“Your mother was a lovely woman. I only met her once, but she made quite an impression on me.”
“Mom was one of a kind.”
“She certainly was. Thank you for your time, Mr. Mendez.”
“You’re very welcome.”
I hastily scribbled down Dr. Zarah Le Sang and left to hit the hardware store and get a key made for Dante.
Dante had returned and was waiting by the door when I got back with the new keys. I smiled and handed him one. “Now you won’t have to wait outside if I’m not home.”
“Where have you been?” he asked through gritted teeth. Something was clearly bothering him.
I smiled. “Unclench, Dante. I went out to get the keys. It’s broad daylight.”
“You should be in bed.”
“Yeah, I should, but I couldn’t sleep. Since you don’t like me going out at night, I figured I might as well run this errand. You’re pale. Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I just told River about my dad.”
“How did it go?”
“Not great at first, but then, all of a sudden, my dad appeared and River could see him right away.”
“That’s good. Isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Good.” He shoved his hands into his pockets.
“You don’t sound like you think it’s good, Dante.”
“No, it is.”
“But…”
“He’s my father.” He crossed his arms. “How come it took me so long to see him, yet River sees him as soon as he appears?”
“Maybe he’s appeared to River before and River didn’t see him. Maybe neither of you did.”
“No, this was the first time. He told us. Not only that, he came to River in a dream as well. How come he never did that for me?”
“How do you know he didn’t?”
“Because I would have remembered!”
“How do you—”
“I just know. That’s all.” He followed me into the townhome.
“Do you need anything? A snack. Some…” I twisted my neck toward him.
“No, I’m fine until morning. I don’t need a snack. Maybe a bourbon, if you have any.”
“I only have wine. We could go out. I can’t have a drink, though, because I’m on tonight.” Thinking about work hurled Patty and baby Isabelle back into my mind. What had become of them? I looked at my watch. “It’s about dinnertime. Normally I’m asleep now, but I could eat.”
“A glass of wine is fine,” he said.
His teeth were out. Funny. I hadn’t noticed until now. Either they’d just descended, or I was getting used to them. The latter disturbed me more than I anticipated. Definitely less than it had a week ago, though. Perhaps I was making progress. I went to the kitchen and poured a glass of wine for Dante and a glass of water for myself. I set them both on my small table and motioned for him to have a seat.
He took a large gulp. Then another.
“I don’t get it,” he said. “Riv sees him right off, just like you did.”
“I didn’t know who I was seeing.”
“True. But River did. How was he visible right away to his nephew but not to me, his son?”
“Maybe that has more to do with you than with your father.”
“That’s what he said. He said I was resisting. That doesn’t hold water. River was resisting just as much. You should have seen the look on his face when I told him my dad was a ghost. He thought I’d gone batshit crazy.”
I laughed despite myself. When had life become so insane?
“What’s so funny?”
“Oh, no. Your situation isn’t funny at all. I understand why you’re upset. I really do.” I patted his muscular forearm. “It’s the whole of it. I’m sitting here with my vampire boyfriend talking about how it took him longer than his cousin to see his dead father. My life has gone wonky.”
“You said vampire,” he said, his eyes darkening. “I mean, you just admitted I’m a vampire.”
I had, hadn’t I? “Well…you are. That certainly doesn’t change the fact that my life has gone nuts.”
“Yours as well as mine,” he said. “Ghosts are real. Demons are real. Werecreatures are apparently real.”
“And vampires are—” I widened my eyes. “What?”
“It’s all real.”
“Werecreatures?”
“Yeah, according to River. Werewolves and werecats. Both exist.”
I said nothing. What could I honestly say? My brain was fried.
“Sorry to put more on you.”
“What about weresnakes and werebears?”
“Just wolves and cats, as far as I know. But I no longer put any faith in what I know. Or what I think I know.”
“Hey”—I caressed his forearm—“we’re in this together now.”
He regarded me sharply. “Are we, Erin? I mean, are we really?”
I knew what he was asking. He wanted me to accept everything that he was. Accept the bond that he was certain bound us.
I stood, grabbing his hands and bringing him with me. “I’m sorry you’re struggling about your father, Dante. I truly am. But you see him now. What does it matter that River saw him faster?”
“Because he’s my father, damn it! All I have left is a ghost. River still has his father. Braedon is alive!”
“He is?”
“Yes, according to my dad.”
“That’s wonderful!”
“Yeah. It is. I love my uncle. He was like a second dad to me.”
“This is good news for both of you. And for your sister. Does she know about your dad?”
“Not yet. Another thing on my to-do list.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
“No, I have to do that on my own, and I’m not sure how to do it, with her pregnancy and all. She’s so fragile.”
I cupped his cheek, thumbing the stubble rough under my fingers.
“You’re the strongest person I know. You’ll figure out a way.”
He stood, his dark eyes gazing into mine. I traced the contours of his cheeks and jawline, traced his full lips.
He was beautiful.
He was mine.
And he was…vampire.
The V word.
Suddenly it was no longer so scary.
“Vampire,” I said aloud.
“Yes,” he said, stroking my hair. “I’m a vampire. A vampire who loves you.”
His words echoed in my mind. He’d said them when he’d first told me what he was.
I cupped his other cheek, pulled him toward me, and pressed a soft kiss to his beautiful lips. “I love you too.”
“All of me?” he asked on a whisper.
“All of you.” I pulled back, staring into his eyes. “Dante, you are vampire, and I love you.”
Chapter Five
Dante
I hadn’t realized how much her acceptance would lighten my load.
My teeth sharpened, and though I didn’t need to feed, I knew now that I no longer had to hide. My teeth knew. My whole body knew.
She’d accepted me.
“You have no idea how much it means to me to hear you say those words.” My canines seemed to settle in. They’d retract when they needed to. I inherently knew that. But for now, they were fully descended. I no longer needed to hide from the woman I loved.
“I think I do know,” she said. “Blood bond or not, vampire or not, you’re the man I’m supposed to be with. I feel it in my innermost soul, in every cell of my body, in the deepest recesses of my heart. I’m yours, Dante, for as long as you want me.”
I smiled. “How about forever and a few days after that?”
“Perfect,” she said. “You know what? I have plenty of groceries, thanks to my midnight jaunt to Walmart. I want to make dinner for you.”
“Erin, you don’t have to do that.”
“I want to. It’s a girlfriend thing. I’m actually not a bad cook, if you like hamburgers and hotdogs and the occasional recipe from the internet.”
“I’ll love whatever you make. And suddenly, I’m starving.”
“Great. How about fried catfish? It’s fresh and everything.”
“Sounds awesome. Do you need any help?”
“Nope. You’re not allowed anywhere near the kitchen. Just relax. I’ll take care of everything.” She shooed me out of the room.
I took my glass of wine and sat down on her sofa. The Vampyre Texts eyed me from the coffee table. I picked up the tome and set it on my lap. I’d gotten in trouble more than once as a kid when I’d touched this sacred book. I’d learned to leave it alone. Now? I had a burning desire to know its secrets.
Screw Bill’s wrath.
If the book was truly dangerous and could lead vampires down a dark path, why had he kept it? He’d said it contained our history, and he couldn’t bear to part with it. That made a certain amount of sense. Plus, even if he destroyed his own two copies, he couldn’t destroy the rest.
I opened the book and leafed through it, recognizing a word here and there. One word, however, stood out as if written in red.
Sang.
Blood. Apparently the word was the same in both old and modern French.
Its appearance wasn’t odd at all, given this was the Vampyre Texts, and blood was a huge component of who we were. Still, the word flashed at me.
Sang.
Sang.
Sang.
The smell of Cajun spices and the sound of sizzling fish snapped me out of my daydream.
Again, the mention of blood in a book about vampires wasn’t unusual at all, so why had I seen it pulsing on the pages in red?
Perhaps Bill was right, and the book would lead to darkness. But who was he to decide that my father and I couldn’t know what was inside? True, the person who’d last translated the Texts in the fourteenth century had agreed, and so had the elders.
I sighed. I had to know, especially if information about the blood bond lay between these pages. I had a right to know, damn it.
Erin walked over to me and kissed the top of my head. “Dinner’s on the table.” Then she pointed to the page I had been reading. “Sang. What does that mean?”
I cleared my throat. “It means blood. Why do you ask?”
“Blood? Really?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s just the weirdest thing.”
“Why? This is a book about vampires. The word blood is bound to come up.”
“No, that’s not what’s weird. What’s odd is that I was just researching a doctor who came up with some sort of protocol for a blood disorder. Her name was Dr. Zarah Le Sang. Isn’t that strange? A blood doctor’s name is Dr. Blood?”
“That is a little weird,” I agreed. “What did you find out about her?”
“Nothing. She doesn’t seem to exist online. But a patient of mine knew her. She apparently saved my patient’s son with some kind of miracle for his undiagnosed blood disorder. Unfortunately, he ended up dying young anyway in a car accident.”
“Weird that she’s nowhere online.”
“Yes and no. This was all forty or so years ago. It’s possible none of her research got transferred to online resources.” She shrugged. “I’d love to know more, and I’m sure the information is in some old dusty medical journal somewhere, but I don’t have time for that kind of detective work. Come on. Let’s eat.”
I followed her to the table and sat down. She’d poured me another glass of wine and a glass of water with lemon for herself. “Still have to work later,” she reminded me. “I hope you don’t hate broccoli.”
“No. I eat pretty much anything,” I said. “It smells great.”
“Thanks.” She took a bite of fish, chewed, and swallowed. “Tell me more about River and your dad. Where were you guys when your dad appeared to him?”
“We were at a body shop picking up River’s car.”
“Right. The accident.” She took a sip of water.
“Poor Riv,” I said, chuckling.
“You’re laughing?”
“No. Well, yeah. Poor Riv doesn’t remember what happened that night. Apparently he and Lucy had quite a night, and he can’t recall any part of it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“She didn’t tell you? Shit. Then I shouldn’t say anything. River would never kiss and tell, but I saw the evidence.”
“What evidence?”
“I’ve said too much. I just assumed, since you and she were so close—”
“Damn it, Dante, if you don’t spill your guts this minute, I won’t give you another drop of my blood!”
She didn’t mean it, of course. I really wasn’t one to talk about other people’s sex lives, but I was in too deep now.
“Lucy’s clothes. They were in River’s car, and they were ripped to shreds.”
“What?”
“I know. Crazy, huh? They had quite a time and poor River doesn’t remember a second of it. That retrograde amnesia is something else, isn’t it?”
“I don’t understand.” She held a forkful of broccoli halfway to her mouth.
“Don’t say anything to Lucy, please. I just assumed you knew.”
“Normally I would know. Lucy tells me everything. In vivid detail. But this she didn’t tell me. In fact…” The fork still hovered in front of her.
“In fact, what?”
“She told me point blank that she and River did not have sex that night.”
Chapter Six
Erin
Unbelievable. Not that Lucy had any obligation to tell me her personal business, but she normally did. In living color.
“Now I feel really bad,” Dante said. “Can you just forget I told you all of that? I honestly assumed you knew.”
“That’s a valid assumption usually. Lucy doesn’t lie to me. Not about sex, at least. She sleeps with almost every guy she goes out with, and I was pretty shocked to hear she hadn’t slept with River. I mean, he’s…”
“What?”
“He’s hot, okay? He could almost be your twin.”
“River’s hot?” Dante chuckled.
“Well, yeah. Not as hot as you are, but I wouldn’t kick him out of be—” I clamped my hand over my mouth. “Sorry.”
His eyes started blazing, the amber around his irises glowing. “No one else will ever be in your bed, Erin. Especially no other vampire. Is that clear?”
“Dante, it was a joke. River is great-looking, but I have no desire for him or anyone else. My point is that Lucy said she didn’t sleep with him.”
“Then how did her shredded clothes get into River’s car?”
“Shredded?”
“Yeah. They were in tatters. Even the leather on her sandals had been torn.”
“And that seems normal to you?”
“It didn’t seem abnormal. Vampires have very high sex drives, as you probably know by now. I’ve ripped some of your clothes.”
“You’ve never ripped my shoes, Dante.”
“We’ve never had sex in a car, either. Which maybe we should remedy sometime.”
I crossed my legs to ease the tickle between them. Sex in a car with Dante? Sign me up. “Lucy doesn’t know River’s a vampire. He surely wouldn’t tear leather in half in front of her.”
“He might as well not have, since he doesn’t remember any of it.”
I thought back to the night of River’s accident, our conversation. Then Lucy had shown up.
River turned to Lucy. “I can’t remember taking you home.”
“Retrograde amnesia,” Lucy said. “It’s very common with a concussion, especially if you lose consciousness.”
“That’s what I told him,” I said.
“But it’s weird. I don’t remember taking you home, but I remember the accident.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “Really? That is odd.”
“Oh, no, I’ve heard of that,” Lucy said. “Sometimes the amnesia is fragmented. Anyway, the important thing is that you’re okay.”
I hadn’t concerned mys
elf with it at the time, but I’d never heard of selective retrograde amnesia. You lost all or nothing. Still, perhaps Lucy had heard of it, and I just didn’t know about it. I’d been on duty and had been taking care of several patients besides River, so I hadn’t been worried about anything Lucy said.
Until now.
“Where are these ripped clothes of Lucy’s now?” I asked Dante.
“Riv still has them. Why?”
“I know vampires are strong, but can you rip leather straps apart?”
“Easily,” he said.
“All right,” I relented. “Must have been some night. For the life of me, though, I can’t figure out why Lucy lied to me.”
“I’m sorry I have such a big mouth. I truly thought you knew.”
“It was an honest mistake.”
“Can you forget I told you? For both of their sakes?”
I nodded. “Consider it forgotten.”
Boy, would it be hard not to tease Lucy about this.
First thing I did when I clocked in was check the computer for any information on Patty Doyle and the baby.
Nothing.
Only the intake information when Patty had come to the emergency room. The baby hadn’t been transferred to the NICU, and Patty hadn’t gone to recovery.
Had they disappeared like the others? If so, why weren’t the cops swarming around like they always did? This was too weird. I had a personal stake in this one. I’d bonded with this patient, and I wanted to make sure she was all right.
I picked up the phone to call Jay to find out if anything had been reported, but before I could key in his number, the sirens wailed in the distance.
Time for work.
Three gurneys were wheeled in, one dead on arrival.
I went to work with Dr. Thomas on the second one, a young man whose leg had been crushed under a toppled car.
He didn’t make it.
Before I could deal with two deaths, a mother came in with a feverish nine-month-old baby named Bianca. I took the baby’s temperature—105.6—and grabbed the nearest resident. If the fever went much higher the child could have a seizure. The resident ordered alternating doses of ibuprofen and acetaminophen, plus a lukewarm bath. I bathed the baby while I tried to calm her mother.
Unhinged: Blood Bond: Parts 4, 5 & 6 (Volume 2) Page 20