Everlasting Embrace

by Amanda Ashley

  Alex wasn’t surprised by her reaction. Most people didn’t believe bloodsuckers existed. Sure, stories about the Undead made headlines every now and then, but most people dismissed them out of hand. Rhys and his ilk did their best to stay under the radar and it had been Alex’s experience that mankind was a lot happier thinking such tales were just bogus headlines to sell more papers or spike TV ratings.

  “Rylee…”

  “Okay, say I believe you, which I don’t. Why did you kill the vampire?” Stupid question, she thought. What else would you do with them?

  “I’m a hunter. It’s what I do for a living.”

  He really was crazy. “I think you’d better go.”

  “Dammit, Rylee, it’s true! Why the hell would I make up something like that?”

  “I’m sure I have no idea!”

  “Those stories about a serial killer in the newspaper and on TV, they’re vampire kills. Dammit, Rylee, you have to believe me,” he said fervently. “Your life might depend on it.”

  His voice, sharp with the ring of truth, sent a sudden chill down her spine. What if he wasn’t crazy? What if it was all true? Oh, but how could that be? And yet he didn’t look like he was kidding. He looked deadly serious. She frowned. It would explain all those bodies drained of blood. Puncture wounds in their necks. Was it possible he was telling the truth?

  She closed her eyes a moment, her thoughts chaotic as she thought about what he’d said. Why would be make up such an outrageous lie? If he didn’t want to see her any more, he could have ended it with a phone call. Or come up with a more plausible story.

  Taking a deep breath, she met his gaze across the table. “So, let me get this straight. You hunt vampires for a living? And you kill them?”

  He didn’t blink. Didn’t look away. Just nodded, his expression solemn.

  Rylee felt the blood drain from her face. “And that’s why you came to L.A.? To find the…the vampire who killed your wife.”

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  His gaze searched hers. “Do you believe me?”

  “I don’t want to. It all sounds so outlandish. So…so Twilight Zone.” But what if it was true? What if her life really was in danger?

  “I wanted to tell you what I did for a living soon after we met, but I thought I’d wait until we knew each other better.” He stared out the kitchen window. “If Magdalena’s in town, I can’t put your life in danger.”

  Rylee glanced around her kitchen. Everything looked just as it had a short time ago, and yet, if what Alex said was true, it changed everything, and life as she knew it would never be the same again. Maybe there really were monsters in the closet and under the bed. And stalking Alex…

  Everything he’d said was incredible. Inconceivable. And yet she knew deep in her heart that it was probably true whether she wanted to believe him or not. Just as she knew that her feelings for him hadn’t changed, which might be the most bizarre thing of all.

  Deciding to believe him, at least for the moment, she asked, “How long have you been a hunter?”

  “Since I was seventeen. It’s what my family does.” Or did, he thought as he pushed away from the table. “Listen, thanks for the coffee. I’m sorry it had to end like this. I wish…” Oh, hell, there was no point in wishing for what could never be. “I just wanted you to understand why we shouldn’t see each other anymore.”

  Rising, he skirted the table and brushed a kiss across the top of her head. Then, needing to hold her close one last time, he lifted her to her feet. “I’ll never forget you,” he whispered, as he drew her into his arms. “Never.” He kissed her then, long and slow, as if he had all the time in the world to memorize the sweetness of her lips, the way her body molded so willingly to his.

  He released her reluctantly. “Please understand, Rylee,” he said, his voice thick with regret. “I can’t have your blood on my hands, too.” His gaze moved over her, filled with such longing it made her heart ache.

  And then he headed for the door.

  Rylee stared after him, listening to the sound of his footsteps as he walked out of the kitchen and out of her life. She stood there for several minutes, then dropped back down on her chair as the numbness that had cushioned his parting words gave way to a flood of tears.

  CHAPTER 11

  Alex stood on the sidewalk outside Rylee’s house for several moments. Resisting the urge to go back and tell her that he had made a mistake, he slid behind the wheel of the Jag and then just sat there with the engine idling.

  The evening stretched ahead of him, long and empty. Going back to Boston seemed like the best thing to do. He had several loose ends to tie up at home.

  He needed to decide what to do with Paula’s things. Find a new place to live.

  He needed to decide what to do with the rest of his life. Being a hunter no longer seemed as exciting as it once had. He had spent half of his life tracking and destroying creatures like Costain and what did he have to show for it? A dead wife and child, and a heart filled with guilt and grief.

  Alex stared wistfully at Rylee’s house. If he didn’t have a spiteful vampire breathing down his neck, he would go home and settle his affairs in Boston, then come back to L.A. and pursue a relationship with her.

  He grinned faintly, wondering what she would think of his family. Would she be able to accept Erik and Daisy, or be horrified by the thought of having in-laws who were vampires? If he quit hunting, what would he do for a living? Sure, he had some money stashed away, but it wouldn’t last forever. He had considered becoming a chef not long ago. The idea still held some appeal. He was a helluva good cook. He loved experimenting in the kitchen. He knew how to wield a big knife, he thought with a wry grin. And cooking was nice, safe work compared to what he was used to.

  Heaving a sigh, Alex pulled away from the curb and headed for La Mort Rouge. Lost in thought, he paid little attention to the truck behind him until he turned onto the narrow road that led to the club, and the truck followed him. He knew a moment of concern, then blew it off. The club was a popular hang-out for a certain clientele, after all.

  It wasn’t until he parked the Jag and the truck pulled up behind him, blocking his escape, that he realized he should have listened to that little warning voice in his head, but by then, it was too late.

  The thing that crawled out of the driver’s side of the truck was about seven inches over six feet and built like a Mack truck. The two that emerged from the back seat were a few inches shorter but just as wide. They were human on the outside but their eyes were dead. Alex had seen their kind before and knew they were under some kind of supernatural control. Revenants, perhaps, raised by a vampire.

  For all his bulk, the first revenant moved like lightning, hauling Alex out of the Jag before he had time to reach for his kit under the seat or make a run for it. Alex tried to break free of the hulk’s hold as he was dragged across the blacktop, but it was like trying to wrestle a mountain.

  The creature tossed him into the bed of the truck, then climbed in after him, one ham-sized fist grabbing hold of Alex’s ankle and yanking him backward when he tried to scramble over the side. Alex grunted in pain as his head slammed against the truck bed. The second revenant hopped into the truck’s passenger seat, the third slid behind the wheel and pulled out of the parking lot.

  The hulk grinned as he pulled Alex closer, enfolding him in a one-armed bear hug from which there was no hope of escape.

  Alex grimaced when he saw the rag in the monster’s hand. Soaked in chloroform, no doubt. Dammit! he thought as the hulk slapped the cloth over his nose and mouth. Costain’s been shadowing me for days. Where the hell is he now, when I need him?

  It was his last conscious thought before everything faded to black.

  Awareness returned gradually—sound, feeling, sight. Alex groaned softly as he opened his eyes. And wished that he was still safely unconscious when he realized he was in a basement, his wrists secured to an iron pipe over his head,
his feet dangling a foot above the cement slab.

  A glance to the left made his stomach clench. The three revenants stood against the wall, unmoving, their eyes closed.

  Alex stared at them. They didn’t seem to be breathing. Were they even alive?

  The door across from him creaked open and Alex’s interest in the revenants disappeared when he saw the woman framed in the doorway. She was of medium height, with dark brown hair and a figure that was shapely, if a trifle plump. She stood there a moment, just staring at him. Had he been able, he would have fled from the hatred emanating from those cold, gray eyes. He knew in his gut that this was Tietjen’s mate, just as he knew that he would never leave this place alive.

  The knot of dread in his stomach grew even tighter when the vampire reached behind her and dragged Rylee into the room.

  “No!” The word hissed from Alex’s lips. “Let her go! She has nothing to do with this!”

  Magdalena put her hand in the middle of Rylee’s back and pushed, hard. Rylee stumbled and fell forward. With her hands bound behind her back, she had no way to break her fall. She landed heavily, the air whooshing out of her lungs. She turned her head at the last minute and Alex heard the dull thud as she hit the floor.

  “Dammit!” He tugged against the ropes that bound him. “Let her go!”

  In a blur too quick to follow, Magdalena crossed the room to stand in front of him. “How long have you known her?” she demanded, eyes flashing. “A few days? A month? I spent centuries with Eduardo!”

  “She’s nothing to me. We just met.”

  “Liar!” She dragged a long, sharp nail down his left cheek, laying it open to the bone.

  Alex inhaled sharply, then bit down on his lower lip, determined not to cry out. He grimaced with revulsion when she wiped a bit of blood away with her fingertips and brought them to her lips.

  “Don’t worry, hunter,” she purred. “I’m not going to kill her.” She smiled, showing her fangs. “But you might.”

  He swallowed hard, the warm blood trickling from his cheek and down his neck forgotten as her eyes went red. “No!” he cried, his voice hoarse with terror and revulsion. “Just kill me!”

  Her laughter echoed off the walls, cold and brittle, like dead leaves blown by the wind. He recoiled when she bit into her wrist, but his struggles were in vain as she grabbed a handful of his hair in one hand, forced his mouth open with the other and let her blood drip onto his tongue.

  Gagging, he spit it out.

  And then she grasped his shoulders in both hands, her fingers digging into his flesh like talons as she buried her fangs in his throat.

  Alex was vaguely aware of Rylee screaming, of his body growing weaker as the vampire drank.

  And drank.

  The world went red.

  And then gray.

  And then blessedly black as he spiraled headlong into a cold, endless abyss.

  Rylee huddled in one corner, shivering. Her back and shoulders ached from being forced into the same uncomfortable position for so long, but at least that dreadful woman had gone, taking those scary creatures with her.

  Time and again, her gaze was drawn back to Alex. He hung suspended from an overhead pipe, his body slowly turning one way and then the other. He was deathly pale save for the dark ribbons of drying blood on his left cheek and along the side of his neck. She couldn’t tell if he was still breathing.

  Choking back her tears, she tried to fight off the sense of hopelessness that was eating away at her sanity, but it was impossible. She didn’t know where she was, and neither did anyone else. But even more disquieting was the fear that, in some way, the woman’s bite had turned Alex into a vampire and that when he woke, she would be his first meal.

  She had screamed earlier, screamed until her throat was raw, but there was no one to hear her cries. Minutes ticked by like hours. She was shivering and uncomfortable and frightened out of her mind. And just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, there was a peculiar ripple in the air and a man appeared in the center of the room— seemingly out of nowhere. A tall man dressed all in black, with dark-blond hair. When he looked at her, his eyes were cold and calculating.

  She cringed when he approached her.

  He didn’t seem to notice.

  “I’m not going to hurt you.” Leaning down, he untied her hands, then turned away.

  Rylee massaged her wrists, all the while keeping a wary eye on the stranger, but he seemed to have forgotten she was there as he released Alex from his bonds, then lowered him gently onto the floor and squatted beside him.

  Summoning her courage, Rylee asked, “Is he dead?”

  “Not yet.” He answered without looking at her.

  “She bit him.”

  He nodded. “Did he drink from her?”

  “She…she made him drink some but he spit it out. Is he going to turn into a vampire?”

  “If he survives the night,” he replied, his voice coolly dispassionate. “I haven’t yet decided.”

  “Can’t you do anything to help him?”

  He shrugged. “I can leave him alone and see if he survives, in which case he’ll be bound to whoever turned him. Or I can give him my blood, and he’ll be bound to me instead.”

  Scrambling to her feet, Rylee stared at him in horror. “You…you’re a…?”

  “A vampire. Yes.”

  She backed as far away from him as she could get. A fresh wave of terror chilled her to the bone with the realization that the man bending over Alex hadn’t come to save them.

  Rhys studied Alex, the frightened woman forgotten as he listened to the ever-slowing, erratic beat of the boy’s heart. Only minutes left to decide his fate.

  “Dammit,” Rhys murmured. He had been a vampire long enough to know when a man was at death’s door. Apparently the other vampire—Magdalena, he assumed—hadn’t given Alex enough of her blood to turn him. But she’d taken enough to kill him. Would Alex hate him if he saved his life? And what about Daisy? Would she thank him for turning her brother or despise him for letting him die? But there was no time to discuss it with Daisy or her husband or with his own wife. The decision had to be made now.

  Shit! Life had been so much easier when he’d had no entanglements with other vampires and their human kin. He swore again, then bit into his left wrist. He stared at the dark-red blood oozing from the wound. He was going to have a hell of a time explaining to the Vampire Council why he had chosen to save the life of a hunter. But what the hell, he was the Master of the West Coast Vampires. He could do whatever the hell he pleased.

  “Alex.” Parting the boy’s lips, Rhys held his bleeding wrist over the kid’s mouth. “You must drink.”

  Behind him, the woman made a strangled sound.

  And fainted dead away.

  Rhys swore softly. He would worry about what to do with her later.

  He watched his blood trickle onto Alex’s tongue, smiled faintly when the kid swallowed once, twice, then grabbed hold of his arm and drank as if he would never let go.

  He let the kid drink until the color returned to his cheeks and his heart was again beating slow and steady. When he pulled his arm away, Alex made a soft sound of protest, then went limp.

  Rising, Costain lifted Alex and slung him over his shoulder, then transported the two of them to the bedroom in his penthouse lair. Alex didn’t stir as Rhys undressed him and tucked him into bed.

  “Damn,” Rhys muttered irritably as he returned for the woman. “No good deed ever goes unpunished.”

  CHAPTER 12

  Rylee was shaking so badly she couldn’t get her house key in the lock. She kept telling herself this couldn’t be happening, that in spite of everything Alex had told her—in spite of what she had seen with her own eyes—vampires didn’t exist, that she was having the mother of all nightmares. But there was no denying the fact that the blond vampire standing behind her was very real. After somehow whisking Alex away, he had returned to the basement, swept her into his arms, and brough
t her home, though she had no recollection of how they had arrived or how he knew where she lived. A million questions and fears warred within her.

  She practically jumped out of her skin when he reached around her.

  A touch of his hand unlocked the door and it swung open. He arched one brow at her stunned expression, then gestured for her to go inside.

  “Don’t open your door for anyone after dark,” he advised as she stepped inside. “And I mean anyone, whether you know them or not.”

  She made a scoffing noise. “If they’re vampires, won’t they just unlock the door like you did and walk in?”

  “I can’t go inside.”

  “Why not?”

  “Vampires can’t enter a home uninvited. Something about the power of the threshold keeps us out.” He smiled at her.

  It didn’t make Rylee feel any better. Or any safer.

  “I’d advise you to study up on vampire lore, Miss Wagner. Most of it’s wrong, but some of it’s right.”

  She wondered, briefly, how he knew her name. “I don’t believe you can’t come in.”

  Rhys blew out a sigh, then took a step forward. Trying to cross the threshold was like slamming into a block wall.

  Rylee’s eyes widened as the air whipped around her. “You really can’t cross the threshold?”

  “Not without an invitation. So, like I said, don’t invite strangers into your house. If you’re smart, you won’t go out after dark.” He paused, his gaze running over her. “How did Magdalena find you?”

  Magdalena. The vampire who had killed Alex’s wife. Rylee shuddered. “I’m not sure. The last thing I remember is getting into my car.” She had missed her meeting with Summerville, but somehow that didn’t seem important now.

  “She probably mesmerized you. If she tries again, she’ll likely send someone else in her place—perhaps even someone you know—which is why you have to be careful.”