“Marcus,” Evan whispered, reality coming back to him as he brought his ‘Warden in Charge’ into focus. For a moment a haze of lust and need rumbled through him, small details fading in and out. In some far corner of his mind, he registered the absence of rain, the presence of mud and ground beneath him – and Marissa. His gaze dropped to find her passed out, her skin pale and her body half way to dead. He cursed, and quickly closed her wound, opening one on his wrist, to replace her blood loss.
“Nice to have you back with us,” Marcus said, standing up, a vision of pure power in his black leather, his long blonde hair wet around his shoulders. “Take her someplace safe, out of the wolf’s reach,” he said. “I’ll deal with the council while your brother’s deal with the wolf.”
Marissa began to stir, and Evan’s reason for converting her here and now slammed into him like a punch in the gut. “I won’t kill her and I’ll kill anyone who tries.”
“You won’t get the chance to kill her if you cross the council,” he said. “They’ll tell me to do it. And if I won’t – they’ll send another ancient who’ll get the job done, which means I’ll have to kill them before they do. And while I don’t like most of the bastards, if we really have a mutation of the wolf virus we might need them.” He reached in a pocket and tossed Evan a syringe. “Get me a blood sample when she’s strong enough. And when I say take her someplace safe, I also mean someplace nice. Seriously man, if you want to win the lady over – that rattrap isn’t the way to do it.” And then he was gone, moving so fast, the eye couldn’t register him, a talent few of their kind possessed. No one knew his past or his origins. Only that he wasn’t someone you ever wanted to piss off. He was damn glad Marcus had his and Marissa’s back.
***
Marissa stood in the bathroom of the hotel while Evan undressed her. She was cold, so very cold. So cold that her bones felt like ice that might crack into tiny pieces at any moment. She barely remembered what had happened. There were just flashes of moments – of being in the room alone, of needing to run. Fighting with Evan then waking up in the mud. The moment Evan had lifted her into his arms and she’d curled into his chest, pressed her ear to his heart, but found no heartbeat. Vampire, the word had come to her, and replayed over and over.
“Sit a second,” he urged her softly, reaching behind the shower curtain and turning on the water. And then, suddenly he was naked and pulling her into the shower, his arms and the warm water piercing the cold. He washed her hair, soaped her body. He soothed her with his hands, his lips. Warmth seeped into the places she’d been cold. Never had anyone touched her so gently, with so much care and tenderness. She realized then, that she’d built a wall around herself, a way to deal with being alone in the world. If she didn’t let anyone in, they couldn’t leave.
She rested her head on his chest, letting his powerful body hold her up, give her strength. “I heard,” she finally whispe
red, tilting her chin up to look at him. “I heard what your brother’s said about the blood bond being against your laws.”
“I know,” he said solemnly. “The water is getting cold. Let’s get out of here before you start shaking again.” He turned off the water, and then yanked the curtain back. He dried her off, wrapped her in a towel, but never once looked at her.
When he wrapped a towel around his waist, she grabbed his arm, forced his gaze to hers. “Tell me what is happening. Make me understand.”
He motioned to the bed. “Let’s go sit down.”
His discomfort was palpable. Whatever he had to tell her she wasn’t going to like. He sat down on the bed and patted the area beside him.
She hugged herself. “Tell me.”
Reluctantly, he seemed to accept her distance. “Vampires are a relatively small race. And we’ve survived extinction by staying off the radar. If we expose ourselves to a human, their memory is erased.”
“Wait. What? You can erase a memory?”
“Yes.”
“Mine? Have you erased my memory? Is that why I can’t remember all of what happened earlier tonight?”
“No. Once a blood bond is created the human is immune to our abilities. And,” he hesitated, “they become a potential liability.”
Her jaw went slack. “Are you telling me that your government will kill me? And you too for creating the bond?” His lips thinned to a grim line and he didn’t even have to speak for her to know she was right. “So either you kill me because I become a wolf or they kill us both because I don’t.” Emotion exploded inside her and she started shaking all over again. “You aren’t going to die for me. I remember now. I remember why I ran, why I tried to get away from you. I’m going to be the reason you die. I knew it then and I know it now. I can’t let that happen. I won’t.”
Evan grabbed her and pulled her onto the bed, then rolled so that one leg slid between hers. “There’s a way out of this,” he promised. “A way we both live.”
“What way?” she asked urgently. She was desperate for an answer that would make this feeling inside her and the certainty that she was destined to kill Evan, go away.
She listened to his story of a mutated wolf virus, how her blood was the way to convince the council she was important, that she was worth saving. A way for her petition to be converted to vampire before the full moon would be approved.
“I don’t want to steal your life from you Marisa,” he told her, brushing his lips over hers. “I swear to you. I want to give you a second chance at one.”
“I know,” she said, running her fingers threw his damp hair. “I know.” And she did. “I want that chance. I want to make a difference in the world. I haven’t and I regret that so much now.” So why wasn’t she shouting with joy? “What happens now if I say yes to conversion?”
“We get the council blood samples and then find a safe place to hole up – a luxury hotel of your choice. We’ll wait on word of the petition there. That’ll give you a chance to ask questions about our race, and learn about what you’ll become. A luxury I wasn’t given and I want you to have.”
“What about the wolf?”
“Troy and Aiden are going after it. My job is to keep you safe and alive.”
“Don’t you mean ‘sane’ and alive.”
He drew her knuckles to his lips. “Actually. I intend to drive you as crazy as I possibly can.”