“I do hope you can see that I had nothing to do with this incident,” Duke Montagu said and Kearn smiled inside, relishing the note of fear in his voice and highly satisfied by it.
“I will need to investigate before I can determine who was involved.” He turned away with Amber and allowed himself a small smile. It disappeared when Kyran stepped into view. If Kyran saw his childish triumph, it would get back to the duke.
“Will she be all right?” The concern in Kyran’s voice surprised him more than the fact he had come to see him.
After their argument earlier, he hadn’t expected his brother to be so civil towards him. Normally when they fought and Kearn didn’t back down, Kyran didn’t speak to him for months, sometimes even a year or more when it was about their family.
Kearn nodded and kept the pressure on her neck. Her heartbeat was steadying. The fragment of a connection they shared assured him that her feelings were stable. She didn’t seem in any immediate danger.
When they reached his car, he would check her wound. He couldn’t seal it there though. He would fall under the influence of her blood and wouldn’t be safe to drive. It had been dangerous enough when he had licked her hand and driven afterwards. He couldn’t risk something happening now when she was injured. He would never forgive himself.
“You had better leave before you have to fight to stop her from becoming the main course.” Kyran looked back towards the ballroom.
Kearn nodded. He could feel their eyes on him and sense their intent. They wanted Amber’s blood. He relished its scent. It spoke to the trace in his veins, telling him to taste her again so he could form a stronger connection between them and could feel that way again. He wanted to feel the desire it provoked in him, the hunger for her.
He looked at her where she lay in his arms.
He didn’t need her blood in his veins in order to feel that way. Just a glance at her tonight had been enough to make him yearn for her. Dancing close to her had pushed him past yearning to the point where he had been ready to act on his desires. He had kissed her hand in front of society, and Kyran had made sure he knew the full extent of their outrage over him committing an atrocity by lowering himself to a human.
Society had cast him out, yet it still cared about how he acted and still felt he should behave as his old position within it dictated. Did it still see him as a Noble? He would have laughed at that had it not been his heart’s desire.
In that moment though, part of him hadn’t cared what they had thought of him.
Amber had been all that had mattered.
Just as she was all that mattered right now.
He walked through the arch and down the stairs. Kyran continued to follow him. Kearn cast him a questioning frown.
“I will go with you. Safety in numbers.” Kyran’s blue gaze dropped to Amber again. A hint of red ringed his irises.
Was the smell of Amber’s blood the reason Kyran wanted to accompany him? The scent was strong and it alone stirred his blood and made his hunger return with force.
“Just to the car. I have several Lesser Nobles’ daughters to introduce to my wicked side.” Kyran grinned.
Kearn wasn’t surprised to hear that. Seeing those women with Kyran tonight had reminded him of when they were younger and had been the toast of all the balls. They had never stopped dancing back then and every daughter of a Noble or Lesser Noble had wanted to be with them.
He looked down at Amber. Things really had changed. He no longer wanted to dance with every pretty female who smiled at him. He only wanted to dance with her.
She was growing paler and it worried him. During the fight, he hadn’t felt his own fear. It was only in looking back that he realised it had seized his heart and had controlled him. He would have done anything to protect her. He would have sacrificed himself.
“She really is a Source then,” Kyran whispered, staring at Amber. “Her blood is potent.”
“She is.” Kearn walked out into the courtyard, his eyes on Amber’s face, absorbing her beauty and feeling a ghost of the effect her blood had on him. “It is.”
Warmth lingered in the air, lacing it with the scent of the sun even though it was past midnight. He carried her over to his car and set her down, leaning her against it. Kyran took hold of her and Kearn thanked him with a smile. He found his keys in his pocket, unlocked the car, and opened the door.
Kyran helped him manoeuvre Amber into the passenger seat, sitting her sideways facing the driver’s side with her right cheek against the headrest. Kearn secured her safety belt and peeled the thick wad of black napkins away from her throat. He touched the spot where the dried blood was darkest. Small beads broke to the surface and formed a short diagonal line. Had the knife made the cut or the man’s fangs? He covered it again and took a deep breath. If he’d had a god, he would have prayed that it was the knife.
He didn’t want to lose her.
Kearn stroked her face. Her soft skin was warm and still damp with tears in places. He brushed them away with the pad of his thumb, taking his time and memorising the feel of her skin as he gazed on her. She was so delicate and fragile, but she had been so strong tonight, and he had meant what he had said to her with all of his heart and every drop of his blood. Her beauty was unparalleled and he was eternally grateful to her for giving him even the briefest chance to enter society with her on his arm. Drawing his hand away, he curled it into a fist as he thought about everything she endured for his sake. His gaze slipped to the wad of black napkins covering her throat. He was going to hunt the bastard down and make him suffer for this. Black rage curled through him and his fangs extended at the same time as a spark of blue lit his fingertips. He struggled to shut down his feelings and then stood and faced Kyran when he was back in control.
“Be careful.” Kyran had removed his mask and his eyes were blue again, no trace of red touching them. They held a serious edge. “If uncle wants her—”
“I will not allow that to happen.” Kearn’s gaze dropped to her. The lights around the courtyard turned her skin golden. Her left black glove had slipped down past her elbow. He was tempted to smooth it up her arm again, to make her look perfect as she had done when the evening had started, but it wouldn’t undo what had happened. The blood on her neck and chest was real. He had failed in his promise and it hurt because he wanted to protect her above everything. “She does not belong in our world.”
“I am surprised to hear you say that considering the way you act around her.”
Kearn closed the passenger door.
“Let it go.” He walked around the car. He didn’t want to have to explain himself to Kyran, not when he wasn’t even sure what he was feeling. He opened the driver’s door and glanced at the wide sandstone mansion. Duke Montagu was watching them from a window on the first floor. “Be careful and stay away from the blood. Someone has spiked it with Source Blood.”
Kyran grinned. “I had wondered why I felt so giddy.”
Kearn sighed and waved his brother away. He didn’t want him on his list. Drinking spiked blood was a grey area in the law. Someone could easily deny knowing it had contained Source Blood and the Sovereignty wouldn’t know any better. They couldn’t hear normal vampires’ thoughts. They could only see their actions.
Kyran would deny it if asked, even if he had known. All of his kind would.
It didn’t matter. The Sovereignty would see the one who had spiked the blood and would send a Venator to deal with them.
Kearn got into his car, started it, and drove fast out of the courtyard. When he reached the main road, he pressed his left hand against Amber’s throat, keeping the pressure on the wound. The trace of her blood in his body was fading and he couldn’t sense her now that she had fallen into a deeper sleep. He wanted to know how she was feeling but he couldn’t risk rousing her to see if she was in pain or in danger.
He removed his hand from the wad of napkins to change gear and then pressed it back over them again, speeding through the outskirts of Lond
on. They would be back at his apartment within fifteen minutes if the traffic was with him.
He ran all the red lights, not slowing down even for those with speed cameras. They couldn’t fine him. His car was unregistered and he didn’t even have a driver’s licence to put points on.
In the human world, he didn’t exist.
Amber’s heartbeat quickened.
Kearn frowned across at her. A new line of blood was creeping down her chest. The wound couldn’t have reopened by itself. Amber hadn’t moved and it had almost stopped bleeding beneath the napkins. The vampire was doing something to her.
He growled and ran his hand across her bloodied chest. It was dangerous but the man left him no choice. He licked the blood on his fingers and shivered as he swallowed it. It instantly seeped into his, spreading fire through his veins and turning his mind hazy. Heat settled low in his abdomen, arousal stirring there, and he clamped his teeth together as his fangs extended. He growled and fought the effects, focusing on Amber to clear his mind. He wouldn’t let it control him this time. Amber was in danger and he had to protect her. The connection opened between him and Amber, and he used it to check her feelings. She wanted to wake up. The man was trying to command her. Did he want her to attack him again? Kearn wasn’t going to let that happen.
She had to stay calm and sleep. She was tired and she had to sleep it off. When she woke, her cut would be better. It was nothing for her to worry about. He would take care of her.
He shifted gear and ran another red light, narrowly avoiding a red double-decker bus. He couldn’t slow down. He had to get Amber to his apartment and heal her wound. The blood he would take from her then would be enough to establish firm control over her.
Her heart missed a beat and then raced.
Sleep.
It slowed again, falling back into a natural rhythm. Kearn touched her face. She was getting colder. He was a fool. He hadn’t considered the differences between their species and her heartbeat had convinced him she was safe.
A human was fragile compared with a vampire. Even with the cut not bleeding at a dangerous level, he could still lose her if the vampire had taken too much blood from her.
Panic rushed through his veins, blocking out every thought or feeling that wasn’t about her. He had to get her to safety and help her heal. It was all he could do, but he feared it wouldn’t be enough.
“Stay with me, Amber.” He pressed his hand against her throat again. Her face twisted in pain and then turned calm once more. He hadn’t meant to hurt her but he needed to make sure she wasn’t bleeding now. He needed her to live.
Kearn used her blood to keep the connection between them open. The vampire was still trying to make her do things. He caught snippets of the thoughts the vampire was placing in Amber’s head and countered them all with his own commands. She wanted to remain asleep and was very tired. When she woke, she would feel better and he would be there with her. He wouldn’t let the vampire have her. He wouldn’t.
The vampire sent a message to her that made Kearn growl and put his foot down on the accelerator.
He wanted her to come to him.
Amber wanted to go to him.
Bastard.
“Stay with me.” Kearn sent the same words to her blood so she would definitely hear him.
She calmed again and it felt as though she had reached out to him in return, strengthening the connection between them. He focused and kept it strong, giving her reassurance and anything she needed. In this moment, it didn’t matter if he looked weak or lonely, or if any of his growing feelings for her showed. It only mattered that she knew that he needed her with him, because then she would stay. He was sure of it.
Their blood bond grew stronger and he knew it was Amber’s work. She was calling to him, reinforcing the link between them.
The vampire disappeared. Kearn’s panic began to subside when he sensed her feelings. No pain or fear touched them now that the vampire was gone. She must have been trying to fight his hold over her by herself. Her heartbeat and feelings hadn’t altered because she had been in mortal danger. It had been because she didn’t want to leave him.
Her heart beat steadily in his ears.
Her warm scent soothed his senses.
The connection between them remained strong and open, tying their hearts together.
Kearn stared at the road ahead, his panic clearing and leaving reason behind. The vampire would have only taken enough blood to test it and control her. He wouldn’t have endangered her when he wanted her alive so he could harvest her blood. She would survive the attack.
It didn’t stop Kearn from worrying about her though. Every time he saw the blood on her, saw how pale she was, a voice inside him whispered that he was going to lose her.
She was human. Frail. He didn’t know if she could withstand this sort of attack on her body and mind.
He drove down into the large empty garage beneath his apartment building. The metal shutter door creaked as it closed behind them. Kearn turned off the car engine and raced around to Amber’s side. His arm hurt as he lifted her out of the car but he ignored it. He wasn’t losing too much blood now. The pain was nothing. He bore it because Amber was more important.
He looked down at her peaceful face, monitoring her feelings as well as her heartbeat, and hurried to his apartment.
An image of her attacking him flashed across his mind.
The vampire had made her do it but it still upset him. There had been such genuine fear in her eyes. He had felt as though he was a monster after she had made him feel like a man, and he still felt that way.
He was a monster for bringing her into this. He hadn’t even given it a second thought when he had decided to use her as bait, and had been willing to do so against her wishes. A monster without a heart.
She had changed him though.
She had opened his heart and he could no longer close it to her.
Kearn waved his hand over his apartment door and it opened. He closed it with the same gesture once inside and carried Amber across the large white room to his bedroom. He carefully laid her down on his bed. She didn’t stir, not even when he turned on the light.
“Amber,” he whispered and touched her cheek.
He lost his hold on her blood, the connection between them severing and leaving him cold and alone. She lay on his bed, white against the brown covers, looking like death.
Kearn tried to talk to her blood again. Nothing happened. She had passed out. It would keep her safe from the vampire but it worried him. He wasn’t used to dealing with humans so didn’t know how bad this was. A vampire could lose consciousness from lack of blood and come around only a moment later. He didn’t know how long a human would take.
He removed his black uniform jacket and placed it over her to keep her warm, and then ran around the foot of the bed and into the bathroom. He wet one of the brown hand towels and came back to her, and drew the jacket away from her chest. Blood caked it in a thick line down from the left side of her neck. He gently cleaned it off her and then took the black napkins away from her throat.
Bits of the tissue stuck to the blood on her throat. He picked them off, careful not to disturb the cut, and then concentrated on cleaning around the wound.
The dried blood slowly cleared to reveal the cut. It was shallow and only half as long as his little finger, stopping just before her artery. Tonight would have gone differently if it had reached there. He would have had to seal the wound in the ballroom and suffer the consequences.
The precision of the cut backed up his earlier thoughts about the vampire. He hadn’t intended to place her in any serious danger. He had only wanted to confirm her as a Source Blood and control her.
Kearn wrapped the damp towel around his fingers and dabbed at the cut. Tiny beads of blood lined it in spots where the skin hadn’t begun to heal.
He reached over and turned on the bedside table light. It shone brightly on the cut and relief bloomed sweet and strong inside him.
The knife.
The vampire had cut her with the knife. The line of the wound was too clean for fangs.
She wouldn’t become like them.
With his fear eased, his anger returned. What the vampire had done wasn’t the only reason he was angry. It was the way the man had held her and the look of ecstasy she had worn. It was the fact that the vampire had made her hold him too and made her enjoy the feel of his lips against her throat.
Kearn’s blood burned. His jaw tensed and he ground his teeth together, frowning down at Amber’s throat. His heart demanded the life of the vampire in return for trying to take her from him.
The vampire wasn’t the only one to blame for her suffering.
Kearn had failed her too. He should have assured her safety and then greeted the Venator. From now on, he had to place her before his duty. He wouldn’t fail her again.
He put the towel down on the side cupboard and gently tilted Amber’s head to her right, so he could see the wound. He needed to help it heal. The thought of running his tongue over her throat was potent and arousing, stirring him to hardness against his trousers even when he knew that nothing would happen between them. He had never touched a human’s throat in this way before and wasn’t sure if he would be able to control himself, but he needed to seal the cut.
With a deep breath, he kneeled on the bed and leaned over her, placing his hands on either side of her arms. His gazed fixed on her throat. He wasn’t strong enough to do this. It would tip him over the edge, past the point of no return, and the effect on him wouldn’t be because she was a Source Blood. It would be because it was her.
Tear tracks lined her pallid face, black make-up ringed her closed eyes, and her red lipstick had worn away, but she was still beautiful to him. She still captivated him.
Closing his eyes, he dipped his head to her neck and took another deep breath to regain some control.
The moment his tongue touched her throat, he was lost. The taste of her blood was sweet on his senses, rousing them and strengthening the connection to her. She surfaced from the black abyss of unconsciousness and wrapped him in invisible arms that held him to her throat. Her mind swam with his in the darkness of their joined blood. He licked her throat again, savouring her blood and opening further to her, allowing her in so more than their blood became one. Her feelings ran in his veins, all warmth and happiness, fear and trepidation, arousal and desire. His matched them but for different reasons. He feared what she would think of him.
Forbidden Blood (Vampire Venators Romance Series) Page 16