“I see.” Since she’d met me. Well, shit. Didn’t that just make me feel like an ass? The whole idea of her sucking at the vein on my neck, ingesting my blood, made that clump of vomit rise again. But she needed it. Blood was her life source. Did I want her drinking blood from another man or woman? I hadn’t really given it much thought, but a big fat no surfaced in my mind now that I did.
“What’s going to happen if Cian’s supplier has been stealing the blood? Will he stop buying from them?”
“That’s what he said.” She twirled some noodles around her fork and took a bite of the bloody spaghetti. I closed my eyes. “You’re not eating. Aren’t you hungry?”
“No, not really. I’m having a difficult time getting over the ‘vampires with a conscience’ concept.”
“I told you. We aren’t monsters.”
“I know. But where will you get blood from, if not from these guys?”
“I don’t know. Drinking blood this way,” she nodded at her plate, “isn’t the preferred method. The others usually get fresh blood. But having the packets available to us has been a nice convenience, especially since…well, since now I don’t like the idea of getting what I need from…” she looked up from her plate and into my eyes, “someone I don’t know.”
I swallowed the lump lodged against my tonsils and couldn’t believe what I was about to ask. “Do you want my blood?”
Her eyes lit up like stars. “Absolutely,” she blurted. “Your blood is, oh my gods, I can smell it when I’m kissing you, it taunts me and drives me insane.” I was instantly sorry I’d asked. At least, she was honest. Then the fire in her eyes dwindled and dulled. I didn’t like the new, somber expression. “But, you don’t want that and I do understand why.”
“We both know it’s inevitable, don’t we?” I said, playing with a couple of strands of spaghetti.
She nodded. “But I won’t, not if you don’t want it.”
“Sooner or later, you’re going to need to take blood directly from a human. And if it isn’t me, it’s going to be somebody else, and I swear to God, Chelle, I don’t think I could handle that.”
She stopped eating and looked up at me. “What are you saying, Josh?”
“I don’t know what I’m saying.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chelle
There were four ways I could interpret Josh’s statement. One, he didn’t think he could handle me drinking blood from another human, two, he wanted me to drink his blood, three, he meant he wouldn’t be able to watch while I partook from another, or the worst, four, he wasn’t going to be a part of my life if I did. But he was here with me, and that was huge, so I didn’t press the issue. At the moment, I had other things to occupy my troubled soul, like how Cian and Lane were going to act when I showed up with Josh.
We turned into the drive, drove through the already opened gate, and pulled up alongside the huge limo the band usually traveled in. We both got out and walked to the car.
“What’s he doing here?” Lane asked as Josh and I joined them all inside the car.
“Don’t blame Chelle. I insisted,” Josh said and scooted to the outer edge of the bench seat in the limo. I slid in beside him.
“Well, human, you’ve got a lot of courage, I’ll give you that,” Cian said.
“You’re not seriously considering letting him come?” Lane barked.
“It’s his neck.”
Maggie gave me a sympathetic smile then lowered her eyes to her hands that were folded in her lap. I had a feeling she was concerned about Josh, too.
“Where are Gage and Elvis?” I asked, worried that they weren’t coming, because in my opinion, we needed them.
“They’re taking the Jeep,” Maggie supplied.
I exhaled a sigh of relief and grabbed Josh’s hand as Ari pulled out of the driveway.
“Now that we have a new addition, let’s go over the plan,” Cian said then looked up at Josh who was focused on something behind Cian’s head. “Josh, you with us?” Cian followed Josh’s stare and so did I. The bottle of Johnny Walker Black stuck up out of the bar.
Josh looked up at Cian. “Yeah, I’m here.”
“You want a drink?”
Josh looked back at the bottle. Then shook his head. “No. I’m good.”
It was a twenty-minute ride to the place where Ari and Cian usually met the supplier. I felt Josh’s pulse rise when we pulled into the parking lot of several waterside warehouses.
“Typical,” Josh murmured, and I had to agree. It all seemed a little too Hollywood.
Maybe the fact that the warehouses were by the port was a good sign, and the blood was actually shipped in from somewhere else. I stiffened in my seat as the sound of tires crunching the gravel outside could be heard.
“Gage and Elvis are here,” Lane said.
We all got out of the car as Gage and Elvis stepped out of the Jeep. I was nervous. I’d never been involved in anything like this before.
“Here we go boys and girls,” Lane said, and I glanced to my left where he’d been looking. Three bodies stepped out of a dark blue sedan and approached us. That was good odds. Three of them, six of us, not counting Josh.
As they got closer, my heart skipped about a gazillion beats.
“Holy shit!” Josh whispered to me. “That’s the vampire from the café.”
I almost fainted. I hadn’t recognized him the other times I’d seen him. Why would I have? Up until that last dream, I’d blocked not just the memory of the murder from my mind, but also everyone’s face from that horrible night.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Josh
Chelle swayed against me, and I grabbed her around the waist to steady her.
“Are you okay?” I asked, but she didn’t answer me. She tugged out of my grasp and took a couple of steps forward.
“Daddy?”
The vampire stilled in his tracks. The other two looked at him. Cian, Lane, and the others with us all stared at Chelle. “What?” I said, confused, wishing I’d taken Cian up on that drink.
The vampire furrowed his brows. “Is it possible?” he asked. Then he uttered the dreaded name I didn’t want him to say, “Charlotte?”
Chelle froze. “Daddy,” she whispered again. Tears dripped down her cheeks. Then the vampire approached her and wrapped his arms around her. She clung to him like a lifeline.
“Baby girl, my baby girl. They told me you were dead.”
“Daddy, I thought…I thought you were dead. I saw them kill you.”
Just then, one of the other vampires stepped forward and grabbed Chelle, pulling her toward him, his hand snaking around her torso to pin her arms, a giant blade pressed to her throat.
“What the fuck is happening?” Lane barked. “Let her go!”
“Russell, don’t hurt her, she’s not going to say anything. Please, let her go. It’s all in the past. Look at her. She’s one of us,” the vampire who Chelle had called Daddy begged.
“It doesn’t matter. She knows things she’s not supposed to know.”
“She doesn’t know anything. She was a child. All she knows is that you killed her mother. She knows nothing more. She’s a vampire now, she’s not going to go to the cops and identify you, she’d be exposing herself, as well.”
Elvis flashed behind the third vampire, holding a blade of his own against his throat.
“You think that’s going to make me give her up?” He laughed a hideous cackle. “Go ahead, kill him. We don’t need him.”
There was something familiar about the fiend who held the blade against Chelle’s throat. It didn’t take long for a vision to come to my mind. A horrific face with blood dripping from the corners of his mouth. It was the same fucking monster that had murdered Emily eight years ago. I didn’t know whether to run or stay put, but I couldn’t leave Chelle, so I found my courage sequestered deep down in the pit of my gut and stayed.
From what Chelle had told me, I knew her strength was no match for the older vampire’s.
I feared he would slide that blade across her throat at any minute. But Cian did say vampires were difficult to kill, though from the size of that knife, it could easily sever her head from her body, and I knew not even a vampire could survive that.
“We know you’ve been stealing the blood you’ve been supplying us with from the hospitals,” Cian said. My eyes snapped to Cian’s. The accusation hadn’t been part of the plan we’d discussed in the car. They were supposed to make the deal, then follow them back, hopefully discovering the place where they repackaged the blood they pilfered. Cian had still hoped that it was all a legitimate operation.
“We haven’t always stolen the blood,” the third vampire with Elvis proclaimed. “We used to get it straight from humans, until—”
“That’s enough,” snapped the vampire still holding the knife to Chelle’s neck. “You will not divulge our operations. I will run this blade completely through her if you say another word.” He looked out at everyone, then back at Chelle. Fear was evident in every line of her face, her eyes wide with terror. “I should have killed you long ago,” he spoke through a clenched jaw close to her ear, but loud enough that we all heard him.
Elvis must have tightened the pressure of the blade he held at the other vamp’s neck. “Don’t kill me,” the vampire begged him. “It’s Grayson. He’s the one, it’s his practice—”
“You fucking asshole!” the vampire shouted, and fear chased down my spine as I watched the blade in his hand swoop up then swiftly slice back down through thin air, not severing her head, but thrusting deep into her bosom.
“No!” I shouted as Chelle slunk down to the ground at the vampire’s feet. Both Lane and Gage charged at the vampire like bullets from an assault rifle. All three bodies flew across the parking lot, slamming into the sedan the three vampires had arrived in. I’d never seen anything move so fast, nor rage such as that which roared from behind Lane’s eyes, but it was Gage who snapped the vampire’s neck, rendering him helpless, and I thought he was surely dead as his large body slumped to the ground next to their car.
I ran to Chelle, the other vampire she’d called Daddy already kneeling by her side. On my knees beside her, I was at a loss for what to do. Blood drained from my head and dizziness flooded me as I looked down at her. She didn’t look alive. The large weapon was still embedded in her chest as blood oozed from the wound, pooling around her.
The rage behind Lane’s eyes grew brighter, and he yanked the short sword out from Chelle’s chest. Without skipping a beat, he slung it all the way through the still broken neck of the vampire on the ground until the sharp blade sparked as it made contact with the pavement. The decapitation made me sick, and vomit rose in my throat. I squeezed my wet eyes closed at the gruesome sight.
Then the vampire’s body, as well as its severed head, ignited into flames. The fire, too close to the gas tank of the car, caused it too to go up in flames. An explosion roared through the thick fog of the night, and all I could think to do was shield Chelle’s body as Cian and Maggie shielded mine from the blast.
Chelle’s blood oozed out faster with the blade removed, and I fought the flow, pressing my palms hard against the wound to keep it all in. I ripped off my shirt to help stop the stream. Maggie and Cian hunched down with me. Cian took off his shirt and handed it to me since mine was already soaked through. Lane buckled over, clenching at his chest, his bond with Chelle so painfully evident.
“She needs human blood,” the vampire who Chelle had called Daddy said.
“He’s right,” Cian agreed.
Everyone’s eyes fell upon me.
Chapter Forty
Josh
Sirens blared in the distance, getting louder as they approached. The blast from the car must have been heard for miles, and grayish-black smoke billowed into the air.
“We need to get out of here. Let’s get Chelle to the car,” Cian said.
I picked her up, cradling her in my arms as Cian opened the door to the limo. I placed Chelle on the bench seat at the back and sat so that her head was propped on my lap. Lane sat on the floor directly in front of us, his hand stroking Chelle’s cheek.
“You must take me with you.” The vampire claiming to be Chelle’s father peeked his head inside the limo. “Please. She is my daughter.”
Cian nodded and he jumped inside. I glanced out the window and watched the other vampire disappear. Sirens got louder with every second that passed. Ari started the car and sped away from the warehouses, the burning vehicle, the vampire whose body was now nothing but ashes. The limo’s tires screeched as we turned a corner. The Jeep Gage and Elvis rode in close behind us.
“She will heal, but it will take time,” Cian said.
I swallowed. “How much time?”
“With a wound like this, it’s difficult to say. We can take her home, make her as comfortable as possible and wait,” Cian said. “I’ve never seen a wound this bad before. I’m sorry, I don’t know.”
“She’ll heal faster with your human blood,” Lane said. I looked up at him. The rage behind his eyes was gone, now they were back to silver-blue like Chelle’s, only the silver in his was glassed over with sorrow and agony.
“Is she in pain?” Stupid question, I thought, but she was a vampire, and I had no idea what vampires experienced when they were injured.
“Yes,” Lane answered, almost too quickly. “She will be in agony as her healing runs its course. However long it takes. If you care about her, don’t make her suffer this way.”
I shook my head. Why was I so adverse to offer her my blood? What was I afraid of? This was my Chelle. The woman I’d been making love to.
“You can relieve her pain,” Lane’s urging tone begged me to do what I knew in my heart was the right thing.
“Show me what to do.”
Lane’s fangs dropped like someone had flipped a switch, and he grabbed my arm, scoring a rather large slit across my wrist. “Ow! Fuck, that hurt.”
He made some sort of hrumph sound, then held my arm against Chelle’s mouth. “Once your blood seeps through her lips and onto her tongue, she’ll start to respond and slowly begin to suck. It’s reflex. The draw will be gentle at first, but brace yourself. As her instincts start to take hold, she will not be able to control herself.”
I held my wrist against her for what seemed like several minutes, but nothing was happening. “She’s not responding,” I said.
“Give it a little longer,” Cian said.
Lane wedged his fingers between my wrist and her mouth, opening her once pink kissable lips. The cut on my wrist throbbed with pain as I watched blood drip down her chin. Then I felt it. The movement was faint, hardly noticeable at first. Her lips moved slightly.
“It’s working,” I said, unable to hide the smile when the tip of her tongue grazed over the wound Lane had made. Then the gentle suckling as her lips pressed softly against me could be felt. The pain from the cut subsided, hardly noticeable any longer.
Her sucking tingled throughout me at first.
This isn’t so bad, I thought. No different from donating blood at a blood bank, right? Though I’d never given blood before, so I had no clue.
Then everything changed. Her draw intensified. Holy hell! Lane hadn’t been kidding when he warned me to brace myself. I felt the tug in my veins all the way down to my toes. My cock swelled in my pants and I was thankful her head rested over it, shielding my excitement from my fellow passengers. My heart palpitated with jubilance. Her sucking was like a euphoric drug, rushing inside of me with an intense state of happiness and contentment. It transcended anything I’d ever known before. I closed my eyes as my mind drifted with the high.
Then Chelle’s fingers wrapped around my arm, pulling me, forcing me against her mouth as she sucked harder and harder. Her strength and the draw so strong I could. Not. Move.
“Chelle, stop, please.” My voice was hoarse from the dryness of my mouth. She continued to suck, and I tried again. “Chelle, please, stop, you’re taking t
oo much.” I grew weaker with each draw. Too tired. My head swam as the inside of the car spun around me and faces blurred.
“That’s enough, Chelle,” Lane’s deep baritone ordered. The power he held over her was undeniable as her eyes snapped open to his and she released her vice-strong grip on my wrist, not giving me a second thought. I collapsed sideways against the side of the car, and Maggie’s tongue ran over my wrist, sealing the cut.
Their eyes latched on to each other’s. The love between them was as evident as the cut on my wrist. I closed my eyes, once again feeling the sting of their bond.
Chapter Forty-One
Chelle
We all sat in the large living room in the mansion, the fancy one with the alcove balcony facing the Golden Gate Bridge. I’d healed completely in the car on the way home. Apparently, thanks to Josh, who now wouldn’t look at me. The agony flowing through my soul from that much greater than the pain from the knife being thrust into my chest.
Tonight, I’d become the monster I’d always feared; almost killing someone I cared deeply for. I’d been uncontrollable. If Lane hadn’t been there, no one would have been able to stop me.
“You’re Grayson?” Lane asked my father.
“Yes. Grayson Ferguson. I was a board certified plastic surgeon in my human life. The night they came and murdered my wife, they’d come for me. My wife, Chelle’s mother, was supposed to stay hidden with our daughter.” He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “I’m grateful for the cop who saved you.” He smiled at me. “I was told they’d found you and killed you, too.” I gave him a small smile. It was the best I could do at the moment, with Josh on the other side of the room, avoiding eye contact with me.
“Why did they come for you?” Lane asked and handed my father a tumbler of scotch.
“Thank you,” he said and sipped, then sat back against the cushion of the sofa. “I had a malpractice suit against me. I’d prescribed medication to a patient that she was highly allergic to. It caused her to have a seizure that turned her into a paraplegic. I’d been tired, overworked, the nurses handwriting was sloppy and illegible. I should have asked her what she’d written, but I was exhausted from a long day of several, back-to-back surgeries, and that was my last one for that day, so I took a guess.
Captivated by a Vampire: Billionaire, Rock Stars, Vampires in San Francisco (Immortal Hearts of San Francisco Book 2) Page 16