Blood Veil

by Megan Erickson

  I was fine with staring; the other two were not my top choices for my future. I glanced at the knife lying on the table behind him, but when I met his gaze again, I realized that had been futile.

  “You will not reach that before me, understand? Don’t try.”

  I swallowed, and nodded. His words were not a threat, but a promise.

  “So, you’re Celia.” He leaned forward and clasped his hands between his knees.

  I nodded, my head bobbing on my neck like a chicken. Please don’t hurt me. Please don’t hurt me, I chanted in my head.

  “When’s the last time you talked to your father?”

  I jerked my head back. What the hell? He kidnapped me to talk about my father? “I don’t understand what’s going on.” My voice was on the verge of a breakdown, high and shaking. I wasn’t sure how long I could keep it together. I just wanted to go home. “Look, I think you have the wrong woman. I’m just an emergency room nurse. Please let me go home.”

  His gaze flickered a moment before a muscle in his temple pulsed. “When did you talk to your father last?”

  This was hopeless. “I have no idea who my father is.” My voice cracked, and I felt the beginning of hot tears forming in my eyes. “I grew up in foster care.”

  “Foster care?” His head tilted.

  “Yeah.”

  “What is foster care?”

  Was he serious? I stared at him, but he didn’t elaborate, so I went ahead and explained. “The state assigns us guardians until we’re eighteen. I’d been in foster care since I was born. Left at the hospital by…my parents, I guess.”

  His eyes narrowed, and heat rose in his cheeks before he snarled. “Let’s get one thing straight. You will not lie to me.”

  The force of his anger hit me like a slap. The tears were falling from my eyes now, wetting the blanket in my lap. “You think I’m lying? Why would I lie to you about that? I don’t even know who you are, or what’s going on!” My terror was switching to anger now. Anger at almost dying last night. Anger about being locked in this room. Anger at my whole damn life because what had I ever done to deserve this? I surged forward, intent on clawing his damn eyes out, but before I could even raise my arms, he had me pinned to the bed, his weight settling over me like a damn elephant.

  I arched my back and screeched. Screams ripped up my throat, noises I never made, because keeping quiet was how I lived my life. I kicked my legs until he pinned them down, too, and I raged until I was panting, sweating, and out of breath.

  I went slack in his arms, my hair in my eyes, my chest heaving against his. He didn’t even have to use his knife to calm me down. I was barely a fly to him.

  I closed my eyes as the coarse hair of his beard rasped along my cheek. His body was heavy and hot, and I cursed myself for getting in this position with this…fanged human on top of me.

  I cracked my eyes open to find him brushing the hair from my face and staring down at me. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said.

  “Is this where you tell me not to fight, not to do something that will make you hurt me?” I’d heard that on crime shows, too. Sometimes attackers would try to justify their crimes by blaming the victim for struggling or trying to escape.

  His brows turned in for a brief moment. “No. I’m stating I don’t want to hurt you. Am I hurting you now?”

  “It’s…a bit hard to breathe.”

  “I’ll get up, and I want you to stay on the bed. Understand?”

  Why did I have to stay on the bed? “Are you worried I’ll try to get the knife and hurt you?”

  “More worried you’ll hurt yourself,” he muttered before moving off me.

  I was once again struck by his size. His thighs severely tested the seams of those jeans. He sat in the chair again and I sat up, crossing my legs in front of me, and draping the blanket over my shoulders.

  “I can get you more clothes,” he said.

  More clothes meant…“How long will I be here that I need more clothes?”

  He didn’t answer that question. “I’m Idris.”

  Idris. A name, well that was a start. “Okay.” I bit my lip and his nostrils flared. He looked away, but not before I caught another glimpse of his fangs. Something in me found the sight of them familiar, and I couldn’t figure out why. Had I dreamed of fangs? “What are you?”

  He looked back at me sharply. “What do you think I am?”

  The word on the tip of my tongue sounded crazy. Absolutely crazy. But I wasn’t sure it was any more crazy than what had happened in my room last night.

  “I think you’re something I’ve only seen in movies.”

  He eyed me, all suspicion, and I wanted to know what the hell I’d done to warrant that. “Go ahead and say the word,” he challenged.

  I couldn’t. I couldn’t get the word out. Like maybe if I didn’t say it, it wasn’t true. “Do you drink blood?” I asked.

  He nodded.

  “Are you allergic to the sun?”

  He flinched, and then nodded.

  I instinctively brought my hand up to my throat. “I think you’re a”—I swallowed, my throat constricting —“a vampire.” The last word was a whisper.

  He curled back his lips, and his fangs elongated even more. “You’d be right,” he said.

  My heart beat against my rib cage, banging to get out. So either what he said was true, or I was stuck down here with a complete loon. But I didn’t believe the latter. My gut was telling me this was true, because now that I got a good look at him, he didn’t look human. His eyes, while dark, glowed unnaturally. His jaw was larger, and his sheer size spoke of something that was altogether paranormal.

  My vision blurred, and my head swam as my breath came in short, fast bursts. I was going to have a panic attack. Right here, in front of this—vampire man—my body was going to attack itself. Wow, I was amazing at self-defense.

  I clutched the sheet, blinking rapidly as I tried to talk, but my throat closed up. I gasped for breath, and then went into a secondary panic about not being able to breathe. What weird irony was it that this vampire probably brought me down here to feed from me, and I was going to croak before he could? Maybe my blood would still be warm for him after my heart gave out.

  Chapter 3

  Idris

  Something was happening to her. She was gasping for breath and clutching her chest, big eyes round in her pale face.

  Helplessness swamped me. Was she sick? Did she need human medication? Her arms were flailing, and she looked so small and alone on the bed. I reached for her, and she batted my hands away halfheartedly, so I ignored her. I gathered her in my arms and released just enough somnus from my wrist to make her calm but not enough to make her pass out like last night.

  She inhaled and coughed, and while her chest still heaved against mine, she was breathing deeper now, and color was returning to her cheeks. I gathered her hair in my fist and tugged on it so I could look her in the eyes.

  Her pupils were slightly dilated, thinning her hazel irises.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Panic attack,” she whispered. “I-I think I’m okay now. What was…” Her voice dropped and she swallowed. “What was that? That smell?”

  She should know this, as she was half vampire, but even plied with somnus she was keeping up the ruse. Or she was telling the truth. I held up my wrist. “We have a gland here that secretes somnus. A large dose will render you unconscious, like last night. A slight bit just makes you woozy.”

  “I feel woozy,” she said, her lips pouted slightly. I still held her hair in my fist, and her eyes traced my face. I stared right back at her, letting her take me in. Her expression eased from panic, to relief, to curiosity. She blinked and her thin, arched brows tipped in. She slowly raised a hand, and I told myself to stay put, let her do what she wanted to do. Her
finger touched the tip of one of my fangs. “They are really real,” she said with a hint of awe.

  Her breath was minty, and her hair and skin were so soft beneath my palms. It’d been a long time since I touched anyone. I didn’t often fuck humans after I fed from them, preferring my own kind, and even then it was rare. I’d always been too focused on my future. A future that had changed drastically.

  Still, my body was very aware that a small, soft female was in my arms. She was straddling me, her barely there clothes doing nothing to prevent her heat from burning through my jeans. My cock had hardened, and I clenched my jaw as I eased her off me. No way would I give in to my attraction to Celia. She was the Valarian princess. Whether she knew it or not, she was still the enemy.

  I moved away from her, despite my body screaming at me to stretch out on top of her, and explore her body while she explored mine. With a barely suppressed growl, I dropped down on my chair, away from her. Now that she’d lost my body heat, she shivered and gathered her blanket around her again, watching me warily.

  “I can’t stress enough that I need you to be honest with me,” I said.

  She nodded. “I’ll be honest with you, but I think you have the wrong woman.” Her voice trembled a bit, but grew stronger with each word, sincerity laced into every word. “I have no idea who my parents are. If you’re looking for my dad, then I can’t help you.”

  I didn’t respond right away, choosing to wait her out. If she wasn’t being honest with me, then she’d been coached within an inch of her life to deceive. I couldn’t drop my guard, though. I’d always thought I was good at ferreting out lies, but after learning my father had lied to me my whole life—my own flesh and blood—I wasn’t too keen on trusting anyone, especially this woman I’d just met.

  So even though my gut insisted she was telling the truth, I couldn’t trust it anymore. My father had succeeded in making me a bitter, distrustful vampire. I fucking hoped he was happy. So I’d play her game, tell her what I knew about her, but I wouldn’t trust her, would never trust her, no matter how goddamn soft and right she felt in my arms.

  I leaned forward and braced my elbows on my knees. I didn’t want to miss a single reaction of hers. “Ah, but you can. Because you might not know who your dad is, but he knows who you are.”

  Her eyes bulged, and genuine confusion and frustration darkened her eyes. “What are you talking about?”

  Now came the test. “Your father is king of the Valarian vampire clan. They are our enemies, because they would like to see all humans live in subservience to them as blood slaves. My clan, the Gregorie clan, has maintained a peaceful, independent coexistence with humans for centuries and want to keep it that way.”

  She didn’t say a word as the color slowly drained from her face. She wrapped her arms around herself, then turned away. I wondered if she’d have another—what was it called?—panic attack, but instead she didn’t speak. She didn’t move. Then slowly her lips twitched and she began to laugh. What began as a soft giggle turned into an all-out, full-body peal of laughter. She fell back onto the bed and kicked her feet, and I wasn’t sure when it happened, but that laughter switched to crying, and then sobbing with rivers of tears streaming out the corners of her eyes, soaking her hair.

  I’d broken her. I’d taken this woman from her simple life and simple apartment and I’d broken her in a matter of an hour. Or I could blame the Quellen for that. He’d been the reason I’d taken her before I received the okay from Athan. If I didn’t grab her, more Quellen would have come to finish the job the first one didn’t. That was how I justified this, even as her outburst soured my stomach, and the urge to comfort her nearly overpowered me.

  Finally, she quieted, and sat up again, her limbs shaky. She wiped her eyes with the blanket and looked at me with a puffy face. “So, you’re saying I’m some vampire princess,” she said, her lips twitching again like she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

  “You’re a dhampir,” I explained. “Your mother was human, although I’m not sure who she is or if she’s still alive. So you’re a hybrid.”

  She scoffed, irritation replacing her disbelief. “And do you have proof of this?”

  “Not really. I can’t tell you how we know of your existence. We just do.” I couldn’t tell her how Zeb had learned about her.

  She gave me a withering look. “And if I’m such a great vampire princess then why was I abandoned at birth? Why did I grow up in foster care instead of some pampered…whatever? I’m a nurse in Mission City. That’s all I am.” She crossed her arms over her chest, eyes narrowing in a glare.

  Athan had told me that convincing Tendra had not been easy. “You’re not just a nurse, Celia Valerie. Do you dream?”

  She froze, eyes cutting sharply to me, and I knew I had her. I was born a dhampir, too. I remembered the dreams. Her chin quivered slightly before she tilted it up in an act of defiance that made my blood heat. Her lips curled back. “I don’t know a thing about dreams. Nightmares? Yes. But in all my life, I’ve never had dreams.” Her voice cracked on the last word and she looked away again.

  I didn’t like it. I didn’t like that one hint of vulnerability, her scorn of dreams, and I definitely didn’t like her breaking eye contact with me. Most of all, though, I was impressed that this woman I thought I’d broken had put herself back together again within minutes to challenge me.

  “Look at me,” I commanded, my voice firm but not unkind. The way my father had taught me when I was in training to be king.

  She hesitated, then slowly turned her head to face me squarely.

  “The nightmares. Being chased through streets with buildings leaking blood through every crack in the bricks. Right?”

  She didn’t answer for a while, only stared at me as she hugged her knees to her chest, a small bundle on the bed. “Trees,” she whispered.

  “What?”

  She cleared her throat. “For me it’s trees. They bleed and they scream.” Her voice grew in volume as she spoke. “I have to keep running, and my feet hurt, and my lungs are on fire. But if I stop, they get me.” She speared me with those round eyes framed with long, dark lashes. Her cheeks were rosy with color. “Who are they, Idris?” she asked. “Who’s chasing me?”

  “It’s not who. It’s what. It’s your vampire side. You probably have another couple of years and if you’re not turned by then, you’ll go mad.”

  She dropped her forehead onto her knees, her hair cascading around her head to hide her face from me. She rotated it side to side, muttering something. Finally, she faced me again. “Is this where you tell me you have to drink from me? Turn me so I don’t go mad? How many humans does this usually work on?”

  I didn’t have time for this. “I’m not going to turn you. I had thought your father would find you and do it, but with the Quellen last night…” I sighed and shook my head. “That complicates things.”

  “How so?”

  “Because Quellen are hired to do dirty work, like assassinations.”

  She sucked in a breath.

  “Yeah,” I said. “So right now I’m trying to figure out who hired them to kill you. Another clan? Because it wasn’t us. Or was that staged and you were in on it?”

  She threw up her hands. “I don’t know what else to tell you! I don’t know any vampire clans or why they’d want to kill me. I had no idea I was…half vampire. Everything you’re telling me is fucking news to me, and not that I believe it, mind you, and I’d appreciate it if you’d trust me a bit since I haven’t done anything to you! I’m the one who should be angry.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “I did save your life.”

  She scowled at me. “Oh, right. Thanks. But something tells me that saving my life is in your best interest. Is that right?”

  She wasn’t stupid. “You’re right.”

  She twi
rled a piece of hair in her finger. “So, am I bait? You planned to use me to draw out my father, but the fact that someone wants me dead, and you don’t know who, throws a wrench in that, doesn’t it?”

  I didn’t have to answer her. My silence was my acquiescence.

  She blew out a breath. “Well, how about you just let me go, then? We can just forget this whole thing happened, and I’ll lay low and hide from those Quellen things.”

  “You don’t hide from Quellen,” I said.

  “I’ll move,” she announced.

  “They will find you.”

  “Then what are you going to do with me?”

  “Keep you here,” I said. “Until my king tells me what to do with you.”

  She gaped. “This is…unlawful. And I have a job. The hospital will look for me…I have friends—”

  She was worked up now with her rant so I interrupted her, “It is unlawful in your world, sure, but we don’t operate under human laws.”

  “You kidnapped me.”

  My patience was waning. “I saved your life.” My last two words were gritted out through clenched teeth, and she flinched before she scurried farther up onto the bed. Away from me.

  “I’m guessing I can’t call anyone?”

  “That’s a no.”

  She pressed her lips together for a moment. “Well, I need food.”

  Right, humans needed food. Which I had planned to get and have ready when Athan gave the orders. Now? I had nothing and had to leave her to find something. Why did that make me feel so unsettled?

  “I’ll go now, before the sun comes up. I have about an hour. Any requests? Do you want coffee? Tendra used to drink coffee.”

  “Who’s Tendra?”

  “My brother’s wife. She lived in Mission as a human until she met my brother and was turned.”