Those were the words that had been on the tip of my tongue. Even as I thought them, I knew the whole concept was ridiculous. Not only ridiculous, but impossible. Time couldn’t be erased.
But memories could be. Drugs, like Rohypnol, could fool with memories.
No, that still didn’t make sense. No way could someone have roofied an entire ER night staff for the exact amount of time necessary. No, this had to be something else.
Some kind of…hypnosis.
My skin went cold, a chill sweeping over my neck.
Leave it, Erin. You know Dante didn’t have anything to do with this.
No, but he might know who did.
River was on the case. Surely this had occurred to him.
What if it hadn’t? Or what if…
Leave it, Erin.
But my curiosity won out. I went back up to the break room with my phone in tow. “Lucy, is River still here?”
“I don’t know. He might be. Why don’t you text Jay?”
Good idea. Where was my mind? I sent a text and got an immediate reply.
We’re getting a bite at a truck stop. What do you need?
I needed River. I wanted some answers, beginning with why my brother had bite marks on his neck.
Did you see him?
See who?
The vampire.
Dante had told me that vampires didn’t glamour unless it was an emergency, but someone had bitten Jay, and the most likely candidate was his vampire partner.
Chapter Fifteen
Dante
“Thanks for seeing me on such short notice,” I said to Jack Hebert, my vampire physician.
“Not a problem. I prefer night hours. You said over the phone you need to know your blood type. I didn’t have you typed when we did your previous work. Any reason why you want to know?”
“Just curious.” True enough. What did it matter that Erin and I shared a blood type, and that it was the same blood type of a woman who’d disappeared from a hospital?
And I could be wrong. Hunches weren’t always correct.
This seemed like more than a hunch, though. It felt like a fact I’d always known, except I’d only known for an hour or so.
“I can take some more blood right now and do the typing myself in my lab. It only takes about five minutes.”
“That would be great. Thanks.”
“Make a fist for me.”
Jack drew a small vial of blood from my arm. “Sit tight. I’ll be back in a few.”
I stood and paced around the small examination room. I picked up a magazine, leafed through it, and then put it back down. Paced some more.
Five minutes seemed like five hours.
I closed my eyes just as Jack walked back in, startling me.
“Your blood type is B positive, Dante.”
I nodded. Of course. I’d known that. I didn’t know how, but I did. A simple fact. But before I could ruminate further—
“There’s something curious about that,” Jack said.
“What?”
“Blood types are inherited, and vampires are almost always Rh negative. Of course, there have been vampires with Rh positive blood, but that’s not the issue here.”
“What is the issue, Jack?”
“I’ve been taking care of your family for years, and your father had O negative blood type. Your mother had B negative, and Emilia has B negative. There’s no genetic way that I know of for you to have B positive blood, Dante.”
I widened my eyes, stunned. “Are you saying I’m not my parents’ child?”
He shook his head. “No. You may not know this, but I took care of your mother during her pregnancy with you. I delivered you. You are definitely her child. I witnessed her take you home. We also do extensive genetic testing during vampire pregnancy because of the risks involved. All tests indicated that you were fathered by Julian Gabriel and that Vivienne was your mother.” He sighed. “Plus there’s the obvious physical evidence. You’re a dead ringer for your father, but you have your mother’s nose.”
“Then how…” I paced around the small room again, rubbing my forehead, thankful that I was who I thought I was but still full of questions.
“We don’t have a lot of studies on vampire blood types. Usually we defer to human studies, because our blood mirrors theirs in almost all aspects. But there has to be a reason why most vampires are Rh negative. We do occasionally see an Rh positive vampire, which means one of his parents was Rh positive. The positive Rh factor is a dominant genetic trait, so if one of your parents is positive, you will be positive.”
“But neither of my parents were.”
“No.” He scratched the side of his head. “I’ve never heard of a spontaneous Rh change, but at this point, I can’t rule such a thing out. That could also explain why we do see an Rh positive vampire every now and then. And then there’s one other possible explanation, but I can’t see how it would apply in your case.”
“What’s that?”
“Somehow—and I have no idea how or why—someone tampered with your blood.”
Chapter Sixteen
Erin
I knew Dante would be waiting for me when I got off work. The whole twenty-four hour thing and all. I texted him and told him I had a few errands to run before I got home so he wouldn’t worry.
Then I headed to the police station. River and Jay would just be getting off their shift, and they’d be clocking out at the station.
I sat in my car and watched as the detectives and officers left the building. I hunched down when I saw Jay. He wasn’t who I needed at the moment, and I didn’t relish explaining to him what I was doing here.
A few minutes later, River left the building. I opened my car door and walked swiftly toward him.
“Hey,” I said.
“Erin. What are you doing here?”
“We need to talk.”
“About what? Dante?”
“No. Not about Dante. Dante and I are fine.” Sort of. I still wasn’t quite okay with everything, but right now I was more concerned about whoever had been biting my brother without his knowledge or consent.
“Good to hear.”
“He told me,” I said. “About what you and he…are.”
“I know. It’s probably pretty hard to digest.”
“You have no fucking idea. My whole world has been upended.”
“No, it hasn’t.”
“Don’t tell me it hasn’t. You don’t know a thing about me. I know something about you, though. And I need it to stop.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We need to talk in private.”
“Okay. You want to get something to eat?”
“No. We’re going to your place. Not my place, because Dante will be there, waiting for me. Get your car. I’ll follow you.”
“If it’s that important—”
“It is. But we need privacy.”
He stared at me hard, as if trying to read my mind. “Fine.”
River’s apartment reminded me a lot of Jay’s—a typical bachelor pad. Two recliners and a TV in the small living room, and a kitchen littered with pizza boxes and takeout containers.
“You want something to eat?” he asked.
I could hardly eat. In fact, I was feeling pretty sick at the thought of what he’d been doing to my brother.
“No.”
“Suit yourself. I’m going to fix some eggs.”
“Can it wait? I need to get this off my chest.”
He heaved a sigh. “Erin, I’m starving and exhausted. I at least need a glass of blood.” He walked toward his refrigerator.
Blood. Of course. The V word. Funny how I could think about vampires but couldn’t form the word in my head when thinking about Dante. I wasn’t ready to go there yet. Good thing, because right now I was damned angry.
“Why do you need blood? Didn’t you get enough from Jay last night?”
He slammed the refrigerator door shut and turned to me, his eyes shining with ange
r. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“The bite marks on Jay’s neck. You’ve been feeding from him, and it has to stop.”
“You’ve got a lot of nerve, Erin.”
“I have a lot of nerve? You’ve been stealing my brother’s blood, and—”
“Not that I owe you any explanation, but I have not tasted one drop of Jay’s blood. He’s my partner, for God’s sake.”
“So? He’s right there beside you all night. And when you get hungry—”
“When I get hungry, I eat. I don’t need blood until the morning, when I get home, which is now.” He turned back to the refrigerator and took out a white bag. He reached for a glass out of the cupboard and poured blood—God, it was really blood—into the glass. He drained it, all the while his back to me. He set the glass down on the kitchen counter and turned back to me. Tiny smears of deep red edged his lips.
He spoke, and his fangs, also tinged with crimson, were apparent. “You’re pissing me off. Jay is my partner. We protect each other. I’d never hurt him, and that includes feeding from him. Maybe Dante hasn’t clued you in, but we don’t feed on humans. We consider it morally wrong.”
“That doesn’t mean you don’t want it.”
He advanced toward me, his dark eyes—even darker than Dante’s—blazed with anger. “Do you really think I have that little self-control? You know what? Get the hell out of my house, Erin.”
My nerves jumped under my skin, but I stood my ground. River wouldn’t hurt me, not when he knew what Dante would do to him if he did. “Not until we resolve this.”
“You want to know something?” His voice had lowered, and he dropped his head until he was only inches away from my neck. “Your brother smells delicious. So do you. Dante would kick my ass if he heard me say that. But I’ve stayed away from you, haven’t I?”
“Y-Yes.” Damn the stammer.
“And I’ve stayed away from him.” He made a point of showing his fangs as he moved backward, away from me.
Calmness settled over me. I wasn’t sure why. Maybe because River was no longer in my face. It was the same calmness I felt when Dante was near. He wasn’t here, was he? No, I’d know if he were. Still, I needed answers.
“Then who has been feeding from Jay? Surely you’ve noticed the marks on his neck.”
“It may surprise you to know this, Erin, but I don’t look too carefully at Jay’s neck. It’s part of how I stop thinking about his scent. I don’t let myself look at his pulsing veins.”
“I—”
“You will never understand the urge for blood that Dante and I have. That all vampires have.”
I opened my mouth again, but he held up his hand.
“Let me finish. That’s not an insult, it’s just a fact. A pure fact. We—”
The door burst open.
Dante.
His dark hair unruly and his eyes feral. He looked crazy and animalistic.
And afraid.
Chapter Seventeen
Dante
Erin. Her delicious scent was thick as it penetrated through the door to River’s apartment. The lusty red wine, the truffles, the dark chocolate. And something else. Her adrenaline was spiked. I threw open the door without knocking and stalked inside.
What was she doing here? Why hadn’t she gone straight home? Jealousy welled up within me. River was scenting her. I could see it in his face. He was tempted to bite her, tempted to taste her. He was holding back.
But his fangs were out.
That was enough to make my own descend.
“What’s she doing here?” I demanded.
“Uh…hello?” Erin said. “I can speak for myself.”
“Fine.” My rage, though still focused on River, came through with full force. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Why are you raising your voice? And why are your teeth—” She paused, staring. Then, “I came to talk to River. To find out why the hell he’s been biting my brother.”
I turned to River, my anger heightening. “What?”
“Easy, Dante. She’s wrong. I never touched Jay. You know me better than that. And you know.”
My mind whirled to my sister, and I shrank away from River. I did know. If someone had fed on Jay, it hadn’t been River.
“How do you know someone bit Jay?” I asked Erin.
“I saw the bite marks, Dante. I ought to know what they look like by now.”
“Bug bites?” I asked.
“Don’t treat me like a child. Two puncture wounds about an inch and a quarter apart. Come on.”
An inch and a quarter. A smaller jaw.
Emilia. It had to be her, perhaps when he got her pregnant.
I couldn’t tell Erin any of this. I didn’t want to lie to her, but how could I tell her that her brother was the father of Em’s child? Em hadn’t even told him yet. It wasn’t right.
My sister knew better than to bite a human, but during sex, the craving was so strong and intense…and Jay’s scent was more than enticing to any vampire. And if Em was fertile, which she obviously had been, the need for blood would have been even greater.
I sighed, my teeth retracting. “River didn’t bite Jay, Erin. I promise.”
“How can you possibly know?”
“Because he says he didn’t, and I trust him.”
She turned to River. “You’re telling me the truth, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. I am.”
“I’m sorry. I just thought…”
“Anyone in your shoes would have thought the same thing, Erin,” I said. “Right, Riv?”
“Yeah. Right. I get it. But I didn’t do anything to Jay. I swear it. And I hate being accused of something I didn’t do.”
Erin nodded. “I’m really sorry. I am. But there’s still a problem.”’
“What’s that?” River asked.
“Someone bit Jay,” she said, “and I need you to find out who it was.”
River and I exchanged a glance. I wasn’t about to sell out my sister—not before she had a chance to tell Jay he was going to be a father. But I also had an obligation to Erin. I wanted to be honest with her, and it killed me when I couldn’t be.
What was I supposed to do?
“I promise we’ll find out what’s going on, Erin,” River said. “Okay?”
She nodded. “Okay. Again, I’m sorry.”
River smiled. Or he tried to, anyway. It was kind of a strange twist of his lips. “You don’t have to keep saying that.”
“But I am. I thought… It’s hard for me. I really don’t know what to think half the time. I know so little about…what you are.”
“I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, love,” I said.
She shifted her gaze to me, her eyes fatigued. “I guess I’ll go home. Are you coming over? Do you need to…?”
“Only if it’s all right with you,” I said, knowing full well she needed me to feed as much as I needed to feed. Eventually she’d come to know that as I did.
“Geez, I don’t know. Sure. Come on over.”
“All right. I need to talk to Riv about a few things first. I’ll meet you at your place in an hour.”
She nodded and looked to River. “I’m so, so sorry.” She left.
“She feels terrible,” I said to River. “Don’t be too hard on her. She’s having a difficult time.”
“I get it. I do. But you and I both know who fed on Jay. What are we going to do about this, Dante?”
“Hell if I know.”
“I could—”
“No. Just no. You will not glamour her.”
“I don’t want to, but I don’t see another way out of it. Not until Emilia tells Jay, if she ever does.”
“Bill already glamoured her once, and I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to forgive him. Then he glamoured her again and lied about it.”
“Bill doesn’t lie.”
“Then who else could have glamoured Erin?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know, cuz
. It’s just one more mystery to add to the rest of them. I want to help you figure it all out, but I need your cooperation.”
I sighed. Last time we’d talked about this, I’d begged him not to go after whomever had taken me. Now, though, I needed to find her. I needed answers. “You have it. Because I just found out something really fucked up.” I shoved my hand through my hair.
“What’s that?”
“Whoever held me for ten years messed with my blood, Riv. I have a blood type that isn’t genetically possible for me to have.”
Chapter Eighteen
Erin
I got home and fixed myself a light breakfast, even though I didn’t feel like eating. I believed River. He hadn’t fed on Jay. I trusted Dante when he assured me River wouldn’t do that. I trusted Dante without question, which was still difficult to wrap my mind around.
River hadn’t taken Jay’s blood.
Then who had?
And who had taken mine?
I poured myself a glass of wine. Not really my beverage of choice with a raisin bagel, but what the heck? I was just going to bed after Dante and I—
What did we do exactly?
We made love, but now that I was allowing him to—
It was still so hard to think about.
I could stop it at any time. Tell him he couldn’t take my blood anymore. But without Dante, I’d never find out who was feeding on Jay. And on me.
And without Dante…I’d be incomplete. I’d never again experience such intimacy, and that thought devastated me. I wanted it again. And again. I needed it. After only twice, it had become like a drug to me—a drug that frightened me out of my mind but that I needed more than oxygen.
I took a sip of wine, letting the crisp tannins float over my tongue. I closed my eyes.
Dante. Vampires. What kind of world did I live in?
Did you see him?
See who?
The vampire.
My eyes shot open. Abe Lincoln. He’d said vampires fed on him. He’d know the vampires in the area. He might know the one who’d been feeding on me. I had to find him and talk to him.
Unhinged: Blood Bond: Parts 4, 5 & 6 (Volume 2) Page 6