“You’re on,” Samuel said with a small smile. He found that he was actually looking forward to getting into some trouble with these guys. Then he leaned back against his pillows and took a deep breath. He pulled on all of his experience as a cop to strengthen his resolve. He had survived shoot outs and all-out war. He was going to survive this. “Let’s do this,” he finally said.
“Ready?” Jacque asked. Samuel nodded and Jacque made a quick movement with his wrist and then moved around the bed so fast that Sam’s eyes didn’t register the movement. Jacque returned to his original post and looked at Samuel expectantly.
Well was he going to do it or not? Samuel thought. He was about to ask him that very thing, even opened his mouth to do it, but it was then that white hot pain lanced up both of Samuel’s arms. It felt like a knife being dragged up his skin. He already had his mouth open so it was with no effort that he yelled out,
“Owwwww, what the fuck?”
He looked down at his arms and saw that while Jacque was playing Lightning Man, he had in fact, cut both of Samuel’s wrists. Not straight across the way Samuel thought he would, but identical vertical slits that he was pretty sure went deeper than bone. And from those slits, bright red blood was pouring out. It was running down his hands and into the sterile buckets strategically placed under each hand, landing with a sickening drip. His stomach flipped over inside his body.
Samuel groaned and dropped his head back against the pillow. He did his best to ignore the pain and decided to talk instead. “Someone gonna drink that or is it gonna go to waste?”
“We may yet put it back in you,” Jacque said with a smile, “But thanks for offering.”
Samuel wanted to say something snide or funny to break the tension, but the marching band in his head woke up and started hammering away full force. He tried to raise his hand to rub his temples, but the restraints held firm.
“Let me help,” Frankie said. She moved to his side and began rubbing his head. “This will be over soon,” she said softly in his ear. “The blood loss will cause a headache and yours is especially sensitive.”
Samuel wanted to scream for it to stop. He wanted to back out now and just live his life on pain meds. He wanted to never feel this again. But then the part of his mind that was still coherent reached up and smacked him. He really needed to stop being such a pussy. This was the way to end the pain. Whether he lived or died now, the pain would be gone. He shoved his panic back down into his stomach and squeezed his eyes shut. If he was going to meet his maker this day, he was going to do it with dignity. He thought of things that had made him happy in life. He thought of his mother, who had been so sweet and beautiful before she died. He thought of his ex-wife. They had been happy together at one time, and he hoped she was happy now, wherever she was. He thought about baseball and football. He thought about anything but the pain.
“As soon as the transfer is complete, I will dope you full of Morphine,” Jacque was saying. Was he talking to Samuel? He couldn’t tell, he was too far away.
The pain did finally start to recede, but it was replaced by a chill that went bone-deep. Samuel started shivering and no matter how hard he tried to control it, he couldn’t stop it.
“You are almost there,” Jacque said, appearing in Samuel’s line of sight. The light behind his head made Jacque look something like a ghost to Samuel. He hoped the man knew what he was doing, because he knew the end was near. He could feel his own heart trying desperately to pump the little blood that was left in his body. It was hammering against his chest wall and Samuel laughed in his own mind as a song popped into his head. “If I had a hammer,” it went, “I’d hammer in the morning…”
The humor was short lived as Samuel felt darkness creeping around the edges of his mind. It threatened to overtake him. He didn’t want to die! Not now! He had to live! He struggled against his bonds in an effort to get the hell out of there! What was he thinking!
He looked for help from anyone, but no one moved to release him. “I need you to focus now Samuel,” Angel said firmly. “Do you want to change?”
What Samuel wanted was to live. He focused as hard as he could because as difficult as it was to believe, there was still a part of his brain that was functioning. He struggled to form the words that would make this stop. It was now or never. Did he want to change? Yes. Yes he did. But still no one moved. He had to say the words.
“Yes,” he managed to croak out before his vision began to tunnel.
“Now,” Jacque said and things moved very quickly then. Gage was standing over him and Jacque made a deep gash in his wrist. Gage then shoved that wrist into Samuel’s mouth. Rich, thick blood gushed into his mouth. His initial reaction was to gag and try to spit it out.
“You have to swallow,” Gage said, touching Samuel’s throat. What the fuck was he doing? He was stroking his throat like someone would do to a dog when they wanted it to swallow a pill. Oh yeah, he needed to swallow or die.
Samuel forced himself to swallow the liquid that was filling his mouth and spilling over the sides and draining down his chin. He felt it hit his stomach and it lurched with the instinct to vomit, but Samuel held it down. The second gulp was easier, then the third and fourth. He was starting to feel better when he felt someone’s mouth on his wrists. Both Jacque and Frankie were sucking the blood out of his body, draining the last of his human blood from him. Samuel couldn’t say or do anything but hope that his friends were going to take care of him. They very literally had his life in their hands.
He felt a sharp sting in the bend of his elbow and recognized it as a needle. He knew Jacque was setting in the IV like he had promised. Soon, the vampire’s blood would be flooding into Samuel’s body through that tube.
As his blood supply was replaced, the cold dissipated and Samuel began to feel somewhat better. He thought maybe he had climbed the mountain and was going over the peak because the pain was backing off as well. He had been warned that the change was painful, but in hindsight it hadn’t been too horrifyingly bad after all. When Gage removed his arm from Samuel’s mouth, he drew in a sigh of relief.
“Not so bad,” Samuel said.
“I am going to give you pain meds now,” Jacque said.
“No, it’s ok,” Samuel managed to whisper.
“Hon, it ain’t over yet,” Frankie said.
He wondered what more there could be to it. He had gone to the brink of death and survived! The rest was cake, right?
“You just hold on to that thought, ok?” Frankie said, just as the warming feeling turned in to white hot pain and it exploded in Samuel’s chest. It radiated from his heart throughout his whole body and his back bowed off the bed with it. Someone screamed. Somewhere in his mind, Samuel knew it had been he who was screaming. Samuel thought he had been through the worst of it, but his last coherent thought was that his nightmare had just begun.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“I know you are not pleased with our upcoming union,” Rakimesh said to Serena. “I only hope that one day you will come to care for me.”
Serena looked up from her kindle and really took a look at what was to be her husband. He was tall, lean, muscular, eyes as dark as night and hair as black as coal. His skin was a lovely caramel color that looked like a perpetual tan with the slightest glimmer that all fey had. If she were to be perfectly honest, he was quite attractive. He just didn’t do it for her. Her type was more the brown hair, blue eyes, and fangs sort.
“Look,” she finally said, “I don’t want to marry you. It isn’t because you are ugly or repulsive in some manner, or that you are lacking in any way. It is because my heart belongs to someone else and that will never change. I will be loyal to you. In time, I may care for you. I may even like you. I may be forced to marry you, but please do not ask me to love you. I cannot and will not promise you that.”
“I don’t have a choice in this either, Princess,” he said solemnly.
Serena cringed when he used Gage’s pet name for her. “I kno
w that too,” she said, “and don’t call me Princess. Never call me that.”
Rakimesh raised a brow at her demand, but did not question her. This was no time to start an argument.
“Maybe we should try to just be civil to one another?” he offered.
Serena sighed heavily. She wanted him to leave her alone. She didn’t even want to entertain a future with this man, much less try and make even the vaguest of plans. What she wanted was for Gage to prove that she was right about him being her soul mate and come to her rescue. But he had not even attempted to contact her. At this point, all she could do was hope that something, anything, would happen to stop this madness. Something had to happen to stop her future from hurdling out of control away from her.
A little voice inside her head told her that she had to have faith. Things would work out the way they were meant to be, even if they weren’t exactly the way she wanted. “Civil,” she finally said, more to herself than to him.
“And, if it isn’t too much to ask, perhaps you could refrain from doing detrimental damage to the more sensitive parts of my body?” he asked with a small smile.
Serena blushed from the top of her head all the way down to her feet. She felt marginally bad for what she had put him through, but in her mind, he still deserved it. He was keeping her from Gage and that just plain pissed her off. He could stand up to his father if he wanted to. But he didn’t, did he? No, he was going to go right along with the plans, as if there wasn’t a great big flashing sign saying Serena didn’t want to marry him.
He might as well be keeping her in chains.
“Things have a way of working out for the best,” he said to her as he moved closer to her bed. He was still talking, but all Serena could think was he better not touch her. She assumed that Delia had been with him, since he came to her quietly instead of demanding her head on a platter for what she did to him.
Delia hadn’t come to her though, so she was still a bit in the dark.
“You don’t love me either,” she said.
“No, I do not. But this is the way things have been for as long as the Fey have been around,” he said. “I am not inclined to punish you for your actions,” he stopped to cringe ever so slightly, “But I do wish to know why you felt you couldn’t talk to me about your reservations.”
“Duh,” Serena said. She had been hanging out with Gage and his family so much that she was starting to sound like them. The thought almost brought a smile to her face. Almost, but no dice. “You are keeping me here against my will. You are forcing me to marry you. Why on Earth would I think that you would be willing to listen?”
Rakimesh nodded in understanding. “I can trust that you will not do anything like that again?”
“As long as you don’t try to touch me, I won’t wreck your man parts again,” she said.
“I give you my word, I will not touch you until you are ready for it,” he said, “But if you attack me again, I will be forced to punish you.”
Serena felt the anger balling up in her chest. Punish her? Ha! Not likely. He could try, and she swore to herself that if he did, it would be the last thing this fey ever did. Challenge accepted. She raised her brow at him to let him know that she didn’t think he would be punishing her, ever. But she nodded her agreement to not attack him again.
“I feel that we have come to a truce of sorts,” he said.
“Of sorts,” she repeated with just a hint of sarcasm.
He sat gently on the edge of her bed. Serena pulled her feet closer to her body to avoid any sort of contact. He didn’t miss the motion, but he didn’t say anything about it either. “Perhaps I should tell you about me,” he said.
Serena shrugged her shoulders. She listened while he prattled on and on about how his life was when he was a child and about how his parents’ marriage had been arranged. It was all Serena could do just to pay attention. She really didn’t want to get to know him any more than she wanted to rush head long down the aisle to marry him.
Someone knocked on her door and Serena felt a small sense of relief. “Yes?” she said a little too enthusiastically.
“Miss,” the servant said as she entered the room, “I need to see if this fits.” Serena eyed the garment bag the woman was holding over her shoulder. She motioned for the lady to come in and when Rakimesh excused himself, it dawned on Serena what was in that bag.
“Is that what I think it is?” she asked.
“Oh yes,” the little woman said. “It is your wedding gown. You must try it on and then we will make any adjustments needed before the big day!” She was way too happy about this, Serena thought as the young woman gently hung the bag on the door. She was shorter than Serena by a good five inches, but she was a fey, and size had little to do with power. The little servant was a spitfire. Too bad she had no clue how badly Serena wanted to burn that dress. She watched her in silent horror as the bag was unzipped and the dress was revealed. “Isn’t it beautiful?” she asked, beaming.
“It’s lovely,” Serena replied. It really was. It was an off the shoulder number with beautiful jewels stitched into the bodice. It would fit tightly around her middle and the skirts would flow out around her.
“Let’s get it on you,” she said.
Serena reluctantly stood and allowed the woman to pull her nightgown over her head. She dutifully stepped into the dress when prompted. She was right. The gown was tight around her belly, but the skirts were huge. And as if that weren’t bad enough, the breast was a little big. Ok, realistically, it was way too big for her small chest, but she wasn’t going to admit that.
“Oh it looks like we will have to take it in here,” the servant said. Serena waited patiently as the little lady poked, pulled, and pinned at the dress. After an eternity, she finally deemed it perfect and unzipped it. It weighed a good twenty pounds, Serena decided, since she felt so much lighter after it fell to her feet.
The woman scurried away with the dress, leaving Serena alone once again. This was really happening, she thought. Gage, if you can hear me, please, think of something!
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Samuel could hear people talking softly nearby. He didn’t even have to strain to listen to the words. He could tell by the low timbre of one of them that it was definitely Jacque. The other voice belonged to Angel. They were discussing how someone would wake up. Were they talking about him?
He couldn’t tell. He cracked one eye open and found himself alone in his room. It was dark, but Samuel could see well enough. How in the world was he hearing voices not in this room? Maybe he was dead. His mother had always told him that when someone died they could see and hear everything if they wanted to.
No, he didn’t think he was dead. His mind slowly began to catch up. He had asked Jacque to change him. He remembered watching his blood flow out of his body and then it was replaced with blood from the brothers. He remembered wanting to die for a while and then feeling relieved when the dying part subsided. And then he remembered the change.
Frankie had told him it would hurt. Man, was that the understatement of the year or what? He couldn’t quite recall how she had described it to him, but he remembered the pain. He didn’t think there were words to even describe it properly. If he had to, he would say that it felt like someone used an IV to push straight nitro into his veins and then lit it on fire. And where the hell was all the extinguishers these people kept around for that? Did they use it on him? Hell no! They watched the blaze and roasted some fucking marshmallows until he was nothing more than ash. And then, when that part was done, someone pumped him full of lead and let him bleed out right there on the table. It was when he was certain that death had come for him and he felt himself slipping away, that he could finally relax. He had welcomed death at that point. He had prepared himself to meet God and he was ready to do it.
That was the last thing Samuel remembered. Now, he was lying in a bed in a dark room all by himself. He knew he must have survived because he could hear his own heart racing in his che
st. He sat up quickly and then braced himself for the pain that would undoubtedly grab hold of his brain and do a little jig before letting him get his bearings.
But the pain did not come.
He tested the waters further by swinging his feet off the bed. He waited, but the pain still did not come. It didn’t come when he pushed off the bed and landed on his feet. His feet, however, did complain. Not with pain, but damn, the floor was cold.
“Fuck me,” he swore aloud.
“Nice to see you up and moving around,” Frankie said. Fuck, where the hell did she come from? She moved silently from the corner of the room.
“Um, hey,” Samuel said as he waited for his heart to slow down. The woman was going to give him heart failure.
“Not likely,” she said nonchalant. “Your heart is stronger than ever.”
“Are you picking thoughts out of my head?” he asked while rolling his eyes. Of course she was.
“Not exactly,” she answered. “You are just thinking very loudly. In time, you will learn to shield your thoughts and not project them out for the whole world to hear. It just takes practice.”
“Right, practice,” he repeated. He headed for the bathroom out of habit, but then realized that he did not have to go.
“How are you feeling?” she asked him.
He took the opportunity to take stock of his body. For the first time in months, his head did not hurt. In fact, it felt lighter on his shoulders than it had in a very long time. He felt strong. He felt healthy. Even his cold ass feet were feeling pretty damned good at the moment. The only thing that felt a little out of the way was that his stomach felt tight, as if it were on the edges of being hungry.
“We overstuffed you during the change,” Frankie said. “You will still need to learn to feed immediately though.”
“And just how will I do that?” he asked.
“Well,” she answered, “the guys all fed me in the beginning. I don’t know for sure what they intend to do with you.”
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