Thankfully, she didn’t have to think about it for long as the door to their room opened and Ian stepped inside. He’d only been gone for a couple of hours, but it had felt like a day. The healthy glow of his skin, and the aura surrounding him told her he’d fed well, something that would have made her want to destroy him only a couple of weeks ago. Now she knew he hadn’t hurt anyone, and he’d done this for her.
Tears burned her eyes, she hadn’t realized how much she’d missed him until seeing him now. Without hesitation, she ran across the room and threw her arms around his waist. The force of her hitting him caused him to rock back on his heels. “What’s wrong?” he demanded.
“I missed you,” she breathed.
He pulled her closer against him and bent his head to nuzzle her ear. “I missed you too, but when the bond is complete we’ll be able to communicate and sense each other. We’ll never be separated again. You’ll never have to feel like this again.”
It sounded so strange and yet so oddly appealing. She pressed closer against him, inhaling the scent of the mountain air clinging to his clothes. Holding him, she knew she didn’t want to wait a second more to be joined with him for an eternity. “I can’t wait, Ian. I have to do this, now.”
“I know it’s frightening…”
“No, it’s not that.” Her mind traveled to the drawing lying on the other bed. “I’m ready to move on, with you.”
The warmth of his breath tickled her skin. She could live another thousand years and never get used to what his arms and kiss made her feel like. It was easy to lose herself to the touch and feel of him. The erotic sensations he aroused in her body with his hands and tongue made it easy to forget this would all lead to her impending death. He’d told her that her heart would stop beating, she would die, but she felt no dread of that as his body moved over hers and within hers.
Turning her neck to the side, a sigh of contentment escaped her when his fangs pierced her skin. The fulfillment he experienced while feeding from her caused a cry of ecstasy to escape her. His love beat against her, ensnaring her in a cocoon of serenity she never wanted to break free of.
Her fingers dug into his back, they raked over his skin as his ecstasy crashed through her. She didn’t have fangs, not yet, but she bit down on his shoulder hard enough to draw blood in an attempt to stifle her cries. A growl of pleasure escaped him; his hand clenched in her hair. He held her while her blood filled him. Pleasure continued to extinguish all fear within her, even when her heart skipped a beat and then two.
The warm trail of her blood slid over her skin, down her back, and onto his hands when he pulled away from her. “Stay with me, Paige,” he whispered in her ear.
She thought she told him she would never leave him, but she couldn’t be sure her mouth opened. A ringing began in her ears as her heart continued its odd, stuttering beat. Then she felt the warmth of his wrist pressing against her mouth. Something coppery and delicious dripped onto her tongue and slipped down her throat. It took only a second for her to recognize it was his blood filling her. She could feel the strength of his blood stealing in to replace the weakness holding her body immobile.
A slight mewl escaped her, it was the only sound she could make as her heart turned over in her chest and broke free of the arteries connecting it to her body, or at least that’s what it felt like. Then, it just stopped completely. A gasp escaped her, she lost all control of her body as it went completely rigid upon the bed. Cold and immobile, she felt like a cadaver, then she realized with an air of almost detached and insane amusement, that she was. Ian held her against his chest as his blood continued to fill her mouth and trickle down her throat. She couldn’t swallow anymore, she had no control over any of those muscles either.
Has something gone wrong? She wondered frantically as her body remained stiff. Is this what really happened when a person died? Their body went beyond their control, but their mind contained all awareness? It was the most horrific thought she’d ever had, but now that it had taken root, she couldn’t shake it.
Feeling burst back over with an agony so intense there was no way she could think she was dead anymore. She was very much alive and wishing she wasn’t. A scream built within her throat and would have torn free of her, if Ian’s wrist hadn’t still been pressed against her mouth. Hot pokers of fire pressed everywhere over her flesh and dug into her sandpaper raw nerve endings. She bit down so vehemently on his wrist she drew blood from the wound that had already healed. It was her human teeth biting at him, but the fresh wave of warm blood caused a feeding frenzy within her body that reminded her of piranhas churning at the top of the water in search of food.
She clawed at the arm pressed against her, needing more blood and more of him. Her feet kicked against the bed as misery and hunger drove her to the edge of madness. She’d been warned, but she hadn’t expected this animalistic need, this insatiable thirst. She wanted to tear the flesh away from him and drink every drop of sweet blood pulsing through his veins.
The sensation of someone taking a knife to her back and slicing open her spine gripped her. Her back arched off of the bed, and another scream strangled against Ian’s wrist. She tried to cry, but nothing filled her eyes. All she could do was scream, and thrash, and fight against his imprisoning hold.
Ian clung to her as she battered more violently against his hold. Sorrow filled his heart; he pressed his lips against her temple to try and soothe her in some small way. Sweat coated her flushed skin; it stuck her hair to her forehead and cheeks. “It’s almost over,” he whispered fervently in ear. “It’s almost over.”
He hoped those words were true. He knew the transformation didn’t last long, but how long this would continue, he didn’t know. Cradling her against him, he winced as her human teeth tore at the flesh of his wrist. She shredded through his skin and scraped against his bone as she eagerly gulped his blood. He would gladly open every vein in his body in order to ease a fraction of what she was going through.
He gritted his teeth as her fingers tore at his arms, spilling more blood. The mingled scents of sex and blood filling the air would have excited him at any other point, now the only thing he cared about was her. She bit down again, but this time fangs pierced into him.
His eyes flew open, he inhaled sharply as the strangest sensations of relief, possession, and then pleasure slid through him. Her fangs remained imbedded inside of him as she drank from his vein in greedy pulls. Arousal slid through him, his own fangs lengthened and pressed against her neck again, but he didn’t bite down. This was about her and only her. Everything in his life was about her now, he realized. It had been since he’d first met her, and it would be until the day he died.
She was still in pain, but it began to ease as she gulped his blood. Her pain pulled back from his mind, allowing him to slip inside to finally feel the pleasure building within her. Her love for him beat against his mind, it was nearly overwhelming in its intensity and more than matched what he felt for her.
Beneath her love for him, he also felt her terror that something would happen to him because of her, or her father. All of the horror she’d experienced throughout her life slipped past the steel walls she’d built around herself. For the first time he saw her vulnerability, her uncertainty, and the loneliness that had been her constant companion over the last four years.
“You’ll never have to go through anything like that again,” he promised her.
He said the words out loud, but there had been no need for him to. She could sense all of his thoughts, his love for her, his willingness to die in order to keep her alive as the bond between them strengthened and grew. Through the connection between them, he felt her uncertainty easing. Her happiness swelled up to beat against him.
“I love you,” he whispered into her hair.
Her fangs released their hold on him when she’d finally gotten her full. Her dazed eyes rolled up to meet his. “I love you too,” she whispered before her eyes closed, and she passed out against him.
He’d never felt so at peace in his life, yet he couldn’t help but worry about what she would feel upon waking. He’d seen the fire in her eyes when she’d approached Ronan about her father. Finding him wasn’t something she was willing to let go of, not yet anyway. Maybe not ever. The man had to be taken care of, and Ian had every intention of being the one who took the bastard down, but he’d wanted her out of it. He knew now that would be impossible, and she would never forgive him if he tried to keep her from fulfilling her mission.
He had to keep her safe from the man who had created her and from herself. He’d found his salvation in her; he could only hope he’d be enough to help her find hers. Shifting his hold on her, he curled up beside her and drew her against his chest and heart, where she would always belong.
* * *
Ian picked the pad up from the bed; he frowned at the face staring back at him. There was something about it…
His head shot up and turned toward the bathroom door. The beat of the running water drifted to him; he turned his attention back to the drawing in his hand. He couldn’t deny who the man staring back at him was. A pit formed in his stomach as he recognized the face of the vampire he’d fought in the alley. He’d gladly kill this man for what he’d done to Paige, but her life couldn’t revolve around death and revenge.
Ian turned toward the door before Ethan could knock on it. Ethan still had his hand raised in the air when he opened it. Aiden and David stood behind his shoulder. “At least you’re awake today,” Ethan commented.
“I am.”
“How did it go?” Aiden inquired, his eyes flickering behind him.
Ian glanced at the closed bathroom door before stepping outside to join them. He shut the door behind him. “It went well enough, it was…”
“The best and worst experience of your life,” Ethan supplied.
“Exactly,” Ian replied. “I’d take it all away from her if I could, but I wouldn’t change a thing.”
“You’ll never have to go through anything like that again, either of you.”
“Yeah.”
“Things will be easier for you both now,” Ethan said and squeezed his shoulder.
“What is that?” Aiden asked and gestured at his hand.
Ian hadn’t realized he was still holding the pad until Aiden gestured at it. He lifted it up so they could see the drawing. “Paige’s father.”
Ethan folded his arms over his chest. “I can tell.”
“How is Brian going to be able to help locate him?”
“Brian seems to have a way of knowing things,” David replied. “but how he could help with this, I have no idea. I’m beginning to realize there’s a lot we don’t know.”
“You aren’t kidding,” Aiden muttered.
Ian stared at the picture of a man he’d only encountered briefly, but already hated. “What if Brian’s making it up?”
“There’s many things about Brian that annoy me, and there’s been many times I’d like nothing more than to punch him, but he doesn’t make things up,” Ethan replied. “If he says he can help find this man, and Ronan believes him, then there is something there we don’t know about.”
“Have you met Ronan before?” Ian inquired of David. David had spent most of his life with his family, but he’d encountered Stefan and Brian before any of them were born.
“No, I’ve heard of him and his team. They’re ruthless, but they serve a purpose.” David rubbed at the blond stubble lining his chin and cheeks. He appeared older and more tired than Ian had ever seen him, but David had always been easier going in nature, more like himself, and fighting had never been something he’d relished. “They prefer vampires not to know about them, and if they do, they don’t know much. That’s the way they like it.”
“Men In Black, vampire style,” Aiden said. “Sounds kind of interesting.”
“Or like a good way to get killed,” Ethan replied.
Aiden shrugged, but his leaf colored eyes didn’t waver from Ethan’s unrelenting stare. “Do they really rule the vampires?” Aiden inquired.
“After talking with him, I realize there will never be a way to rule us all,” David replied. “There’s no way of knowing when someone is changed, by whom, or when a vampire is born. They do take care of purebreds that get out of control or turned vampires who become completely rogue. Vampires who are tracked because of their antics and draw attention to themselves with their reckless behavior are the ones they hunt. They are the most powerful group amongst us. Our family may be a close second to them with all of the purebreds within it, but we don’t hunt others and gain power from it like they do. How is Paige handling everything?”
Ian couldn’t help but smile as his thoughts turned to Paige and what had passed between them this morning. He could still feel her feeding from him, moving over his body, as the bond connecting them grew ever stronger. Reaching out, he allowed his mind to brush reassuringly over hers. He felt her contentment over their bond when his mind connected with hers.
“Ugh,” Aiden said and stuck his index finger in his mouth. “I’m going to be spending a lot more time with The Stooges.”
“She’s doing well,” Ian replied as if Aiden hadn’t spoken. “She was a little confused and overwhelmed by sights and sounds this morning; she still is, but she’s adapting.”
“It will take time. Emma still breaks things and doesn’t like to be around loud noises. She may be able to help Paige with the transition,” Ethan replied.
“That would be good; I have no idea what she’s going through. The world has always looked, sounded, and tasted the same to me.”
Ethan laughed and leaned against the building. “Where do you think her father is?”
Ian stared around the small town, searching for anything menacing that might be out there; he felt nothing out of the ordinary. “I don’t know. Wherever he is, I plan to find him and take care of him. Otherwise, she’ll never know peace, and I’m going to make sure she has the stability and security she’s never had before.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Paige could barely keep her hands still, and she definitely couldn’t keep her eyes still as they were drawn everywhere at once. There were so many colors in the world; flecks of shades she’d never seen before danced before her eyes like fireflies through the woods. Everywhere she looked amazing new things existed within things she’d seen just yesterday, but had never truly seen, until now. She’d never thought that becoming a vampire would open her world up in this fascinating and overwhelming way.
Of course there were some things she’d prefer not to see or smell so well, like the cook at the diner who apparently had a really bad gas problem and didn’t care about spreading it around to everyone in the restaurant. Before, the scent of the food had covered it up. When she’d walked into the diner before, in order to test herself around humans, she’d been confronted with it first thing. But the bad always came with the good, and there wasn’t anything she would change about what had happened between them.
She could feel the edge of Ian’s conscious brushing against hers, an ever-present, loving source that warmed her soul. She leaned against him, unable to believe how happy becoming the one thing she’d despised the most over the past four years, had made her. No, there wasn’t one thing she would ever change, and she let him know that through the intricate bond joining them. If she’d ever had any doubts about the depth of his love for her, or his ability to remain faithful to her, they had all been officially buried.
Every heartbeat sounded a rhythmic pulse of life within him. She could hear the blood coursing through the veins of ev
eryone within this room, but there was only one whose blood she craved, only one whose heart beat in sync with hers.
She looked up at Ian standing by her side. The cinnamon and copper scent of his blood was still seared into her nostrils; the memory of its warmth filling her mouth caused her heart rate to increase. Like a plant seeking the sun, she turned into him and pressed closer against his side. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to this new world, this new being she’d become, or the man who was now her mate.
Paige’s gaze traveled to Brian when he reappeared in the doorway. He’d walked in five minutes ago, taken her pad, and walked out the door without a word. “Nice drawings,” he told her and handed the pad out to her.
“Thank you.” Even the paper felt different within her grasp. She’d always loved the smell and feel of paper before. It had helped to get her through some of the most difficult times of her childhood, but now it felt as if the paper was somehow alive beneath her fingers. She couldn’t wait to sit down and see what she could create with her enhanced vision and touch. It would have to wait, there was something else to take care of first. “Did it help you?”
Brian nodded. “I know where your father is, if you’d still like to know.”
Yesterday a resounding yes would have leapt out of her mouth. Today, she hesitated. She’d never thought she would, but with Ian standing by her side, and a new life unfolding before her, she found herself torn. Her father was her past; she could walk away from him and start a brand new life, but then she’d also be walking away from all of her father’s future victims.
He may have fled these mountains, but he would always look for an opportunity to get at her. She’d never be able to move on with him always in her shadow.
“I would,” she said, but with a lot less enthusiasm than she would have yesterday. She looked up at Ian again. “I need it to be over.”
He stared at her, his azure eyes troubled, but he nodded before focusing on Brian. “Where is he?” Ian inquired.
The Vampire Awakenings Bundle: Books 1-5 Page 108