But this…This was nice.
Suddenly, she could understand why Garret was so anxious to find and kill the vampire that turned him.
He wasn’t just doing it for himself.
He was doing it for his friends.
At least, he wanted to. But he wouldn’t get the chance because Cruz and Molly were about to beat him to it.
She knew it the moment the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Awareness raced down her spine. Every muscle in her body went tight. The door crashed open behind her.
Viv whirled in time to see Cruz lunging for her, a stake in his hand and murder on his mind.
20
VIV DIDN’T MOVE as the vampire lunged. Instead, she closed her eyes and braced herself for the pain.
But instead of feeling the sharp stab of the stake, she felt Matt Keller’s hand on her arm.
“Run,” he told her as he shoved her out of the way. The stake caught him in the shoulder, and a loud howl filled the room.
His eyes glowed, and he reached for Cruz, his hands going for the vampire’s throat. Before his fingers could make contact, Molly flew into the room.
“No!” Viv cried, but the female vampire had already caught Keller and jerked him backwards. Her fangs sank into his neck.
She lunged to her feet and rushed forward, but Cruz caught her by the hair.
“You’re going to die this time,” he spat as he yanked her around and shoved her back up against the wall.
Her head smashed into the sheetrock. Pain split open her skull, and her gut clenched. Anger rolled through her, along with the need for survival.
Live, the beast chanted. Fight. Destroy.
“Do it,” she ground out. It was too late to save Keller, but it wasn’t too late to save everyone else. “Just go ahead and do it.”
He raised the stake high into the air and she closed her eyes.
“No!” Garret’s voice pushed past the frantic beat of her heart. Her eyes snapped open in time to see him catch the stake mid-air.
Cruz turned on him, his gaze flashing red fury as he lunged at Garret.
Viv moved forward to help, but Molly tackled her. She hit the wall again, and chunks of plaster flew. Blood dripped from the woman’s mouth and streamed down her neck as she gripped Viv by the collar and threw her against the opposite wall.
Her vision blurred from the impact, but a loud wail yanked her back to the present.
Viv scrambled to her feet just as Garret sank the stake into the crazed vampire’s chest.
Cruz stumbled backwards, a surprised look on his face. He teetered and then he collapsed.
“Molly.” The name tumbled from his lips and then his body went deathly still.
“Baby?” Molly crumbled to the floor next to Cruz and touched his face. “Come on. Open your eyes,” she begged. “Don’t do this to me. It’s you and me. Together. Forever. Remember?” She shook her head frantically as she touched his chest. Her hand closed around the stake. “Forever.” She pulled the stake free.
Just when Viv thought she meant to turn it on herself, she whirled. She flew at Viv, but Garret caught her.
He anchored one hand around her waist and reached for the stake with his other. He was an older vampire and, therefore, stronger. She soon went slack in his grasp.
“I’m only going to say this once.” He tossed her to the ground and held up the stake. “You can end up like your friend there, or you can get the hell out. It’s your choice, and you’d better make it fast. Before I change my mind.”
“Kiss my ass.” Molly lunged at him, in full attack mode.
Viv tackled her, sending her sideways. They both crashed into the door. She grabbed Molly’s hair and hung on, fighting to keep her down and away from Garret.
She didn’t have to fight long. One minute she was staring up at Molly, holding her at arm’s length, and the next, the woman went rigid.
Molly gasped, and blood spurted from her mouth as she pitched forward. Viv rolled out from under her, and that’s when she saw the sharp piece of the wooden doorframe that protruded from between her shoulder blades.
Garret stood just inches away, his eyes blazing with a protective light and something else. Something that stalled her heartbeat.
“Are you okay?”
“You saved me,” she said accusingly. “Why?”
Because I love you.
That’s what his gaze said, but she didn’t just want to see it. She needed to hear it.
Before she could open her mouth again, a groan carried from the far corner. She turned just as Matt Keller staggered to his feet. Blood still gushed from his neck, and he looked dangerously pale, but already the wound had started to close.
“Don’t tell me. Werewolves have rejuvenating capabilities.”
“You know it.” He staggered back a few steps and collapsed on the edge of the bed.
“Maybe you should lie down.” Viv reached him in the blink of an eye and urged him back down. She checked the wound, and sure enough, the skin had already started to knit back together. “I know how this goes for vampires. A little sleep, and we’re fine.”
He nodded. “Sleep is good.”
“Do you need anything?”
“Just some peace and quiet.”
Viv nodded and turned to Garret. “We’d better get them out of here.” She motioned to Molly and Cruz. They were still intact, but come sunup, their bodies would start to disintegrate.
Garret nodded, and they spent the next half hour moving the bodies out to his barn. Once they finished, she turned on him.
She’d waited long enough for the truth.
“You never answered my question. Why did you face off with Cruz? You should have been helping him.”
“I won’t let you die.”
“You don’t get to make that decision. My father beat you to it.”
“No, he didn’t.” He shook his head. “He took your humanity, but he didn’t take your soul, Viv. You’re still a good person. You weren’t trying to hurt Cruz and Molly. You helped them. You did what they asked of you.”
“You never asked.”
“I would have. If I had known what you were, I would have. For the chance to be with you again, to touch you, to kiss you, to talk to you, I would have begged.”
“What are you saying?”
“That I love you. I’ve always loved you.”
“Because I was a vampire.”
“I loved you then—I love you now—in spite of the fact that you’re a vampire. And I won’t let you sacrifice yourself. You didn’t set out to hurt anyone. You did what you thought was right.”
“But—”
“There is no but.” Certainty gleamed in his eyes, along with a brilliant light that filled her with a burst of warmth. Because he did love her, and he meant every word he said.
“You gave them all a chance to right their wrongs,” he went on. “A chance to live. To love. If they didn’t want that, if the hunger led them down the wrong path, that’s their problem. You don’t owe anyone.”
But Garret did.
Jake. Dillon. While he hadn’t initially attacked them on purpose, they were his friends. They’d been his friends even though he’d doomed them. They’d stood by him, waiting patiently, searching for the Ancient One.
For Viv.
He wouldn’t give her up.
At the same time, he couldn’t let his friends down. He’d been content as a vampire until he’d gotten to know Jake. Jake had forced him to remember the man he’d once been, to miss his humanity, because Jake missed his.
Garret saw the truth when he looked at Jake and Nikki. They wanted so much to be together. To be normal. And they were depending on Garret to make it happen.
But Garret couldn’t sacrifice the woman he loved—he wouldn’t. Tonight had proved as much. They were bonded now. She was his, now and always, and he would defend her until the last dying beat of his heart.
No, he wouldn’t sacrifice Viv so that his friends could w
alk in the sunlight.
He wouldn’t have to.
He’d been the one to take Jake’s humanity from him, and he could give it back.
“No.” Viv shook her head. “You’re not going to—”
He pressed a fingertip to her lips. “No more talk. I need to be inside of you tonight.”
Their last night.
Because Garret was through living with the guilt and the regret. He owed Jake, and it was time to ante up.
He scooped Viv into his arms and headed for the main house.
21
HE CARRIED HER into the house and down the steps into the basement.
His room. She knew it as she stared at the large area with its open rafters and king-size bed.
He dropped her to her feet, flipped on a light switch and then turned back to her. His gaze burned with an intensity that made her body tremble.
She knew what he was going to do.
Not because she read it in his thoughts. Despite the fact that they were bonded, she still couldn’t see inside his head because he’d put up a mental wall to shut her out.
No, she felt the truth in the urgent way he touched her, kissed her, as if he wanted to brand this moment into his memory.
She forced her mouth from his. “You can’t—” she started, but then he kissed her again, silencing her words.
She slid her arms around him and held him tight, refusing to let go. Not now as he made love to her, and not afterward.
Not ever.
She drew a ragged breath when he tore his mouth from hers to leave a fiery trail down the length of her neck to the hollow between her breasts. Then he released her, his hands going to the buttons of her blouse, his movements urgent as if they had not a moment to spare.
He pushed the edges open and unhooked her bra, baring her aching breasts. Dipping his head, he closed his mouth over one swollen nipple and greedily sucked the sensitive flesh.
She matched his urgency with her own as her hands found the waistband of his jeans. She heard the groan that rumbled from his throat as she trailed her fingers over the bulge of the material. Impatiently she tugged at the zipper and dipped her hands inside.
Hot and hard, his shaft pulsed, swelling even more when she brushed her fingers along its silky length.
He lifted his head and captured her with his heated gaze, stoking the fire already raging inside her. She kissed the pulse at the base of his neck, her hands moving up and down his arousal. She rained kisses over his chest, laving his nipples with her tongue.
His arms wrapped tight around her as he pulled her even closer. “I need to feel your heat around me, your sweet fangs in my neck,” he said, his lips a soft vibration on hers.
Then he kissed her again, plunging his tongue inside to explore and savor. He grazed the very tip of one fang, and she felt the stroke between her legs.
When he moved his mouth to leave a burning path down her neck, she tilted back her head, pleasure rushing to her brain and building the anticipation. His tongue traced the slope of her breast, down around its fullness, and a cry tore from her lips the moment he found her nipple again.
Viv buried her hands in his hair, holding him close, arching her breast into the moistness of his mouth. His fangs were sharp, prickling her soft skin but not biting her. No, he wanted what she’d held back from him the last time.
He sucked, and she felt the waves of heat build inside her, rising higher like molten lava in a volcano, until she felt ready to erupt.
She wouldn’t. Not yet. Not until they were really and truly one.
In one swift motion, he unzipped her jeans and pushed them down, making quick work of his own. Then he locked her in his powerful arms and lifted her.
She clung to him, wrapping her legs around him as he slid her down onto his rigid length, the delicious friction sending jolts of electricity shooting through her body, singeing every nerve until she burned as hot as the man inside her.
She didn’t know when he moved them. She only felt the bed against her back, the pulsing heat between her legs. Lifting her hips, she grasped his muscled buttocks and pulled him closer, deeper, her desire for him overriding all else.
She rose to meet each fierce thrust, taking all that he could give and wanting more.
So much more.
They came together in a frenzied, primitive act. Hunger made them burn, desperation a potent aphrodisiac that heightened their senses and stirred their appetite.
She reached for him, pulling him down as she felt the first waves of pleasure begin. The beast rose inside of her, and she didn’t fight it this time. Need rushed through her, and her entire body went tight. A hiss worked its way up her throat, and she drew back her lips.
His pulse pounded against her tongue, begging her to sink her fangs deep, but she couldn’t bring herself to take his blood. She’d taken far too much from him already.
“You didn’t take.” His voice was gruff against the shell of her ear. “You gave. You wanted me to live and so you gave me back the life that those bandits took from me. You don’t owe me anything, baby. I owe you.” His fingers splayed at the base of her head, and he pulled her closer, pressing her fangs against his neck until they sank deep.
His sweet essence filled her mouth, and a burst of electricity sizzled across her nerve endings.
“Drink,” he urged, and she couldn’t stop herself.
She drew him in, relishing the missile of heat that spread through her body and firebombed between her legs.
She sucked harder, faster, feasting at his neck the way her body feasted on his rock-hard erection.
Arching her body, she pulled him in even deeper. He growled and bucked and spilled himself deep inside.
She held on to him as he gave himself to her. His blood. His body. His soul.
The realization hit her, and she forced her mouth away. She stared up at him and saw the emotion blazing in his eyes.
Even more, she felt it in the way he covered her mouth with his own and kissed her. Slowly. Tenderly.
He loved her.
And she loved him.
And for the next few moments, the world seemed to fall away as she clung to him and he held her tight.
“I’m not letting you go,” she murmured against his neck, her voice thick with conviction.
She’d been powerless to save her mother all those years ago, but she wasn’t powerless now. And she wasn’t going to turn her back and walk away from him again.
She would beg. She would plead. And he would listen. He wouldn’t leave her.
He wouldn’t.
That’s what she told herself. But as the minutes slipped by and dawn approached, she couldn’t shake the sinking feeling that in his head, in his heart, he was already gone.
HE WAS SOUND ASLEEP.
Viv stood next to the bed and stared down at Garret’s muscular body sprawled across the white sheets. He lay on his stomach, his arm still stretched out beside him, covering the indentation her body had made.
He hadn’t budged when she’d slipped from the bed, despite the fact that it was still dark outside and he should be at the peak of his strength right now, particularly since they’d just had sex.
But as much energy as she’d given, she’d taken in return by drinking from him, and so he was wiped out. He needed at least an hour or two of sleep to regain his strength.
Then he would climb from the bed and do the unthinkable.
If she didn’t do something first.
She touched the smooth sinewy skin of one shoulder and pressed a soft kiss against his temple.
And then Viv pulled on her clothes, grabbed her purse and went to save Garret Sawyer from himself.
IT WAS ALMOST FIVE in the morning, and everything in town had long since closed up shop for the night. The streets were dark and shadowed as Viv drove the short distance to Skull Creek Choppers. The small neon sign blazed in the window. Her senses went into overload, buzzing and humming from being so close to the two vampires inside.
She pulled into the back parking lot, killed her engine and climbed from the front seat. The door was locked, and she knocked. Doubt crawled up and down her spine as she waited for someone to answer. She almost called it quits.
Almost.
But she loved Garret too much to let him sacrifice so much for her. She knew he was trying to save her, and she wasn’t going to let him. Not again.
She was through taking from Garret. It was time for her to give back.
The door opened, and she found herself staring at a tall, handsome vampire. He had long dark hair, blue eyes and a puzzled expression.
“Jake McCann?” she asked, and he nodded.
“My name is Viviana Darland. I have something you want, and I need to give it back.” And then she walked into Skull Creek Choppers, spilled her guts about the past and the future and what was going to happen if Jake didn’t pop a stake into her right here and now.
And then she waited for him to take the decision out of Garret’s hands and put them all out of their misery.
22
GARRET PARKED HIS pick-up near the gate of the eastern pasture and climbed out. A quick leap, and he stood on the other side of the fence where he kept the bucking horses. They were spread out. One stood in the far corner chewing on a hay bale. A few others had galloped over the ridge when they’d heard his pick-up. Only Delilah stood nearby, munching on the remains of one of the hay bales he’d dropped off earlier that week.
“Easy, girl. I’m not here to bother you.” Garret held up his hands. “Not this time.”
She danced backwards a few steps and eyed him, her eyes wide, fearful, as if she didn’t trust him.
She didn’t, and she never would, and it didn’t matter anymore. Because Viviana Darland loved him.
The truth sang through his head and relaxed his tight muscles. She’d loved him as a man, and she loved him as a vampire and that emotion filled the emptiness that had haunted him for so long.
He realized now that all of the desperate attempts to reclaim his humanity hadn’t been because he’d missed what he’d once been…but because he’d hated what he’d become. Restless. Lonely. Empty. He hadn’t wanted to be a man again half as much as he’d wanted to feel whole.
Love at First Bite Bundle Page 53