Relentless (Vampire Awakenings Book 11)

by Brenda K. Davies

  “How many dead men do you know who still pay their bills? Go on, I’m waiting. Tell me, how do you expect that bastard to pay me from the grave?”

  Dante ignored her antagonistic tone as he pondered this revelation. He doubted Mrs. Abbott knew about Preston; otherwise, she probably would have kept paying if only to keep her husband’s reputation intact. And Lindsay must still have money somewhere; once it ran out, would she approach Mrs. Abbott about continuing to feed her addiction? He hoped not.

  But still, he had to ask… “Does Mrs. Abbott know about your son?”

  “How am I supposed to know what that hoity-toity bitch knew? Does it look like we run in the same circles? Do you think we go to the country club together on Sundays? Do I look like I get botoxed and bent over by my tennis instructor?”

  Dante was beginning to find the prospect of taking control of her mind a lot more pleasant. “Do you think she knows about your son?”

  “I seriously doubt that prick sperm donor told her about him. He wanted nothing to do with my beautiful Preston.”

  Cassidy was finding this place and this woman’s life increasingly depressing. She lifted her head to gaze at the stains on the ceiling as tears pricked her eyes. Lindsay was a disaster now, but her love for her son was evident in her words and the old pictures.

  “Did Dr. Abbott ever see Preston?”

  “No. He sent money every month, but he never sent a birthday card, called, or bothered to ask how he was doing.”

  Cassidy didn’t blame the woman for the bitterness in her tone. She still didn’t understand how the earlier, happier pictures of this woman and her son had deteriorated into this mess, but it wasn’t her place to judge others.

  She was also beginning to feel a little uneasy about Preston’s relationship with Julie. The man had a reason to feel bitter about his absentee father, but had he decided to take his bitterness out on Julie?

  It was so easy to become twisted as a vampire, so easy to give in to the malicious side of the demon DNA lurking inside them; had he decided to seek revenge on his father and his family once he turned? Or had a festering resentment and hatred always resided inside him?

  “Did you know Dr. Abbott has a daughter?” Dante asked.

  “I’d assumed him and that bitch would breed, but I didn’t know for sure,” Lindsay replied.

  “Did you know your son contacted his sister after their father died?”

  Her pursed mouth and a flicker in her eyes were the only indicators of her surprise over this revelation. “No, I didn’t.”

  Dante asked her more questions about Preston’s childhood, where he grew up, and what he liked to do. They used to have a house on the outskirts of New Bedford, but something caused their lives to take a downturn. He suspected it was the glass of booze in Lindsay’s hand.

  Preston was on the debate and soccer team in high school and very popular. Dante learned she got married when Preston was three and his stepfather raised him. When Preston was sixteen, the man died in a freak work accident.

  The more he learned, the more Dante noticed the striking similarities between Preston and Julie’s stories. They were both happy, well-adjusted kids until they lost their fathers at sixteen.

  He suspected that’s when Lindsay turned to the bottle and, according to Lindsay, Preston started to withdraw and stopped doing the things he once enjoyed. She didn’t know as much about her son’s life afterward.

  She could still name his high school friends but couldn’t tell him one of Preston’s friends now. When he asked about a Jasmine, she stared blankly back at him before demanding Cassidy get her another drink. Dante gritted his teeth as Cassidy obliged.

  “What happened to your home?” he asked.

  She glowered at him. “I couldn’t afford to keep it after my husband died.”

  “Did you ask Dr. Abbott for more money?”

  “Of course, but that piece of shit said he couldn’t afford to give me any more money. I promised to tell everyone his shameful little secret, but he told me he wouldn’t have to pay me anything then.”

  Dr. Abbott had taken a gamble and called her bluff, and deciding she’d rather have some money than none, Lindsay kept her mouth shut.

  “Does Preston have a room here?” Dante asked.

  “Of course he does,” Lindsay said.

  “Can I take a look around it?”

  “Why are you looking for my son?”

  It was the first time she’d asked this question, and her words slurred as she stared skeptically at him.

  “I’m not looking for your son; I’m looking for Julie Abbott,” Dante said.

  “Who’s that?”

  “His sister. She went missing two weeks ago.”

  She smashed her cigarette into the ashtray. “My son has nothing to do with that!”

  “I’m sure he doesn’t.” That was a complete lie; Preston was suspect number one. He had a good motive in money, revenge, and resentment over being abandoned to fuel him, but Dante couldn’t tell Lindsay that. “I’m trying to learn as much about Julie and her friends as I can.”

  “Preston’s not her friend.”

  He had to tread carefully here as the alcohol was making her angrier and more suspicious. “I’m sure he’s not.” That was at least the truth. He doubted Preston had anything good in mind when it came to Julie. “Can I take a look around Preston’s room?”

  Her eyes narrowed as they went from him to Cassidy. Having had enough, Dante shut his pad and returned it and his pen to the inner pocket of his jacket.

  “I’m going to take a look at your son’s room,” he said as he took control of Lindsay’s mind. “You’re going to stay here and not say another word. Do you understand me?”

  Lindsay stared at him for a minute before nodding. Dante held his hand out to Cassidy, and she clasped it. Leading her down the hall, he used the toe of his boot to push open the doors they passed. They discovered the bathroom and Lindsay’s room before finding Preston’s bedroom at the end of the hall.

  After flicking on the light switch, he ignored the cockroaches skittering across the floor and walls as he surveyed the room. He released Cassidy’s hand and left her standing in the doorway while he entered the room.

  A mattress lay on the floor with blankets tossed haphazardly onto it. The white walls were bare, and only a single photo sat on the scarred dresser against the far wall. When he got closer, he saw the photo was of the family from the pictures in the living room. In this photo, the stepfather was holding the back of Preston’s bike. Preston looked to be seven or eight in the picture and was grinning from ear to ear. Standing to the side, Lindsay clapped as the two of them ran down the road. A grandparent or friend must have taken the picture.

  Dante tore his attention away from the picture and back to the room. Preston is the reason Julie is missing, he reminded himself.

  The happy boy had grown into a man who got himself mixed up with vampires. He’d dragged his sister into his life and possibly killed her and his girlfriend.

  Dante went through the drawers and checked the closet but didn’t find anything useful. When he finished, he reclaimed Cassidy’s hand and led her back to the living room. Standing in front of Lindsay, he waited until her head tipped back and their eyes met to speak again.

  “We weren’t here,” he told her. “If Preston contacts you again, you never spoke to me, and you never saw us.”

  He didn’t think he had to tell her this; she most likely wouldn’t remember this conversation, but he wasn’t taking any chances. He didn’t know what kind of vampire her son had become. Zan said he was a pretty boy, but that pretty face most likely hid the soul of a killer, and Preston couldn’t know Dante was trying to find him. If Julie was alive, Preston might do something to her because of it.

  Turning away, he led Cassidy to the door and away from this place. When they were on the street again, he drew her into his arms.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Dante traced the delicate curve of Ca
ssidy’s spine as he followed the water streaming down her back and the curve of her ass. He used a bar of soap to wash her as she rested her palms against the wall and stood beneath the shower’s spray.

  She was gorgeous and so tantalizing he couldn’t stop himself from nipping at her shoulder. She was also his. She was made for him; he knew her body as well as his own as he ran soap across her shoulders and one of her arms.

  He was hard as a rock, but he kept his touch gentle as he sensed her rising desire. When he finished with her back, she lowered her hands and turned to face him. Behind her closed lips, he saw the outline of her fangs, and his balls tightened.

  He followed the trail of water from her shoulders to her breasts, where it slid off her nipples in tantalizing rivulets. His fangs lengthened as he ran the soap over her collarbone, across her breasts, and down her belly.

  All she wanted when they left the building was to scrub herself clean, and he would do that for her. Kneeling in front of her, he used the soap to clean one of her thighs before moving lower to her calf and then turning his attention to her other leg.

  Cassidy groaned when Dante massaged the muscles of one calf and then the other before turning his attention to her thighs. When his hands brushed the junction between her thighs, her hips instinctively moved toward him. She rested her hands on his shoulders to keep herself from falling when her legs nearly gave out.

  However, instead of taking her, he gripped her ass and kneaded her muscles before sliding his palms up the small of her back. Her eyes closed, but when he rose to stand before her again, she opened them to take in the beauty of his chiseled features.

  Black stubble lined his cheeks and jaw, and her pale skin contrasted beautifully against his swarthy complexion. His eyes wavered between red and brown as his fingers skimmed the sides of her breasts.

  When her gaze fell to the vein in his throat, Cassidy couldn’t stop herself from licking her lips in anticipation. They’d discussed the mate bond, but they hadn’t talked about solidifying it between them. However, she yearned to taste him.

  Dante growled when her hunger beat against him and her eyes turned red. She had many needs she had to fulfill, and his instincts screamed at him to do it.

  Gripping her hips, he lifted her until her legs wrapped around his waist. He reached around her and turned off the water before opening the shower curtain and stepping out of the tub.

  When the head of his dick prodded between her legs, Cassidy shifted until she felt it against her entrance. Her fingers bit into his shoulders as she lowered herself onto his shaft, and he bared his fangs.

  The sight of those fangs caused an unraveling within her. She didn’t think; she couldn’t think as her vampire nature overtook her humanity.

  She thrust her hips against him as an almost animalistic frenzy took her over. It was a frenzy he was happy to match as he carried her out of the bathroom and toward the bed.

  They collapsed half on and half off the bed as he took her with a ruthlessness she didn’t know she needed but suddenly craved. When he pulled out of her, she almost screamed, but then he rolled her over and his thigh shoved hers apart before he plunged into her again.

  She could feel him deep inside her, taking her over as he joined with her, but even as he was touching the deepest parts of her, branding himself onto her flesh and claiming pieces of her soul, it wasn’t enough.

  “Harder,” she commanded. “Harder.”

  She had no idea who this brazen, wanton woman was, but she welcomed this side of her as her body clamored for more.

  Dante eagerly obeyed as he gripped her hips. In the beginning, he was afraid he might hurt her, but her cries of pleasure doused any of his doubts and pushed him beyond what he believed himself capable of doing.

  He’d never been so out of touch with his humanity and so in touch with the vampire part of him before. He believed he’d hate this loss of control; instead, he welcomed it. Yet, it still wasn’t enough. He craved more.

  When she came apart beneath him, he didn’t follow her over the edge. He didn’t want this to stop, and though her sheath clenching around his dick was an exquisite sensation, he didn’t give himself over to his release.

  He grasped her hair and, winding it around his wrist, pulled her head back to expose the vein in her throat more. Running his tongue over her vein, he relished the hitch in her breath and the way her body stilled in anticipation. He waited for her to tell him to stop, but she didn’t speak and still didn’t breathe.

  He paused over her vein, and she inhaled a breath when the tips of his fangs pricked her skin, the comforter twisting around her hands. When she still didn’t say anything, he sank his fangs into her throat.

  Cassidy was sure she couldn’t get any higher, but she was wrong. The sensation of him draining her blood while moving within her again caused her to soar like an eagle over the mountains.

  And like that eagle, she felt free and powerful in a way she never had before. She was giving him the nourishment he sought and easing the demands of his body. When he released her hair, she would have collapsed on the bed, but his hand clasped her throat as he continued to drain her.

  Slowly, Dante removed his rigid cock from inside her and reluctantly released his bite. Lifting her, he moved her up on the bed and rolled her over. “I’m not done with you,” he said.

  She gave him a sultry smile as she slid her arms above her head and draped her legs around his waist. “Good.”

  When he claimed her mouth, she tasted her blood on his tongue and nipped at his lip. She licked away the small bead of blood that formed, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy her. Breaking the kiss, she bowed until her back came off the bed.

  When her breasts rose toward his mouth, Dante claimed one of her nipples. He ran his tongue across it before sinking his fangs into her breast and tasting her in long, greedy pulls. Cassidy threaded her fingers through his hair and pulled him closer.

  When she tugged his hair, Dante released his bite and lifted himself over the top of her. Anticipation thundered through his veins as her reddened eyes fell on his neck. She was as ravenous for him as he was for her, and he would not deny her.

  Clasping the back of her head, Dante lifted her until her lips rested against his neck. When her fangs pierced his flesh, his desperate need for her diminished with every pull of his blood.

  She was his; he was sustaining her and a part of her. Lowering his mouth to her shoulder, he bit deep. A swell of emotion that wasn’t his poured into him as her blood filled him.

  At first, he couldn’t differentiate her emotions from his, but then her awe and how much she cared for him broke through. And the depth of her caring made it almost impossible for him to think. He was falling in love with her, but the pure joy of her spirit pushed him over the edge.

  Tears burned his eyes as he gathered her closer and crushed her against him. She was his future, and instead of being drab and depressing, it now shone brighter than all the stars in the sky.

  Breaking his bite on her, he rested his lips against her ear as he told her, “I love you.”

  I love you too, she whispered into his mind, and he realized the mating bond was complete.

  This time when she climaxed, he followed her over the edge.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Dante stomped his foot and leaned against the bar while he watched Cassidy on the stage. Joy radiated from her face as she belted out a rendition of “Sweet Caroline” that had everyone in the bar stomping their feet and singing with her. He was one of them. There was no way he could resist the song.

  Beside him, Julian shouted out “so good, so good” with the rest of the crowd. Aida laughed as she threw one arm in the air and fist-pumped to the chorus. When Cassidy finished the song, the bar erupted into applause as she gave an elegant bow. At the other end of the bar, Kyle waved a white rag in the air and whistled loudly.

  Rising from her bow, Cassidy beamed at the crowd before her eyes settled on him. Feeling like a goofy, lovesick k
id, he grinned back at her. His gaze traveled to her shoulder. Her shirt hid his marks, but he knew they were there, and that was enough for him.

  She was his.

  At the other end of the bar, Kyle threw his rag in a bucket under the bar, lifted the panel dividing the bar from the rest of the room, and stepped out. When a woman slipped in behind him, Kyle’s resident admirers exchanged confused looks as Kyle closed the divider.

  “Sorry, ladies,” he apologized. “Lucy asked me to switch shifts today, and since I can never disappoint a woman—” When he winked at the women, they tittered at his double entendre. “—I’ve got the night off, but she’ll take great care of you.”

  When the women started to protest his announcement, he gave them all a wave before hurrying into the back hall. Turning his attention back to the stage, Dante forced himself to ignore the way some of the men were watching Cassidy.

  He would end up fighting every guy in this place, and she’d hate him if he cost her this job. Besides, he couldn’t spend the rest of their lives fighting every guy who looked lustfully at her; he’d end up fighting half the world if that was the case.

  However, he would fight half the world for her, and then some, if it meant keeping her safe. Unfortunately, though he hated every one of these assholes and itched to make them look away, they weren’t a threat to her. And since they completed the bond, he didn’t feel quite as jealous of these dip-wads.

  When she finished her next song, Cassidy gave another elegant bow before putting the microphone back and descending from the stage.

  “Are you ready to go?” Julian asked Aida.

  “Yes,” she said and hopped off her barstool.

  Cassidy was halfway through the crowd when a man stepped in front of her, blocking her way. Dante’s fangs descended, and it took all he had not to stomp across the room and kill the man.

  “Excuse me,” he muttered to Julian and stalked through the crowd toward them.

  “Come on,” the man wheedled. “Let me buy you a drink.”