Yet here I was, about to check something I had no right to check. I was invading her privacy.
Still, I had to know. She was mine now—mine to protect.
I left my car and walked to her door. I didn’t bother knocking because she wasn’t home anyway.
I let my hand hover over the door knob for a few seconds before I grasped it.
It didn’t turn.
She had locked her door.
Chapter Six
Erin
I jolted when I heard my door knob. I walked briskly out of the kitchen and regarded it. Someone was trying to turn it. Trying to break in. I frantically searched for my phone. Had I left it in the bedroom? I’d used it to call in sick to work. I hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep, and I’d be no good to patients in my current mental state.
I turned to go up the stairs—
But a veil of calmness settled over me.
Dante.
Dante was trying to get in. And I’d locked the door this time. I walked back.
“Who’s there?”
“Erin?” His voice, of course. “Sorry. I thought you were at work.”
“So you thought you’d break into my house?”
“Of course not. Look. This conversation will be a whole lot easier if you open the door.”
My hand automatically reached toward the deadbolt. “I told you to leave.”
“I know. I did. I’ll leave again if you tell me to.”
Instinctively I knew he was being truthful. But why did I feel this way? After what had transpired, I should be frightened out of my wits.
Still, I was certain Dante would not lie to me. Not anymore. I wasn’t sure he ever had.
I turned the deadbolt and opened the door.
He wore jeans that encased his firm thighs beautifully and a black T-shirt with no logo. His hair was a mass of waves around his handsome and stubbled face. His dark eyes were mesmerizing.
So mesmerizing.
I could never shut the door in his face, though that was what my mind was telling me to do, despite my emotions saying otherwise.
“May I come in?”
Did I have to invite him in? Or would he tell me that was a myth as well?
I decided to do an experiment. “No.”
“All right. I guess we can talk like this, but it’s nearing midnight. You shouldn’t have your door wide open.”
I edged back a little and then feigned a stumble. He entered swiftly and steadied me.
“Another myth,” I said.
“What?”
“That you can’t come in unless you’re invited.”
“Erin, I’ve come in uninvited before. Remember? When you left the door unlocked and fell asleep on your laptop? And yes, that’s a myth.”
Right. Now I felt pretty idiotic. I shut the door and turned the deadbolt.
“What are you doing home?” he asked.
“I called in sick. I’m a mess, Dante. I didn’t get any sleep at all. All I could think about was how my whole life has been turned upside down.”
“You don’t have to be afraid of me, Erin.”
“Damn it!” I pulled at my hair. “I’m not afraid of you. I probably should be, but I’m not. I don’t know why I’m not.”
“I know why.”
“Do you? Maybe you should explain it to me, then. Because if I don’t get a handle on this, I won’t get any sleep tomorrow either, and I won’t be able to work. If I can’t work, I can’t pay my bills. What have you done to me?”
“I didn’t do anything to you, Erin. What was done to you has been done to me as well. I don’t fully understand it, but together, we can try to figure it out. Do you want to know why you aren’t afraid of me?”
“Please. Enlighten me.”
“Because you love me. And I love you. But even that love isn’t the strongest bond between us.”
My head was whirling. I’d been up for over twenty-four hours. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to process anything he told me. Especially knowing the subject matter.
“Believe it or not, I didn’t come to see you tonight. I thought you’d be at work, and I came to make sure you locked your door.”
“Why is that any of your business?”
“Because your safety is my business! Because I’d die if something happened to you! Is that good enough for you?”
His words flowed into my mind, and though I comprehended them, I also felt them. They moved me almost in a literal way as I found myself inching toward him despite my desire to stay away, to forget all of this, to go back to my simple life where vampires didn’t exist.
But in that simple life, there was no Dante. There was no “most amazing sex I’d ever had.” There was no orgasm that blinded me with colors and made me float on air.
“You can’t stay away from me, Erin.”
I gathered all my strength and forced my feet to stay glued to the ground. No more inching toward him. No more.
“I can, and I will.”
“We’re bonded. We need each other.”
“Bonded? What the hell are you talking about?” My feet itched to continue their forward movement. I clenched my hands into fists, hoping the tension would force my legs to stay immobile.
“I don’t fully understand it myself, but that pull you’ve felt since we met? That’s part of it.”
“But I’m not…one of you.”
“Vampire. I’m a vampire, Erin. You need to say the word. I need to hear you say the word. To accept what I am.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Vampires don’t exist, Dante.”
I popped my eyes open when he gripped my shoulders, his dark gaze searing into me. Already I burned from his touch, his nearness.
“They exist. I exist. Say it. Say I’m a vampire, Erin. Say I’m a vampire, and you love me.”
“I…can’t.”
“You are human. And I love you, Erin Hamilton, with everything that I am. I will never harm you, and I will never allow anyone or anything else to cause you harm. I will die protecting you if I have to.” His grip on me strengthened. “Now say it, damn it. Say ‘you’re a vampire, Dante, and I love you.’”
My mouth dropped open, and the words formed on the folds of my vocal cords.
You’re a vampire, Dante, and I love you.
But they stayed lodged at the back of my throat.
My mind dueled with my heart. Vampires don’t exist. Yet this man sucked my blood, and when he did, I experienced the most intimate sensation of my life. But vampires don’t exist.
Vampires don’t exist.
I couldn’t. Couldn’t let the words flow. If I did, I’d be admitting that everything I knew to be true in the world was a fabrication. Life would be forever changed.
“You will say the words, Erin. Maybe not today, but you will in the future. Sooner than you think.” He loosened his grip on my shoulders. “I will leave now, if you ask me to.”
I opened my mouth once more, ready to tell him to get out, but again the words wouldn’t emerge.
I didn’t want him to leave. Being near him seemed…right. Right in a new and wonderful way. That pull hadn’t lessened at all. In fact, I felt it stronger than ever, like an invisible rope around my waist that he was yanking toward him, and I was powerless to escape.
No. That was a lie.
I didn’t want to escape.
How could I turn my back on an intimacy I’d never imagined? Emotions I’d never encountered? Never dreamed could exist in this world?
I couldn’t.
And that scared the hell out of me.
“Just say the words, Erin,” he said again. “Tell me to leave, and I will. You know I’m not lying. I’ll do whatever you ask.”
This time words came, but they weren’t the words I was thinking. The words I was trying, but failing, to will myself to say. Four completely different words tumbled forth.
“Kiss me, Dante. Please.”
Chapter Seven
Dante
I didn’t h
esitate.
After all, I’d told her I’d do whatever she asked.
I pressed my lips to hers, attempting a gentle kiss, but she opened instantly, and my resistance failed. I kissed her hard, with passion, with urgency, with all the love I felt for her in my heart and my soul.
With the force and strength of the bond between us.
When I felt the familiar tingle in my gums, I didn’t try to stop it. This was me, and she knew who and what I was now. She would eventually accept it. She had no choice. Not if we both wanted to continue to exist.
I pulled her close to me, every inch of her touching every inch of me. Her nipples hardened through her tank top, and I felt them like pebbles pushing into my chest.
I kissed her harder.
My fangs had descended all the way, and my cock had become rock inside my jeans. I nudged her against a wall, flattening her and then grinding my erection into her soft belly.
Her groan vibrated into my mouth, into my body, and I answered with one of my own.
When one of my cuspids scraped her tongue and drew a drop of blood, the flavor took over my entire mouth as it trickled into me.
Then she pushed me away and placed her hands over her lips—lips that were swollen and dark pink from the feral kiss we’d shared.
I said nothing, just gazed into her fiery green eyes.
“You… My tongue…”
I made no attempt to hide my fangs as I spoke. “My teeth descend when I’m turned on. It’s just something that happens, love, like my dick hardening, or you getting wet.” I closed my eyes and inhaled. “And you’re wet, Erin. I can smell you. I can smell your lust.”
“But…do you need…?”
“Your blood? No, not yet. I had enough this morning.”
“How often do you need to…”
Poor thing. She still couldn’t bring herself to say the words. “I require blood every twenty-four hours. I can go a week without it if I have to, but it’s like a human going without food for a week. I’d be starving.”
“If you don’t have mine… I mean, how do you…”
“We drink animal blood. Mostly steers and sheep. We get it from a local butcher.”
“But the animals. How can you…”
“We don’t kill animals, Erin. We don’t kill anything. We’re not killers. The animals we drink from are already dead. They’re raised for meat.”
“This is all so… How can you expect me to…” She closed her eyes.
I touched her cheek, the warmth of her blood barreling through me. “You’re going to need to talk in complete sentences, Erin. You’re going to need to accept this eventually.”
Her lips trembled, but she raised her hand and placed her warm palm over mine. I figured she’d move my hand from her cheek, but she didn’t. She simply stood with her hand covering mine. Her warm blood curled through her palm, her nerves jittery. I felt it. I felt it all.
“I’ll ask again, Erin. Do you want me to leave?”
She closed her eyes, a light sigh escaping her throat. “I should. I should want you to leave.”
“But do you?”
She drew in a breath and opened her eyes. “No, Dante. I don’t want you to leave.” She let go of my hand and bent down to remove the sweatpants she was wearing. She tossed them aside and stood, naked from the waist down, her painted toes digging into the carpet. “I want you to fuck me. Right here. Right now. Right up against this wall. I shouldn’t want it, but I do. I want it so bad I might die without it. What is wrong with me?”
I unbuttoned and unzipped my jeans, sliding them over my hips and freeing my cock. “Nothing is wrong with you, love. Look at me.”
Her gaze drifted to my erection.
“Not there. Here. Look into my eyes. See the love I feel for you.” I lifted her and set her down on my cock, welcoming the warm suction of her pussy, her blood-filled walls gloving me in warmth and exquisiteness. “Nothing is wrong with this. How could it be? Do you feel it, Erin? Do you feel how perfectly we fit together? How can anything be wrong with this?”
She didn’t answer, and I pushed her against the wall and then shoved my cock into her once more. My teeth were out, and I buried my nose in her neck, scraping my fangs against her soft skin.
“No, Dante. No.”
“Not now, love. I don’t need to. You’ll know when I need it. You’ll need it too.”
Still, my sensitive teeth were drawn to the pulse in her carotid artery, and I pressed my lips over the rapid thump. So sweet, so warm, so Erin.
She wrapped her arms around my neck, moaning my name as she held on. Still I pumped into her—thrust in, out, in—until her pussy clamped down on me with her climax.
“Dante! I’m coming. My God.” She exploded around me, her heart beating faster, the rich pulse in her neck like a drumbeat over my lips.
I couldn’t hold out any longer. I shoved my cock deep within her, letting myself go, spilling into her body, into her soul.
I stayed there for a few timeless moments, letting her milk every last drop of semen from me, her back pushed against the wall. I breathed heavily into her neck as her rapid pulse slowly faded back to normal. I pressed my lips to her skin as my fangs began to retract.
Then I eased away from her, gently moving her off me and steadying her as her feet hit the floor.
She touched her neck, touched the healing puncture wounds from this morning. “You didn’t.”
“No. But I will need to. In the morning.”
She closed her eyes. “I can’t let you.”
I didn’t argue with her. She would let me. She’d have to, for both our sakes. Now was not the time to tell her that if she didn’t feed me, she’d condemn us both to death.
Chapter Eight
Erin
I still stood against the wall, my back sore from the friction of being pushed against the roughness. I’d seen him. Seen Dante. He had fangs.
And God help me, I found him attractive that way.
Something about the animalistic look, the fire in his eyes when his teeth were descended… He was a predator, and I was his prey.
And that excited me to no end.
What was wrong with me?
God help me, I’d gotten wetter. My pussy had throbbed harder when I saw him in his vampire state.
I’d wanted him to bite my neck again, suck my blood, take me to the top of the world with that feverish orgasm I remembered so well. Yet I didn’t want it just as much.
Didn’t want to want it. I’d told him I wouldn’t let him take my blood again. Even as I’d heard the words, I knew they meant nothing.
I would do whatever he wanted me to do. Whatever he told me to do. I would obey him. Perhaps not without question. Not yet. But I would still do as he commanded. Just the thought inflamed me once again.
And frightened me just as much.
“Erin,” he said.
I bit my lower lip. “Yeah?”
“I want you to get some sleep.”
I huffed. “Easier said than done.”
“Would it help if I stay here? So you’ll feel safe?”
Safe? How could I feel safe with a man who wanted my blood? Worse, I wanted him to take my blood. I was terrified of being alone with Dante.
Yet the calmness I felt overruled my rational mind. Somewhere, deep in the recesses of myself, outside the realm of my logic, I felt ultimately safe with him.
Keep an open mind. A very open mind.
Those words from the man who’d helped me with my car. Did he know Dante?
So much to think about, and so little sleep for my brain to work on.
“Erin? Are you going to answer me?”
“No, I don’t want you to stay, Dante. I need time. Time to process all of this. I’m just not sure how much time I need, or if there will ever be enough.”
He reached toward me, lightly trailing a finger over my cheek and jawline. “There is all the time in the world. This won’t be as hard as you think it is.”
&
nbsp; Just his small touch ignited me again. My nipples hardened, and an image shot into my mind. Dante, looking feral and gorgeous with his fangs descended, sucking on my nipple, fingering my pussy, and then sinking his teeth into the fatty flesh of my breast.
I crossed my legs to ease the throbbing between them.
This couldn’t happen. None of this could happen.
“You need to leave,” I said. “Now.”
He dropped his arm to his side and pulled up his jeans and boxer briefs, zipping and buttoning them. “I understand. But I’ll be back in the morning.”
“Please,” I said. “Don’t come back.”
Even as the words spewed out of me, I knew I didn’t mean them.
And I knew he’d be back.
Chapter Nine
Dante
Once bonded, never broken.
“We need each other now, Dante. I require your blood for sustenance, and you require mine.”
I thrashed against the leather bindings. “If you need me so much, why do you let those goons torture me?”
“I have my reasons.” She hovered over me, her fangs protruding and red with my blood that she’d just sucked from the femoral artery on my thigh.
Already the wounds were coagulating. I could feel each layer of my skin regenerating, the tingles and the itching.
“We are bonded now, Dante. And once bonded, never broken.” She sank her teeth into my neck.
It was one a.m., and I didn’t want to go back to River’s or Bill’s. I hadn’t seen my sister in a few days, and though I was loath to return to the French Quarter, I found myself driving to the Cornstalk Hotel, where she was a night manager.
The street lights illuminated the wrought-iron fence with the cornstalk posts that gave the pale yellow hotel its name. The actual building had once been a private residence, originally built as a home for the first attorney general of Louisiana. Like most other buildings in the Quarter, it was reputedly haunted, though Emilia and I knew better.
Unhinged: Blood Bond: Parts 4, 5 & 6 (Volume 2) Page 3