“I…know. I think.”
The flaming amber ring around his irises seemed to pulse as he spoke in a low rasp. “Never doubt it. You’re mine to protect. I’ve known it instinctively since I first laid eyes on you, first inhaled your scent. I was even willing to stay away to protect you.”
I jerked my head. “Stay away? How would that protect me?”
“Erin, I was determined to protect you from me.”
“I…don’t want to be protected from you.” The words, though always true, never rang more powerfully or more sincerely than they did at that moment.
He cupped my cheeks, his hands, so often cold, now nearly burning my skin. “I know. That’s why I kept coming back. The pull was too great. I couldn’t resist it. I tried, but I failed every time.”
“I felt it too,” I said. “You were pulling me toward you. I kept coming to you. Needed to be with you, even though I didn’t understand it.”
He wrapped his arms around me, surrounding me in his warmth. His anger and ferocity were dissipating. Because of me. I had that effect on him. I smiled into his chest.
He sighed. “It was almost like a magnetizing force.”
I pulled back a little, drowning in his dark eyes. “I’ve never felt anything like it. I hardly knew you, yet something in you was calling to me. I don’t know how else to describe it.”
“You described it perfectly. That’s how it felt to you, love. But that pull? It was actually you. Pulling me to you.”
I moved away from him, tensing.
He trailed one finger down my jawline, stopping at the pulsing artery in my neck. “There’s a reason for this connection we’ve formed. At least in theory. It’s called a blood bond.”
I widened my eyes. “What?”
“I know it’s a lot to take. You’ve had to deal with so much. But I can’t keep this information from you. You and I are bonded. By blood.”
He was so beautiful. So masculine and majestic. And the love that flowed between us was palpable. Almost visible.
It was real. So real.
And now he was telling me that maybe it…wasn’t?
“I don’t believe you.”
“It’s hard for me to believe as well. This hasn’t happened in a long time. I’m talking centuries, maybe millennia.”
I shook my head vehemently. “That’s not what I mean. Though I don’t know what the hell a blood bond is or whether it even exists. I mean that my love for you is… It’s not the result of anything paranormal. I love you, Dante. Nothing is making me love you. I love you. Period.”
“I know. I love you too. But the blood bond was part of the reason for our initial attraction. I was attracted to you anyway. You’re gorgeous, Erin. So beautiful.”
“So are you.”
He smiled. “I’m glad you think so. But remember where I was and what I looked like when you first met me? I looked like a wild man vandalizing your blood bank.”
I gasped. Yes. And I’d thought he was looking for food. But no. He’d been looking for… “Blood.”
“What?”
“You needed blood that night, didn’t you? You didn’t want to feed on a human, but you were hungry. And—” Thoughts began to awaken in me—thoughts I’d pushed to the back of my mind because I’d been so focused on Dante and the pull and attraction between us.
“And what?”
“River said you’d been gone a long time. That…” I closed my eyes, trying desperately to remember the conversation. He hadn’t really told me anything else. “That you’d been gone. And he sure seemed surprised to see you that first morning.”
Dante stayed silent.
“You have to tell me, Dante. The truth. You owe me that much.”
He opened his eyes, and the mark Bea had told us about was again clear around his brown irises. “You’re right, Erin. I was hungry that night. I was desperate. If you only knew how difficult it was not to… Damn.”
Not to take your blood.
He didn’t finish the sentence, but the words formed in my mind. He didn’t have to say them.
“Thank God I’d drunk several bags of blood by the time you found me. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to resist you.”
Chapter Three
Dante
My mind whirled back to that night—the hunger, the desperation. I’d torn open those clear bags and poured the nectar onto my face and down my throat. And then…
Erin.
Her scent, her irresistible scent. That earthy dark chocolate and smoky truffles. The lusty Cabernet. The tin, the copper…
The urge to take her with my teeth had come at me like a raging fire. Somehow I was able to hold back. Even now I wasn’t sure how I’d managed. If I’d had a taste of her then, when I was so hungry and desperate, I might have drained her.
Thank God for the bagged blood.
Thank God.
“Why were you so desperate, Dante? River said you had been gone a long time, and he was so surprised to see you. Where were you?”
Images hurtled toward me. Her. The human goons who smelled like garbage and vomit. Her sharp fangs sinking into me. The knife held over my penis, my foot. Then me sinking my teeth into her flesh. Her blood, thick like tar, acidic as it clawed its way into my body.
All of it.
Humiliation.
And still so much I couldn’t remember. Didn’t want to remember.
Then Erin. Sweet, beautiful Erin, who’d been tangled within my web through no fault of her own. She hadn’t asked for a blood bond, and neither had I.
Yet I felt compelled to be honest with her. So compelled that I wondered if the blood bond required it.
Not yet. I couldn’t taint Erin with the horrors of my past. I just couldn’t.
“I’ll tell you about it,” I said. “But not right now.”
“Why not? We’ve shared everything. Everything, Dante.”
Sweetness and innocence laced her words. But they reeked of falseness. We hadn’t shared everything. I’d been deliberately keeping things from her, things I wasn’t ready to talk about. Things she wasn’t ready to hear. “You deserve to know everything about me. I just can’t. Not yet.”
“I don’t understand. Why did you leave, and why were you gone so long?”
I closed my eyes, trying to tamp down my beating heart.
“Dante?”
I opened my eyes. She was so beautiful, still naked, her green eyes wide and innocent. What I was about to do would shred that innocence a little, and I hated myself for it.
“I didn’t leave, Erin. I was taken.”
She gulped audibly. “What?”
“I was taken. And I can’t talk about it. My memories are a mess. I’m not sure which ones are real and which ones aren’t. I know you deserve the truth, but I’m just not ready yet. Please try to understand.”
She left the bed, saying nothing.
She was upset, and I didn’t blame her. I’d forced her into my world, and now I was withholding information from her.
I lay back down, closing my eyes and rubbing my temples. I’d just fed from and made love to the woman who was my soul mate and blood mate. I should feel wonderful. Instead, the beginnings of a headache were hammering their way in.
A few moments later, Erin returned. I felt more than heard her approach the bed.
“This is real,” she said.
My eyes popped open. “What, baby?”
“You and me. This.” She waved her arms in a circle. “What we share together. Our love. It’s real.”
“Of course it is.”
“This conversation started because I was confused. It all seems so real to me, even though I’m having a hard time accepting everything about you. But what underlies everything—the pull, the obsession, the blood bond, as you call it—is love. Real love, Dante. Blood bond or not, I love you.”
“And you think the blood bond means it isn’t real?”
“No. I do think it’s real, regardless of some outside forc
e dictating to us. You said we had a blood bond, and that was what explained the pull we have toward each other. I didn’t like hearing that, because this is real. My feelings for you are not the result of anything other than the fact that I’m completely and hopelessly in love with you.”
Warmth filled me. “It is real. I never said it wasn’t.”
“But you said—”
“I said we have a blood bond. That is a physical bond between us, and I honestly can’t explain it any more than that because no one really knows much about it. I never said it meant our love wasn’t real.”
Her cheeks pinked and she bit her bottom lip. “I felt like—”
I stood and pulled her into my arms. “Hey. The blood bond—whatever it might be—doesn’t negate the emotion between us, Erin. It only enhances it.”
She snuggled her face into my shoulder. “I couldn’t bear the thought that you might only want me for my blood.”
I pushed her slightly away, gripping her shoulders and staring straight into her green eyes. “Don’t ever think that, baby. I want you. All of you. Your blood is part of you.”
She curved one side of her lip in a half smile. “I suppose it is. I just never had a man want it before.”
I stiffened. Someone else did want her blood. Whether it was a man or a woman, I didn’t know. My bet was on a man. I tried to relax my muscles and said nothing.
“I wish I understood it more,” she said. “This blood bond thing.”
I couldn’t help a little scoff. “So do I. Apparently this happened between vampires and humans millennia ago, perhaps before we were even self-aware. If it has happened since, it has been rare and undocumented.”
“Then how do you know about it now?”
I sat down on the bed and pulled her down next to me, pushing a few strands of hair out of her eyes. “Bill did some research. He had to dig deep, and he found what might be an explanation for what’s happening between us.”
“Our love?”
“Our love is real, Erin, but before the love was the pull. That pull, that need to have and protect, is the result of the blood bond. At least in theory. Like I said, we don’t know much about it.”
“How did he know to do this research?”
I touched my nose almost absently. “I’ve lost my sense of smell.”
“What?”
“Not completely. I just can’t smell the unique scent of other humans.”
“Okay…”
“I can still smell food and other things. And I can still smell human hormones like testosterone and estrogen. But what I can’t smell is the unique scent of a human, with the exception of you.”
She arched her eyebrows. “We each have our own smell.” A statement, not a question.
“Yes. Some humans smell really good to us, like you and your brother.” The reason was the vampire blood in their line, but I didn’t know how to tell her that yet. She was still having a rough time accepting me for what I truly was. “But every human has a unique scent. Natural redheads also smell very good to us. But I can’t smell them anymore. I can’t smell your brother anymore. I can only smell you.”
“Why?”
“The blood bond, as far as I can tell. That’s why Bill started the research. I didn’t realize it for a while because you had invaded my senses that first night in the blood bank and I literally could think of nothing else. But since I met you, I haven’t been able to smell other humans. Like when I found you with that guy.” Temper welled within me, and my fangs itched as the pungent aroma of the man’s testosterone edged into my memory. He’d been horny and ready to take something that didn’t belong to him. Would never belong to him.
I willed myself to calm down. A little. Nothing had happened. At least nothing of any consequence. Still didn’t make me happy about it. “I couldn’t smell him. But I could smell his testosterone. I knew he was turned on. And when I came at him, I could smell his adrenaline, his fear. But I couldn’t smell him.” I sighed. “I know this isn’t making any sense to you, because humans don’t smell each other.”
“So you have the nose of like…a dog.”
I chuckled. “Sort of. Probably better than a dog even.”
“But you can only smell me now.”
“Yeah.”
“What does all this mean, Dante?”
“Honestly, Erin, I don’t know. It’s all theory at this point.”
“I don’t get it. What’s so special about me? Why would you only smell me?”
“What’s so special about you? Are you kidding? You’re brave and kind and beautiful and smart and protective. And a million other things. You’re you, Erin. If that’s not special, I don’t know what is.”
And we’re dependent on each other now. For our very lives.
I couldn’t say that yet. First, she had to consciously accept me for who I was. It wasn’t enough that she allowed me to feed, even if she enjoyed it. Or that she was in love with me, and I believed she was.
She had to look at me and see me. Truly see me.
And she hadn’t. Not yet.
What a fucking mess.
I raked my fingers through my hair. “I’d answer your questions better if I could, baby. And I promise that one day I’ll tell you all about where I was. When I remember everything coherently. And I will. I have to.”
“Yes, you have to. Because you have to tell Jay and River everything. They’ll find out who did this to you.”
“I have. I’ve been as honest with River as I can be. Trust me. He’s been on my ass about it since I got back.”
“Of course he has. And now I will be too. And Jay—”
“No, Erin,” I said adamantly. “You will tell no one about any of this.”
Chapter Four
Erin
Was he kidding? “Dante, I want to help.”
“You can help by leaving this to me. To River and me. We know how to deal with it.”
A lightning bolt hit me. “Are you saying that whoever took you was—”
“A vampire. Yeah. There’s nothing you or Jay can do, because even if you find out who it was, she’ll just glamour you—”
I held up my hand. “Wait a minute. This vampire was a woman?”
He nodded.
Horrible thoughts formed in my head. “Did she…”
“No. She didn’t fuck me or violate me sexually, if that’s what you’re thinking, though she did other things that I’d rather she hadn’t.”
A lump formed in my throat. Thank God he hadn’t been raped, but what had he endured? Shattered images tormented my mind, and though I tried to whisk them away, I couldn’t. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry, Dante.” Vampire or not, I wanted to mutilate the woman who had hurt the man I loved. No doubt about it. I was irresistible to vampires, huh? Good. I was going back to Claiborne Bridge at night. Not only did I need to find the vampires who were feeding from me and my brother. I had to find the vampire who had hurt Dante. Perhaps my scent would draw them out. Only one problem.
“Is there a way to…” I hedged. “To keep a vampire from glamouring a human?”
He shook his head. “Not that I know of. I wish there were.”
“There has to be,” I said. “It’s such a violation of human dignity.”
“It is, which is why most of us won’t do it unless it’s an emergency. I’m not sure how it evolved, because from everything I know, humans and vampires coexisted peacefully during primitive times.”
“Meaning humans let vampires take their blood?”
“That’s what we’ve always been taught. But humans soon outnumbered vampires because human women are much more fertile.”
“Right. You told me.”
“And then the two species began interbreeding as well. We never knew why. We just accepted it as another reason why vampires began to die out. When they breed, the result is always a human baby—or more correctly, a half-vampire baby that doesn’t have any vampire characteristics. No acute senses, no ability to glamour, no physiol
ogical need for blood, no vampire canine nerve.”
“So if you and I had a baby, it would be essentially human?”
He stared at me for a moment, his eyes unreadable, and then nodded.
A heavy weight I hadn’t realized I’d been carrying magically lifted from me. Not that I’d even thought about children with Dante, but we were in love. The logical result was marriage and children. I’d always wanted children. Did he? Was it too soon to think about those things?
This relationship is full of unanswered questions.
“I wish I could tell you everything,” Dante said. “But there’s a lot I just don’t know.”
Whoa. Had he read my mind? Though normally such a thought would make me uncomfortable, it was strangely calming—as if we were meant to be so closely bonded that we could know what the other was thinking.
I was probably making things up.
“We don’t know much about the blood bond,” he continued, “but the theory is that it evolved on the part of humans to draw vampires into breeding with them. Vampires are much like humans, but if the two species ever had to fight for existence, vampires have a few advantages.”
“Like your superior senses.”
“Yeah. And our ability to glamour. But we’re also vulnerable. We rely on blood to survive, and humans have blood. Anyway, the theory—at least what Bill found in his research—is that humans subconsciously created the blood bond to force vampires into interbreeding so that humans could thrive and outnumber vampires. It makes a certain logical sense, because in the wild, species rarely interbreed, even though they can. Lions and tigers, for example, don’t interbreed unless they’re forced to in captivity.”
“So without this blood bond…”
“Without the blood bond, it’s possible that humans and vampires never would have interbred, and vampire blood wouldn’t have been diluted. We would have always been fewer in number than humans because our women are less fertile. But we wouldn’t be as rare as we are today.”
“Rare? Are you dying out?”
Unhinged: Blood Bond: Parts 4, 5 & 6 (Volume 2) Page 10