“If I had known the door wasn’t locked, I would’ve tried to escape,” Grace said as she flung open the door and stared accusingly at the pretty woman eyeing her with compassion. She didn’t want pity; she just wanted to go home.
“You’re not a prisoner here.” Abby moved past her into the room. She was still wearing nothing but Damien’s shirt and felt herself blush at the other woman’s sneering look. “I know you have no reason to believe me, but you’re safe here. These guys won’t let anything happen to you.”
“From what I’ve seen of these guys, they’re just like the one who kidnapped me and kept me prisoner in his home for the past two weeks.”
“Really?” Abby asked with a raised brow. Even though she was unsure of how to deal with a traumatized victim, she wasn’t about to let this woman malign the men she has known for most of her life, men she knew were good and honorable despite being vampires. “You’re not tied to the bed, you’re dressed and I know Jacob hasn’t forced himself on you.”
“That doesn’t mean he won’t,” Grace snapped defensive
ly as she plopped her hands on her hips and glared back at this woman who seemed to be in bed, literally, with these creatures. “So, I’m free to leave?”
“Of course,” she answered readily, surprising her. “It’s dawn, so we’re both safe from a rogue attack, at least until tonight.”
“How can you be so calm? My God, two weeks ago I thought vampires were just myths. I can’t even go to the police and tell them what happened to me because no one would believe me.”
Abby heard the fear in Grace’s voice, the disbelief of everything that had happened. She wasn’t completely cowed by what Mason had put her through, but she wasn’t far from it. Taking a seat on a large recliner next to the fireplace, Abby curled her legs under her and said, “Sit down a minute, Grace. I’ll tell you my story and how I came to know about the brethren.”
Grace didn’t want to sit, she wanted to run, run back to her life, pick up the pieces and pretend the past two weeks never happened. But she sat on the bed facing the other woman whom she hoped had the answers she needed. Questions like why she was so drawn to Jacob after what Mason had done to her and why the thought of leaving and never seeing him again filled her with sorrow instead of relief. As if her physical reaction to the vampire wasn’t enough to send her into a tailspin of confusion. Her eyes widened in alarm and then surprise when Abby pulled the wide neck of the man’s tee shirt she wore down to expose the side of her breast, showing her a birthmark similar to the one she bore on her neck.
“Mine just suddenly appeared shortly before my twenty-fifth birthday three years ago. When did yours appear?”
Grace swallowed convulsively before replying, “Four years ago, right before my twenty-fifth birthday also. Mason was obsessed with it, constantly looking at it, touching it. The one time he took my blood, he bit me right there.”
“I’m sorry. Did he hurt you?” Abby would give anything to feel Damien’s bite, the one thing he had withheld from her when they were fucking.
“He said I’d like it, it would make the sex better, but, of course, it didn’t. And yes, it hurt then I felt nothing but disgust, and fear of becoming like him.”
“These marks mean we’re compatible to be mated to one of the brethren, good vampires for lack of a better definition,” she added. “They respond to the nearness of our mates by tingling with warmth, followed by our bodies reacting much the same.” When Grace blushed, Abby smiled knowingly. “I see you know what I’m talking about. You didn’t have that reaction with Mason, nor did he with you.”
Abby told Grace what she knew of Mason’s family and his grief over having to watch them age and die, hating him because they thought he had abandoned them then explained the difference between the brethren and rogues and related what she had narrowly escaped thanks to Damien coming to her rescue again.
“You want me to think Jacob, and the others here are good vampires and I’m in danger from bad vampires because I have this mark on my neck?” she asked incredulously. “I think they’ve brain washed you, made you their sex slave, or something,” Grace added derisively. There was no way she was going to believe there was anything good about any of them and as for her response to Jacob, well she’d just put that down to gratitude for rescuing her from Mason. She refused to even consider it was, or could be anything more. She was a twenty-nine year old librarian who had had one short term relationship that included mediocre sex and ended badly when the jerk left her for a skinny, five foot eight inch redhead. There was no way she would believe she was destined to become anyone’s soul mate or that a man, or vampire, would be driven by lust for her. Mason had been a sick psycho whose attention she had drawn because she happened to have a mark that matched the one on his palm. She was certainly under no delusions that he went psycho with lust at the sight of her.
“You need to give Jacob a chance to help you heal from Mason’s betrayal,” Abby said coolly as she stood. “As far as being their sex slave, it took me three years to get Damien, my mate, to fuck me, and now that I have I’ll gladly take on that role for him. Now, I have to shower and dress for work then I’ll take you to your place. Do you think you still have a job?”
“Yes. Mason made me contact my boss and arrange for family medical leave on the pretext of helping my aging grandmother, who, by the way, passed away two years ago. So, I’m really free to go, to return home?”
“Of course, but if you want to stay alive, you’ll wait for Jacob to pick you up this evening when he rises.” Abby hoped her veiled threat would give her something to think about today because from the look of denial on her face, Grace wasn’t even considering anything else she had told her.
Chapter Eight
Grace gave Abby no promises when she dropped her off at her apartment. She didn’t understand the other woman’s easy acceptance of these creatures, didn’t want to know how she could be so happy about fucking one of them. She had been around them for so long, under their spell for twenty years, Grace figured Abby was brainwashed. That could be the only explanation for her delusional belief that the vampires living on that plantation estate were any different from the one who had kidnapped and forced himself on her. Even though Mason had made an effort not to physically hurt her when he fucked her, just the fact she was unwilling had been enough trauma to deal with.
Her small apartment looked the same as when she last saw it except for the layer of dust that could be seen with the morning sun shining in from the one window in the living room. A neat freak, that telltale sign of her absence drove her nuts as she quickly showered and dressed before calling her boss and perpetrating her story by giving her a partial truth and telling her her grandmother passed away and she would be returning to work today. Her grandmother, who had raised her after her single mother’s death when she was just four, would be devastated if she knew the trouble that had befallen Grace, but Grace refused to dwell on what was and couldn’t be changed. There was no way she could go to the police with her story, so, as she searched the parking lot for her blue Fiat where Mason had told her he took it, she was determined to put the past two weeks behind her.
The stress and fear of her kidnapping had taken its toll on Grace as she discovered by the time she clocked out of the library at six o’clock. She felt both physically and emotionally drained when she walked out to her car in the deepening dusk with Clare, her boss. Her co-workers well wishes and condolences all day made her keep up the charade of why she had been gone, which wore on her nerves and left her feeling as if she was stretched as tautly as a bow string. She wanted nothing more than to go home and take a long soak in a hot bath then curl up with a good book, a simple but coveted pleasure she had been denied for what now seemed like months instead of just fourteen days.
“You look tired, Grace,” Clare remarked when they reached her car. “It’s a good thing we’re closed tomorrow. I think you need a little time to yourself. I know how difficult it is to be the sole caretaker of a loved one and then have to deal with their passing.”
“Thanks, Clare,” Grace replied as she unlocked her car door hoping her face didn’t reflect the guilt she felt at receiving such consideration for something she hadn’t done. Not only had her grandmother been gone for a few years, but she had maintained her health and independence until she passed away quietly in her sleep at the age of eighty-six. Truth was, what she had been going through was infinitely worse than taking care of an elderly relative, so maybe she shouldn’t feel guilty for accepting the nice solicitations from her friends even though they were given under false pretenses. “I am looking forward to spending Sunday pampering myself. See you Monday.”
It was completely dark by the time she arrived at her apartment complex. Getting out of her car, she crossed the lot and just happened to glance up at her second floor apartment and noticed the curtain fluttering in the window followed by the distinct shape of someone moving around. Shadows seemed to lengthen ominously as she fearfully glanced back around at the dark, deserted parking lot, her heart rate accelerating as pulse pounding dread consumed her. Turning to flee back to her car, she was brought up short as a man seemed to float down from her balcony and land effortlessly in front of her. She took a step back from the putrid smelling creature smiling grotesquely at her. She broke out into a cold sweat and started to shake when he smiled lewdly, revealing sharp fangs, his red tinted eyes holding a vacant look that was scarier than Mason’s look of desperate hunger.
“Hello, pretty lady,” he drawled, his eyes gleaming with malice as they looked her over lewdly.
She tried to ward him off by holding out her hand palm up. Bile filled her throat and threatened to make her gag as she whispered shakily, “Leave me alone.” Turning, she made to run, but was brought up short by a second ghoulish figure dropping down in front of her. These must be the rogues Abby warned her about, a warning she was wishing now she had heeded. These vampires resembled those depicted in movies and were nothing like the men who had come to her rescue last night. Their slow shuffle as they moved toward her was downright creepy, the spittle flying from their leering mouths disgusting and their dead eyes chilling her more than anything Mason had subjected her to.
Trapped as the two slowly backed her toward the side of the building, panic was starting to set in, a scream rising from her throat as they both reached out to grab her, but the sudden appearance of Jacob in front of her stifled her cry and stopped those hands from reaching her.