Enraptured (25 page)

“And then what?” he prodded when her voice
trailed off and her eyes focused on the far wall.

“He found us,” she whispered. The tone of
her voice tore at his heart, but he remained unmoving on the bed.
“And he accomplished what he’d set out to do years before. I was
working with my mom as a volunteer at the hospital where she
worked. We were going to drive in together that morning. The sun
hadn’t come up yet. He attacked us before we made it to the car. He
killed my mom, and then he came after me again.”

“How did you get away?”

“He tore out my throat and left me for
dead.” Her fingers instinctively drifted to the scars on her neck.
“I’m only alive because the sun began to rise, and some neighbors
had emerged from their houses. The attack was swift, but my screams
still drew them out. I also think he believed I was dead or as good
as dead anyway.

“The only reason I’m still alive is one of
my neighbors was a paramedic and somehow managed to keep me alive
while his wife drove to the hospital. No one mentioned vampires; I
think maybe some of them thought it, but no one said the word and
neither did I. The last thing I wanted was to end up in the looney
bin, and to tell the truth I believed I might be a little insane at
that point. The police wrote it off as a random act of
violence.”

Her eyes darted away from his. Tears pooled
on the pillow beneath her. She didn’t bother to wipe them away as
she stared at the wall behind his bed. No wonder she hated vampires
so much and had been so unwilling to trust him in the beginning. He
couldn’t imagine what she’d endured over the years, couldn’t begin
to relate to it. His family hadn’t been normal by human standards,
but it had been a loving, open environment. One where he’d never
known fear and definitely never known abuse.

The tears sliding down her face now, the
trembling of her lower lip drove him from the bed before he could
think about what he was doing. Covering the distance between them
in one long stride, he sat on the bed beside her and reached out to
touch her cheek. She didn’t shrink away from him, but turned her
head into his touch. His fingers slid over her silken cheek, wiping
away the wetness on her skin.

“I spent a week in the hospital and then I
was sent home, but I was too afraid to stay there. L.J. and I had
already broken up, and most of my friends had already left for
college. I grabbed my mom’s ashes, spread them in the sea, packed
up some of my belongings, and set out on my own. After what I’d
witnessed, I knew there had to be others out there who were aware
vampires existed. I was determined to find them. I was also
determined to find my father.

“I spent a couple of years searching for
another survivor. I spent most of that time training to fight,
taking martial arts classes, self-defense classes, running, and
learning how to protect myself. Apparently all for nothing,” she
murmured and shook her head. “But once I finally found another
survivor, I discovered there was a whole different world out there,
and a powerful group who fought against the beasts like my
father.

“It took me over a year to infiltrate the
hunters, and for them to trust me enough to take me in. I never saw
where they lived, or really got to know much about them. I met with
the handler they assigned me to every day, Nabel, and he taught me
more about vampires. He told me your weaknesses. I think they
believe none of you can go out in the daylight, so they don’t know
as much as they think they do.”

She couldn’t keep the bitterness from her
tone, but she couldn’t help it, she still felt deeply betrayed by
people she’d trusted with her life. A life they hadn’t considered
all that valuable. “I was told if I proved myself, I’d get to learn
more. I don’t think they ever intended to teach me anything truly
helpful.”

“Probably not. Where did you meet with
Nabel?”

“At an old warehouse they’d converted into
an exercise and training facility. Some days there were two or
three other people in there with me, usually it was the two of
us.”

“I see.”

“Ian?”

“Hmm,” he murmured as he mulled over her
words.

“The hunters aren’t entirely human
either.”

“I’ve heard rumors of that.”

“I’m not sure what they are, or what they’re
capable of. I was allowed to know more than most humans, but they
didn’t reveal much to me. I didn’t care either, all I wanted was to
find my father and make him pay for what he did to my mother. She
was everything to me, my best friend. She never got over what he
did to her and slept with a gun in her nightstand for years. She
never realized a gun would be useless against some things.”

“She never could have.”

“Ian, the vampire in the alley, the one you
saved me from…” her words drifted off. She didn’t know how to open
up this much to someone. It wasn’t something she’d ever done
before.

“What about him?” Ian inquired as he brushed
the hair back from her face.

“That was my father.”

“I’d figured as much.” She tilted her head
back to look up at him. Her eyes were filled with torment and her
lower lip trembled. “You were searching for him in the bar?”

“Yes. Nabel had gotten a tip he was in the
area and we went to look for him.”

She would have been the perfect bait for her
father. The realization caused his teeth to clamp down and his
fangs to slide free. He took a minute to steady himself before
speaking again. “Where were you before?”

“California, and that’s all I’m telling you
about that. The hunters may have considered me chum in the water,
but I’m still not revealing anymore about them. They may be wrong,
but they still try to do good in this world.”

“I’m not going to ask you to tell me
anything you don’t want to.”

“I’d planned to find him before he found me
again,” Paige murmured and lowered her head to stare at the
unfamiliar images on the TV screen.

“How did he find you?”

“He discovered I survived his first attack
and came for me. The newspapers printed my story. I always assumed
that’s how he knew I’d survived. But what do I know? Maybe he’d
kept me alive so he could torment me, haunt me, stalk me until he
finally put me out of my misery, or drove me completely insane. I
guess it wasn’t difficult for him to find me after, not in the
beginning anyway, I didn’t know where to go. I moved to New York,
got a job and searched for anyone who could help me, but I had no
idea how to go about doing that.”

Tremors wracked her body when she pressed
closer against him. “What did he do when he found you?”

“He came at me again. This time when he
attacked me, he left no doubt he meant to keep me alive. He beat
me, he broke my ribs again, and he fed from me, but I was still
conscious when he left. I fled New York after, went to Florida and
established a whole new life. One year later, he found me again and
did the same thing. I don’t know if he’d always known where I was,
or if he’d just stumbled across me. After that I didn’t know what
to do, who to turn to, or where to go. I was convinced he’d find me
no matter where I went; he told me he would and that he’d see me
again soon.

“I’d been trying to get into better fighting
condition, but I knew I needed more. I fled Florida for Kansas, and
then I went to Missouri. From there I went to New Mexico. It was
there I found some other people who had survived vampire
attacks.”

“How did you find them?”

“The internet.”

“Oh God,” he groaned. “You’re lucky you
didn’t get killed. And what did you type in to find these other
vampire attack survivors?”

“Survivors of vampire attacks.”

“Of course you did,” he replied dryly.

“I met a lot of loonies.”

“Of course you did.”

She rolled her eyes at him and shook her
head. “But I finally came across a survivor who seemed legitimate
enough to meet in person, Franco.”

“I hope you met in a public place.”

“Of course we did, I’m not a complete idiot,
no matter what you think. He was also a survivor, and he had the
scars to prove it.” Her hand pressed against the scars on her neck
before falling into her lap again. “After a few months we began to
trust one another enough that he introduced me to Nabel, and I let
him know where I lived. Franco was one of the people I would train
with once in a while.”

“What happened after you met Nabel?” He ran
his hands up and down her arms, rubbing away the goose bumps
forming there.

“They gave me a whole new identity, moved me
to a more secure location, and for the first time in three and a
half years, I actually felt safe again. I was able to sleep at
least two or three hours straight at night, instead of waking up
every hour. I believed I might actually live a week or two into the
future.”

Ian pressed a kiss against her temple, then
lifting her up, he settled her into his lap and cradled her closer
against him. He really wished he’d been able to take out the piece
of shit who fathered her that night in the alley; the first chance
he got, he was going to destroy him. He’d make sure the man never
came near her again.

“And now he’s found me again,” she murmured.
Her head tilted back; her eyes were bright in the light of the TV.
“How does he keep finding me?”

“I don’t know,” he murmured. “But we’ll
figure that out and put an end to it.”

“How did he convince those vampires at the
cabin to help him?”

“He probably created them.”

“Really?”

He rubbed at the stubble lining his chin.
“Yes, I’ve seen it before. He created them, and they’re willing to
do what he asks of them. They weren’t very old.”

Paige’s fingers dug into his flesh. “You’re
in danger. You should send me away, you should get far away from me
Ian; he’s never going to stop.”

Ian hugged her closer when he felt the
tremors shaking her body. She’d always been so dauntless around him
and the others, but now her anxiety was palpable. “That will never
happen. I’m going to hunt him down, and I’m going to kill him.
You’ll never know fear or abuse again. I can promise you that.”

“You could be hurt, and I couldn’t live with
myself if something happened to you.”

Ian scoffed and shook his head. “Don’t worry
about me, that bastard doesn’t stand a chance once I get my hands
on him.”

“Ian…”

“I’m not kidding. I will find him, I will
destroy him, and you will never know another sleepless night
again.”

The look on his face left no doubt in her
mind about that. His eyes glistened like ice chips in January. Her
eyebrows rose at his statement; he was so unlike the carefree,
easy-going man she’d come to know. She saw the vampire now, but
instead of scaring her, she found herself oddly drawn to him even
more.
Hers
, she thought, and it felt completely right. A
missing piece of the puzzle clicked into place.

“So is Paige your fake name?” he
inquired.

She chuckled and rested her cheek against
his chest. “Paige is my real name. When I was with the hunters I
was known as Ruth Trinkle.”

Ian released a harsh bark of laughter.
“Paige is much better.”

“I agree,” she murmured, absentmindedly
trailing her fingers over his broad chest.

“I’m sorry for what you’ve had to endure,”
he whispered. “I’ll keep you safe now, if you’ll let me.”

She let herself drift into his touch, let
herself be lost to the pleasure he gave her. “I know you believe
I’m your mate, but what if you grow bored with only one woman?”

His hand stilled on her cheek as he sat back
from her. “I never could… it’s not…” He broke off as he searched
for words. “All those women, it’s not what you think. It’s not the
life I planned to lead, it’s the life I
had
to lead.”

Her forehead furrowed as she stared at him
“I don’t understand.”

He ran his hand through his hair. How did he
explain it to her without driving her further away? She’d already
seen the worst of what a vampire could do, already experienced
their brutality firsthand, and now he was going to tell her what?
He had to sleep around in order to release some of his pent-up
energy because he believed he might kill someone if he didn’t.

“I don’t know how to explain this without
pushing you away,” he admitted.

Her hand wrapped around his. “My entire life
has been running and hiding. People I believed I could trust have
lied to me and betrayed me. You’ll only push me away if you lie to
me.”

He squeezed her hand and bent to place a
kiss against her temple before sitting back again. “Those women
were a release, an escape from this clawing monster inside of me.
Being with them and drinking their blood helped to ease what is
inside of me. I’m not a killer, Paige.” His eyes burned into hers
as he spoke. “But there’s a brutality inside of me that intensified
when I stopped aging. The only time it was a little pacified was
when I was with them.”

She didn’t know how to respond or feel about
that one. “And they made you feel better?”

“For a brief period of time, yes, but then
it would come back again, and I would have to go back out.”

“That’s why there were so many of them?”

“Yes. And why they were always different
women. They understood one night was all I was good for with them.
I didn’t want to lead anyone on by letting them think there could
be a relationship between us. I knew there never could be.”

“I see,” she murmured and looked away from
him.

“You wanted the truth.”

“I did.” Her attention returned to him; she
managed a tremulous smile. She knew he believed her to be this
mystical mate thing, but what if they had sex and he realized he’d
been wrong after all? The thought left her feeling barren and
hollow. “How do you know I’ll be enough to help with what is inside
of you?”