Dare to Bleed (Emily Sullivan Series) (17 page)

“
Come in,” I heard from behind the door. I opened the door and walked in.

“
I think Robert just cursed me into spilling everything to him about us,” I stated, hoping to break this awkward barrier between us. He was sitting on his couch in pants and a tee shirt. He still looked incredible.

“
He has a tendency to do that. It’s like he relaxes people till they just finally spill the beans,” he explained, looking hopeful that I was there to make up.

“
Hmm, well I wish he wouldn’t have. I kind of gave him some juicy details about us,” I said, sitting at the other end of the couch.

“
Well, he was bound to do that sooner or later. Look, Emily. I really do care for you. I just want you to be happy. I don’t want you to wake up one day and decide that you made a big mistake by choosing me.”

I was beginning to think that I wasn’t the only one who had been burned in the past.

“
I didn’t come in here to patch things up with you. I wanted to ask you something.” I stated. I wanted to feel sorry for him but after seeing the girl coming out of his room earlier, I reminded myself that he was scum.

“
I understand that we’re not exclusive but you could have at least waited a day before you replaced me,” I complained. Ok I said I was going to ask a question but I couldn’t come up with a way to nicely ask ‘hey, so who was that chick I saw coming out of your room? And was that your bite mark in her neck?’

“
What are you talking about, Em?” he asked, looking sincerely confused.

“
The chick in the ugly black night gown leaving your room with a bite mark on her neck. Did you not think I would ever find out?” I asked. I was hurt yet again. I truly wanted things to work between us, but a few hours earlier Ezra was jumping away from my throat and to a new throat.

“
Emily, I had to eat. That’s all it was.”

“
You said it’s sexual when you eat, so you had sex with her?” I asked, afraid of his response.

“
No, Emily, I don’t have to sleep with someone to drink from them, it’s sexual on their part. It’s not like I can control what happens to someone when I feed from them. I didn’t even want to eat but I have to in order to protect you. I’ve been going into the sun a lot lately and it’s making me weaker faster. I am required to eat once a week now instead of once a month.”

I was still pissed but at least I could understand to a degree what happened.

“
I offered myself to you, Ezra, and you won’t take it. I was going to let you bite me and you chose her instead? Don’t you know how much that hurts?” I asked I was so proud that I hadn’t started crying. I think with everything going on lately that I was getting stronger. Not in a muscle kind of way but like I was more able to protect my emotions. I usually wear my heart on my sleeve but I was working on it. Although I had cried more in the past two days than I had my entire life.

“
Emily, you need your strength just as much as I do right now. Plus, I don’t care if I drain that girl dry but if I were to hurt you I could never live with myself.” He was a slick one. I was starting to believe him.

“
Look, I really just wanted to find out about the bimbo and ask where exactly we stood. I have prior arrangements tonight that I need to get to but I needed to ask. I also have other interests and I need to know what to tell them.” If he knew exactly how close that interest came to making it a reality he would kill him. I was trying to be honest with him too

“
Who, Gavin? I’m not scared of him. He’s got nothing on me.” He started crawling closer. My stomach turned and I knew where this was about to lead. Unfortunately, my body wasn’t listening while my head was screaming run.

“
He could never do the things to you that I could,” he whispered as he moved my hair away from my neck. His nose touched my skin, and I realized that my mouth was wide open. I closed it and cleared my throat, trying to focus.

“
Actually it wasn’t Gavin, but you are still right anyways.” I chuckled as he kissed my neck. He stopped suddenly and backed up, looking me hard in the eyes.

“
Axle was hitting on you?” he asked. I was surprised he hadn’t pried it out of my head by now and quite pleased.

“
Well, it’s not like you didn’t have a girl in here earlier. What is he supposed to think?” I explained.

He threw himself off the couch and was breathing hard, I was actually scared. He started toward the door with death in his eyes.

Chapter Nineteen

“
Oh no, no, no. Ezra please don’t do this. Axle didn’t know what was going on. He was just being nice. He didn’t try anything. I was just trying to make you jealous,” I lied.

But he wasn’t listening. He was already in the hall, shouting Axle’s name. He had no issues finding which hall went where and how to get to Axle’s room. Axle answered his door and met us in the hall. He was wearing only a pair of jeans and I really wished he had a shirt on. It may have helped his cause.

“
What’s up, bro?” Axle greeted Ezra. But Ezra’s fist landed directly on Axle’s face in reply.

“
Oh shit,” I whispered as I backed up. I was pleading with Ezra to calm down but he wasn’t listening.

“
You knew damn well that I love Emily. Why do you have to butt in and try to push us apart?” Ezra was yelling at Axle, who was looking pretty pissed off.

“
You were already doing a good job of pushing her away, you didn’t need my help,” Axle growled.

Ezra jumped at Axle and they both went down. I couldn’t imagine that Ezra could knock Axle down but they were each holding their own. I heard growling and I was sure that was coming from Axle. If he turned into a werewolf, I would piss myself.

Thankfully, before they both killed each other Robert walked out in the hall and yelled at them to stop. They both stopped. Robert walked over to them, looking pretty angry.

“
I know exactly what is going on between you two and it’s a disgrace. You are supposed to be brothers in arms, not dog fighting on the floor over Emily,” he yelled.

Neither of them made a peep. I really wanted to take it as an insult but I just couldn’t. I think he had cast a spell on us all. He took a deep a breath before beginning again. “Now, grow up and get your shit together. Stop this nonsense immediately.”

Holy cow, I couldn’t believe I’d just heard Robert curse. It felt like the first time I had heard my mother curse. It felt wrong. Axle tucked his tail between his legs (not literally) and walked back into his room, slamming his door. Ezra grabbed my hand and started back to his room.

“
Actually, Emily, I was hoping I could talk to you about something really quick?” Robert asked as we passed by.

“
I have a date but I still have a few minutes before I have to be there.” I gave in, releasing Ezra’s hand. I was relieved I wouldn’t have to go back with Ezra this mad. “But only as long as you don’t put some spell on me,” I added as I followed him. We got in his room and he laughed.

“
I promise,” he said as he walked over to his living room area. His room was set up more like an apartment than a room. His place reminded me of a bachelor pad. His living room had a fireplace in the center of his coffee table and I couldn’t tell how it was burning. He sat in a big chair and I sat on the couch. It was a big brown couch that wasn’t very comfortable.

“
So what’s up?” I asked.

“
I see you and Ezra have patched things up?”

“
Sort of, I guess. Although now we’re going to have another talk about that temper,” I answered.

“
That’s good. I just want you to be happy but careful. These men are very good at their job but still extremely dangerous.” He had to put his two cents in. “But that’s not why I asked you to talk with me.”

“
It’s not?” I questioned, not looking forward to his answer.

He shook his head and began again. “I wanted to know about the dream.”

Geez, I definitely could not tell him about Damon in my dreams but I figured he needed to know.

“
Well, I’ve had two, each with Damon in them. At first I thought I was just having nightmares from the experience but now I’m not sure. They feel so real. In the last dream I was watching myself, we were in a jail cell. He was torturing me and I had to stand and watch it.” I didn’t want to go into too much detail. It was embarrassing enough explaining my dreams to this stranger.

“
Do you feel like you are being hurt in your dreams?” he asked seriously.

“
No, he didn’t even realize I was there in the last dream. So maybe it is just nerves.” I looked down at my phone. It was eight o’clock. Kimmy would be pissed that I was late.

“
Um, Robert, I really have somewhere to be. Can we finish this later?” I begged.

“
Who is your date with?” His curiosity surprised me.

“
Kimmy, we’re having a chick flick night,” I answered.

He seemed to let out a deep breath and looked relieved at my answer. “That’s great, maybe you should stay in a room with her for the time being. I don’t feel like you are in danger, but I would rather be safe than sorry. Also, Gavin told me about the gym thing earlier, so you are feeling stronger lately also?” he asked, forgetting about my needing to leave.

“
I had a broken treadmill. I’m thankful I survived,” I said sarcastically. “I feel fine. I really have to go but I promise I’ll let you know if anything creepy happens to me again. And I’ll think about staying with Kimmy,” I answered and rushed out. I ran down the halls, trying to find the stupid theater. Guess I should have asked for directions earlier.

I finally spotted Kimmy down a hall, tapping her foot.

I ran to her. “Sorry Kimmy, long story, but I can’t wait to tell you all about it,” I said as I gave her a hug.

“
Damn, girl, hope you aren’t trying to impress me with that get up. You know I bat for the other team. You know the one with penises,” she joked.

I told her about everything that had happened. She cracked up so hard when I told her that Damon had kidnapped Vicky instead of her that she started crying.

“
What a douche bag. I’m actually mad that he would compare me to that cow,” she said after she stopped laughing. I told her about the girl in Ezra’s room and the fight between Ezra and Axle.

“
Axle has my vote, if that means anything. They are both sexy as hell but Axle looks like he could rip you apart in bed, not just bite you,” she stated as I finished.

“
Ew. Kimmy, that’s so vulgar.” I laughed. We watched
Pride and Prejudice
and spoke in British accents for an hour, laughing at the things we would do to ‘poor Mr. Darcy’ if we had the chance. During our date, we had gone through an entire gallon of Blue Bell chocolate ice-cream and a can of whipped cream. We also had a few margaritas so we were feeling good.

It was two am before we both decided to hit the sack. We said our good byes and started back to our rooms.

Ezra popped out of his room as we headed back, and Kimmy did a one finger salute to say good bye. Even Ezra could not ruin the awesome time I had.

“
Can I speak with you?” he asked.

“
Why, but of course, my dear sir,” I said in my British accent. He gave me questionable look and sniffed me as I walked in.

“
Did you just sniff me?” I called him out.

“
You reek of dairy products, limes and alcohol,” he replied.

“
That’s the way real men turn women on, bravo!” I giggled. I was still slightly buzzed. I grabbed his shirt as he closed the door.

“
Don’t worry, lover, it’s working,” I whispered into his ear. I grabbed his head and pulled his lips to mine. He carried me to the bed as we kissed. I pushed away.

“
Ezra, will you please bite me?” I begged.

He smiled and looked away. “Emma, you really don’t know what you are asking.”

“
Then tell me what I’m asking.” I wasn’t really sure what I meant by that, but he understood.

“
Em, I could really hurt you. It’s impossible to stop a blood thirst vampire. I could kill you,” he explained.

It was a letdown. I was waiting for an elaborate explanation, some sort of secret from the vampire community, but nada. Everything he told me I already figured.

“
I don’t care. I just really want you. Plus, you already ate today so this could just be a midnight snack,” I begged into his ear. I looked down and noticed my tactics were working. He was certainly excited. I started teasing him by taking off my shirt and bra. I didn’t have to go too far, because he pulled me back into him.

He was still wearing a shirt and it was getting in the way. There was nothing I wanted more than to rub my naked breasts on his naked chest. He yanked his shirt off, releasing my mouth from his own. As soon as he had his shirt off, we continued making out. He held me so close I thought I would pop. I moved my hair and held my neck out for him. I wanted to feel what he had given that girl earlier. I didn’t care what it meant. I was so jealous, I had to know. He grazed me with his teeth. I was so close to screaming.

“
Are you sure you want this?” he asked.

“
Oh my God, if you don’t bite me, I will stake you,” I warned. My libido was on steroids and I needed something to relieve it. He kissed my neck and then licked it. I felt his teeth finally press against my skin. It was painful but in a sensual way. He pressed harder. I winced but he didn’t give in, he pushed harder. I wasn’t expecting this much pain, be careful what you ask for and all that jazz. Suddenly I felt his teeth penetrate my skin and for a second I cried out in pain before I started moaning. I grabbed a fist full of his hair, pulling his teeth in farther into my neck. I felt him pull from my blood, and it felt like I had just had the best sex of my life. I immediately started having orgasm after orgasm. I could feel his hard shaft through his pants, begging to be released.