Boxed Set

by Brenda K. Davies

  Another cry tore from her as her muscles contracted powerfully around him again. He finally gave himself over to the release he’d been denying as his orgasm was pulled from him by the undeniable gratification her body gave him. A low groan escaped as his release seemed to go on in unending waves he thought might never end.

  Rolling to the side, he pulled her along with him and settled her on top of him as he tried to catch his breath. The tantalizing scents of sex and blood drifted over him; he couldn't help but smile as she clutched his shoulders and fought to catch her breath.

  "I think I'll be too tired to be a threat to anyone now," he told her as he nuzzled her hair.

  She laughed as she lifted her head to look down at him. "I know I am."

  His saliva had already healed the wound on her lip, but there was still some dry blood on her chin. He wiped it away with his thumb before bringing her chin down to kiss her. He could already feel the desire for her blood creeping through him again, and he knew he was getting close to a dangerous precipice. If he didn't complete their bond soon, he would become the threat Stefan and his father were at one point.

  He lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles before reluctantly withdrawing himself from her and rolling away. "I have to go."

  Emma propped her head on her hand as she watched him walk across the room. The scratches she had left on his back were already gone, but dry flecks of blood clung to his skin. He disappeared into the bathroom and showered before reappearing in the doorway. Her gaze raked over his chiseled pecs, carved abs, still partially erect shaft, lean hips, and powerful thighs.

  Mine, the thought rose out of nowhere. It was so overpowering, she was certain it was true.

  "You heal fast," she whispered.

  He gave her a lopsided smile as he pulled on a pair of boxers. "You will soon as well. Our saliva also has a healing agent in it, that's why your lip is fine now. It's also why you'll never have to worry about diseases again."

  Emma frowned at him as she sat up and pulled the sheet against her. "Really?"

  "Yes. None of that will be a concern for you."

  "It's all so strange," she mumbled as she ran a tremulous hand across her now healed lip. There wasn't even a bump from where his teeth had pierced her skin. She couldn't tear her gaze away from his sculpted physique as he pawed through a drawer and came up with a black t-shirt.

  "Ethan?" There was a questioning expression on his face when he turned toward her. "You're mine, right?"

  He broke into a grin and strode across the room toward her. Emma stared at him as he placed his hands on either side of her on the bed.

  "I am yours for eternity, Emma; I will be your rock, your best friend, your lover, and the father of your children. I am going to be by your side for thousands of years, and I’m going to love you every second of every one of those years. When this bond is complete, you will never doubt that again."

  "I don't doubt it now," she whispered as she leaned forward to kiss him. "I just want to make sure you know."

  He laughed as he pulled away. "Oh, I know."

  She watched him as he finished dressing before rising to her feet and pulling her robe on again. "Maybe you should take Stefan and Aiden with you too, just in case," she said nervously.

  "I'll be okay, and I prefer to have more vampires here, with you."

  A knock on the door brought both of their heads toward it. "Let's go, purebred, some of us are hungry!" Brian called from the other side.

  "Maybe that guy won't be safe," Ethan muttered.

  "Why don't you take Stefan instead?"

  He shook his head. "There's no way he'll leave Isabelle behind, and neither of us want Isabelle around this. Are you going to join the others?"

  "I'm just going to hop in the shower again, and then I'll go out."

  "Okay, just don't go outside, at all."

  "I won't," she promised.

  "I'll see you soon. I love you."

  "Love you too." He gave her a swift kiss and left the room. Emma sighed and headed into the bathroom.

  Jill and Mandy were waiting for her when she emerged from the bathroom. "You're really going to do this?" Mandy asked nervously.

  Emma dropped the towel she’d used for her hair on the bed before grabbing the shorts and tank top she set out earlier. She already missed Ethan, it was the strangest sensation, one that almost made her feel like a stalker, but she wanted him here. It made no sense to her, but she couldn't shake it. She disappeared into the bathroom again and dressed before rejoining them.

  "I am," she told them.

  "Are you sure about this?" Mandy's chocolate eyes were troubled as she studied Emma.

  "I've never been more certain about anything in my life," she said honestly.

  "So is this kind of like getting married?" Jill asked.

  Emma laughed as she picked up her hairbrush and ran it through the thick mass of her hair. "I think binding yourself to someone for eternity is kind of like marriage," she said with a smile.

  "I don't even like to bind myself to someone for a month," Jill said as she sat on the edge of the bed. "Ethan's hot and all, and this is about the biggest understatement of the century, but that's a really long time, Emma."

  "It is, and I can't wait."

  Jill shook her head. "This is crazy; you're going to die."

  Emma shuddered at the reminder and dropped the brush. She walked over and sat on the bed beside Jill. "It's going to be okay, I promise, and I do want this."

  "You barely know him."

  "But I feel like I know him better than I've ever known anyone else. I know it sounds crazy, and I know you don't understand, but please trust me on this. Please stand by me. I've stood by all your decisions."

  "My decisions didn't result in my death," Jill retorted.

  "Well, some of them almost resulted in me killing you if that means anything," Mandy said. "Especially the night you drove home drunk from the club, in your underwear, and hanging your head out the window like a dog because you were convinced it would sober you up. I wanted to choke you when you passed me on my way back from the library."

  "Not my finest moment," Jill admitted. "But I survived."

  "And so will I. You heard what Stefan said. My heart will only stop for a second, and then I'll be alive again. I'll be stronger, and I'll be with Ethan, forever. Ugh, I sound like a six-year-old dreaming of a fairytale, and if you were saying these things to me, I'd lock you away until you came down off whatever drugs you were on."

  "I'm considering it," Jill said with a laugh.

  Emma squeezed her hand before wandering back into the bathroom. "Believe me this is one hundred percent a natural high," she said as she turned the water on and brushed her teeth. She spit in the sink and rinsed it before returning to the bedroom. "And it's a good..."

  Her voice trailed off when she spotted Mandy lying prone on the floor, with one hand beneath her and the other stretched out above her head. Blood was already beginning to pool on the tile beneath her head. Fearing she’d fallen, Emma broke free of her paralysis.

  She only made it three steps out of the bathroom when something heavy hit her on the back of the head. She was unable to get her hands underneath her in time to stop herself from face planting onto the floor.

  Blood burst free of her broken nose. Tears blurred eyes, but even as she was trying to figure out what had happened, hands were grabbing her arms and hauling her to her feet. She opened her mouth to scream, but a rag was shoved into it. Choking on the cloth, and the blood trickling from her nose, she found it difficult to see or breathe as she was pulled forward. She tried to fight against the cruel hands holding her, but everything was blurring into twos and threes, and she was pretty sure her brain jiggled like Jell-O in her skull.

  Her toes scraped across the ground as her head lulled forward and she was dragged toward the balcony.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Ethan lifted his head from the young woman he'd been feeding from. After tasting Emma's blood
, the woman's seemed flat, bland. It wasn't awful, but more like water compared to champagne. Looking around the small bathroom, he scented the air as he sensed a strange disturbance in it. The woman swayed on her feet when he released her and took a step away; her glassy eyes were focused on the curtained window in the corner of the room. The bite mark on her neck had already healed when he ordered her out of the room.

  He'd fed from four women and one man since leaving the house, and with Emma's blood coursing through him, he felt almost lightheaded from the power pulsing within his veins. The acrid scent of sweat and sulfur drifted to him, he recognized the combination as fear, but the laughter and music from the bar continued to flow into this backroom. He realized the scent wasn't coming from anyone out there.

  Unreasonable foreboding gripped him. He took another step forward and inhaled deeply. Where was it coming from?

  Grabbing the handle, the door to the bathroom slammed against the wall as he flung it open and strode purposely from the restroom. Ian and Brian were standing by the pool tables, they each held cues in their hands as they talked with a group of young girls who were eagerly hanging on their every word.

  One of the women started to come toward him, but he paid her little attention as he walked toward the door of the bar. His gaze ran across the beach as the sun dipped over the horizon.

  "What are you doing?" Ian asked as he placed his cue against the wall and hurried to his side.

  "Do you smell that?" Ethan inquired.

  "I don't smell anything, are you all set for the night?"

  "Yes," he answered absently. "How do you not smell it?"

  "Maybe you've had too much," Brian suggested as he approached. "How many humans have you fed from at one time before?"

  "Only Emma," Ethan answered absently.

  "Wait, what?" Ian blurted as he did a double take.

  A strange, knowing gleam came into Brian's eyes as his gaze ran over him from head to toe. "I see," Brian murmured, and Ethan got the distinct feeling he really did see. That Brian knew the dirty secret, Ethan hid all these years. That the man he least wanted to understand him, was the one who did.

  "You've had human blood before," Ian insisted.

  "Only in bags."

  "Ethan—"

  "Enough, Ian!" Ethan interrupted brusquely.

  "But I thought—"

  "There's a lot you thought you knew that you don't. Now drop it," he snarled as he stepped out the front door. His head turned as he searched for the scent, but there was a hollow feeling growing within his stomach.

  "What does it smell like?" Brian inquired.

  "Fear." And then it hit him who the smell was coming from. "It's Emma."

  He broke into a run as he fled the bar. It felt as if his feet weren't even hitting the ground as he raced up the road toward the house. He'd never moved so fast in his life, he was nothing more than a blur, one barely perceptible to the human eye and could easily be written off as a fleeting shadow.

  The doorknob never came into play as he smashed into the door, tearing it clean off its hinges and flinging it across the room. Isabelle let out a startled shout, Stefan and Aiden leapt up from the couch. It took him only a second to ascertain Emma wasn't with them. He fled down the hall and burst through the bedroom door with the same recklessness as the first, but this one stayed on its hinges as it crashed into the wall.

  The scent of blood hung heavily in the room; he detected the aroma of Emma's blood immediately before the smell of someone else's filled his nose. His head turned, his nostrils flared as he spotted Mandy lying on the floor.

  "What happened?" Isabelle cried as she ran into the room behind him.

  Ethan turned and ran for the bathroom, but even before he made it to the doorway, he knew Emma wasn't there. Isabelle was kneeling at Mandy's side when he returned; she was carefully holding her head as she turned Mandy over.

  "She's alive," Isabelle whispered as Aiden knelt by her side. "I don't understand; we sensed no one else in the house, no other presence. How is this possible?"

  "Aiden give her some of your blood," Stefan commanded.

  Aiden bit into his wrist and pressed it against Mandy's mouth to help her heal faster. Ethan was drawn by a small puddle of blood on the floor just outside of the bathroom. He knew even before he knelt beside it that it was Emma's. A bellow of fury tore from him, his back hunched up as his muscles constricted. Stefan grabbed Isabelle and pulled her backward; he pushed her toward the wall and positioned himself in front of her.

  Red suffused Ethan's vision; madness crept through his system and twisted within his mind. His body pulsed with the power of the blood he'd consumed today and the rage tearing through him. Something strange was happening to him, his hands fisted at his sides causing the veins in his arms to stand out.

  At first, he thought the red hue of fury clouded his eyes, but as he looked closer, he realized his veins were standing starkly out from his body and turning red. The blood pulsing through them was visible, or maybe it was the blood of those he had drunk from today. Either way, it didn't matter as the red seemed to suffuse him with more power as it spread through his body. His hearing was more acute as he picked up on conversations going on outside; the room was etched into vivid detail as he pinpointed every particle of dust floating through the air.

  "Ethan!" Isabelle yelped.

  Aiden pushed a groggy Mandy toward where Stefan had Isabelle pinned in the corner. Stefan's eyes were a fiery red color as he kept his body firmly in front of Isabelle's, but he made no move to come after Ethan. Ian and Brian burst into the room, both sweating and breathing heavily as they scanned the room.

  "Holy shit!" Ian blurted when his eyes landed on Ethan.

  Brian grabbed Ian's arm and shoved him toward where the others gathered. "Ethan you have to calm down," Stefan said quietly.

  "You were supposed to be watching her!" he snarled as he took a step toward him.

  "What is wrong with you?" Isabelle gasped as her eyes raked Ethan from head to toe.

  Ian tried to get past Brian to get at him, but Brian shoved him back again. "You don't want to tangle with him right now," Brian said in a whisper that drew Ethan's gaze to him. Brian held his hands up and stepped back. "Easy."

  The blood roared in Ethan's ears; the madness was taking over as he moved closer to them. The red in his veins seeped out into his skin, turning him the shade of dark molten lava. He'd never seen anything like it, but it meant nothing to him as his thoughts remained centered on Emma.

  "What happened here?" he demanded. Mandy's eyes were wide on him, her mouth hanging open as she gaped at him. She grabbed Aiden's arm as she took an unsteady step back. "What happened here?"

  She began to shake her head, but then her hand flew to her forehead as she winced. "I don't know. I was sitting on the bed, and the next thing I knew you were all here. Where is Jill?" she asked and lifted her head to look around the room with squinted eyes.

  "Not here," Ethan grated.

  "You can find Emma," Stefan said in a reasonable tone that only irritated him more. "If you just calm down and think, you can find her, Ethan."

  The scent of her blood filled his nose, causing his rage to escalate even higher. The veins in his arms stood out even more; the red suffusing his body deepened as the entire room began to look like blood covered it. Blood. He wanted it so badly right now he could taste it. He could feel it sliding down his throat, and he would have it. He would rip off Tristan's head and gorge himself on his blood.

  The people standing across from him all shrank away.

  "Ethan," Isabelle breathed.

  He turned away from them and raced over to throw open the doors to the balcony; he didn't look back as he grabbed the railing and leapt into the night. Though it was a good fifty-foot drop, he landed silently on his feet.

  "What was that?" Aiden whispered.

  "That was one very pissed off purebred," Brian said as he stepped away from the others.

  "That was like the fuck
ing Hulk," Ian said.

  "We have to go after him. In the mood he's in, he'll kill anything in his way." Brian strode away from them to look out over the balcony.

  "Are we even going to be able to stop him?" Ian inquired.

  "Probably not, but we have to try." Brian jumped off the balcony and followed the blur of Ethan he saw far ahead of him.

  The scent of her blood drew Ethan onward, pushing him faster and faster as he ran up the hillside and past the homes lining it. He didn't know if the others were following him, and he didn't care as he weaved his way through the neighborhoods until he came to a large home nestled in the hillside. His heart raced, anger and frustration warred through him as he stood outside the two-story, robin's egg blue home with three balconies on the front.

  Emma was in there, and she was suffering, he was certain of it as the scent of her blood was even more potent here. He circled the home, but he had no idea how he was going to get to her. The front door was wide open when he completed his circle of the house. He could feel his family and Brian coming, but he wasn't going to wait for them as he approached the door.

  He spotted Emma immediately, sitting in a chair in the middle of the room. His gaze searched the house. He saw no vampires amid the shadows descending and spreading over the home as night fell. His attention turned back to Emma, her hands were tied behind her back, and her ankles were bound to the front legs of the chair. Her head bent forward, so her thick hair fell forward to shield her face.

  The sight of the blood trickling from her nose rapidly drove him forward. He leapt forward only to be knocked back by an invisible wall blocking him from entering the house. Frustration swirled through him, he lifted his hands to press them against the transparent wall, but it was impenetrable. The color permeating his body became such a dark red it was nearly black as the power swirled and pulsed through his body.

  On the couch to the right of Emma's chair, Jill sat as rigidly as a board. Her hands were folded in her lap as she stared at the wall across from her. Ethan had seen that dazed look on the faces of anyone who didn't have control over their minds and were now under the command of a vampire.