When a Vamp Falls (War of Blood and Bonds Book 1)

by A. M. Griffin

  Dani glanced up—bright orange painted the sky as the sun set. Ramsey would be on his way soon. The creepiness that had soaked down to her bones was beginning to ease. With Ramsey staying at her house she could finally get some sleep.

  “Earth to Dani.”

  She snapped out of her thoughts.

  “Have you tried to get in touch with Alex?” Jamie asked again.

  “I don’t know where Alex is. It’s like he fell off the face of the Earth. I’m a little concerned about him actually.”

  She should’ve told Ramsey about the rats, but with Alex still missing she didn’t want to. Ramsey said that he hadn’t seen Alex since he told him to leave her house. And she believed him. But there was a niggling feeling in the back of her mind that something wasn’t right. There were too many things happening at once. A budding romance with Ramsey, Alex missing, and now the “gifts” being left on her car.

  “Don’t worry about that dude. If Alex is showing up at your place when you told him not to, then you don’t want to be dealing with that creeper anyway.”

  “I know, and you’re right. It’s just that I was worried that Ramsey did something to him.”

  That caught Jamie’s attention. She turned around to face Dani. “What would Ramsey do to him?”

  Dani shook her head and tried to laugh. “When Alex didn’t look like he was going to leave my house, Ramsey wasn’t too happy about it. But Alex left though.” Dani waved her off. “Forget I said anything.”

  She’d told Jamie and Bride about Alex showing up unexpectedly and how Ramsey had to chase him away. Of course, she’d left out the part about Ramsey being two seconds from killing Alex. She wasn’t ready to tell her sister and best friend that her new boyfriend had a murderous streak. Somehow that wouldn’t sit well with them.

  Jamie waggled her eyebrows and bumped Dani’s shoulder with her own. “Damn, girl. You already have Ramsey fighting for your love?”

  Dani chuckled. “It’s not like that. Like you said, Alex was being a creeper, and Ramsey had to be … forceful with him.”

  “Well, good riddance.” Jamie turned around and waved at a passing Luca again.

  “Yeah, you’re right. Alex isn’t my problem.”

  “So, tell me what’s going on with you and Ramsey? Whirlwind romance, eh?”

  Dani couldn’t help but smile. A tingling sensation erupted in her stomach. “Something like that. He’s spending my off nights with me. The next three nights should be … pretty interesting.”

  On her last off-work stretch they’d done nothing but cuddle on the couch and watch old movies. Oh, and they’d had a lot of hot, earth-shattering, scream out each other’s names, sex. This time she’d planned to take him to the movies. She’d been appalled to find out that he’d only gone to two movies in his lifetime. The first “picture movie”—as he’d called it—didn’t have sound, and the second was an old Dracula movie. He hadn’t liked either.

  “Whoa. That’s serious as hell.”

  Heat crept from her neck up her cheeks. She hoped it was serious. He hadn’t mentioned anything about her upgrading to girlfriend status or anything, but she hoped that it was just a matter of time. “Yeah.”

  “So what time does his flight get in?”

  Dani glanced up at the sky again. Dark gray. The sun had officially set. It was already dark in New Orleans, but Ramsey had to wait for the sun to go down in LA in order to make the trip. As he’d put it, he didn’t want to burn up in-flight because a miscalculation. “Anytime now.”

  “Are you meeting him at the airport?”

  Dani shook her head. “I sent him a text when we first arrived and told him to meet me here.”

  Jamie bumped her again. “You go, girl. You have a man that isn’t all about playing games.”

  Dani chuckled. “No, he isn’t.” She’d wondered if they were moving too fast. There wasn’t a day that went by that they didn’t talk or text. When he’d found out she had three days off in a row he’d wanted her to come to New Orleans. She’d declined because her dad was on a fishing trip, and she didn’t have anywhere to take Libby. Ramsey hadn’t hesitated to ask if he could go to her house.

  “So three days of hanging out at your house and the two of you playing house. Should I start picking out my bridesmaid dress?” Jamie pointed at her. The grin replaced with seriousness. “If you stick me in some pastel, puffy mess, I will boycott your wedding.”

  Dani pushed on Jamie’s hand, lowering it. “No wedding bells yet.” Did vampires get married? “Just hanging out.”

  “Playing house,” Jamie added.

  “Yeah.” The smile dropped from Dani’s face. Oh, no!

  The dead rats had worked her up, and she’d left her house without cleaning. Ugh. There were three days’ worth of dishes piled in her sink, and she could probably make a whole new dog out of Libby’s fur that was in clumps on her floor. Dust bunnies were probably everywhere. Had she even changed her sheets from his last visit?

  Dani grumbled. Jamie leaned over and rubbed her arm. “Hon, what’s wrong?”

  Dani dropped her head in her palms. “I’ve been so busy working and finishing my thesis and worrying about the crap being left on my car that I forgot to clean.”

  Jamie gave her arm a squeeze. “And? Just clean when you get home. He knows that you’ve been busy.”

  Dani lifted her head to look at Jamie. “You’ve seen my house after a three-day work stretch. You don’t even let your kids roam free in it.”

  “I don’t let them loose because your house isn’t kid-proof, not because there’s something wrong with it. The last time we were there Luca was eating dog food and Ashlin was trying to dry her baby doll’s hair in the stove.” Jamie folded her arms and rolled her eyes. “I can’t wait until they grow up and move out.”

  Dani laughed, remembering the day vividly. Jamie had had a conniption while her kids were on a reign of terror. Dani tried to straighten her face when Jamie glared at her.

  “I can’t wait until you have kids. Only then will you understand my pain.”

  Dani’s smile easily slid from her face. Vampires can’t have children.

  “Danya.” An eerie voice called out to her.

  She frowned and glanced around. It was as if the voice whispered in her ear. She scanned the sea of people, but no one looked familiar and no one paid attention to her.

  Jamie laughed about something she’d said and called out to Luca. The ride had stopped.

  Uneasiness settled over Dani, making all the hairs on her arms stand on end. A chill ran through her. She crossed her arms and rubbed them with her hands. She glanced around again. The people that passed her were laughing and having a good time. But still, something was off. “Do you need me to help get him?” she asked Jamie.

  “I got it.” Jamie made her way through the gate to Luca, and Dani stayed where she was.

  “Danya, I see you.”

  She looked left. Nothing there. She turned in a small circle, eyes wide and searching. Nothing.

  Then, she saw him, standing on the other side of the ride, a lone figure in a crowd of people. He watched her.

  Alex.

  His eyes were focused and … glaring.

  “Alex?” She lifted her hand to wave.

  “Come here, Danya.”

  He scared her. Something was wrong. She wanted to tell him no, shake her head, but she couldn’t. There was a tug she couldn’t resist. She had to go to him.

  Dani took a step in his direction and hit a brick wall. She had to get around the wall. She needed to get to Alex. He’d called her. He wanted her. She wanted him.

  “Dani?”

  The invisible rope that pulled her to Alex snapped, jarring her into the present. She tried to blink away her confusion. Alex was gone.

  “Dani, sweetheart.”

  Dani frowned and shook her head. Where had Alex gone?

  Strong hands held onto her arms. “What’s the matter? Are you okay?”

  She looked up. Ramse
y. The fogginess left her head in an instant. Relief flood through her. She’d been saved. But from what she didn’t know.

  “Ramsey.” She rushed out and wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight. She shook. “When did you get here?”

  Ramsey glanced to where she’d been looking, where Alex had been. “Just now. Where were you headed off to?”

  She willed her mouth into a smile and rose on her tippy toes to kiss him. “Nowhere. Just waiting for you.”

  Jamie walked over with Luca on her hip. “I was wondering where you were running off to.” She winked at Ramsey. “Now I see what the rush was about. Hey, Ramsey.”

  Ramsey took Jamie’s hand and gave the back of it a light kiss. “Nice to see you again, Jamie.” He nodded at Luca and grinned. “Is he yours?”

  Jamie kissed Luca on the cheek. “Yeah, I’m claiming him this week.” She looked over Ramsey’s shoulder. “And my husband and my big girl are headed this way.” Jamie waved at Jimmy.

  “Are you ready for this?” she whispered in Ramsey’s ear.

  “I’ve met girlfriend’s friends before.”

  Dani lifted a questioning eyebrow. “Oh, have you now?”

  “Pft. Yeah, like, three hundred years ago.”

  She elbowed him. “Well, be prepared for Jimmy to ask you twenty questions.”

  Ramsey wrapped an arm around her waist, and they walked behind Jamie as she went to meet Jimmy. “Or I can just enthrall him to make him think that he’s already asked me all the questions then you and I can leave here and go back to your place.”

  Her chin dropped. “You wouldn’t.”

  “To be alone with you?” He smiled mischievously. “I would.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “So, tell me about enthralling.” She lay on her back on one end of her bed, and Ramsey lay facing the other way with the sheet tangled around their legs. She had no idea how they ended up like that, but instead of righting themselves, they rubbed each other’s feet.

  “That’s the one thing that the movies got right.”

  “Really?” She thought about an old vampire movie that she’d seen when she was little. The vampire had enthralled the woman to get up and open the window so that he could bite her. In the movie the lady had been a mindless drone, on her way to her death. “You guys can really control someone’s mind?”

  “Yup.”

  “Do you read their thoughts or what?”

  “Or what.”

  She ran a finger lightly across the bottom of his foot, and he jerked away. Who knew vampires were so ticklish? “I’m being for real. What’s it like?”

  “We don’t read anyone’s mind, because we don’t need to. If I wanted you to do my bidding all I have to do is direct a thought specifically to you.”

  “Well, that sounds really simple.” What would she do if she had that special kind of super power? She’d probably command all of her patients to lay off their call lights for the night and for once would have a carefree shift at work.

  “It is.”

  “Have you done that to me? Enthralled me?” She asked the question even though she knew the answer. She’d never felt like a drone around Ramsey. In fact, he had the opposite effect on her. When she was with them everything felt, good, alive and so full of life.

  “Well, there was that time that I made you drop to your knees…”

  She bolted upright. “Are you freaking kidding me?”

  He chuckled. “Yes, yes, I’m kidding you.”

  She glared at him.

  “Seriously.” He lifted his right hand. “I swear that I have never, ever enthralled you.”

  She gave him a look before she lay back down. “That’s just not right.”

  “No, it isn’t. That’s why I don’t do it unless I have to.”

  “And when do you have to?”

  “Do you really want to hear this?”

  She maneuvered to face him and settled her head into the crook of his armpit. “Yes, I do.”

  He let out a heavy sigh. “I enthrall my blood donors.”

  “First of all, can you call them by their names? ‘Blood donors’ sounds so impersonal.”

  “Fine. I enthrall Nadine, Krista, and Celine when I feed from them.”

  All women. She pushed down the jealousy that reared its ugly head. “Why? Because you don’t want them to remember what’s happening?”

  He rubbed his hand down her arm. “No, I give them good thoughts. If I don’t, the experience can … hurt.”

  “Uh, yeah.”

  He pulled her to lay across his chest and kissed her forehead. “Sorry about that. I was all types of messed up that night.”

  She pinched his nipple. “Well, you were dying. I guess I can let it slide that one time.”

  “It wasn’t just that. There was something else.”

  She snuggled against his chest. He had a body as hard as stone, but he sure was comfortable. The hairs on his chest tickled her cheek as her head rode the rise and fall of his breaths. His breathing was for her benefit. There wasn’t a reason for it. The silence in his chest reminded her of that. It should have scared her, freaked her out, but being with him created a calmness. “Hm? What?”

  “When I was drinking from you I had a vision. It was … weird.”

  “So, drinking my blood weirded you out?”

  “It was something different. Not anything that I’ve ever experienced before.”

  “Okay, I’m curious now. What was this vision of yours?”

  He traced his hand down the side of her stomach and to her hip where he made small circles. “It was of us. You on top of me. We were having sex.”

  She moaned and ran her hand across his flat stomach. “I like this vision already. Tell me more.”

  “It was like I was there. I could feel you. Touch you. It was so damn real.”

  She lifted her leg over his waist and pushed herself to sit on top of him. She cupped his chest muscles with her hands. “So, I guess we have to make that dream a reality.”

  His eyes, hooded, took her in, raking across her breasts and down to her pussy. He pulled his bottom lip into his mouth and ran his hands over her waist. “It wasn’t a dream. Or at least it hadn’t felt like it. That was the weird part.”

  She wiggled her hips, and his cock responded. Hardening under her. Good lord, she could ride him all night long. “Okay, so let’s make this vision come true.”

  He lowered his gaze. “That’s never going to happen.”

  Confused she looked down at crotch. “Me on top of you. Yeah, this can happen.”

  While he caressed her hips lazily, she could feel the tension radiating from him. “Not this vision. We weren’t here. We were in my room.”

  She lifted a brow. “So I can ride you here and there. What’s the big deal?”

  “We weren’t in my room. We were in my room-room. The one I sleep in.”

  She dropped, bringing her nose inches from his. “Oh, you mean your lair?” He hadn’t mentioned anything about sleeping in a separate room before, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to guess that he didn’t sleep in a room full of windows all day.

  He let out a snort. “I guess if you want to call it that.”

  “And the vision was weird because…”

  “Because I would never take a human to my lair.”

  She stuck out her bottom lip in jest. “Not even me?”

  He ran a thumb across her mouth. “Especially not you. My lair isn’t a safe place for humans. It’s too cold, and if I woke up before I should, it could be dangerous—deadly.”

  She crinkled her nose. “Well, yeah, I can see how your vision was weird then. I hate cold places.”

  He nodded. “And I knew your name when you hadn’t told me yet. I knew that you went by Dani.”

  “Hm, you’re right. That’s a little spooky.”

  “And you called me by my name.”

  She gave his nose a playful tap and stretched out across his body. “Well, it would stand to rea
son that I would know your name. It’s your vision.”

  “You called me my birth name. No one calls me that anymore.”

  “Your name really isn’t Ramsey?”

  “No.” He stroked her hair.

  “Well? Are you going to enlighten me?”

  “No. That would just make it one step closer to being real, and…” He blew out a hard breath. “It’s just a little nerve-wracking.”

  “Well, it was just a vision-dream. No sense dwelling on it.”

  “Yeah, but it distracted me so much that I almost killed you. I kept drinking long after I should’ve stopped.”

  “I’m fine now.”

  “I know. It’s just that I think about how close I came to … killing you, and it makes me sick.” He wrapped his arms around her, clasping them on her back. “You don’t understand how much meeting you has changed my life.”

  “Really? You aren’t just saying that to get me into bed? Because I’m already here—willingly. You don’t need to feed me a line or anything.” She trailed her hand to cup his face.

  “Dani, I don’t have a need for any lines. Before you, life was mundane. Dismal. I’d been thinking about my own mortality.”

  “And now?” she asked softly.

  “I haven’t felt this way in a long time.”

  She wanted to believe that he felt the same as she did. That being without him was unimaginable. But how could she mean so much to a being who’d lived hundreds of lifetimes? “What makes being with me so special?” She held her breath.

  “A very long time ago—before I was turned into what I am now. I had three beautiful daughters. Melliandra, Annama, and Litua.” She felt the curve of his smile on her hand.

  Warmth overtook her. She hadn’t thought about it before, but at that moment she could easily see him with children. Doting and loving. “You must’ve been a good papa.”