Tall, Dark and Paranormal: 10 Thrilling Tales of Sexy Alpha Bad Boys

by Opal Carew

  “Then you came here. And you were different. You wanted to be different.” She spun to look at me. “You were different, Lucien. I could see it. I could read it in you. You gave me hope. I was so happy for you when he let you go. And then when Langston told me you had found love, I was thrilled.” She became lost in thought for a moment.

  “When the guard brought the child in, I was so furious I had to hold back from striking at Laumet myself. Not only was she part of your happiness, but she was everything he was not: goodness, innocence, hopefulness, possibility. There was no way I was letting him take that away, from you or from her. I don’t care what it costs me.”

  I gawked at her in admiration and gratitude. “Thank you” was all I could manage.

  I was certainly aware of her resentment of Laumet and had been for a long time. And I knew she kept things from him. As I thought about it, she’d always seemed to have a special sense of protectiveness toward me. I never realized the significance of that feeling, however.

  I looked from Magena to Samantha, whose eyes had been drawn away from Ollie by the forcefulness and passion of Magena’s words. Samantha was fascinated despite herself.

  “Magena, would you be willing to allow us the use of a room for a few hours until we can more safely remove Ollie from here?”

  She looked between us. “Follow me.”

  I gently scooped Ollie into my arms, then extended the hand under Ollie’s legs to Samantha to help her up. She hesitated but finally accepted it. I pulled her to her feet. She was more steady than I feared she might be, although I could smell the adrenaline in her blood and knew that was keeping her going.

  Magena led us out of the concourse and down a corridor to a staircase. On the next level, we passed a few doors down a dark hallway when she stopped and pushed open a door to a large sitting room with couches.

  The room stood out from everything else I’d seen here so far because it was clean, modern, lit, and well appointed. They’d clearly left the main level disintegrating to discourage intruders.

  “I’ll have some pillows and blankets brought in so you can make her comfortable.”

  “And some drinking water, please?”

  “Of course.” She returned with the items several minutes later.

  I handed one of the bottled waters to Samantha who looked at me blankly. “Drink it, please, Samantha.” She grabbed the bottle but didn’t open it.

  I arranged Ollie on one of the wide couches with a pillow beneath her head, then draped the thin blanket over her still form. Come on, Ollie. Open your eyes, baby.

  I turned and found Samantha standing behind me. She stared at me intently, warily.

  Not meeting her eyes, I whispered, “We have a while. Are there things you’d like to ask me?” Finally, I manned up and met her eyes. They were cold, flat, and filled with anger.

  ***

  “Was any…any of it…anything…true?” Silent tears spilled down Samantha’s cheeks. Her body trembled as the shock set in.

  “All of it was true.”

  “How could that be, Lucien? Huh? How?”

  “If you’ll allow me, I think I could prove to you— show you—the truth.”

  She looked between me and Magena and nodded, but took a step back. The shivering worsened.

  “Please drink, Samantha. You’re probably experiencing shock.” This time she twisted off the cap and took a long pull from the water bottle. “Magena, would you be willing to help me?”

  She nodded, knowing what I wanted. Her telepathic skill actually extended one step past where most people, including Laumet, knew. She could not only read minds, but she could project her readings into other people’s minds. Her resentment of Laumet for changing her had over time led her to keep a number of things to herself, including the extent of her power.

  “Please sit down, Sam,” I urged as Magena and I approached her.

  “I don’t want to sit down.”

  “Please?”

  “No.”

  “Okay. It’s not necessary.” I took a breath. “Magena is going to help me show you the truth. I realize this is going to sound crazy, but Magena is telepathic.”

  Samantha’s eyes widened as she looked at Magena. “She can read minds?”

  “Yes. If you’ll let her take your hand, she can show you what she sees in my mind. Are you willing?”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  “Oh, God. You absolutely have a choice. I’m not going to force you to do anything. Sam, I’m not going to hurt you.”

  Her shivering returned. “What do I…?”

  Magena extended her hand toward Samantha’s. “May I?” Samantha nodded. Magena took her hand and mine at the same time.

  A series of images ran through my head, beginning at the beginning. I pictured the night Lena and Isabetta died, what I recalled of how I was changed, my shock and horror at discovering what I was, and when I begged Griffin to kill me.

  Samantha gasped.

  Damn. Way to go, Lucien. I’d just outed my family as well. I shook my head and concentrated again. I showed her my despair when I left Orchard Hill and my intense relief when I left Laumet. I recalled my confession to my family of my feelings for Samantha and Ollie, and I pictured a million different moments the three of us had spent together over the last seven months which I hoped would show the depth and true nature of my love and devotion.

  I looked at her and tried to communicate all of these things with my eyes as well.

  The tears streaked down her face. She bit her lip, hard, to keep from crying out. All of a sudden, Samantha ripped her hand free from Magena, who made no effort to prevent her from doing so.

  Magena stepped back to try to ensure Samantha didn’t feel threatened. “Lucien, I need to put my house in order. I’ll return in a while.”

  “Thank you. For everything.” I worried for her. The challenges she’d face in making Detroit her own were going to be numerous.

  She nodded, turned, and left.

  Samantha and I stood and stared at each other for a long time. Her emotions were so torn up I could barely make any sense out of them as they battered me. She was pale. Every once in a while, her body involuntarily shuddered.

  But above all that was an extraordinarily strong woman. She’d held her head. She’d survived. I couldn’t have loved or admired her more than I did in that moment.

  “Sam?”

  “Lucien.” Her voice cracked.

  I took a tentative step toward her. She eyed me warily but held her ground.

  “Can I…?” I held my arms up to embrace her and slowly moved forward. Her face rippled with pain as she trembled. I took another step. Please. The next step put me within arm’s reach of her. As I hesitated, she melted into me.

  I wrapped my arms around her greedily and pulled her against my body, relishing a kind of touch from her I feared I’d never again experience.

  Her voice was hoarse and strained. “You got her back for me…” All of the fear and stress and horror of the night began to pour out of her. She wailed and heaved against me for a long time. I whispered reassurances into her hair and told her I loved her, I was sorry, and I would do absolutely anything to try to make this right by her.

  A rustle of fabric made us look at Ollie, who was moving in her sleep—a sign of progress. Samantha sobered up. We knelt at Ollie’s side. Keeping her eyes on her daughter, she asked, “How does it work?” She nodded at Ollie.

  “Um, I don’t know the physiology of the mechanics. You were the first person I ever tried to save. Whatever it is that keeps us from aging helps cure injuries in the human body.”

  Her eyes snapped to mine. “You don’t age?” She thought for a moment and frowned. “How old are you?” I looked down, hesitating. “You said you would tell me the truth, ‘every bit of it’…”

  I met her gaze. “And I will, without question. I was twenty-seven and a half when I was changed, Samantha.”

  “And when was that?”

  “May 13,
1895. Almost one hundred fourteen years ago.”

  Her heart rate spiked again. “You’re…a hundred and forty years old?” I nodded. “And the others?”

  “Which…?”

  “Griffin…”

  “They’re much older. They found me after my family was murdered, after my maker changed and abandoned me. They were already old then. They took me in and taught me how to survive.”

  “How is this possible?”

  The question was rhetorical, but I answered anyway. “I honestly don’t know.”

  She glanced at me. Her sympathy tasted like tears. I was in awe of her capacity for such compassion, all things considered. “Lucien, I want you to tell me everything right now—don’t leave anything out—you ever told me that wasn’t true.”

  I wanted to answer truthfully and thoroughly. I took a deep breath and began. “Well, I already told you I lied about what happened to you. You were attacked.” She nodded. “Um, I did fly down the steps the day Ollie fell.” I glanced up at her, and she stared intently.

  “And the day I met Ollie, she didn’t fall down in the street. She ran in front of a truck. I grabbed her out of the way before it hit her. I didn’t want you to worry. And, well, this isn’t so much a lie as I didn’t correct an assumption you made: I wasn’t visiting a patient at the hospital, I was visiting a…friend who works there. Uh…I do own my own business, technically, but I really don’t need to work in order to provide for myself. The length of my life has made it possible to accumulate money. I have more than I could need in many lifetimes. And I was born in Italy as a human, not New York, but I was changed there. Oh, and”—I rushed on now—”the mark on my chest isn’t a tattoo. It’s called a Blood Mark. It occurs when you’re changed into…this…and is supposed to indicate your lineage.”

  Her eyes flashed down to my left pectoral despite the fact it was covered.

  I thought again and sighed. “I would be remiss if I didn’t admit my acquisition of the house on Frederick wasn’t coincidental. I’d become intrigued by you and desired a way to be nearer to you.”

  “Intrigued?”

  “Yes. The first time I saw you, Sam, I was so filled with grief. My whole life I’ve berated myself about my family’s deaths. In my head, I know there was nothing I could’ve done. The attackers were so strong. But in my heart, I’ve punished myself every single day for not being able to protect them. The pain often felt crushing, suffocating.”

  I tasted the salt of her sympathy again.

  “But then you walked by me at the hospital. And you felt so happy I—”

  “Felt?”

  “Oh.” How much more of this can she take? “Uh, yes, felt. I am empathic, which means I can sense people’s emotions, how they’re feeling.” She frowned so I explained further. “I don’t really know how it works. Henrietta thinks it has something to do with emotions being chemical reactions, and wonders if I’m sensing the energy that results from them. I don’t know. But you felt so happy when I saw you that the relief was stunning. I wanted you, fantasized how to be around you all the time so I could feel that relief. It was challenging at first. I haven’t allowed myself to become attached to humans in the past, because I didn’t want to hurt anyone, but I found myself drawn to you, liking you, and then, well, loving you.”

  “Challenging? Does that mean…did you want…I mean…”

  I sighed, expecting each confession to be the one that caused her to flee. “I struggled badly with my bloodlust for you, Samantha, at first. But it didn’t take me long to realize harming you would only hurt myself.”

  Ollie jerked under Samantha’s hand. We both looked at her, but she remained unconscious.

  “Is there anything else?” she whispered.

  I thought, hard. The problem was what and how much to tell her. In order to exist in this world undetected, much of my life was based on a lie. Lies of deception were a central tool of survival for my kind. I supposed that was something: “Um, oh, I don’t eat human food.”

  She gawked at me.

  “I mean, I can swallow it, but I can’t digest it. While food gives you energy, it depletes mine.”

  “Mommy,” Ollie’s little voice croaked.

  Samantha snapped her head back toward Ollie. “Hi, baby. Mommy’s right here. Open your eyes.” Samantha brushed soft kisses on Ollie’s cheeks as she dragged her lids open.

  Ollie finally forced her eyes to focus on her mother’s, then she looked at me. “Hi, Lucien,” she whispered hoarsely. I smiled at her, relief coursing through my body. “Thank you.” She swallowed thickly. “For saving me. I wasn’t too, too scared ’cause I knew you’d come.”

  Her faith in me was astounding.

  “Was it like when you saved Mommy?”

  “Yes, Ollie, and you’re going to be okay.” I squeezed her knee gently through the blanket.

  “Did Mommy keep her eyes closed?”

  Samantha looked at both of us questioningly. “I don’t understand, Ollie.”

  “Save your strength. I’ll tell her.” She nodded. “When I was trying to save you, Ollie insisted on being in the room. I finally agreed, but only if she promised to keep her eyes closed the entire time. I didn’t want her to see what was happening. I didn’t want her to be burdened with the knowledge of my kind.”

  Samantha’s frowned and looked back and forth between us for a moment. “Wait, does Ollie already know about you?”

  Ollie and I both spoke at the same time, then both apologized to each other at the same time. “Yes and no. Ollie is incredibly smart—somehow she deduced there was something different about me, which has never happened before. I owed her the respect to acknowledge she was right, but I didn’t tell her what I was.”

  Samantha’s mouth opened and closed but nothing came out.

  “I thought he was an angel, but he told me he’s not. But I think of him as my guardian angel. He looks out for us, Mommy.”

  Samantha’s breath shuddered as she took in all we were saying. She squeezed Ollie’s hand reassuringly.

  Ollie groaned a little. “I don’t feel so good.” She weakly turned on her side and pulled her knees up into a fetal position.

  Alarmed, Samantha looked at me then back at Ollie. “What feels bad, honey?”

  “I feel like I might throw up. And my head hurts.” She whimpered. “I feel dizzy.”

  Samantha brushed her hand across Ollie’s forehead and feathered stray tendrils of gold back off her face. “She’s hot. Lucien?”

  “The fever symptoms are normal. Hold on.” I fished my cell phone out. There were a half dozen missed calls—all from my family. My signal was weak, so I sprang to my feet and walked toward a window. As soon as I found a signal, I pushed a sequence of keys and waited.

  “Oh, thank God. Lucien, are you all right? Are they all right?”

  “Yes, yes, Henrietta. We’re all right.”

  She reported the news to the others. I smiled to myself at their obvious relief and joy. “Where are you, Lucien? We’ll come get you.”

  I debated. “I don’t want all of you to come. The situation seems defused, but I don’t want them to feel besieged by another coven of vampires showing up. You and Griffin come…” The others overheard me and protested. “I need your help, Henrietta.”

  She understood immediately. “What happened? Who’s hurt?”

  “Ollie. Laumet bit her.”

  Henrietta gasped and her voice was strained. “Were you…”

  “It’s okay, Henrietta. I was able to stop him. And I think I was able to address her injuries. But she’s not feeling well now. I need you to look at her.”

  “Tell me where you are, and we’re on our way.”

  I complied and snapped the phone shut, then returned to the couch where Samantha was softly singing to Ollie to distract her from her discomfort. The worry washed off her.

  Footsteps echoed in the hallway and drove me back to the defensive. It was too quick to be my family. A vicious growled erupted from my th
roat as the knob to the hallway door started to turn. Samantha gasped as I leaped across the room to protect my girls from whatever new threat was about to walk through it.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I wrenched the door open, surprising Langston as he was about to push into the room. Given his betrayal, I was immediately suspicious to find him trying to enter. I grabbed him by the throat and shoved him so hard against a wall the plaster caved in around his shoulders. I surprised even myself with my ferocity, but felt a primal urge to protect and defend my girls.

  Samantha jumped up, her body positioned in front of Ollie.

  “It’s okay,” I called out to her with a graveled voice. “Nothing to worry about.” But she didn’t relax her stance at all. I shifted my eyes back to Langston’s shocked face. “What is the meaning of this?”

  “Hey, man, it’s okay. Listen, I don’t blame you. Magena told me to stand guard. She didn’t want anyone bothering you. I was just coming in to let you know.”

  I didn’t sense deception, but I still didn’t trust him. He’d been a part of this tonight. He’d called to tell me Laumet understood about Jacques. “You lied to me. You set me up,” I growled and flashed my fangs, leaning in menacingly toward his face.

  He struggled, but my age and Catherine’s blood were too much for him. “I know. I know. I didn’t have a choice. When I hesitated, Laumet threatened to kill Magena if I didn’t make that call. Man, I didn’t want to do it. I’m sorry.”

  “Kill Magena?” This made me even more suspicious. “That doesn’t make any fucking sense, Langston. She was his mate.”

  “You didn’t see him, Lucien. Laumet snapped when they brought Jacques’s body back. He killed the two members of the guard who brought him the news. He just lost it. Your scent was all over the body, confirming what the guard had already told him. He sent people out looking for you immediately. When no one could find you, he came up with the plan of trying to lure you out.” He tried to restrain himself, then a wave of love and grief and embarrassment washed off him. “I love her, man.”

  “What? Who?”