Captivated by a Vampire: Billionaire, Rock Stars, Vampires in San Francisco (Immortal Hearts of San Francisco Book 2)

by Griscom, Susan

  “The vampires approached me, said they’d discovered the lawsuit and promised to make it disappear if I helped them. They were able to cover up my mistake with compulsion so I could continue to practice, but threatened to expose the truth if I didn’t continue to help them extract blood from my patients who underwent surgical procedures through my private clinic.”

  He set his glass down and clasped his hands together. “I was able to express the blood slowly over several hours to avoid hemorrhagic shock. You see, the faster the rate of blood loss, the worse the outcome. Extracted slowly over time, you can get more, and the patients never suspect anything. I’d agreed to be a part of their organization to save my practice, so that I could still provide for my wife and daughter.”

  “You take blood from patients without their knowledge?” Cian asked.

  “Is that any different than when we compel them to let us drink straight from their vein?” Grayson countered.

  “No, I guess not,” Lane said.

  I watched Josh as he gulped down an entire glass of scotch then helped himself to another. I knew this was all too much for him. My heart pinched with pain as I sensed the dread inside of him, even more, knowing that fear was probably the only thing keeping him from leaving.

  “So why did they kill your wife?” Cian sat with his elbow propped on the armrest of the chair he sat in. His chin on his fist.

  “Two reasons. First, one of the patients died because they forced me to take more than she could handle. I didn’t want to be a part of something like that. No matter what it cost me. But then, the second reason was even more important. My daughter.” He cleared his throat and squeezed my hand. “We were traveling to the beach for an afternoon of fun. A car hit us from the opposite lane and our car toppled over several times. My wife and I were fine, but Charlotte suffered a ruptured spleen and minor cuts to her face, the largest, right below her eye.” He paused to look at me and rubbed his finger over the spot where I’d had the scar Josh had mentioned. “The scar is gone now.” He smiled. “Anyway, I couldn’t imagine someone doing to my baby girl what I did to those women, so I refused to help them after that. They, on the other hand, didn’t agree with my decision. They came for me. To change me, so I would have no choice but to help them. My wife entered the room at the wrong time. It was horrible the way Russell killed her. If he hadn’t been the one to turn me, I would have killed him, but I couldn’t. He invaded my mind more than I could hide my thoughts. He knew if he ever let up, I’d take my revenge. The sudden feeling of freedom that came when you cut off his head was…I can’t thank you enough.”

  “But I saw them shoot you.” I cringed at the memory.

  “Yes, they shot me. It was faster than draining my blood, I suppose. They turned me, though, instead of letting me die. I thought they’d killed you. You must have gone back to hide before that.”

  “That’s a touching story,” Josh said. I was surprised to hear him speak. “If this is all true and you’ve been stealing blood straight from your patients, why steal more from the hospitals?”

  My father glanced at Josh. “You’re human.”

  “What of it?”

  My father chuckled softly. “Supply was low and demand was high. Vampires need blood, and most are willing to pay over the top to get what they need. So, in addition to the surgeries, they began to steal from hospitals and blood banks.”

  “Are there others in this organization?”

  “You killed the main vampire in charge tonight. There are a few, but without him or me to extract the blood, the operation will fall by the wayside.”

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Josh

  Trees swayed with the gentle breeze. Crickets chirped thirty feet below. A dog barked somewhere in the not-too-far distance. The lights on the bridge glowed, outlining the structure with a majestic radiance. Bright, white headlights beamed in one direction while red brakelights passed them in the other. The Golden Gate Bridge never disappointed, even when it was foggy like tonight, giving the lights a romantic ambiance. It was always beautiful. I stood out on the balcony off the main living room, basking in the fog, inhaling the mixture of salt and water in the coastal air. At the moment, I didn’t care if the sun ever came out again.

  I’d been unwillingly thrust into this new and frightening world. A world I’d been denying the existence of for eight years. A world that had stolen one beautiful woman from me, but had given me another. Did Emily die eight years ago so I would be free to love Chelle?

  Both Cian and Lane offered me their blood to recuperate. But I declined their generosity.

  Giving someone my blood was one thing. Drinking someone else’s, quite another. I had my limits.

  “It’s not always like that, you know.” I turned at the sound of Lane’s voice.

  He handed me a tumbler of scotch. I took it, drinking almost all of it in one gulp, I let the burn soothe my nerves.

  “What?”

  “Having a vampire drink your blood.”

  I nodded, guessing he was right. I wasn’t sure I wanted to find out, though.

  “Chelle was on the edge of death.” My eyes shot up. I hadn’t realized she’d been that bad. I didn’t have a fucking clue about vampires. “Oh, she wouldn’t have died, but she was still there, at the brink. The pain and the intensity were there, as well. It would have taken her days, maybe a week to fully recover from that injury. Which I’m sure is nothing compared to what a human would have suffered and endured. A human would have died. You would have died had it been you. And Chelle would have turned you rather than lose you.

  “You have to understand, she had no idea at that point what she was doing. Survival instincts took over and she didn’t know it was you feeding her. All she knew was that it was a lifeline and she needed it. Plus, she’s young and inexperienced with near-death feelings. If that had been me or Cian or an older vampire, we’d have been able to stop. You get to know these things as time and years pass. The sensation of near death for a vampire can happen many times in a century.”

  I drank the rest of the scotch and stared out at the bridge. “How many times have you almost died?”

  “I lost count. At least twenty. Cian and I have only been vampires for two hundred and twenty years, though. We’ve had our share of near-death experiences. I was shot in the back during the civil war. Not that I was a soldier, but I was the unfortunate recipient of a midnight raid’s shower of bullets into a southern brothel. I was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. It would have been permanent had I been human.” He smiled.

  I mulled that over for a minute. He sounded like he thought he was a goddamn war hero.

  “You wouldn’t have been my choice for her, you know. But I can’t deny the feelings she has for you.”

  “You sound like you’re her father.”

  “In a way.” He chuckled and rubbed the overgrown stubble on his chin.

  I wanted to find that spot in my heart, that place that gave me permission to accept these vampires as friends. Aside from having to drink blood to survive, they all seemed to be the epitome of good citizens. But was I ready to trust them completely?

  “Do you love her?” The words shot out of my mouth like a loaded cannon.

  “Not the way you do.” I opened my mouth to protest Lane’s assumption. “No need to deny it. You might not know it up here,” Lane tapped his finger on my head, “But I can see it here and feel it in here.” He pointed at my eyes, then at his heart.”

  He picked up the bottle he’d brought out with him. I hadn’t noticed he’d set it down in the shadows. He poured another two fingers in each of our glasses.

  “My love for Chelle is different. More like that man in there.” He pointed to Chelle’s father.

  I glanced in the room through the glass doors at Chelle sitting on the sofa beside her real father as they talked about things. It melted my heart to see her so happy, reunited with her dad.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chelle

&nb
sp; I couldn’t believe my real dad was actually sitting beside me after all these years. He looked the same as he had that night before they’d shot him. Still handsome in my eyes. His hair was the same soft dark brown with a slight wave in the front. His brown eyes glowed with the same warmth and love for me that they had so long ago. He didn’t seem as tall, though. I frowned at that. He’d always been the pillar of my existent. A larger than life man who could do no wrong, who’d loved me with all his being. All those years I’d missed, stolen moments of my own growth changing as I became taller, meeting his height, or close to it. It was a shock to be honest.

  “What will you do about your practice?” I asked, still curious about so many things.

  “I suppose I can keep on practicing medicine. I won’t be abusing any more patients, though. I never liked doing that.”

  “But like you said, why is that so much different than taking blood directly from humans? We compel them in order to do that.”

  “That’s different. It really is. A medical procedure seems so much more invasive. It’s something to think about. I’d like to at least have someone’s permission first, and I don’t know how I would get that.”

  “I’m sure there are humans who would donate freely. Like a blood bank. We still need blood. Does it matter whether they know whom the blood is being donated to? They don’t know that when they donate to the Red Cross.”

  “I think Chelle might be on to something,” Cian said.

  My dad shook his head. “Maybe.”

  “But for now, we should all leave you two to get reacquainted.” Everyone left except Josh and Lane, who had already stepped outside onto the alcove balcony. Concern swamped me with worry about what they were discussing.

  “I’ll be forever grateful to the people who took you in.” My dad’s voice brought my attention back to him.

  “Alan and Judy Reynolds. They gave me a new name and, I guess, hid me away. I’d blocked out what happened. In fact, it wasn’t until just recently with the help of a witch’s spell that I remembered.”

  Vicious hopped up on the sofa and curled up between my dad and me.

  “Cute puppy.”

  “This is Vicious. I got her for my birthday. I turned twenty-one.”

  “Yes. I know, and you’ll forever be twenty-one. Lane was the one who turned you?” he asked.

  “Yes. But by accident. He’d taken too much of my blood and I was dying. But he didn’t want me to die, so he turned me. How did you know?”

  “He has a powerful command over you and he’s protective of you.”

  “Yes, a little too much sometimes.”

  “Not tonight. Tonight…he was perfect.” My dad took my hand in his, gave it a loving squeeze. “But your heart belongs to the human.”

  “Yes. Josh.” My father was very perceptive.

  “He’s in love with you.” That sounded like a statement, but I decided to treat it like a question.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Time will tell.”

  “And we’ve got nothing but time, right?” I laughed, but inside I ached because Josh didn’t have that endless duration.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Josh

  I was beyond exhausted. What a fucked up night. I wanted to go home to my own apartment. I had stuff to think about. Too much messed up stuff. I had never let Chelle take my blood before, and all this time, all the times we’d been together, she’d never once suggested it.

  It suddenly registered in my thick scull. She was doing her best to act like a human whenever she was around me. Doing human things. Sleeping when it was dark, being up during the day. Not even going to the club to watch the guys perform. Up until tonight, I’d been living in a dream world, thinking we could go on that way. Not realizing what she’d been doing. Drinking blood from plastic bags to survive. What would she do now that the supply was gone? She’d be forced to go out with the others, that’s what. Could I stand by and let her do that? Maggie and Cian seemed to be able to do it. What was my problem?

  I was a human. Chelle was a vampire. That was the fucking problem. I’d never get used to her sucking blood. Never.

  I was upstairs in Chelle’s room, gathering my clothes together to leave when she walked in. She closed the door and stood, watching me stuff my shit into the duffle bag.

  “You’re leaving.” Her voice was whisper-soft and full of sorrow.

  I turned to face her. My heart melted at the sight of the tears dripping down her cheeks and I couldn’t take it so I focused on my packing. “I think it’s for the best.” The farther I got away, the better. It had been a wild ride, but the fantasy was over. I’d been kidding myself, thinking that our relationship was working.

  “I’m sorry.” My eyes shot to hers. “I’m sorry I couldn’t control my bloodlust with you tonight. I would never have consciously hurt you.”

  “I know that.”

  “Then don’t leave.” She walked to my side and placed her palm to my upper arm. I flinched at her touch, and I knew that had to hurt her. Hurting her wasn’t something I wanted to do, but I was dying inside. She was everything I’d learned to hate, but she was everything my soul desired.

  “This was never going to work, Chelle. I can’t pretend any longer.”

  “Is that what you’ve been doing? Pretending?”

  “No, actually. You have. You pretend to be human to please me. You sleep during the night, you’re up when you should be sleeping. You drink blood from plastic bags so you don’t have to take it from a human vein. What happens now? Now that there are no more plastic bags of blood? Are you going to starve yourself for me? I can’t let you do that.”

  “No. I’ll just have to go out and get it the way the others do.”

  I nodded, knowing she’d have to. “And I can’t stand by while that happens. I don’t want to watch you drink blood from someone. I can’t do it.”

  “From someone? Or from someone other than you?”

  I ignored the question and shook my head instead.

  “Then let me take your blood, Josh. I can control it.”

  “You’ve never asked me to do that before.”

  “I’ve never asked you to do that because I know how you feel about it.”

  “Then why ask me now?”

  “You’re being impossible.” Anger coated her voice now, and she picked up one of my shirts and tossed it down on the bed as if that was going to hurt it. But she didn’t get it. I couldn’t just offer myself up to her that way.

  “It’s an impossible situation,” I countered, waiting for her to answer the question.

  “I’ll die if you leave me.”

  I laughed. “Yeah? Well, good luck with that, honey.” It was cruel. I knew it. But my walls were up. I picked up my bag and walked out of her room and out of the house, not looking back. It was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Josh

  Three months later.

  The evening started out just like most. After work, I’d headed over to the bar. Visited with Clint for a few hours then grabbed a burger at the café. Alone. Then headed home to drink more.

  I grabbed the bottle of scotch from the kitchen counter and strolled to the sofa, both bottle and glass in tow. I was back to wallowing in my grief. This time for another reason, but the outcome pretty much the same. I was drowning my sorrows the only way I knew how. My nightmares had changed from fearing the monsters to having wet dreams about one. So many nights I’d wake up drenched with sweat from a heated lovemaking session with Chelle, only to be sorely disappointed that it was only a dream.

  We never would have lasted. Hell, we never should have started. She would always need blood to survive, and I would always resent it. Jealousy grew inside me just thinking about it. I knew that the ugly emotion would overwhelm me every time she needed to take blood from someone. I’d even be envious of a woman, I think. Plus, I would grow to be an old man while she stayed young and beautiful. What kind of life would
that be?

  Wishing I could be the man she needed me to be, I closed my eyes, remembering the sensation of her taking my blood. That had to be the most blissful experience I’d ever had. Until she’d gone too far. Is that what scared me? That she went too far? I remembered trying to disconnect, trying to free my arm from her grasp and failing. I was no match for her strength. Was I that much of a fucking macho jerk that I couldn’t stand having a woman overpower me? Or was I just a wimp who couldn’t stand the idea of having my blood be the lifeline of someone I’d grown to love?

  Either way, I lost.

  Too many lonely nights.

  I’d fallen asleep on the sofa, and by the display on my phone, I’d woken a little after nine in the morning. I was supposed to meet Lex at ten for an interview with one of the doctors from the local hospital about patients in need. I jumped up and quickly showered to rid the cobwebs from my head. It wasn’t the most romantic or adventurous assignment, but that was fine by me. I’d had enough excitement to last a lifetime that night with the vampires. I gulped down a glass of orange juice before heading out.

  The interview lasted about an hour, and I had to admit, I’d been impressed with the way the hospital was handling everything, and was surprised to learn that they still hadn’t recuperated from the loss of blood that had been stolen three months ago. This interview was a plea to the public to donate blood to their local blood banks.

  We wrapped things up and I headed toward the station. I had a crapload of paperwork piled high on my desk that needed to get done. Including tying up the loose ends of the story about Chelle. Adrienne and her brother had accepted what I’d reported as fact. I’d later learned that the Feds had never been involved, nor the police. It was just Alan who’d desperately wanted to find the missing daughter he’d raised. I felt bad for him. They even had a memorial service for her. I feigned a headache and backed out of attending. It wasn’t complete closure for him, but he did stop the search.