Bonds of Blood (11 page)

Chapter 17

Kat’s gaze skittered around the room nervously before returning to meet his. 

“People will come looking for me,” she said.

One eyebrow quirked up.
  “Who?  Your mother passed away a year ago.  You’ve lost contact with any remaining family you had and the only friend you’ve made since you’ve been here is Mina.  I imagine she already knows why you are missing.”

A chill raced up her spine.  “
How long have you been watching me?”

“I’ve been watching you for years, Kat.”

“Years?” she whispered.

His lips formed a grim line. 

“No,” was all she could manage.

For a moment, neither one of them spoke.

“Why are you doing this to me?” she asked, her voice breaking.

“Your father wanted to make sure you were safe,” he replied evenly.

She snorted.  “If he cares so much about me then where the hell has he been all my life?”

“He wanted to be with you, Kat. 
If the others would have found out about your mother, they would have killed her.  He left to protect her,” he explained.

“Protect her?” she scoffed.  “She spent the rest of her life alone.  She never got over the
fact that he left us.  Was that his idea of protection?”

“You don’t understand how dangerous things are,” he reasoned.

“
Kat.
”

The voice drifted over her, through her.

“
Kat
.”

“What?” she hurled back, hating the way her voice was clouded with
emotion.

“I didn’t say anything
.”

Her eyebrows drew together.  “Yes, you did.  I heard you
.”

His entire body went still.
  “What did the voice sound like?”

Goosebumps broke out on her skin as she answered him.  “It was a man’s voice.  I thought it was you.”

When he looked away, her body stiffened.  “Who was it? 
What
was it?”.

“Damien,” she heard him curse in a low breath.

Her eyes narrowed.  “Damien?  But how could he…?”

His lips formed a thin line. 
“The blood.”

The two words were enough to send a shiver up her spine.

“Are you saying he can talk to my mind?”

He nodded.

She tilted her head to the side.  “You’re asking me to take an awful lot on faith here.”

His eyebrows rose.  “You heard him yourself,” he explained.

They were both quiet for a minute. 

“Still feeling sick?” he prodded.

Walking across the room, she tried to move past him but he caught her.  The air around him was frigid, the feel of his cold hands on her arms making a shiver race up her spine.  As much as she wanted to deny what was happening, the feel of his skin against hers proved that he wasn’t human.

Backing away from him, she brought her arms around her middle. 
“How do I break the bond?” she asked.

He looked down at the floor, his silence deafening. 

“Alec?”

“You have to feed from another vampire.  Even then, there’s no guarantee that it will
work.  The blood bond is strong, but maybe if you had enough from another…”

She shook her head.  “
No.  I’m not doing that.  I’m not…feeding on blood.  I can’t,” she said as she wrapped her arms around her middle.

He didn’t speak, which made her even more unnerved…if that was possible.  Her stomach churned almost on cue, the bile rising in the back of her throat.

“I want to be alone now,” she explained.

She needed time.

Time to get her head together.

Time to process everything.

“I’ll be right outside,” he said.

She watched as he turned and left the room.

Pain sliced through her abdomen making her stumble over to the bed.  Her hands instinctively covered the affected area.  Curling up in the center, she pulled the covers around her as she felt another pain drive into her stomach.

“
Make it stop,” she whispered. 

****

“Don’t make me kill you,” Damien warned.

The threat hung in the air between them as thick as stale cigarette smoke. 

“I can’t just make trackers appear, Damien,” Genevieve replied, her tone even.

Damien was across the room in a flash.  “Can’t or won’t?” he challenged.  Damien’s hand curled around her neck, his fingers tightening painfully.  “You wouldn’t be holding out on me…would you Gen?” he demanded, jerking her close so he could whisper the last in her ear.  “Because if you are, I will sniff it out and you will pay dearly.”

She tried to swallow but his grip made it hard.  “I wouldn’t lie to you, Damien,” she answered, her voice barely audible.

“You don’t still have a fondness for him, do you?”

Her eyes met his.  “That was a long time ago.”

He tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowing.  “Some ties run deep,” he reminded.

“And some don’t,” she said.  “I wouldn’t lie to you to protect him.”

His gaze jerked back to Mina who sat on the bed in a black silk robe.  “Go get Simon,” he ordered, watching as she scurried out of the room.

His thumb traced the line of Genevieve’s jaw.  “I hope you’re not lying to me, Gen.  It would be shame to ruin something so pretty.”

After a couple of minutes, Simon came in.  The tall brown haired vampire looked back and forth from Damien to Genevieve.  Damien
glanced over at him.  He definitely wasn’t the brightest of his men, but he was obsessively loyal, which was why he was the only one who could answer the next question.

“Simon,” Damien began slowly.  “How did that man get past all of my security to find me in the back room?”

Simon glanced worriedly at Genevieve.  Damien turned his attention back to Gen.  So, it had been Genevieve who led Alec to his door. 

Fucking bitch!

He raised her off her feet, her fingernails clawing at the skin of his hands.  With one swift move, he hurled her across the room.  She flew into the wall, pieces of plaster crashing down around her slumped figure. 

“I’ll finish with you later,” he warned.

His gaze snapped back to Simon.  “Don’t let her out of your sight until I get back.”

At Simon’s curt nod, Damien flew out of the room, his attention focused on another one of his men.  “
Andre,” he called out.

The vampire’s head jerked up. 

“I need a tracker.  And you’re going to be the one to find him for me.”

****

Alec stared at the door.  He had been going out of his mind wondering how she was doing for the past hour and forty-five minutes.

What was she thinking?

He could only imagine what was going through her mind.  It wasn’t every day that you learned that everything you knew about your life, about the world around you was a complete lie.  As much as he wanted to give her space to digest what had happened, time was running out.

Raising his hand, he lightly rapped his knuckles against the door.  When he got no response, he turned the knob.  What he found on the other side of the door shocked him more than any emotional reaction she might have had could.

Curled up on the bed in the fetal position, her features were contorted in pain.  He rushed to the side of the bed, his hand reaching out to stroke her disheveled hair.

“Kat?
  Are you okay?”

Her lower lip trembled as she answered.  “It hurts,” she murmured.  Her voice was shaky, her tone low.

“Where does it hurt?”

She squeezed her middle as she curled into herself.  “Everywhere,” she managed in a pant.  She shook her head violently.  “I can’t stop the voice
. His voice.  It’s getting louder.”

And it would continue to.

Another side effect of the blood bond not being fulfilled.

The sight of her in such agony made him feel physically ill.  She was suffering.  And it was his fault.  If he had been able to protect her, she wouldn’t be going through this right now.  There was only one way to save her from further torment.

His hands curled into fists.

There was no guarantee that what he was thinking of doing would work and when
Tarquin found out it would surely mean a death sentence. 

Her low whimper seemed to drive a knife into his chest. 

He couldn’t just sit back and watch her suffer.  And there was no way in hell he would let her return to Damien, even if it would ease the pain.

Climbing on to the bed beside her, he pulled her onto his lap.  “Kat, you’re going to have to trust me,”
he said softly as he held her quivering body against his own.

Lifting his arm,
he drew his fangs across the thin skin of his wrist.  Blood welled up from the slash.  Leaning over her, he pushed the hair off of her forehead.  Her eyes were shut, her jaw clenched tightly.  A thin sheen of sweat dotted her forehead.  The beautiful features of her face were contorted in agony, her skin a pasty white.

“Kat, look at me,” he instructed.

Slowly, her eyelids parted and he saw a thin sliver of green.  Before she could protest, he pressed his wrist to her lips.  She struggled for a minute but her weak form was no match for him.  Eventually, he felt her muscles relax as she began to draw him in.  The pulls became slow and languid, a sort of seduction.  His cock stirred, and he squeezed his eyes shut against the lure of desire. 

After a few minutes, he opened his eyes to look at her.  Her
wide eyes met his.  Even though she was taking him in, it was him that was caught in the web.  He could feel her mouth on his skin, her tongue teasing the open cut.

The bond
with Damien was releasing, but a new bond was taking over.

Her eyes clouded with lust. The plea in her gaze was a call that needed to be answered.  A call he was aching to fill.  He would burn for this…for all of this. 

He could lie to Tarquin when the time came and say that he had no choice in the matter, but the truth was that as he watched her draw his essence into her mouth he knew that he had wanted this from the beginning.  He had wanted her for years, had known he could never have her as long as she belonged to the mortal world.

He felt his heart quicken and he slowly eased his wrist away from her mouth.  Her tongue came out to lick her lips
, and his cock responded by pushing painfully against his pants.

“Are you okay?” he asked softly.

She pulled him down on the bed beside her, her fingers curling into the hair at his nape to pull his mouth against her own.  He could taste the salty metallic flavor of his blood in her mouth combined with the sweet taste of her.  Her hand began to fumble with the clasp on his pants.

He grabbed her hand to stop her.  “We can’t,” he explained.

Before he knew what was happening, she climbed on top of him her hand pushing into his pants to curl around his thick length.  His head pressed back into the mattress at the exquisite sensation of being cradled by her. 

He had to stop this before it went too far.

He went to sit up, but she pushed him back on the bed.  His blood had made her strong.  She shifted, affording him with a glimpse of the full breasts that lay beneath her robe.  Her nipples were hard points against the thin material.  His gaze centered on them, his fingers itching to touch.

As if she sensed his desire,
she shrugged out of the robe.  Reaching for his hands, she brought them to the place he ached to touch.  His thumbs circled the taut buds and she arched against his palms, her head falling back. His hands cupped her breasts, testing their fullness.

It was
sweet torture…holding her like this and being unable to have her. 

In the many years he had lived, he couldn’t remember wanting anything more than he wanted her right now.  She rubbed against him in an erotic rhythm.  He could feel the heat of her
center rub against the barrier of his jeans. 

Unable to fight anymore, h
is eyes closed as she lowered the zipper on his pants to allow her greater access.

She took the opportunity instantly, h
er hand circling his length.  His cock jerked instinctively.  Lifting slightly, she positioned him at her entrance.  She rubbed him against the wet heat between her legs for a minute, before easing down on top of him.  The hot, wet center of her slid down his length slowly.  Inch by inch, he filled her.  His hands moved to grip her hips, his fingers curling into the soft skin he found there. 

A low growl escaped his throat as he felt her settle on top of him, his cock cradled inside of her.  He would pay for this with his life.  But as the sensation of being inside of her swept through him, he had to admit that it w
ould be worth it.  He would die a hundred deaths just to be with her, to be a part of her.