“In case there was another fire,” he said when she grew quiet, and her gaze fell to her clenched hands in her lap.
“Yes,” she murmured. “Funny how I never really realized that until now.” Sighing, she lifted her eyes to his again. “The fire escape was in an alley, but I was a fully matured, purebred vampire who had survived living on the streets. I never worried anything could happen to me that I wouldn’t be able to handle myself. I was an idiot.”
“Every other vampire would have felt the same exact way. We take our strength for granted, forget that we can be brought down.”
“I won’t ever forget again.”
“Nothing like that will ever happen to you again,” he vowed.
Mia smiled at him as she eased the painful clenching of her hands. “They were waiting for me in the shadows of the alley. I smelled them before I saw them, but I do remember that before I saw them, I had the thought the dumpsters needed to be picked up soon.”
David’s hands moved back and forth against the wheel. “Who was waiting for you?”
“Four of the vampires who were killed in the warehouse. At first, I was startled to see them coming toward me. It was only nine o’clock, but no one took their trash out at that time of night, and there was never anyone else in the alley. Then the odor coming from them hit me, as did the knowledge they were vampires, and that it wasn’t the trash that reeked so badly.”
Her nose wrinkled as the potent refuse aroma they’d emitted flooded her senses once more. “I didn’t have any experience with pureblood vampires at that time. I didn’t know that only we could detect the killer vampires amongst us by scent, but I knew the odor of those vampires was wrong. I’d encountered more than a few vampires during my time on the streets and during my many moves, but none of them had been pureblood or possessed the rotten odor of a landfill like they did.
“To this day, I have no idea how the four of them knew I was a pureblood vampire and not a turned one, but somehow they did. I’d never told anyone about my birth. It wasn’t something I tried to keep secret, but I’d just never been close enough to anyone else to talk about myself or my family with them.”
Those words briefly pushed aside the fury within him. Not only had she experienced so much adversity in her life, but there had also been so much loneliness. He’d never been alone. From the time he was born, he’d always had someone to love and care for him. He hadn’t even been alone in his turning as Elizabeth had also turned his three best friends, ones he’d had since childhood. But Mia hadn’t had anyone in years.
“You’ll never be alone again.”
Mia’s heart soared at the promise of his words. It was such a wonderful prospect. She hadn’t dreamed about having someone who would care for her again in years. Now she wanted to seize the dream with both hands and hold it close, but she was afraid she would crush it. She didn’t dare hope for too much. She’d been disappointed and hurt too many times in her life to not go into things with one foot already out the door.
“I knew those vampires in the alley were off, and they outnumbered me,” she continued. “I tried to flee, but three of them jumped me from behind. I fought and kicked against them as they dragged me down. They each easily had a hundred pounds on me and subdued me faster than I’d believed possible.
“At the time, I had no real idea how to defend myself against anyone. I’d carried some protection with me when I was living on the street, usually a knife, sometimes a stake. But even if I was smaller, I was stronger and faster than the humans, so a weapon was my second choice in a fight. Once I gave up my nomadic life and hit maturity, I stopped carrying anything on me. I was stupidly confident that I could handle any threat at that point.”
She’d never be that stupid again. Now she could feel the reassuring weight of the stake tucked securely against her right ankle. On her left ankle, the tiny crossbow Aiden had given her before leaving the compound was holstered and loaded in preparation for an attack. Her coat was in the backseat, as she’d taken it off for the drive, but more stakes were tucked inside the inner pockets. She didn’t know if David had always carried weapons on him before the warehouse, although she suspected he hadn’t, but she’d watched him strap some to himself that morning.
“Once they had me pinned me down, the fourth came at me with those chains!” Now it was her turn to shake with rage as memories loomed to engulf her. Those awful chains that had been strong enough to keep a purebred vampire restrained.
“Drake was an extremely powerful pureblooded vamp,” David said.
So powerful that he’d been orchestrating the capture of other purebred vampires and making money by selling their blood off to the highest bidders. Brian and Abby had destroyed him, but Drake had managed to inflict a lot of pain on others before his death.
“He must have seen you,” David continued, “or perhaps one of his lackeys did, and they somehow knew what you were. There are those out there, human and vampire, who have abilities. Drake may have had someone like that working for him.”
“Like Brian’s mysterious ability to find people,” she said.
“Yes, like that.”
“You’re probably right,” she muttered and watched as a Mac truck went barreling by them. The force of its passing shook the car.
“Did they take you straight to the warehouse?” he asked.
Mia’s chest tightened once more. This time, she didn’t do her rhyming game and focus on something else; she focused on the contours of David’s profile. Memorizing the curve of his cheek and the line of his jaw helped to calm her before she lost control and the panic took over.
“No, I was taken to another building first. They kept me there while they allowed others to come and feed on me.” A muscle at the corner of his eye twitched. “They moved me five times before they put me in that warehouse. In the beginning, there were three other purebreds with me, different than the ones you rescued with me. I am the only survivor of the original group I was with.”
David’s head turned slowly toward her. She rested her fingers over his, needing the contact with him.
“I huddled in the corner, watching while they carried the body of one of those purebreds out whenever the blood loss became too much for them to take. Or—” She swallowed as her throat tightened. “—when someone became too greedy and took too much from them. I also think some of them paid for the opportunity to be able to kill one of us.”
“I have no idea how long those purebreds were trapped there before I was brought in. They were too far gone to speak by the time I got there. The more time that passed, the more I wondered if this would be it, if this day would be my last. I knew—” Her voice broke.
She bowed her head as tears burned her eyes, but she refused to shed them. She would not give those pricks the satisfaction of shedding another tear over what they’d done to her. She’d cried enough while in captivity, and then again during the first couple weeks after she’d been rescued.
“I knew one day it would be me too,” she said. “That one day they would be carrying my body out of there. I think they tried to keep most of us alive, since it’s not like purebreds are common, but the cold and the hunger…. I’ve never been so hungry in my life. My veins felt as if they were on fire, even though I couldn’t stop shivering because I was freezing from being so weak.”
Unable to resist, David laid his hand over hers in order to comfort her. When she stiffened beneath him, he pulled away and gripped his hands in his lap. He was afraid that if he grabbed the wheel again he’d rip it from the car.
“The hopelessness also dragged me down, the never-ending fear, and the pain. In the beginning, I was determined to fight back, to get free, to inflict damage. The fight was dragged further and further out of me with every unwilling pull of my blood. The pain of that forcible blood drain didn’t recede with time either. I swear it became more intense with every new bite.
“By the time they put me into that warehouse, I didn’t have much left in me. I was convin
ced it would be the place where I died. Then one day I looked up and all of you were there. At first, I thought you’d come to feed from us too. I thought I was hallucinating, or dead already, when you freed Vicky from the wall and came back for me.”
“I never would have left that warehouse without you,” he grated through his clenched teeth.
“I know,” she said, and she did know.
“I will always be here for you,” he told her honestly.
She hastily wiped away the tear she’d been unable to hold back at his words. Most men would have run as fast as they could from a woman with as much baggage as her, but David made her feel as if he carried that baggage with her.
“You know, I think you might only like me because you don’t have to deal with foreplay,” she teased, hoping to lift the dreary mood she’d brought forth with this topic of conversation.
He blinked at her before laughing loudly. “Oh believe me, I’m going to enjoy touching and tasting every inch of you when I get the chance.”
Mia’s skin flushed at his words. “I look forward to it. Now let’s get out of here.”
He winked at her before taking a deep breath and shifting the car back into Drive. He drove along the breakdown lane before pulling onto the highway once more. Mia rested her head against the window as she watched the scenery pass by. At least six inches of snow coated the area, decorating the homes and farms set off the road. She’d traveled to Maine before, but never in the winter. There was something more serene about the land when the snow was blanketing the earth.
David’s phone rang, and he answered it when Jack’s name popped up on the screen. He hit the speaker button and set the phone into the cup holder. “Hey,” he greeted.
“Issy just kicked me out so she can clean our house,” Jack grumbled. “This woman you’re bringing home better be worth the aggravation of dealing with Hurricane Issy, and the flower scents she leaves behind.”
Mia did a double take at the disgruntled voice coming from the phone.
“Hello to you too, Jack,” David said. “You’re on speakerphone.”
“Oh,” Jack said, his discomfort coming through with that one word. “You could have told me that.”
“You didn’t give me a chance,” David replied. “But then, you’ve always known how to make a lasting impression on women. Unfortunately for you, it’s rarely a good one.”
“Screw you. Issy is doing my laundry,” Jack enunciated the last two words clearly.
“About time someone did.”
“Hey there, David’s lady,” Jack said, apparently deciding to ignore him. “It’s Mia, right?”
Mia blinked as the obviously irritated man became much friendlier sounding when he started speaking to her. David had told her about his childhood friends. He’d cautioned her that Jack could be blunt and a bit cranky, but she didn’t know what to make of this guy who sounded as amused as he did annoyed.
“It is,” she said.
“Nice to meet you. Sorry you’re getting saddled with that asswipe for eternity,” Jack said.
Mia gawked at the phone before she swung her eyes toward David. “How much did you tell him?”
“He didn’t tell me anything,” Jack replied. “Very few of us have ever brought a girl or guy around this bunch. We don’t tend to stick with someone for long enough to introduce them to anyone, so it has to be something serious if David is bringing you here. I can’t recall a single other woman he’s been with who he’s ever wanted me to meet.”
“Shut up, Jack!” David hissed.
To his surprise, Mia started to laugh, and Jack chuckled. “At least she has a sense of humor,” Jack said. “How much longer before you get here?”
“About four hours,” David replied. It may be sooner, as visions of wringing Jack’s neck floated happily through his mind.
“I’ll make sure Issy’s out of the house before then so she doesn’t bother you when you get here.” Before either of them could respond, Jack hung up.
“That was his way of being nice,” David said as the screen on his phone went dark.
“I think being nice might have hurt him. He is amusing.”
“He’s something, but amusing is definitely not it,” David bit out. “He’s an acquired taste.”
“Kind of like wine?”
“More like stinky cheese.”
Mia laughed and turned to focus on the scenery again. Despite the fact she found David’s easy relationship with his friends and Liam’s children delightful, anxiety swirled within her. She was going to a place full of vampires she didn’t know, who were all as thick as thieves. Their bonds with each other were intricate and deep. How would she ever fit in with all of that?
David would be there to help her get through it. She would be fine as long as he was there.
She hoped.
CHAPTER 12
David stopped the car in front of a thick wrought iron gate. The black fence spreading out on either side was twenty feet tall. Not only did it have barbwire going around the top, but it was also electrified. The lens of cameras glistened in the moonlight every ten feet around the fence. In between the cameras were motion detectors rigged to go off for anything weighing more than fifty pounds. With the wildlife around the area, they went off all the time, but he welcomed the heavy security now that Mia was there.
Rolling the window down, he leaned out the door and punched the code into the keypad. The gate didn’t make a sound when it swung open to reveal the dirt drive beyond. Cameras turned in their direction as he drove down the lane. The red maples lining the road were all bare, but in the summer their powerful limbs shaded the drive and created a welcoming canopy.
“We moved here as a precaution against hunters after Ian and Paige met. Even with the vast number of us, we’ve never done anything to draw the attention of the hunters our way, but we figured better safe than sorry. After what happened with you and Vicky, Liam beefed up the security,” he told Mia.
“I’m all for a lot of security,” Mia said.
“So am I.” After half a mile, David pulled the car to a stop in front of the old gray shingled farmhouse he shared with Jack, Mike, and Doug.
When David put the car in Park and shut it off, Mia took a deep breath and opened her door before she turned into a frozen, panicked mess who refused to exit the vehicle. She could only imagine the wonderful impression that would make on everyone if she was still sitting in the car come morning. They were here now; there was no turning back.
One step at a time. And she knew she had to take this step. David would stay away if he believed she couldn’t handle being here, but he’d been doing everything to try to make her happy and put her at ease. It was time she did something for him in return. He wanted her to meet his family, and she would do it.
Mia stepped out of the car and stretched her back while she gazed at the property. Awe trickled through her at the beauty of the acres of open land that ended in thick woods, dense with pines. Across the way, the ocean sparkled with the pinks and yellows of the sun setting behind it.
From where she stood, the ocean appeared to be a good hundred feet down from the cliff at the edge of the property. The wrought iron fence across from her blocked anyone from approaching the edge of the cliff, but there was a gateway there and another keypad both inside the gate and out.
“The section of the fence by the ocean is newer. I’ve never seen it,” David said to her. “We’d planned to keep the waterfront open until recently.”
“It’s still a beautiful view.”
“It is,” David agreed, unable to tear his eyes from her as the setting sun lit her face and eyes.
Mia focused on the main house set in the center of the sprawling property. It was a picturesque farmhouse with a farmer’s porch. Christmas lights draped down from the porch roof and were wrapped around all of the poles. The glow of the Christmas lights could be seen through the growing dusk descending over the day.
“Liam and Sera live there, with their
five youngest children,” David told her when he caught the direction of her gaze.
“It’s so… warm,” she whispered. Her own home had been warm too, with photos of all of them on the walls and her mother’s collection of elephant knickknacks everywhere. Every year they’d strung Christmas lights together, decorated the tree, and hung the stockings on the mantle. She could clearly recall the last Christmas they’d all spent together, a month before her parents had died. She hadn’t celebrated Christmas since.
Laughter trilled from somewhere behind the farmhouse, drawing her attention to a smaller house closer to the cliff. A petite woman with golden brown hair streaked with strands of honey passed in front of a window. Another woman with mocha-colored skin followed behind her, holding up scraps of cloth as she walked.
David stared at Mia as she gazed around the property while one of her hands rubbed at her thigh, over her burn scar. The longing on her face tore at his heart. He opened his mouth to tell her she could have all of this, that they could make a life here, but it was something she would have to learn on her own. And she would, over time.
“That’s Emma and Ethan’s house,” David told her when Ethan walked by the window. “Emma’s friends Mandy and Jill are visiting.”
“Oh,” Mia replied, unsure of how to respond.
“Jill and Mandy are human.”
“Really? And they know about all of you?”
“They do. They come to visit often, but like the training compound, they don’t know how to get here. That’s more for their safety than ours.”
David opened the back door of the car and removed the small suitcase and backpack within. The belongings he’d taken with him before leaving to help the others locate Vicky were inside the backpack. Mia had packed a few of the things she’d been given at the training compound into the suitcase. She could have taken more clothing, but she’d left most of it behind as few things had fit her properly, and she’d refused to let anyone buy her new things.
Fractured (Vampire Awakenings, Book 6) Page 10