Chapter Eight
Sex wasn’t supposed to be so consuming. An orgasm wasn’t supposed to practically shatter her, and when Isabella bit her donor, his blood wasn’t supposed to make her entire body hum with pleasure.
But Griffin wasn’t just some donor. And sex with him would never be considered average or casual. And the orgasms he gave to her? More, please.
She was in bed with him. The sheets felt cool against her skin, but his arm was warm as it wrapped around her stomach. Her heart was still racing, she swore she could still feel him, inside, and Isabella knew she was in serious trouble.
She stared up at the ceiling. “Lust comes first.”
He pressed a kiss to her shoulder.
Her eyes closed. “Then…love?” Was that really the way it worked? Was it even possible? The bite recognized physical compatibility, okay, she could go with that, but…
“You ever been in love before, Isabella?”
“No.” Not even close. “Vamps aren’t exactly, well, long-term commitment isn’t possible, not with a human lover.” A lover who would die and leave you alone and grieving. “And other vamps…” Okay, time for her confession. “I don’t exactly have the best relationship with my own kind.” Her eyes opened. Her head turned. She found his gaze on her. “I’ve been running,” she admitted, her voice stark.
“Tell me who you want me to kill.”
Her lips parted in shock. “What?”
“If someone’s after you, tell me. Give me a name. Or names. I don’t care if it’s one vamp or an army of them, I will—”
“I left them because I didn’t want to—I didn’t want to live that way, not anymore.”
“What way?”
It was so hard to tell him about the dark places inside of her. “The bloodlust can overtake you. You forget that you have a soul. You’re just feeding and getting high on the rush of power and life. Nothing else matters. And then you look down and you realize…the blood is all around you, and there’s…there’s a body on the floor.”
His face hardened.
“I don’t like to kill.” Her words came out in a rush. “I don’t want to take and take until nothing is left. I learned control. I made myself learn it. But the others, they didn’t care. They said I was unnatural. That we were the top of the food chain, and we could do what we wanted.”
“Isabella…”
“I’ve made plenty of mistakes. I’ve hurt people, and I can’t ever forget what I did to them, but I am trying, I swear, I am trying, to be better. That’s why I only attack people who deserve it.”
His gaze didn’t leave her face.
She felt shame burn through her. Isabella rolled away from him and crawled from the bed. “You think no one deserves what I do. That I shouldn’t bite any human.”
“Isabella…”
She grabbed a towel that she found on the floor and wrapped it around her body. “The man in the alley—he wanted to hurt me. So I picked him as a donor.” Donor is the wrong word. He didn’t volunteer. No one ever volunteers. I take and I take, and…
I kill.
Her hand lifted and pressed to her mouth. She covered her fangs.
Griffin sat up in bed. “You go after bastards.”
Her hand fell back to her side. She couldn’t hide what she was. Not from him. “I go after predators. The ones who think they are so big and bad, hunting in the night. I hunt them.” Her shoulders straightened. “But I don’t kill them. I stop myself. And I leave them with a compulsion. To not hurt another innocent. To change.”
He rose and walked toward her. His steps were slow and certain.
“I never asked to be what I am,” Isabella said.
His hand lifted and the back of his knuckles stroked over her cheek. “I rather like what you are.”
She swallowed the lump that rose in her throat. “You wouldn’t have liked me, if you knew me before.” A century ago, he would have hated her.
“Don’t be too sure of that.”
“My very name—Abandonato—it means forsaken. That’s what I am. What my family is.” Isabella’s lips parted. “Griffin, I—”
A knock sounded at the door. Griffin whirled to face the door, putting his body in front of hers. “Who is it?”
The door cracked open. Isabella peered around Griffin’s side and saw Carter poke his head inside the room. “Three are dead.”
Her heart lurched.
“Three werewolves.” Carter wasn’t looking at her. His attention was on Griffin. “The first was killed in New York three weeks ago.”
A knot formed in Isabella’s stomach. Three weeks ago, she’d been in New York.
“One was killed in Washington, D.C., the next week.”
She rocked back on her heels. D.C. was my next stop.
“Then a wolf was found dead in Aspen six days ago.”
Her eyes squeezed shut. This can’t be happening.
“How did they die?” Griffin’s voice was cold. Flat.
“They were found with puncture wounds on their necks…and silver bullets in their hearts.”
“No!” The sharp denial broke from Isabella even as her eyes flew open. Carter was looking at her then, and so was Griffin. Griffin had turned so that his intense green gaze fell on her.
“I didn’t do this!” Isabella needed Griffin to believe her. “I was in those places.” Why not go ahead and admit that? He’d find out. It seemed as if the guy had a whole werewolf network at his fingertips now that he was alpha. “But I did not kill them, I swear it. I didn’t even meet them! I told you that before!”
Silence.
“You…believe me, don’t you?” He had to believe her.
His gaze glinted. “We need to find fucking Felix.”
Griffin’s words had been a growl. They hadn’t been the hard, fast vow of I absolutely believe you, yes! But…they were better than nothing.
Then Griffin reached for her hand. His fingers curled around her wrist, going right to the spot where he’d bit her—twice. The spot that still felt like a brand to her. “Felix wanted me to hunt you. He sent me on a path to collide with you. He knew I was a werewolf. And if a werewolf found a vamp hunting, if a werewolf saw a vamp drinking from a human, the wolf’s first instinct would be to kill.”
Her eyes widened. “That’s why you came at me with your stake.”
Carter cleared his throat. “Uh, you tried to stake her? You didn’t mention that part to me.”
Griffin didn’t look away from her. “The bond was between us. I couldn’t hurt you.”
“When you first put the stake to my heart, the bite hadn’t occurred.”
His voice lowered as he said, “Maybe part of me already knew…”
Her heart was racing too fast, and she’d put the puzzle pieces together. “You were number four.”
Griffin nodded. “I think I was.”
“Felix set me up over and over, didn’t he?” And that thought was terrifying.
“Uh, who the hell is Felix?” Carter demanded.
Isabella kept talking. “The other three werewolves…”
“I think he sent them after you, too.” Griffin’s expression could have been carved from stone. “Only they weren’t showing any signs of bonding with you. There was no connection. They were going to kill you—”
“But I never even saw them! Wouldn’t we have needed the bite, at least? I mean, how else would we even know if the bonding was going to work?”
“The first three werewolves didn’t make it to that step. I felt something inside of me reacting to you. From the first moment I saw you in that alley, I was pulled to you. Even as I held that stake, I knew I couldn’t hurt you. The connection was there before the bite. Taking your blood, giving you mine—that just sealed the deal.”
The drumming of her heartbeat seemed to echo in her ears. “The others didn’t feel any connection.” That was what he was saying. “They saw me…p-probably feeding.” Because she’d had to feed to survive. “And they were going to attack me.”
Carter sauntered toward them. “Only they were the ones to die.” He grimaced. “Sorry, just following along with what you two are saying. If the other werewolves were part of some damn test, then if they weren’t passing the test, they’d be eliminated. I mean…hell, we all know there are more werewolves than vamps in the world. You guys don’t exactly reproduce a lot.”
No, they didn’t. Because despite the Hollywood hype, it wasn’t easy to transform a human into a vampire. Usually, the transformation just resulted in a permanent death and not in an undead life.
Griffin’s fingers slid over her wrist in a light caress. “Isabella is even more precious than you realize. She was born as a vamp.”
“Seriously? Shit, that’s a new one.”
Her head whipped toward Carter. He was eyeing her as if she were some kind of lab rat.
“Never seen a born before,” he added as the guy practically gawked at her.
Her shoulders straightened. “And I’d never seen a werewolf, not until Griffin.”
Carter laughed. “And your first turned out to be your mate. What are the odds?”
But Griffin wasn’t laughing. “I was number four, not number one. Three other werewolves died before me.” Then he let go of Isabella. “Fucking hell. He was watching.”
Isabella didn’t move.
“The bastard had to have eyes on us in that alley. He was watching to see what I’d do when I got near you.”
Carter cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah, alpha, nice idea, but that’s total bullshit. You have enhanced senses—don’t you think you would have noticed if someone was hanging around and spying on you?”
“I was so lost in her that I probably wouldn’t have noticed a damn thing.” The admission was gruff. “And maybe that’s the difference between me and the others. Maybe they weren’t so tuned to her, and those werewolves realized they were being tailed by Felix and his men. Those werewolves confronted Felix—and they died.”
Yes, that sounded like one option, but he was overlooking one important fact. “Puncture wounds.”
Griffin frowned.
“The bodies had puncture wounds on their throats.” She gave a sad shake of her head. “Only a vamp would do that.”
Griffin seemed to consider what she’d said. “Then maybe Felix has a vamp on his side.”
Before she could respond, there was another hard knock on the door. Carter had shut it when he entered the room, and now someone else was out there, pounding so fiercely that Isabella knew their little group was about to get more bad news.
Griffin strode forward and yanked open the door.
A young werewolf was there—and he was sweating. “Alpha…we just…we just got news about your PI office…”
“What? What the hell news did you get?”
The guy’s Adam’s apple bobbed and sweat trickled down the side of his face. He truly looked as if he wished he were anywhere else. “It’s burning, alpha. The place is burning to the ground.”