by Ashley Ladd
“How sweet,” Anika crooned in her sickeningly saccharine voice. “The mortal is concerned about you with her dying breath. It’s so touching, I think I’ll cry.”
“We love each other, something you can’t possibly understand. Your heart’s been dust for centuries.” He hoped it hadn’t disintegrated to pure ashes, as his stake wouldn’t work.
Anika spread her palm over her heart. “I have more heart than you ever did, Delaney. I’ve loved you since I saw you and you dared throw it back in my face. If I can’t have you, no one will!”
“Thank you,” he mumbled, then impaled the stake in the serpent’s heart with all his power.
“How could you?” Anika asked in panting gasps, as her decaying body transformed to its womanly image. She reached out to him pitifully, her hand shaking, her flesh crumbling. As she disintegrated to dust, her haunting words reverberated on the wind. “I loved you.”
Mesmerized, Luke stared in horror at the mound of ash by his feet. “No one needs that kind of evil, obsessive love.” It destroyed everything in its path. Love was about building joy and trust. But who could argue with a deranged mind?
“Luke…” Chloe’s voice was but a raw whisper, snapping him back to reality. “Perhaps it won’t have the same impact now, but…I love you.”
Luke crossed to his love in three long strides and pulled the nails from her hands as gently as he could, then lifted her down from the cross reverently. Cradling her in his arms, barely able to breathe, he gazed deeply into her pain-stricken eyes. “Don’t die on me, Chloe. Give me a chance to show you how much I love and cherish you.”
“You were willing to give your life for me…”
“Like I’ve been telling you, darlin’. My life’s been barren without you. You’re my world.” He stroked the damp tendrils off her face. “I’m going to take you to a doctor. You’ll be fine.”
Chloe clutched at his hand and squeezed weakly. “No…point. I can feel death coming for me. We wouldn’t make it…in time.”
“No!” Luke flung his head back and howled with rage. “We will be there in the blink of an eye, swifter than the wind.”
“Kiss me, one last time…”
“Last time…” Her meaning wrenched at his heart. She couldn’t leave him, not now. He couldn’t lose her. “Listen to me!” he said with vehemence, hugging her fiercely. “I’m not going to let you die.”
Her lids fluttered, the brush of her lashes very dark against her ghostly white cheeks. Her body went limp in his arms, and a sad smile curved her lips.
“I don’t think even you can prevent it. I’m injured too badly. I’m a doctor. I know.”
Furious at Anika, furious with God, he roared his rage. “Take me, God. I’ll go in her place. She did nothing to deserve this.”
Chloe’s fingers brushed Luke’s hand. “Be…happy.”
How could he be happy without her? Impossible! He made his decision. If he weren’t eternally damned already, he would be now.
“I won’t let you die.” Leaning over her, he sank his fangs into her breast and drank deeply. Then he sliced his chest, drawing blood, and put his nipple to her mouth. Forgive me, God. “Forgive me, darlin’. You’re going to live forever.” She was barely conscious so he held her head to his chest, making sure her lips tasted of his blood. “Drink up.” He wanted to be sure she was reawakened and didn’t expire. Anika had drained her of so much blood she couldn’t possibly live any other way. He hoped Chloe wouldn’t hate him forever for jeopardizing her immortal soul. God help him, but he couldn’t lose her. Not even to a higher supreme power.
Slowly but surely, color returned to Chloe’s face and strength to her body. Her eyes opened, still cloudy, but trying to focus on him. “Wh-what happened?”
“You’ve been reborn.” Luke cleansed the blood from her hands and face that Anika’s wrath had wrought.
Chloe gasped, stared at the bite marks on Luke’s breasts in quivery disbelief and then her own. Then, in a horrific wonder, she lifted her hands to inspect the light shining through her gaping wounds. “It wasn’t a dream, was it?”
“No, darlin’. Every bit was real.”
He said it as if it was completely natural to die and reawaken as a vampire. Perhaps he was used to it, but it was quite upsetting to her.
Mind-boggling, in fact. She couldn’t quite wrap her mind around it. Strange phenomena seemed to occur whenever Luke was around. The smell of blood nearly overwhelmed her and she swooned, suddenly ravenous. Stranger still, she could hear the rush of blood pumping through their veins, like an Amazon waterfall.
Oh, God. What was she going to do now? What would she tell her patients? Her nurse? Sorry, Shawanda, but I’m closing the practice because I’m afraid I might attack a patient and drink his blood in a fit of hunger. Oy! Shawanda was going to throw the biggest tizzy of her life.
Another stray thought attacked. Feeling stronger by the second, she jerked away from Luke and stood. Glancing down at her naked battered body with disgust, she snarled at her nakedness. Hands spread wide, she whirled around and asked sarcastically, “I guess my life will be one big party like this from now on?”
Luke lumbered to his feet and watched her with narrowed eyes. “It was the only way to save you.”
“Save me?” Her gums tingled ominously and then fangs burst forth from her mouth. “Thish ish a funny way to shave me.” Ai yi yi! How did Luke make any sense with these bug-suckers in his mouth? Furious, she crossed her arms over her bare breasts.
Luke’s lips quirked, irritating her further. “You were dying.”
Were dying… And now intoxicating power flowed through her. She held her injured hands up to the light for inspection only they had healed as if by magic. Turning them around for a closer look, glancing down at her legs, she was in awe. “I don’th understandth. I hadth gaping woundths in my handths and feeth. Shlashes acrosh my breasths. They’re all healed.”
Luke took her hands in his and caressed them. “Vampires have superhuman strength. We heal immediately. You’ll never fall ill again.”
“Sho now I’m undead. And I have no shoul.” Eternal health in exchange for her soul. No contest. She mourned her soul.
Opening her arms wide, she thrust out her breasts. Then realizing what she was doing, she quickly covered them from his ravenous gaze. “I shupposh you don’t keep shpare clothes in the manor?”
“Anika’s wardrobe is upstairs. You could borrow something of hers.”
Mortified, she refused to wear that snake’s clothing. She thrust out her chin. “I’ll borrow one of your shirts.”
Luke’s lips curled into a smile. “Like old times…”
She twisted her lips in disdain, her fangs starting to feel more normal. “Not even close.”
Seething, hiding her nakedness as best she could with her arms, she treated him to her loftiest glare. “Lead the way.” As soon as she could, she’d run by her office and get her own clothing.
She wondered… Could she just come and go as she pleased? Could she just pretend nothing had happened and mingle with the mortals undetected? Perhaps her life wouldn’t be interrupted after all.
Her life. Now that was a laugh.
“No, you can’t,” Luke’s voice popped into her head.
She wasn’t sure if he had spoken aloud or if she’d read his mind. It was all very disconcerting and she stared at his lips. “Say something,” she commanded, her gaze pinned to his lips.
“You can’t hang around here like that. Come on.” He held out a gentlemanly hand to her, his brow quirked.
“Now think something but don’t say it.”
Before I fuck your brains out. His lips didn’t move but his voice rang clear and loud in her mind.
Shocked, she blinked. Maybe she just imagined that’s what he’d say. Bracing herself and swallowing her trepidation, she tilted her head at him. “Now say aloud what you just thought.”
A passionate gleam sparkled in Luke’s eyes and he swaggered toward her
. He stopped directly in front of her and removed her arms from in front of her, letting his smoldering gaze drink in her nakedness. “I think you heard me loud and clear, darlin’. I said you’d better hurry and get dressed before I can’t restrain myself a moment longer and fuck your brains out. I’m only a man. You can’t tease me so unmercifully and get away with it.”
Like it was her fault that her clothes were in tatters? That she had died? Did he have no reverence for the dead?
“Undead, and you’re healthier and stronger now than you ever were in your former life, so no, I don’t feel sorry for you in the least.” He closed the gap between them and grazed her nipple with the back of his hand. “You’ll have enough stamina to fuck me all night long.”
Her pussy tingled from his suggestion, but fury at his disdain over her death quickly doused her fire. “I don’t have any desire to talk to you much less make love to you.” Not that he’d called it “love”. He’d used a much raunchier, sexually raw term—fuck. Was that all they had? Raw animal magnetism? Maybe she was in heat and didn’t know it.
Luke tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, clucking his tongue. “Never doubt that I love you with all my heart.”
“I’m not sure you even have a heart.” Or that rigor mortis hadn’t set in upon his death. The only thing she was sure of was that he had an overblown case of lust. Obviously testosterone overrode death.
“Come on, you have to talk to me.”
“Why?” She didn’t have to do a damned thing. She brushed past him angrily. If he weren’t gentleman enough to escort her, she would explore the manor for herself. She was tired of being baited.
“Because you don’t know the first thing about being a vampire. You haven’t met the family. And because you love me.”
Refusing to give him the satisfaction of turning around, she picked up her pace. Well, he had two out of three right. As far as love, she wasn’t sure if her heart functioned anymore.
White-hot anger boiled deep inside her core. Still, she could meet the “family” on her own, and she was sure one of them would guide her in the ways of being a vampire. If not, there was always the Internet.
Luke’s footsteps rang loudly as he caught up to her. “Internet? Only you would come up with that.”
What? Hadn’t vampires moved into the modern age? They weren’t computer lit? Pity.
Oh well, she’d break new ground.
Maybe she’d be the one to bring vampires into the twenty-first century. “Should I fake my death, now? Have a funeral?” She couldn’t see any way around it if she wanted to give her loved ones closure. If she didn’t want to be added to a permanent missing persons file. Not that she wanted anyone to grieve. Unfortunately, short of confessing she was a vampire, she saw no other choice. As a physician, she had always believed temporal death to be inevitable.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Luke grasped her elbow and guided her upstairs. “I will instruct you in the ways. I am your maker.”
Now he had a god complex.
“I heard that.” Luke’s forehead creased and his lips twisted ironically.
She yanked her arm away from him, her flesh instantly chilled. “Well, you do.”
“Not even close, darlin’. If anything, I’m a demon.”
She hoped he didn’t expect her to refute him or he’d be waiting a long time. “Is there an instruction manual? A bible of some kind to guide me in the ways of being a vampire? Or can I opt not to be a vampire?”
Luke scowled darkly. “You are what you are. You will have the undeniable bloodlust like the rest of us, and you won’t be able to resist.”
Stupendous! Did that mean if she put a stake through her own heart, she’d save her immortal soul? But then it was an unforgivable sin to commit suicide, so that would damn her to hell and she’d be in no better position. However, at this point, she had no soul and she was already damned. The entire situation was a confusing mess.
“I’ve been struggling with it for years and God hasn’t answered me yet.” Luke led her into an opulent room rich with velvet and brocade coverings. Candelabras decorated every nook and cranny. Their scent permeated the stifling air.
Had the witch never heard of electricity? Or had she been an eccentric? She had certainly been the oddest woman Chloe had ever met.
Luke crossed to the closet and opened the louvered doors to reveal a wide array of peculiar dresses, none of which appealed. Still, they would provide modest covering, so she donned the least offensive.
Time to go home. She wondered how to transform into a flying creature to make short of her journey. Her stomach roiling, she turned to Luke. “How do I shape shift into an owl?”
Luke lowered himself to the bed and leaned back on his elbows, regarding her with an irritating, inquisitive look. “Are you planning to fly away already? It takes a bit of practice before you can fly into the sunset.”
“I need to go home and get my things.” Perhaps let her family arrange a funeral for her. She wondered how many people would attend? How many people would care?
“That’s a piss-poor idea.” He leaned back and crossed his ankles nonchalantly.
On the defensive now, she bristled. Biting back tears at the painful memories, she glared at him. “We gave you a beautiful funeral. Don’t I deserve the same?” She shook herself, hardly believing this impossibly idiotic conversation. While she was at it, why not plan her own memorial service? At least it would follow her wishes. Nothing too elaborate or ostentatious. Instead of flowers, she wanted memorial gifts to go to her favorite charity.
Luke shook his head, the corners of his lips quirking. “A charitable vampire. Now I’ve seen it all.”
She wanted to throw a candelabrum at him and she had deadly aim. Her muscles bunched, anticipating the powerful lunge. Then the air deflated from her lungs when she realized it wouldn’t hurt him. It would only give him a good laugh at her expense.
“If you support a charity, make it the blood bank.”
Now he wanted to be a stand-up comic. Save her!
Not in any mood for lame jokes, she groaned aloud. She couldn’t take an eternity of this.
Luke bolted to his feet and towered over her, his eyes smoldering. “Make no mistake, darlin’. You and I are destined to spend eternity together.”
She faced off against him. “Destiny had nothing to do with it. You manipulated destiny.”
“Does that mean you don’t want to spend eternity with me? That you aren’t still grateful that I risked my neck for you?”
Intense emotion roiled in her gut. True, he had risked his existence…
Luke clasped her hand in his, linking his fingers around hers. “It’s time for you to meet Genevieve.”
“Genevieve?” Just who was she? Twinges of jealousy needled her.
She blinked and shook herself. Jealous? Of course, she wasn’t jealous!
“Genevieve’s our queen. We pledge our allegiance to her and in turn, she keeps our family strong.”
“There’s more than one family?” As in enemies? Other vampires?
“Yes. As well as werewolves, werecats, and human slayers.”
Holy… She’d landed in the middle of an underworld war. Was there anyone who wasn’t their sworn enemies? How much worse could this get?
Luke barred her way at the door. “You must show deference to Genevieve. Follow my lead. She will not be pleased about Anika’s demise.”
Would the queen blame her? She nodded, wondering how to escape this new world.
“This is your world now. There’s no escape.”
“So I’m a prisoner?”
“I wouldn’t look at it like that. This is a new reality. You’re part of the family…”
Wonderful!
“Family.” That would make Anika her sister.
“You’d be well advised to mask thoughts of that nature. They will not be well received.”
Ah. Now Luke the cop was back. “How do I do that? I have no practice.”
&n
bsp; “Focus on me.” She tried to bite back a snort. Like that would help her case. Thoughts of him turned to fire and brimstone and would be more likely to get her beheaded than knighted. She’d have to focus on something more mundane. “Right.”
Feeling as if she was stepping through a portal to the past, she followed Luke down a corridor. Tapestries and ornately framed portraits lined the sedately paneled walls. Oriental carpets covered the floors. Stiff horsehair furniture occupied the great room. Was this a museum or a home?
“Lukas, please introduce me to your lifemate,” a silky feminine voice said from behind her, making her jump.
“I’m not his mate,” she couldn’t help but blurt out, annoyed with him and his blithe assertion that she belonged to him like some kind of chattel. Didn’t she have a say in her future?
Luke glared at her before turning and bowing deferentially to the queen. Taking her hand, he led her to the exotic dark-haired beauty gowned in flowing midnight black robes. “My queen, I’m pleased to introduce you to Chloe Leitman.”
Genevieve held out her slender, fine-boned hand regally. “I’m pleased that Lukas decided to bring you into the family.”
Chloe struggled to control her thoughts that a lifetime ago she had longed to be Luke’s “lifemate”.
When she slid him a sidelong glance, Luke cleared his throat lowly, and motioned for her to kiss the top of Genevieve’s hand.
Choking down the bile rising in her throat, she did as bid. Better to go with the flow until she knew the landscape. “I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, Your Majesty” Everything felt so surreal, so Twilight Zonish, she kept wondering when she would awaken from this prolonged nightmare.
“Genevieve will do, child.”
Child? Genevieve didn’t look a day older than herself. In fact, she looked to be a few years younger than Chloe’s thirty-four.