Unhinged: Blood Bond: Parts 4, 5 & 6 (Volume 2) Page 4

I rang the bell. Em was sitting behind the front desk, which was at the other end of the hotel, but she looked up and saw me through the window in the door. Good thing for acute vampire vision. She buzzed me in.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked when I walked to the front desk.

  “Just out and about, and I wanted to see how you’re feeling.”

  “Okay. Nauseated a lot, but that’s normal for a vampire pregnancy. Humans are lucky. The sickness usually ends around the twelfth week. I’ll probably feel this way the whole nine months.”

  “Maybe not,” I said.

  “I hope I do. Jack says the sicker I am, the better the pregnancy is progressing and the better chance of a successful outcome.”

  “Oh. Then good.” It felt strange hoping my sister would feel sick, but I wanted her to make it safely out of this pregnancy. Vampire females were rare. If River was right, and Erin’s brother was the father of the baby, it wouldn’t be a vampire baby. It would be human.

  “So…” I began.

  “Yeah?”

  “Are you ready to tell us who the father is?”

  She shook her head, chuckling. “I should have known you didn’t stop by just to chat.”

  “Em, you’re going to have to at least tell the father. He has a right to know.”

  She sighed. “I know, and I will. Eventually. I just need to get a grip, you know? I haven’t told anyone this, but you’re my brother, so I’ll tell you. I’m scared out of my mind, Dante.”

  I nodded. “Because of what happened to Mom?”

  “Of course! But I can’t have an abortion. I thought about it, but I can’t do it. This is my child. A life growing inside me. I want it. I want this baby.”

  “I understand. You’re going to be fine, Em.” I hoped to God I wasn’t lying to her.

  “I need you to promise me something, big brother.”

  “Of course. Anything.”

  “If I don’t make it but the baby does, I want you to take him. Raise my child as your own. You’re my big brother, and for so long I thought I’d lost you. Now you’re back, and I need you. You’ll be a good father, Dante.”

  A good father? I was wrestling so many of my own demons that I couldn’t even begin to think about fatherhood. Plus, I couldn’t process the fact that Emilia might not survive the pregnancy.

  But right now my sister needed my assurance, not my doubts.

  “Of course, Em. But that isn’t going to happen. You’re going to be fine, and the baby is going to be fine.”

  “I hope so. I’m doing everything I can. I’m following Jack’s instructions to the letter. No caffeine. No alcohol. No sex.”

  “Easy, Em. There are some things a big brother doesn’t want to think about.” Though the fact that she was pregnant made me think them anyway.

  “I shouldn’t be whining to you,” she said. “You’ve been through so much. If you need anything, or just to talk, you know I’m here.”

  “I’m all right. I’ve talked to River and to Bill a little.” I couldn’t tell my baby sister what had been done to me, especially not while she was in such a fragile state. She needed to be stress free until the pregnancy was over.

  Time to change the subject. “Slow night?”

  She nodded. “Weeknights sometimes are. The weekends are usually hopping, people coming in at all hours, but I don’t work Friday and Saturday nights.”

  Good. Em didn’t need the stress of the partiers coming in at all hours and waking up the other guests. “Do you get a break? Do you want to go for a walk?”

  “Not for a few hours, but you’re welcome to hang here if you want. Do you want a snack?”

  “Sure. I’ll get it. Where?”

  “There’s a fridge in the back. I keep some cold cuts and bread in there. Make a sandwich. In fact, make two. I’m starving.”

  “You need something else? I can get you—”

  “Not at work. Even on a slow night. I can’t take the chance of anyone seeing me. I drank before work.”

  “Got it.” I walked back and found the refrigerator. I quickly made two sandwiches and brought them back to the front desk, handing one to Em.

  After taking a few bites, I sighed. If I expected Em to be honest with me about her pregnancy, I had to tell her what was going on with me. The blood bond. But I didn’t want to stress her out. I could at least tell her that I’d fallen in love.

  “So…I have some news.”

  She swallowed her bite of sandwich. “Yeah? What?”

  “I’m seeing someone. A human woman.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “Really? Who?”

  “Remember the nurse who came to our house?”

  “Oh, yeah. She was nice. She told me to go to the doctor. I should have listened to her.” Em laughed.

  “If you had, maybe you wouldn’t have ended up in the ER.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Em took a bite of sandwich. “Quit going all big brother on me,” she said, her mouth full.

  “Anyway, her name’s Erin.”

  “I remember. She’s Jay’s sister.”

  Perfect opportunity to press her. “How do you know Jay?”

  She laughed, nearly spitting out her sandwich. “In the biblical sense, so to speak.”

  I cleared my throat. “Oh?”

  “Just one time. I doubt he even remembers me.” She patted her stomach. “But I’ll always remember him.”

  “He’s the one, huh?”

  “Yeah. Have you met him?”

  “A couple times.”

  “Then don’t tell me you didn’t know he’s the father. His scent must be all over me.”

  “My nose isn’t working very well these days.”

  “Oh? Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. I’ve seen your doctor. I’m fine.” Fine? Maybe not exactly. But I didn’t want Em worrying about me losing my ability to scent any human but Erin.

  “River has to know who the father is. Jay is his partner.”

  “Has he said anything to you?”

  She shook her head, swallowing.

  “He probably thinks it’s none of his business.”

  “Then he’s right. I’ll tell him and Bill eventually. Right now I just don’t like talking about it. I’m scared I’ll jinx the pregnancy or something.” She rolled her eyes. “I know that sounds completely stupid.”

  “Is that why you haven’t told Jay?”

  She nodded. “Yeah. Go ahead. Tell me I’m being a moron.”

  After all I’d been through and the ridiculous thoughts that whirled through my own head, I’d never call my sister a moron or anything else derogatory.

  “You do what you need to do, Em. Whatever keeps your stress level low. We’ll all support you.”

  My phone buzzed against my thigh. I was still getting used to the constant texting. Being “on call” to everyone who knew my number was a little ridiculous.

  I grabbed my cell phone and smiled.

  Erin.

  I need you. I’m okay, but please come over.

  Chapter Ten

  Erin

  Dante texted me back almost instantaneously.

  In the Quarter. I’ll be there as soon as I can.

  I was glad he was still up. Dawn was nearly here, and he was coming back anyway.

  I’d tried to sleep. Tried herbal tea. A relaxing lavender bath. A self-massage. Meditation. Even warm milk, which was disgusting.

  Nothing had worked.

  My brain wouldn’t calm down. Questions. So many questions. Some that I wouldn’t even be able to verbalize.

  I’d been so hung up on my inner duel between what Dante was and how he made me feel that I’d neglected to pay much attention to another issue. A big issue.

  Someone else had taken my blood.

  Dante said he’d find out who it was, but now the thought had consumed me. Even as I’d tried to meditate, all I could picture was this ferocious animal of a person with a blurred face hypnotizing me and feeding on my thigh. The marks were perilously close
to my gifts.

  That didn’t bode well.

  If I didn’t remember, other things could have happened as well. What if I’d been…raped?

  Just thinking the word tormented me.

  My nerves jittered under my skin, and I’d been pacing around my living room, rubbing my arms, when I’d finally decided to text Dante. I texted rather than called so I wouldn’t wake him if he was asleep.

  But if he hadn’t answered the text, I would have called.

  I was that desperate. That fucked up.

  I poured myself a glass of wine, but after one sip I threw it in the sink.

  While it might relax me, I didn’t want my faculties impaired even in the slightest.

  I had to face reality.

  I had to face the fact that I’d been violated. Not only were vampires real—still having a hard time with that one—but one had bitten me and taken my blood without my consent. God only knew what else he had done.

  I sat down on my couch, my knees jiggling, biting off the cuticle on my thumb. “Ouch!” I tore so much skin off that it bled. Just what I didn’t need. My blood right in front of Dante’s nose. I hurried to the bathroom and bandaged it.

  As I stared at my reflection in the mirror, an uninvited image hurled itself into my mind. Dante, turned away from me, blood smeared on the kitchen floor in his grandfather’s house. Yes, I’d been there. I’d run into the kitchen when I’d heard the commotion.

  A bread knife. He’d cut himself with a bread knife. But now, in my mind’s eye, I saw something else.

  Not the jagged cut from a serrated knife.

  No.

  Two wounds. I touched my neck. Much like…

  But no. That wasn’t what had happened. He’d cut himself with the bread knife. The scene was clear in my mind, and my memory confirmed it. Where had the other image come from?

  I blinked my eyes, and the picture was gone. Just my reflection again. My eyes looked sunken and tired, rimmed with dark circles. I was a mess.

  I jolted at the knock on the door. I walked out of the bathroom swiftly and eyed my deadbolt. I had locked it. “Dante?” I said through the door.

  “It’s me, love.”

  I opened the door and pulled him inside, his very presence already soothing me. That veil of calmness I’d felt before.

  I crashed into his body. His arms went around me and he held me. Simply held me, as though he sensed it was exactly what I needed.

  It was.

  I breathed him in. His masculine fragrance. His strength.

  This man would never harm me. This man…

  But he wasn’t a man. At least not a human one.

  He was…

  Still couldn’t form the word in my thoughts. Not when it came to Dante.

  Did you see him?

  See who?

  The vampire.

  I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing out the unpleasantness. Just Dante. Just his hardness, his protection.

  “What’s wrong, baby? What do you need?” He pressed his lips to my forehead.

  It was a comforting embrace, not the embrace of someone who wanted to fuck me.

  Not the embrace of someone who wanted to suck my blood.

  “I’m scared,” I said.

  He kissed my forehead again. “I know you are. You’ll accept it in time.”

  I pulled away. “I’m not even talking about that.”

  “Then what are you talking about?” He took both of my hands in his.

  “I’m freaking out more than a little here. Those marks on my thigh. Someone bit me. What if they did other things? Abe Lincoln said vampires—”

  “Hold on a minute. Who is Abe Lincoln? Don’t tell me you’re communing with the dead.” He smiled.

  “Damn it! This isn’t a time for paranormal jokes! A patient at the hospital. Abe Lincoln is his name, or so he says. Anyway, he told me that vampires feed on him, and he lets them. That they don’t hypnotize him. But most vampires hypnotize their victims and then feed, so they don’t remember it.”

  “Hypnotize? Actually, we call it glamouring, but it is a form of hypnosis.”

  I dropped his hands. “So it’s true? It’s not a myth?”

  “That part is true. Vampires have the ability to glamour humans, but most don’t do it. We consider it morally wrong. We only do it in a dire emergency. If we have to feed and there’s nothing else available.”

  “Oh my God. Have you ever…”

  “Of course not! I would never violate you in that way.”

  “So you never took my blood before…”

  “Not before yesterday, no. I mean, I got a little taste when I accidentally nicked your tongue once, and then that night we were dancing in the Quarter, and I nicked your neck. But you remember those times, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “There’s your proof that I never glamoured you.”

  I breathed in slowly and let it out, trying like hell to calm my nerves. “But someone else did, Dante. Someone glamoured me and fed on my thigh. If I don’t remember that, what else don’t I remember? What happened to me? What happened?”

  Chapter Eleven

  Dante

  She was frantic. Her eyes had widened into circles and her whole body trembled. Her pulse thumped in her neck, and her heartbeat drummed in my ears, lending a beat to the whooshing of blood through her veins and the higher-pitched hiss as it flowed out through her arteries.

  My gums tingled, but I suppressed my urge to feed. She needed me right now. She needed Dante the man, not Dante the vampire.

  I kissed the top of her head and then slid my hands to her shoulders, pushing her away slightly, for my own sanity as well as hers.

  While her blood didn’t quiet, at least I no longer felt the thump of her heart against my body.

  “Erin, love, I told you I’d find out who did this to you, and I will. Trust me on that. Believe me when I say I hate the idea of someone else feeding on you as much—probably more—than you do. You’re mine. I’ve known that in some capacity since I first laid eyes on you. I will find out who did that, and it will not happen again.”

  “It’s not even that.” Her lips trembled. “What if they did something else to me? What if I’ve been raped, Dante? What if…” She closed her eyes, shaking her head. “I can’t go there. This is all too much. My whole world is collapsing.”

  “Open your eyes, Erin, and look at me.”

  Her eyes stayed shut. “Don’t you dare try to glamour me into some kind of submission to take away my agitation. Don’t you fucking dare, Dante.”

  “Hey.” I cupped her cheeks, easing my thumbs to her temples and massaging them. “I will never glamour you. You have my word.”

  She slowly opened her eyes, her fear showing within them. I felt her pain, felt everything she sensed as her heart continued to thunder loud enough for my enhanced hearing. I was in tune with her body and her heart, and I didn’t think anyone had touched her in any other inappropriate way. If someone had, I’d know it, and I’d murder the motherfucker. Still, I had to be sure.

  “Erin, have you had any strange pain down there? Any feelings of something being ‘off’?”

  She shook her head, her lips still trembling.

  “I don’t think you’ve been raped.”

  “Can you smell anything? Smell who did this to me?”

  “Unfortunately, no. Vampires have no scent to each other. We can smell all other animals, but not ourselves. And even if we could, I’d be no help. Since I met you, I only smell you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  God, where to start? I couldn’t tell her about the blood bond. Not yet. She was already freaked to the hilt.

  “I mean I can only smell you. Your scent overpowers all others.”

  “Even when you’re not with me?”

  “Yes.”

  “How? Why?”

  “I don’t know.” I hated not being completely truthful. I actually didn’t know for sure, but I had a pretty firm idea of what was going
on.

  “Then how will you find out who fed on me? And how will you make sure it never happens again?”

  “Your scent may still be on whoever fed from you. I just need to find that vampire. I will. You can count on that.” It could have happened anywhere. She’d been leaving her door unlocked since we met. I’d assumed it was because of the blood bond, but could she have been glamoured into doing so? To let someone in to feed?

  I seethed. Damn it!

  I had to maintain control. She needed me.

  It could have happened at the hospital or anywhere else she’d been. It had most likely happened in the French Quarter, where most of the vampires hung out. Most of us didn’t feed on humans, but a select few didn’t share our scruples. Erin had gone out with Lucy the night we danced at the bar. She’d probably been out many times before with her friend.

  “When was the last time you went to the Quarter?”

  “The night we danced.”

  “I mean before that.”

  “I don’t know. I’m not a big partier, but Lucy drags me out once or twice a month. Probably a few weeks before that time.”

  Time enough for the marks to still be visible. If I took Erin to the Quarter, her scent would drive out whoever had fed on her, and I’d make it clear that she was off limits.

  “When is your next night off?” I asked.

  “Friday.”

  “Okay. We have a date to go to the Quarter.”

  “Are you sure that’s wise?”

  “It’s the only way. I’ll find who did this to you, and I’ll make it clear that you’re mine. No one will touch you again. No one but me.”

  She melted into my arms then, and the calmness that overtook her was almost visible. Did my words have that effect? Or was it me?

  I didn’t care. I just wanted her to feel better. I wanted to keep her safe from harm. It was what I’d always wanted—no, ached for—since she’d found me covered in blood at the hospital.

  Erin and I were meant to be.

  Once bonded, never broken.

  Where I’d heard those words no longer mattered. They belonged to Erin and me now. Always.

  I inhaled. Her blood called to me, and my cock stiffened as my fangs elongated. I was done trying to stop them. My body would respond to her no matter what. What was important was how I responded to my body.