BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE: The Unforgettable Southern Billionaires: The Complete Collection Boxed Set (Young Adult Rich Alpha Male Billionaire Romance)

by Walker, Violet

  However, she’d also been feeling fear and uncertainty. And now guilt from what she did to Rachelle and hurt from what Levi did to her. Those negative feelings needed release too, and the tears gave her that. She felt like the ball of angry, sad energy behind her heart melted out of her eyes. She just let herself sob. All of this sucked, and it was okay to admit that. This wasn’t just her crying over Levi—although a lot of it was that. She had plenty to cry about. And now that she was away from Levi’s intoxicating and protective presence, the enormity of what had happened over the past several days weighed on her more heavily.

  She now wished that she had dreamed it all. Maybe she’d wake up in the hospital any minute. She would give her sister a hug and look down on her unbroken skin. She would look in the mirror and see her familiar dark skin and auburn hair again, instead of the strange monster that she had become.

  Now that Levi was gone, the whole thing seemed even more ridiculous. She was a half-dead? How can you be half dead? You either are or you aren’t. And she wasn’t. Clearly, she wasn’t. She was breathing. Her heart was beating. She was driving a car. This couldn’t be real.

  And then what if it was? What would it mean to be half-dead? Would she live longer or would she die any minute? Would she still grow old? Would she be able to have children? Was she likely to attack all the people she loved?

  Her first thought was to run to her father’s house. He was her haven—and likely to be the one person who would accept her no matter what. Of course, he wouldn’t believe her story, not that she had any plan to tell him…or anyone else ever again for that matter…but he would love her and accept her. He would probably still stick by her even if she went mad and starting drinking his blood. But Eliza didn’t want to take that chance. She wanted to stay away from everyone she cared about until she had a handle on these new—disgusting—urges.

  Instead, Eliza drove a few exits down the highway toward a Walmart. She did exactly what she told Levi she would do—she bought fresh clothes and toiletries. Then she cleaned herself up in the Walmart bathroom, smiling nervously at anyone who came in. Cleaning blood out from under her nails in a Wal-Mart bathroom was one of the trashiest things she could think of, but she thought it was the best option for now. Fortunately, people awkwardly avoided watching her too closely. One woman ushered her young son out of the bathroom quickly without stopping to wash his hands.

  “Yes. Avoid the hideous monster,” Eliza said under her breath.

  Eliza was feeling a bit monstrous, although if she looked at herself objectively she saw that she didn’t really look all that bad. In fact, the vampire blood that had helped her heal also seemed to be an excellent beauty tonic. Her pores had nearly completely disappeared and the small patch of acne scarring around her hairline had smoothed. Her hair was shinier, and maybe even less frizzy.

  All of that was nice, but she still didn’t like the reflection in the mirror. She had become even paler since this morning. Although she didn’t like losing her hair color, a few streaks of blonde might have looked nice. But that’s not what she had. Instead, she looked like she was growing gray—a strange look against her youthful skin.

  Her skin had gotten so light that she could probably pass as being white. She hated that most of all. Being bi-racial, she had always been hovering between the two races and sometimes she it truly upset her. She didn’t feel like she fully belonged with either group. But she also loved it. It made her special and beautiful. The idea of going all white made her feel uneasy. She didn’t want to leave behind her proud black heritage like that.

  And even more than that, she didn’t like the metaphor. Her mother had abandoned their family a long time ago, but at least she always had her DNA. She could always look in the mirror and see a reflection of the mother she had lost. Now it was like her mother was literally disappearing. Her DNA leeching out of her skin while her memory faded.

  Fortunately, Eliza’s eyes hadn’t changed at all. They were still her father’s happy Irish green. Perhaps eyes were the only things that stay the same in the transformation. She thought about Levi’s warm hazel eyes and wondered if that was the only thing left of his human self. What had he looked like when he was alive? Maybe he had dark hair. Tanned skin. She shook her head to try to rid herself of imagining all possible versions of Levi—especially since most of those versions were shirtless.

  She had brushed her teeth, applied product to her hair, and put on a light coat of make-up, and felt much better. Of course, just washing the blood off did a lot to improve her mood.

  Even though the weaker part of her wanted to run and hide, the real Eliza knew that making up with her sister was the most important thing right now. Rachelle was her world, and would always be her other half even after they were both married. They’d been together since the womb and that was never going to change.

  Eliza hopped back in the car, feeling more determined. She continued to watch in amazement as previously invisible homes and stores popped up along the side of the highway. She even saw some skyscrapers in the distance that she could have sworn were not there before. It was the wrong direction to be any Louisiana city that she knew of. As terrifying as this new world was, it was also exhilarating. It was as cool as being dropped off at an alien planet or two hundred years into the future. Somewhere in the middle of the Louisiana countryside there was an entire city waiting to be discovered. Who knew what she would find?

  She wanted to explore it all, but she had to admit that she imagined herself exploring it alongside Levi. He would have been her guide and protector. They would have gone out on dates at bars and clubs that hadn’t even existed to her before last week. Vampire bars filled with ancient people with amazing stories.

  She had so many questions to ask Levi. She wanted to know everything had he had experienced in his long life. What had he seen? What had he done? She had never considered herself a huge history buff, except when it came to music, but now she found it all fascinating. He was older than the United States! When had he immigrated here? Had he been born in Europe or was he an early pioneer? How long had he lived in the South? Did he fight in the American Revolution? The Civil War? The World Wars? Jesus…had he ever owned slaves? That’s an awkward question she never imagined asking her boyfriend.

  “Stop it, Eliza,” she said aloud. “He is not your boyfriend.”

  But he could be…said the little voice inside her head. He really liked you. You can’t fake feelings like that.

  “Shut up,” she said again.

  Chapter Five

  Eliza pulled into her apartment complex and her heart was racing again. Losing Levi made her want to crawl under her covers and cry for several days, but that would be nothing to what it would feel like to lose Rachelle. She didn’t think she could survive that. Or even worse, she would survive it. Her body could heal after just about anything, but she knew that it wouldn’t work that way with heartbreak. She’d just be alive and alone in a strange, violent world.

  Eliza walked back up to her apartment slowly. When she got to the door, she knocked, which felt incredibly strange. She lived here, and even if she didn’t, she and Rachelle didn’t knock at each other’s doors. The waiting felt interminable. Eliza looked through the window on the side of the door, watching for movement. Maybe Rachelle was so angry she was ignoring her. But how did she even know that she was the one at the door? It could be the UPS guy. Or her latest flavor of the month boyfriend, whatshisname. It could even be their father, and she would always open the door for him.

  She knocked one more time, and then took out her keys. It was possible that Rachelle had left. Maybe she did go to the minor emergency room to get stiches. Or maybe she’s cowering in fear with her boyfriend or their father. She wanted to see her father badly, but she didn’t think she could look him in the eye right now. She also didn’t want him to see her transformation and think she had abandoned both her Irish and African roots simultaneously.

  As soon as Eliza opened the door, she smell
ed the blood again. She took a deep inhale like she did when she walked into her grandma’s house on Thanksgiving and smelled the turkey and sweet potato pie. She licked her lips unconsciously. It was all so gross. Her body thought blood was as decadent as melted chocolate, but her mind still thought the whole thing was icky.

  “Rachelle?” Eliza walked in further and saw Rachelle’s phone sitting on the coffee table. Rachelle didn’t go places without her phone. Even in a state of panic or fear, she probably wouldn’t have forgotten. Her instinct to grab the phone had become second nature. In fact, she would have been talking on it as she walked out, sharing the gruesome details of their encounter.

  “I’m so sorry,” Eliza said, her voice breaking. “Just come out and talk to me. I want to make sure you’re okay.”

  Eliza headed toward Rachelle’s bedroom now, expecting to find her hiding under the covers or behind a locked door in her bathroom.

  “Do you need stiches?” she asked. “I’ll drive you to the urgent care.”

  Eliza probably should have realized sooner that her sister wasn’t going to answer. She wasn’t the hide and cower type of person. If she were mad, she would yell. She’d say exactly what she was thinking. Eliza had always respected that about her sister. She wasn’t afraid to speak her mind.

  A trickle of fear crept up her spine as soon as she saw the white flash out of the corner of her eye. There was something extra on the kitchen counter. Something that shouldn’t be there. There could be a million reasons why a white piece of paper would be in the kitchen. Rachelle could have left a note for her. It could be an unrelated shopping list or the electric bill. But somehow, Eliza knew it was not.

  With tunnel vision, she headed toward the note in what seemed like slow motion. She read the words.

  Follow the blood.

  As if she needed more explanation, a few drops of dark dried blood had been left under the words. Her sister’s blood. She recognized the smell.

  Every muscle in her body tensed at once. In moments like this, heightened senses weren’t helpful. She felt her heart hammering against her ribs. She sensed her blood pressure rising, constricting her veins. She could even fill the cortisol from the stress starting to spill into her nervous system.

  “Rachelle,” she said quietly.

  Her mind swirled with questions. Had Levi done this? No. He may have used her for sex, but he didn’t seem like the kidnapping type. And this note was clearly meant to lure her out, and Levi made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with her. And if he wanted to lure her out, he would have learned by now that there were easier ways.

  Eliza crushed the note in her hand with surprising strength, managing to crush her own bones a bit. She ran out of the house—her mind again once again simultaneously empty and focused, as it had been when she was making love to Levi. But this time, the feeling was much different. The only thing in the world was her sister, and absolutely nothing mattered other than getting her back.

  She got in her car and started driving before she even realized what she was doing. What was she doing? Or more specifically, where was she going? The note said to follow the blood. She panicked, first thinking that she had begun barreling down the highway with no destination in mind, wasting precious time. Then she realized that she had been subconsciously following a call. The “smell” of the blood was imperceptible, but she seemed to have a deeper sense that knew how to follow it. At least, she hoped she did. She felt pulled in a direction, but what if she was wrong?

  Eliza had spent so much of her life following black and white facts. Everything could and should be explained. Her sister was the one to follow her instincts. Eliza needed proof. She had to fight against her instinct to enter coordinates into a GPS. She had to just follow the call. There was no other way.

  Eliza exited once again at exit number 152—the phantom exit. This time, she at least knew what she would find. Levi’s neighborhood—full of luxury homes and cars, from a bizarre scattering of time periods. It was all part of the Gate World. Eliza wondered what Rachelle was seeing if they had taken her here. She had never tasted vampire blood and therefore did not have access to the Gate World. To her, this neighborhood was nothing but an empty field.

  She drove past Levi’s house, feeling a bit stalker-ish.

  “I’m not here for you, asshole,” she said under her breath.

  Eliza continued down the street, ending at a cul-de-sac. At the end of the lane, sat the largest house in the neighborhood, a massive plantation home with a sweeping two level-porch and large Greek style columns. A beautiful fountain sat in the middle of the red brick drive. This had to be where the “Queen” lived. It was so strange to think of a queen in America, let alone a vampire queen. But if there were any kind of queen in Louisiana, she would live in a place like this.

  She pulled her rental car up the drive, aware that she was driving right into a trap. She didn’t care. Once she stepped out of the car, she felt even more sure that her sister was in this house. She could easily smell her blood intermingled with the overpowering scent of magnolia blossoms. She only hoped that Rachelle hadn’t lost too much of that blood.

  Eliza ran up the steps and walked through the unlocked front door. Yep. They wanted her to come in. The “queen’s palace” wasn’t exactly well guarded.

  It didn’t take Eliza long to realize this wasn’t exactly true. Fifty or so vampires waited patiently for Eliza’s arrival, standing in two lines on either side of the queen in the grand parlor, like a real medieval court. Some of them even fit in medieval times, or at least the 1800s. Some of the vampires were Southern belles that had gotten stuck in time, still wearing their long dresses and corsets. Weren’t they hot? If they were damned to live for an eternity, they could at least enjoy the benefits of women’s rights, flip-flops, and blue jeans? A gorgeous ginger haired Belle blinked at her darkly as she passed. If it weren’t for the lacy fan she waved, Eliza might have assumed she was a life-sized porcelain doll.

  Rachelle was tied to a chair in the middle of the parlor.

  “Eliza,” she cried.

  Eliza had never seen her sister so terrified. Her eyes were wide and glassy. Her hairline was wet with sweat and her cheeks were red. She had dirt smudged on her arms, although that might have been dried blood. That meant that her only injury had come from Eliza, and not the hordes of vampires around her. She didn’t know if that made her feel better or not.

  Her chest shook with sobs. She had been crying so long that the neckline of her shirt had become wet with her tears.

  “Rachelle,” Eliza said. She ran to her sister and did her best to hug her with her arms tied around her back.

  “What’s happening?” Rachelle asked in a shaking voice. “I think I’m going crazy.”

  “What do you see happening?” Eliza asked, gently caressing her hair to calm her.

  “I don’t know,” she said, crying. “Something invisible grabbed me in our apartment. I shot across the ground into this empty field. I’m tied up and I don’t know how I got here. I’m so scared.”

  Eliza went around her back to untie her even though she knew it wouldn’t be as easy as untying her and walking out.

  “Not just yet, Eliza.”

  Eliza looked up to see the same female vampire that had attacked her in front of Levi’s house. She looked much like Levi, but all the vampires kind of looked the same. She had paper white skin and long blonde hair. Although from what she knew now, she figured it was white, not blonde. She might have been living for hundreds of years, but her hair had died long ago. She wore a 1970s style off the shoulder dress made of blue taffeta, and her hair similarly styled to make her look like a ghoulish Farrah Fawcett. She might have looked glamorous if it weren’t for the dried blood at the corner of her lip.

  Eliza sneered at her, ready to strike, even though she knew it would be useless. Eliza and Rachelle were both as good as dead. She could fight with all her strength—even her amplified half-dead strength, and it wouldn’t do any good ag
ainst a hoard of vampires.

  “What are you doing?” Rachelle asked desperately. “Why won’t you untie me?”

  Eliza put her hand on Rachelle’s shoulder to comfort her, but she doubted it helped much. To Rachelle’s eyes, she was tied up in an empty field with no understanding as to how she got there.

  “What do you want from me?” Eliza asked the Queen.

  “What?” Rachelle asked, presumably thinking Eliza was talking to her.

  Eliza gasped. Levi stood next to the Queen. The way he stood by her side, he might be high up in the court as well. Either that, or he was her lackey. Her assassin. Perhaps the whole thing had been an act, just to bring her here. To kill her. Eliza’s throat felt dry while her eyes burned with impending tears. She hated herself for being so hurt. Her and her sister’s lives were in danger. She shouldn’t be wasting energy feeling betrayed by Levi.

  Levi looked into her eyes, apparently not even ashamed enough to look away. He still had that kind look, and now the look had turned sad. It might have been her imagination, but she thought he might be ready to cry too.

  “This is the part of my job that I hate,” the Queen said with a barely restrained smile. “But I’m afraid that half-deads are illegal.”

  “I didn’t want it to be this way,” Eliza said. “It was an accident.”

  “That doesn’t matter, I’m afraid. You see, we can’t have humans walking around in our world. It’s not personal. Vampires have managed to exist in secret for thousands of years because we have strict laws. And your kind is not allowed.”

  “Eliza, please,” Rachelle whimpered.

  “So, you’ll let my sister go?” Eliza said. “She’s a human and she’s done nothing wrong.”

  “It’s true, I used her to lure you here,” the Queen says. “I don’t intend to kill her, however she’s unlikely to make it out of here without becoming someone’s dinner. But don’t worry. The unnecessary killing of humans is also against the law. We feed. We don’t kill. She’ll be frightened and weak, but alive, when she leaves here.”