Unmerciful_Forbidden Bonds

by Cat Miller

  “Here you go.” The doctor handed Kayden the syringe. “All you have to do is inject her with this. Just be sure to get her in a meaty spot, like the buttock, thigh, or upper arm.”

  Kayden raised an eyebrow at the doctor.

  “I know. There aren’t any particularly meaty places on that poor girl. She’s practically emaciated. Just do the best you can. If this doesn’t work, I’m going to use the tranquilizer gun. She’s going to be beyond help soon if we don’t get her under control and figure out why her body isn’t healing itself.”

  “It will work,” Kayden said, sounding far less convinced than he was willing to let on. If he had to, he would tackle Lindsay to get the shot in her, but he hoped she would cooperate. It wasn’t likely, given the way she was currently using her fists to pound on the cinderblock wall. As if she could smash her way to freedom. She was doing more damage to herself with every blow. Blood from her hands spattered the wall.

  “We don’t believe it will hurt Lindsay, but I’ve already explained that we’re taking a chance here. We don’t know what drugs we’re mixing it with. We won’t know if there will be an adverse reaction until we try. The risk is that if Lindsay does have a reaction, there won’t be much we can do to help her. We’re between a rock and a hard place. We can let her continue to detox on her own and risk seizures as well as death. She won’t allow us to treat her. Her organs are failing. On the other hand, we could kill her by introducing a new drug.” The doctor was only explaining what Kayden already knew. Doc Stevens hadn’t pulled any punches.

  “Let’s get this over with.” Kayden dropped the syringe into his shirt pocket.

  “Good luck. We’re ready if you can’t get it done.” Dr. Rosen gestured toward the warrior with the rifle. “I need access to her now.”

  Kayden shot the male a death glare. If the warrior shot Lindsay, orders or not, Kayden would shove that gun up his ass. The warrior backed up several steps. Maybe he was a smart male after all.

  Kayden unlocked and pushed open the door to Lindsay’s stripped med bay. Fear was something he wasn’t very familiar with, but he felt it just then. The medication could very well kill Lindsay if she had a reaction. Kayden would live with the knowledge that he had not only let Lindsay down, but the death blow had been delivered by his hand. He hesitated only briefly. It was this or let her continue to suffer. Once inside, he was prepared for whatever Lindsay threw at him. He would take her down quickly but as gently as possible.

  Lindsay spun around with a hiss and crouched, ready to spring on whoever had come for her. Kayden smiled at the bedraggled female. He spoke to her as calmly and normally as he could. She was afraid. Kayden never wanted her to be afraid of him.

  “Hey there, Lindsay, do you remember me?” Kayden asked. Lindsay backed into the corner and watched him warily. She didn’t attack. That was a step in the right direction.

  “K-Kayden,” Lindsay stuttered his name.

  Kayden smiled widely and nodded. That was the first coherent word he’d heard out of her since he returned. She knew him, and she didn’t want to fight with him. He hoped that meant somewhere behind her confused eyes was the girl who trusted him to get her the help she needed.

  “Right, I’m Kayden, your friend. I’m sorry I haven’t been to visit you in a few days. I had … pressing business at home,” he explained. He didn’t want to mention that he’d been hunting for Sheena. It might set her off.

  “Your dad? Is he okay? Security?” she asked brokenly.

  Kayden smiled. Lindsay remembered that his father worked in ‘private security’. She hadn’t forgotten him after all.

  “Dad is just fine. He needed me to work on an important account. I’m very sorry I left you for so long.”

  “More than just friends,” Lindsay said, and she blinked rapidly. Kayden could tell from Lindsay’s briefly far off expression that she was remembering their one night together. “But not friends at all. Not really. You disappeared. Then when I saw you again …” She didn’t need to finish that sentence. They both knew Kayden hadn’t treated her like a friend or a lover after that night.

  A sound in the hall drew their attention. Kayden thought maybe the doctor was tired of waiting and decided to use the gun, but Dr. Rosen still stood outside impatiently waiting.

  “It seems I have a lot to apologize for, Lindsay. I was a jerk.”

  There was more movement in the hall, and Lindsay snarled at the door, “They have needles. I’m sick of needles. I want to leave.” Lindsay’s speech was faltering. Her voice sounded like she’d been screaming for days. She had shrieked every time anyone entered her room, so that wasn’t far from the truth.

  “I know, babe, but you’re really sick. These are the good guys, remember? They’re here to help you get well so you can get out of this place. That’s why you’re here. Remember? You need treatment for your injuries and the doctor wants to help you get that drug out of your system.”

  Lindsay looked skeptical. Kayden glanced over his shoulder. The doctor was watching. She motioned for him to get it over with so they could come in and work on Lindsay. He really didn’t want to rush Lindsay, but being shot with a tranquilizer gun would not help her trust in the medical staff anymore.

  “Why am I still so messed up?” Lindsay asked, and peered down at her bloody hands as if she just realized what she’d been doing to herself. “I’m a vampire, right? I used to heal so fast when they cut me and beat me.”

  Kayden’s blood began to bubble. He was going to skin everyone who’d ever hurt his girl. Was she his girl? He cared for her more deeply than he could explain. What he did know was that she was a very sick female who needed a cure desperately. His personal internal turmoil would have to wait.

  “That’s what Dr. Rosen is trying to figure out now. You promised me you wouldn’t give up. Do you remember that? How are you supposed to heal if you won’t let them treat you? Are you breaking your promise?” Kayden asked, and Lindsay shook her head in response.

  “It’s not me. It’s the vampire. She wants them all to die. She says they’re here to hurt me, Kayden. Then I don’t remember anything. It’s her, not me.” Lindsay shuddered through the explanation.

  Kayden would have to address Lindsay’s mental state with the doctor. She was blacking out when she became violent and was hearing voices. Was that a normal part of detoxification? Kayden didn’t know.

  “Lindsay, please let them help you. Do you trust me? Tell me you trust me. I would never let anyone hurt you, you know that, right?” How Lindsay was supposed to know that when they barely even knew each other, Kayden had no idea, but he meant every word. Lindsay had become more than just another victim he’d helped rescue. She’d become a priority to Kayden. For the last three years, his only priority had been his career and then the Horde. Now Lindsay was on the very short list of people Kayden considered to be his. There was his parents, a handful of close friends, and now her.

  Lindsay got to her feet, and Kayden prepared himself for an attack. He palmed the needle. He was ready for her to lunge. When Lindsay came at him, it wasn’t with fear or the intent to cause harm as he’d feared she might. She walked to him slowly. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she pressed her face into his chest and sighed. Kayden hugged her in return, shocked that Lindsay had come to him so quickly. He was surprised that she was allowing him to comfort her when she tried to maim anyone else who got too close. He rocked her slightly as he had when he’d held her in that cell. Then, before she had a chance to drift back into a state of delirium and put up a fight, Kayden tightened his hold on Lindsay with one arm and jabbed the needle into her thigh with the other.

  Lindsay’s eyes flew to his and blinked rapidly, stunned. The sting of the needle drew a startled breath from her lips before tears and betrayal filled her dark eyes. She was already going limp in his arms.

  “Kayden?” Lindsay murmured, and her eyes asked the question. Why had he betrayed her?

  “I’m sorry, babe. They need you to sleep for a whi
le so they can make you better,” he tried to explain.

  Her lower lip trembled. Kayden lifted her body higher as she began to succumb to the drug. Her head lolled, and tears rolled down her face. Kayden kissed that quivering lower lip and apologized again.

  “You’re very sick, and things are going to get worse before they get better. It’s better for you to rest during the bad part so they can treat you as needed. Look at the damage you’ve already done to yourself.” Kayden looked down at the thin, bloody hands resting on his chest. “Do you understand?”

  Lindsay’s eyes moved briefly to her hands before returning to his, but she didn’t reply. She just blinked up at him with hurt written all over her face.

  “Lindsay, babe, I need you to get better. Don’t you want your life back?” Again, Lindsay said nothing. Maybe she couldn’t speak, Kayden didn’t know. “I’m truly sorry if I upset you but saving your life is my priority right now. We’re all here to help you. I need you to believe that.” He pleaded for understanding. Either way, Kayden couldn’t regret doing what he had to for Lindsay’s sake.

  He felt like he’d just been disloyal, but he had no other choice. She would understand, once she was in her right mind again. He hoped she would, anyway. He was scanning her face for signs of an allergic reaction, but he didn’t know what he was looking for. There was no swelling that he could see. When her accusing eyes finally shut and she was completely asleep, Kayden continued clutching her frail body to his chest.

  “I’m so sorry, Lindsay.” He kissed her temple and breathed in her scent. She smelled like chemicals. Kayden wondered what her natural scent would be when she was finally healthy. He looked forward to finding out what she would taste like once her system was clean as well. Now that she was a vampire, Lindsay would smell and taste different than she had as a human. Kayden closed his eyes tightly with shame. Damn, he was screwed up. Lindsay was in the fight of her life, and he was thinking of all the ways he could sample her flavor again when she was better. What kind of asshole had he become?

  The door flew open, and Dr. Rosen along with several other medical personnel rushed into the room. They dragged a gurney into the room along with all of the machinery needed. Lindsay was pulled from Kayden’s arms and placed on the stretcher. The flurry of activity that followed would hopefully save Lindsay’s life.

  “Is she okay?” Kayden asked.

  “She doesn’t appear to be having a reaction. You did a good job, Kayden.” Dr. Rosen briefly cast her gaze over her shoulder. “This was much better for her than being shot with a dart gun.”

  Kayden wasn’t so sure. The look of hurt in Lindsay’s eyes wasn’t something he was ever going to forget.

  “She told me she believes there’s a monster inside of her that takes over. She doesn’t remember everything she’s doing when she acts out.” Kayden attempted to explain what Lindsay told him. “She said she hears a voice telling her everyone is trying to hurt her.”

  Kayden knew how bad that sounded. He couldn’t imagine what the doctor thought of it.

  “Once we get her stable and out of danger, I’ll get a psych consult. For now, we need to keep her organs going and her heart pumping.” Dr. Rosen went back to work examining Lindsay.

  He backed out of the room unsure of what to do now. He had to get going. The Horde was waiting for him, but he didn’t want to leave Lindsay.

  Fuck! He was losing his shit over this broken female who might not even survive!

  Squaring his shoulders, he reeled his shit in. He wouldn’t do Lindsay any good standing around waiting for her to wake up again. Who knew when that would be? Doc said they needed to keep Lindsay under for the worst of the detox. No, Kayden wouldn’t just stand around being worthless in the infirmary. He had a job to do. He was going to find the bitch that’d done this to Lindsay. He was going to hunt Sheena down and bring her head back to Lindsay on a silver platter.

  Four

  Griffin entered the council hall through a side door to avoid being seen by his counterparts on the council before he was ready. He was running late because he couldn’t find Sarah. She’d gone missing just before they were to leave the house for this council session and her presence was required. Griffin also needed to be in attendance, as he was a councilman, but his opinion wouldn’t be taken into consideration in Sarah’s case because of his close connection to the issue up for deliberation, but he had no doubt of the outcome. He had already testified in private. One of the perks of being among the elite council members was that if their testimony was needed in a personal matter, as long as they weren’t the accused, they could give their statement to the council in chambers instead of in the public hall.

  Griffin and Sarah were estranged, but she was still living in their family home. She wasn’t there because she wanted to be near Griffin. Nor did he wish to abide her presence. Griffin would love nothing better than for Sarah to be gone from his home and his life forever. Sarah didn’t want to reconcile either. It was Griffin’s refusal to let Sarah take their son with her when she left that kept her waiting in the wings … literally. She’d taken over a wing of the mansion and refused to budge.

  Sarah was trying to find a way around their society’s patriarchal laws. Griffin agreed that many outdated statutes needed to be changed, but he was currently grateful for the law that stated the father of a minor child had the right to make all decisions for the child, including where they resided. It was wrong, and Griffin knew it, but his son’s welfare was at risk so he would stand on the tradition for now.

  The blood bond between Griffin and Sarah was now so weak that he couldn’t mentally zero in on her when she disappeared, hence his current hunt for the female in question. There wasn’t a substantial enough thread of the blood bond they’d created left to connect them any longer. It was unheard of for a vampire blood bond to dissolve. It was also unheard of for a vampire to have two mates at once, but Griffin had, and it had been a nightmare for all involved.

  After over twenty-one years in a civil but loveless union with Sarah that not even the exchanging of blood could strengthen, Griffin found the mate he’d loved deeply and believed had died along with their newborn daughter. Tessa was human. So Griffin had kept their love a secret for her safety. That’s what he’d told himself at the time. And there was plenty of danger, that was true, but in the last few years, Griffin had forced himself to face the truth. He’d kept Tessa a secret to protect himself and his standing among his peers and in his house.

  Their bond had been odd and tentative, ebbing and flowing at times, but their love had been one for the ages. Griffin and Tessa hadn’t needed the blood bond to tie them together. Vampires and humans didn’t mix. Griffin took a risk in his attempt to bond himself to Tessa because it might have been one-sided due to her humanity. He couldn’t be sure it would work at all. He’d loved her so much that a blood bond wouldn’t change anything, other than her lifespan. Even that wasn’t enough to extend Tessa’s life to that of a vampire. For that, Griffin would have to change Tessa, a move that required council approval. Griffin had been willing to break the law of his people to change Tessa in secret, but they never made it that far.

  There was no record of a bond between the two races, but vampires had shared their blood with humans to extend their lives somewhat. If they wanted to stay together, a human would need to be changed and brought under the laws of the vampire’s ruling council. If not, the human’s memory would need to be wiped out. It was in the best interest of the entire Vampire Nation that humans remain ignorant of the existence of their vampire cousins.

  Only a few DNA markers separated the two species, but humans greatly outnumbered vampires, and humans always destroyed anything they feared. At the time, the only records Griffin could find of human pregnancy with a vampire child ended in the human mother dead either during pregnancy or in childbirth. There was no history on record of a vampire carrying a half-human child, probably because vampires thought themselves vastly superior to humans. Tessa had wanted
a child before she went through the dangerous and frequently deadly process of being changed from human to vampire. Once a human was changed they could no longer breed children. Unable to deny his beautiful mate the joy of being a mother, Griffin had complied, and they’d conceived Danielle. Griffin and Tessa had hoped if he fed her his blood frequently throughout her pregnancy he could keep her and the baby alive and well. It was an error in judgment that hadn’t ended well.

  Griffin was crushed when he lost Tessa and their baby. The day their daughter was born his parents were made aware of his secret mate by a disloyal midwife who went to his parents demanding money to keep quiet about Griffin’s dirty little human secret. Griffin had paid the midwife well to do her job and forget what she’d seen, but the midwife had been greedy. Tessa’s life was in danger. Griffin knew his parents would do whatever they felt necessary to protect their house. They would dispose of any threats quickly and quietly. He was forced to leave Tessa and the baby while he dealt with his parents and arranged to have Tessa and the baby moved, just in case the midwife had given up the location of Griffin’s secret condo where Tessa lived. That was the last time Griffin saw Tessa and the baby.

  Tessa’s human body had hemorrhaged after a difficult pregnancy and labor with a vampire baby. Griffin hadn’t been there to get Tessa medical care. He’d left her alone, so she did the only thing she could do. Tessa went to the human hospital, where she died. The baby died a short time later of malnutrition. The humans fed her formula. They had no idea the newborn needed more than milk alone could provide. A vampire’s breast milk contained hemoglobin that sustained their children until they were old enough for other alternatives. So the baby, lacking the nutrients needed for survival, didn’t last long.

  Grief-stricken, Griffin had moved on quickly when he learned of their deaths. He tried to end the pain of his loss by taking on a new blood bond, just as many vampires before him had done. When a vampire lost their mate, they usually either died of a broken heart when they gave up on life, or bonded again to another vampire, so they had a reason to live on. Griffin wanted to end his life as well. He couldn’t imagine living in a world without Tessa in it, but his duty to his parents and the Vampire Nation wouldn’t allow him to rest in peace. Griffin accepted the mate his parents selected for him when he had been just a child, but it didn’t work out the way he’d expected it to. He suffered on and his new mate, Sarah, suffered with him. The pain of losing Tessa and the baby was dulled somewhat, but it never went away. Griffin thought it was his punishment for not being the best mate possible to Tessa. Sarah was an innocent bystander, so he tried to give her everything she could ever want or need since he couldn’t give her his heart, but it was never enough.