Dr. Bonneville didn’t know that. I sent Charlene a look of gratitude.
“We have a whole department of geeks for that,
Charlene.”
“None of whom work nights,” Charlene retorted. “I had a little bug, but Erin fixed it for me.”
Dr. Bonneville scowled at Charlene. “I trust Erin is done here then?”
“Yes, of course,” I said.
“Thanks again, Erin,” Charlene said, smiling. “You’re a lifesaver.”
I smiled at her words. She had been the lifesaver, not me. “No problem. Glad I could help.” I followed Dr. Bonneville back into the ER.
“You seem distracted, Erin,” she said. “Is there anything I can help you with?”
Huh? Had I heard her correctly? Dr. Bonneville was an excellent physician and diagnostician, but never once had she offered to help anyone on staff with anything. As far as she was concerned, we were all there to serve her.
“No, I’m fine.”
“Well, if you ever need to talk, please know that I’m here.” Then she smiled. Actually smiled! Dr. Bonneville was a very pretty woman, but none of us had ever seen her smile.
“That’s very kind of you,” I said after I picked my jaw up off the ground. “If you don’t need me on any cases, I guess I’ll go back to my records.”
“You do that.” She smiled again. I couldn’t decide if the smile was real or fake. After all, I’d never seen it before.
I sat back down at my computer to log the rest of my records, when a certain name caught my eye. The drug panel on Mr. A. Lincoln—only an initial was listed—had come back. He must have been on something strong to make him think he was seeing vampires. But my mouth dropped open. His blood had come back clean. Not even a trace of alcohol or nicotine.
Poor guy was obviously mentally ill. It happened to a lot of people who ended up on the streets. They were often sleep-deprived and malnourished, a sure prescription for hallucinations. I quickly typed the data into his record.
I got through the next two hours of my shift and then drove home quickly, my heart beating like thunder at my anticipation of finding Dante waiting for me.
My phone dinged. A text.
Where are you? I’ve been waiting for you down here for ten minutes. We were supposed to have breakfast, remember?
Crap. I’d forgotten about Lucy. As much as I hated to text and drive, I rattled off a quickie to her.
Sorry. Something came up. Tomorrow?
Okay. See you tonight at work.
Try as I might, I couldn’t feel bad for blowing off Lucy. Images of Dante filled my head, and thoughts of our brief time together twenty-four hours earlier clouded everything else in my brain.
I pulled into my townhome complex and nearly ran to my door. He wasn’t here yet. Good. I had time to freshen up.
I opened the door and gasped.
Chapter Fifteen
Dante
“How did you get in here?” Erin yelled.
“Easy. Your door was unlocked.”
She looked around, her eyes wide. “That’s not possible. I never forget to lock my door.”
“Well, you did today.” I went forward to take her into my arms, but she edged away.
“This has me pretty freaked out.”
“You forgot to lock your door. So what? It’s probably not the first time.”
“I assure you it is the first time. Seriously, how did you get in here?”
Did she really think I was lying to her? “I opened the door and walked in. It’s that simple.”
She looked around again. “Something’s off in here. I can’t tell what it is, but it’s off.”
I inhaled. Nothing smelled off to me. But I’d been away from all the scents of the world for so long, I didn’t trust my nose quite yet. All I could smell was Erin—lusty, earthy Erin. She was already getting wet. I inhaled again.
“Did you knock before you broke into my home?”
“Of course I knocked.”
“And then, when I didn’t answer, you decided to try the doorknob? Who does that?”
“I don’t know. It seemed like a normal thing to do.”
She brought her hands up to her temples and rubbed. “I’m so stupid. I keep forgetting that I just met you. I keep thinking I can trust you. I want to trust you.” She closed her eyes and inhaled. “But I can’t.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I found you vandalizing our blood bank. Have you forgotten already?”
I had forgotten. Because it hadn’t happened—rather, vandalism hadn’t been my intent. I’d had no choice. I was starving. But she had no way of knowing that. “I should explain about that.”
But how could I explain? Normal people didn’t think vampires existed. If I told her what I truly was, she would run away screaming.
She regarded me, her eyes glazing over as if an opal were clouding a peridot. I’d never seen eyes like hers.
“It’s all right. You don’t owe me an explanation.”
“I don’t?”
“No. As long as you tell me you haven’t committed any crimes or misdemeanors since I saw you last.”
I smiled. “I haven’t.”
“Good. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why I believe you, but I do. So is everything okay with your family?”
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t it be?”
She walked into her kitchen and poured a glass of juice. “Want some?”
“Sure.” What I really wanted—needed—was surging through her veins, but juice was okay.
“Have a seat.” She gestured to her little kitchen table.
Her scent overpowered everything else in the small townhome. I sensed nothing else, not even the citrus fragrance of the orange juice, which was usually a strong aroma for me. I concentrated. There it was. That acidic tang.
“Tell me a little bit about you,” she was saying. “What were you doing in the blood bank the other night? I assumed you were looking for food, but since you’re not homeless, that’s probably not the case.”
“I…uh…” What could I say to that? Telling her the truth wasn’t an option. I could lie and say the blood bank had already been vandalized when I got there, but I didn’t want to lie. I was already being dishonest by not telling her who I truly was. Lying to her seemed profoundly wrong to me. Especially when all I could do was stare at her pink lips, wet from the orange juice. I wanted them wet from my kisses.
“It’s okay,” she continued. “We can get to that later. Where do you live, anyway?”
Why did she so easily let me off the hook? I’d overthink that later. Right now, all I could think about was her. Erin. Her enticing aroma. That beautiful body that I instinctively knew was hidden under her sweats. “Right now I’m staying with my grandfather. He lives in the Garden District.”
“Cool. That’s such an amazing place. I get goose bumps whenever I walk around there.”
“He lives in an old brick house. It used to be a bed-and-breakfast. The Heartsong B and B.”
“The Heartsong? Really?”
“You’ve heard of it? It’s been closed for… Well, over thirty years.”
“My friend Lucy told me about it. She’s a native. She says it’s haunted.”
I held back a chuckle. Paranormal activity abounded in the Garden District, but it wasn’t from ghosts. It was from all the voodoo practitioners and the cosmic energy they drew down. Ghosts didn’t exist. Vampires believed that a person’s energy merged with the universe when he died. “It’s not.”
“It’s such a gorgeous house! I envy you. Do you want anything else? Toast or eggs or something?”
About a pint of your blood. Already I knew how sweet she would be, how satisfying. My gums started to itch, but I tamped it down. Couldn’t go there. She wouldn’t understand.
I should leave. Leave her in peace. Not draw her into my fucked-up world.
But I couldn’t. Couldn’t get my legs to move. She was so beautiful. Her hair in disarray only made her more so. Her lips were red and plump, her complexion fair and rosy. And that body… I longed to feast my eyes on her flesh for the first time.
&n
bsp; “Erin…” I couldn’t wait much longer to have her. Just being near her, hearing her heart pump her blood, the heady whoosh as it traveled through her veins.
As much as I ached for it, I could not taste her. Not yet.
But I could have the rest of her. She’d begged me to take her to bed the last time we’d been here. How I’d ached to. I longed to now just as much—even more—but so much of me was still like an untried adolescent.
I’d never been in this situation—wanting a woman so much. It was nothing like the pure sexual urge I knew well. My hormones rose within me, tightening my cock, making my gums tingle. That was familiar. What wasn’t was the heady emotion swirling around me, the desire, the passionate ache.
I closed my eyes for a moment.
Erin’s soft fingers found my cheek, and I opened my eyes to see her beautiful face staring up at me, her eyes shining. My whole body throbbed with desire, and then something foreign. She was also pulsing with desire. I felt each beat of her heart as if it were my own, felt each prickle of her skin. I reached out and touched her cheek, and it was warm. Tiny pinpricks tore through my fingertips as her capillaries burst—each small pop resonating within me—giving way to an alluring blush that turned her cheeks rosy.
I turned quickly away from her.
My fangs had elongated. I hadn’t been able to stop. The raw desire, the primal urge…
It was all too much.
I would not be able to have her until I was able to control this part of me.
I summoned all the strength within me, and when my teeth had retracted and my cock had gone down a bit, I turned back to her.
“Aren’t you going to answer me?” she asked.
“I’m sorry. What did you say?”
“I asked you what was wrong three different times. You ignored me. You’re starting to scare me, Dante.”
“I don’t mean to.”
“Why didn’t you answer me?”
In truth, I hadn’t heard her. I’d been forcing all my energy into retracting my teeth and slowing my libido.
Unchained: Blood Bond Saga: Volume One Page 6
