Chapter Ten
Ramsey couldn’t think of a sane reason as to why he’d invited a human back to his house. When was the last time that he had a woman over—vampire or human—that wasn’t on his payroll? He couldn’t even remember. He avoided getting romantically involved with human females at all costs. The last fling he’d had with one was … he tried to think hard.
Ah, Shirline.
What year had that been? The years all blurred together now. It’d been sometime in the seventeen-hundreds.
Shirline had been the daughter of a wealthy aristocrat in England. The fling had been a tumultuous affair. She’d known what he was and was convinced that he would turn her. He made no such promise, and she eventually become obsessed with him and the idea of becoming a vampire. She had visited him one evening telling him that she had swallowed deadly poison thinking that he would turn her, rather than to let her die. He smelled the poison coursing through her veins, slowly killing her. Her blood rotted as she screamed and professed her love for him. What Shirline didn’t know was that he’d been there and done that before with an ex who was more adapt at manipulation than she was. He had visited Shirline’s grave four nights later.
Nothing good came from getting involved with humans.
Then why had he pursued the one snuggled against his side?
Because I almost killed her.
And what? He thought to make it up to her by fucking her?
Even he didn’t believe that lie.
Dani stretched and let out a groan. Possessively, he pulled her closer, not wanting to lose the heat from her body just yet. “Are you sore?”
She moved her arm that she had thrown across his stomach, to his chest where she circled his nipple. “I’m pretty sure that when you grabbed the back of my thighs to push my knees to my shoulders that you tore the ligaments in my hips. But I won’t know for sure until I try to walk.”
He exhaled sharply and raised his head to study her. “I’m so sorry.” How could he have been so careless?
She giggled and swatted his chest. “That was a joke.” She nestled into his armpit. “Settle down.”
He let out a relieved breath and lay back. “Well, it’s not like I don’t have the ability to wound you.”
“You big vampire. Me scrawny human,” she said in a caveman voice.
He trailed his hand up and down to caress her back. “That just about sums it up.”
She chuckled, and he found that he loved that sound. Possibly more than he enjoyed hearing her moan out his name. Well, almost as much.
His cock twitched. He ignored it. If he really didn’t want to send her home disabled he couldn’t take her again. His cock grew again. God did he want to though.
She pushed herself up on her shoulder and stuck her fingers in his mouth to glide across his teeth.
“Uh, I would ask you to buy me dinner first, but I don’t eat … food.” He tried not to bite her hand while he talked so the words came out distorted.
She frowned. “Your teeth are regular now.”
He took her hand and freed her fingers from his mouth. They tasted like chlorine. “My canines only elongate when I need them.”
She raised one eyebrow.
“Think of them like a cat’s claws. When I don’t need my teeth they’re perfectly normal, and when I do need them for biting, fighting, arousal, etcetera, they come out.”
“Arousal? I didn’t see them when we made love.”
“Ah, you have no idea how hard I had to work to keep them from coming down. I didn’t want to scare you.”
She took in a sharp breath. “Is that why you buried your face in the pillow and kept your mouth closed?”
He nodded sheepishly.
“Honestly, I probably would have freaked out. But now that I know you won’t be using them on me, it’s all good.” She looked at him sternly. “Don’t hide them again.”
He gave her a mock salute. “Aye, aye, Captain!”
She dropped her shoulder to lie on the bed again. “I kind of have to ask, even though I think the answer might freak me out. But exactly how old are you?”
“You answer first.”
“Twenty-seven.”
He winced, and she gave him a pinch on the chest. “Ow.” He chuckled even though he barely felt it. “You’re a baby. I should be calling you, ‘young miss’ too.”
“I’m not that young,” she grumbled. “It’s your turn now. How old are you?”
“I have no clue.”
“You don’t know or you won’t tell me?”
“I don’t know. I was born before the new calendar was put into place.”
Her hand stilled. “You mean that you were born before year one on the current calendar?”
“Sometime before. Yes.”
“I didn’t know vampires were alive back then. I mean, I really didn’t know they existed for real until a few days ago. But according to all the books it started with Count Dracula.”
“Ah, the famous Count Dracula. You humans love to romanticize the evilest of creatures.”
“Should you be talking about your brethren so badly?”
“Count Dracula was turned, and instead of changing his life for the better, he desecrated an entire army and his bloodlust didn’t stop there. History recorded only a fraction of his atrocities. Then humans thought to turn his memory into a love story.”
“Because we want to find the good in the bad?”
He snorted.
“Then tell me your story.”
“I don’t have much of a story.”
“Uh, hello, centuries old vampire. You, my friend, have a story.”
“It’s not as exciting as you think, sweetheart. One night I went out to check on the sheep, and I was approached by a woman—a wanderer.” Even though he couldn’t remember much about his life as a human, that memory was still fresh in his mind.
Every instinct inside him told him to run, flee, that the woman he talked to was dangerous. But it was because of how dangerous he thought the woman was that Ramsey had stayed where he was, far away from his wife and children.
“Azrael, which was her name, promised that if I went with her that I would have all the riches that I could imagine. She was lonely and wanted a companion.”
“And you went?”
He traced his thumb up the side of her arm. “I declined her offer, but she took me anyway. She stole my blood from me … and my life.”
“Is that why you don’t believe in taking blood without asking?”
He nodded. He’d felt so violated that night. He couldn’t control anything that had happened. He’d been at death’s mercy.
“But do you actually tell people that you’re a vampire and they willingly give you their blood? Wouldn’t that lead to a lot of people knowing about you and that really do vampires exist?”
“It’s not that big of a deal. I have blood donors for that specific purpose. They know what to expect of me and me them. It’s a beneficial relationship that lasts for years. They’re my employees.”
“And you named them blood donors? That sounds so…” She stuck out her tongue. “Mechanical.”
“What? It’s not supposed to be sexy. They’re just donors.”
“You know us humans. We like to romanticize everything.” She went silent, and he was content to have her snuggled next to him. Then she stiffened.
“What’s wrong?”
“Um … just wondering about the, um, arrangement. These donors, do they, um … donate other services, too?”
He paused from stroking her shoulder. “No sex. It’s really not what you’re thinking. I always keep three in rotation. When they retire or quit, I’ll look—well, Marcos will find replacements.”
“So can they work for you and say for that other vampire, Vallus, that I met? Like, can they have two jobs?”
“It doesn’t work that way. As my blood donor, they’re marked by me.”
“And that means?”
“One of the stipulations in the contract is that they receive my blood on a one-time basis. At the start of the arrangement. By receiving my blood, the donor becomes marked by me. This makes them … undesirable to other vampires and their enthrallment. It also makes them immune to some diseases.”
“It sounds like you’re branding them.”
“In essence. Yes.”
“And … and they’re happy with that arrangement?”
“I pay them a lot of money to spend thirty minutes a week with me. They’re ecstatic.”
“So, how much are you talking about?” she asked with a playful tone to her voice.
“Why? Are you looking for a new job?”
She laughed. “As a matter of fact, I am. But something more in line with my degree.”
“And what would that be?”
“I’m finishing up my Master’s in Nursing degree.” She lifted her shoulder. “It’s only an online university. With my work schedule I couldn’t commit to a traditional school.”
“Only an online university?” He hugged her tight. “A university is a university, and you should be proud of that. When I was growing up we didn’t have formal education. My parents would’ve had to pay someone who could read and write for private lessons. I was going to inherit my father’s bakery. No one thought that I needed an education for that.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “Everything I know, I had to learn on my own. Reading and writing was difficult at first, but I had all the time in the world to get the hang of it.”
She snorted. “Well, at least you didn’t have to learn about history. You lived through it.”
“Some of it I had to read about just like you. There weren’t any news programs back then. I read about the Trail of Tears not too long ago and couldn’t believe that had happened. But in my defense, I think that I was halfway across the world living in Spain at the time.”
She let out a wistful sigh. “It must be nice, living in different places, experiencing the world.”
“Not really.”
She looked up at him. “Why not?”
“It can get lonely at times.”
“But you have your blood donors and Marcos. How old he is anyway?”
“I believe that we celebrated his one hundred and thirty-sixth birthday this past February. But we could be wrong. We may have missed some birthdays along the years.”
She frowned. “Wait. He told me that he was human.”
“He is. I give him my blood once a week, and because of it, he’s living a little longer than expected.”
“But I thought you said that your donors got your blood once.”
“Marcos isn’t a blood donor. I started giving him my blood about sixty years ago. He was getting sicker and sicker by the day, and we didn’t have any of the fancy medical diagnostic tools that are available today. The only way to save him was to give him my blood until we could find a specialist to diagnose and treat him.”
He squeezed her arm, remembering the day that they’d finally found a doctor who had one of the first machines that could look inside a human body. The news had not been good. He and Marcos had been holding out all those years thinking that a cure would be found. There wasn’t a cure for pancreatic cancer, and Ramsey guessed that if he kept Marcos alive for another hundred years, there still might not be one.
“He has pancreatic cancer. It’s very aggressive. Even with my blood he’s dying from it. It’s just a matter of time before he finally succumbs to it.”
She inhaled a shaky breath. “Then why not change him?”
“Marcos doesn’t want to be changed, and even if he did, I’m not sure if I could do it.”
“Really? Why not? You’ve been together for such a long time.”
“It’s not that simple. Being what I am isn’t as glamourous as you seem to think that it is. I’ve buried my family, my friends.” I’ll bury you. “Pretty soon I won’t know a soul on this Earth anymore. That’ll be a living nightmare. I don’t wish that on him or anyone else.”
“I guess you’re right,” she said softly.
“So what kind of job do you hope to get with your new degree?” he asked, changing the subject.
“Something in management. I’m a floor nurse now, and the long hours and staying up all night are doing a number on my mind and body.”
“A nurse is a very noble profession.”
“But the long hours suck.”
He gathered her into his arms. She leaned over him, and her hair fanned across his chest. “Your body is just fine, and staying up all night isn’t that bad.”
An unknown force tugged at his body, a warning that the sun would be rising soon. No matter where he was in the world, no matter the time zone, his body had the same reaction to the impending rise. By his calculation he had three more hours of night left. He pushed up to sit, and she moved to lie in his lap. “I need to take you back now.”
With a sigh she rolled away and to the edge of the bed. “And all good things must come to an end.” She sat up and stretched. Her legs dangled off the edge. He’d always preferred the old four poster styled beds that set high off the floor.
Too bad he couldn’t keep her. Ramsey leaned over her, taking in the scent of her fragrance. She smelled like a fresh spring day and lovemaking. Her arousal emanated from her pores. Dani let out a soft moan and let her head fall to her shoulder, exposing her neck to him. Ramsey rubbed his nose against the delicate skin behind her ear. His lips found her neck. She inhaled a soft breath. Her arousal spiked, and he drank it in like the finest of wine.
“I don’t mind going back to the hotel with a little limp.” She sucked in her bottom lip, and the subtle movement made his cock react. “Again?”
Could he squeeze in another round? And herein lay the problem. He could make love to her over and over again and still not get enough her. She was human. He was not.
Ramsey stopped breathing, and with it ended the unnecessary torture he was putting himself through. He broke away. “I’ll get your clothes.”
Dani let her shoulders slump. Rejection rolled off of her in waves, but he got up and left her to her thoughts.
Ramsey stepped into a pair of gray sweatpants and slipped into a t-shirt. She avoided his gaze as he silently left the room. The house was quiet. Marcos tinkered with his model airplanes, and Nadine was long sleep. Her soft snoring came from her room. Mewlissa lounged on the back of the living room sofa. When he went by her as a blur, Mewlissa raised her paw in a half attempt to touch him. Ramsey went out the back door and ran around the pool, picking up his and Dani’s clothes and shoes. When he came back into the house, Mewlissa still had her paw in the air, and since no one was around he stopped to scratch her head. When Mewlissa rolled to her belly, he gave that a little scratch, too, then continued on his way. He was back in his room in less than a minute.
He shook her dress out and handed it to her. “Here you go.”
Dani had her arms wrapped around her herself and hunched over. “Um, can you look away?”
He raised an eyebrow. “I’ve seen you naked.”
Redness crept up her cheeks. “Yeah, but…”
He took her hands, helping her to stand. She held her had low. “You are beautiful. In every way.”
Dani shook her head. “Compared to yours, my body looks like I should sign up for a gym and lay off the Chick-O-Sticks.”
He lifted her chin with his hand. “Chick-O-Sticks?”
“Candy.” Her eyes rolled back. “The best kind. Peanut butter, coconuts, and all types of crunchy goodness.”
Ramsey took a step back and held her arms out. She tried to shrink away from him. He let his eyes take in her beautiful body. “You can eat anything you want.”
She blushed again and squirmed out of his hold. “Um, you have to say nice things about me. We just had sex. It’s kinda a requirement.” She hurried into her dress.
He watched her, warring between stripping her clothes from her body and pinning her to the bed, or taking her back to her hotel. “I’m speaking the truth. I don’t have to lie.”
She slipped into her shoes. “Sure. Whatever you say. I’m ready.”
He could’ve argued with her, but human women let magazines and television dictate unrealistic beauty standards to them. Ramsey held the bedroom door open for her, and as she moved past him he indulged in her scent as it breezed over him.
Five minutes into the car ride and he listened to her snores. She rested her head against the window. Her chocolate cake was in a box in the back seat. Her mouth was parted, allowing for soft breaths to escape. It was the perfect opportunity to steal glances at her. Dani wasn’t the prettiest woman that he’d seen, but that didn’t matter. She was beautiful in her own right. There was something different about her. Right and calming. Wholesome.
Bam!
A loud crash roared over his ears. The car careened to the side. Ramsey could’ve escaped through the window or punched a hole in the ceiling before the car crashed, but there was Dani to think about. Strapped tightly in her seatbelt she woke with a scream on her lips. Her eyes set in a panic as she watched the world spin around her. Ramsey was out his seatbelt and shielding her with his body as the car flipped, finally skidding to a halt thanks to a parked car.
“Oh, my God. Oh, my God,” she cried over and over again.
He tried to pull back from her to see if she was harmed, but the dashboard had folded around his back. With a grunt he pushed, using his arms and legs as leverage. The car screeched and moaned as is it gave way.
He immediately scanned her over, afraid that she was hurt. Besides her visible shaking she was fine. He took a quick whiff. No internal bleeding. No injuries. She stared up at him with eyes as big as saucers.
“You’re okay,” he assured her. “I have you.”
“Wh-what happened? Did we have a have a car accident?”
He’d been driving since driving was invented. What did happen?
He lifted his head and took in a deeper sniff. “Vampires.”
Dani’s lips trembled. “Friend or foe?”
Ramsey had recognized the smells immediately.
“Foe. Stay here.”
She gave a pained expression. Of course, she had to be uncomfortable. She dangled, still strapped in her seatbelt to the side. “But—”
“I’ll come back to get you.”
Car doors opened, and two sets of feet hit the pavement. Ramsey didn’t have any more time to console her or assure her that she was going to be fine. He had vampires to kill.
With a thunderous roar he burst through the busted-out window and landed with his back to the car, his arms out, ready. Antonio and Nicoli sneered at him. The monster truck they’d used to crash into him sat in the middle of the road. Its front fender was broken, hanging to the street.
He balled his fists. “I was hoping to see you two again.”
“We’re not here to fight,” Antonio said.
Ramsey waved toward his wrecked car. “This doesn’t look like a love tap to me.”
“We needed to get your attention.”
Ramsey stalked toward them. “Congratulations. You have it.”
“You have to come with us.”
“Me? Go with you? Go fuck yourself.” He opened his mouth, letting his canines grow to their full length.
Antonio shook his head. “We can’t do that. You’ll have to come back with us.”
Nicoli nudged Antonio. “See? I told you that he wouldn’t come willingly.”
“Do you guys have any other secret weapons to use on me?” Ramsey asked.
Nicoli and Antonio exchanged glances.
Too bad. Ramsey was looking forward to a challenge. Two newbies didn’t stand a chance with him, and the worried looks on their faces were evidence of that.
Antonio readied in a fighting stance, and Ramsey welcomed the rush of exhilaration. Quickly and quietly, Ramsey ran at them, arms out. Nicoli ducked in time, but Ramsey’s arm caught Antonio’s neck, almost decapitating him from the impact. Antonio slammed backward onto the concrete, cracking the street and creating a hole outlined by his body. With a roar Nicoli jumped, aiming for Ramsey’s back. Ramsey heard him coming and ducked. Nicoli went flying, arms fighting the air, over Ramsey’s head.
Stupid newbies.
Ramsey snatched Nicoli midair and using his momentum, spun and threw him into a car, smashing the door. The car rocked from the impact, setting off the alarm.
Ramsey scanned the normally quiet neighborhood. He figured that in less than two minutes pedestrians would come out of their houses to investigate. What he didn’t need were innocents in the middle of a vampire fight. He needed to wrap this up. Fast.
Antonio jumped on Ramsey’s back and clawed at his face and eyes. Ramsey reached around to grab him, but Antonio dug his nails into Ramsey’s chest and hung on tight.
“R-Ramsey?”
Everything seemed to stop. As if moving in slow motion he turned and saw Dani standing by the car, clutching her phone in her hand. Everything about her screamed “prey”.
“I—I’m going to call the police.”
Before she could lift her phone Nicoli was behind her. He had one arm wrapped around her waist and a hand pushed her head to her shoulder. Her tendons and blood vessels protruded from her skin. She let out a small cry. Nicoli poised over her with open mouth and elongated canines.
No matter which scenario played out in his head they all ended the same—with Dani’s neck being broken. He wouldn’t be able to reach her in time.
“What do you want?” he bit out.
Antonio slid from his back. “It’s not what we want. It’s what Angelina wants.”
Angelina.
He should’ve known that she would try to arrange a meeting with him after he’d been ignoring her phone calls.
“And what does she want?”
Nicoli salivated. He had a hungry look in his eyes. Spit dropped from his tooth onto Dani’s neck. Dani winced.
“Sh, Nadine,” Nicoli whispered. “As long as Ramsey cooperates nothing will happen to you.”
Nadine? How would they know about Nadine, and what did Angelina want with her?
Dani opened her mouth to correct him, but Ramsey gave her the slightest shake of his head. There was no telling what these fools would do if they found out they had the wrong woman.
“Let her go,” Ramsey demanded.
“Come with us and she walks away unharmed,” Antonio said.
There wasn’t a question about what his answer would be. Not with Dani’s life in their hands. “Done.”
Nicoli didn’t release Dani. His breathing came out ragged and hard. His eyes watched her neck lustfully. Ramsey let out a low warning.
“Nicoli,” Antonio said.
Nicoli sneered. “What?”
“Leave her be,” Antonio said.
Could Ramsey save her in time? If something happened to her he would kill them. But that wouldn’t bring Dani back. An innocent. He had to get to her. He had to save her. Ramsey clenched his fist, calculating how quickly he could reach Nicoli and save Dani before he ripped into her neck. The odds were not in his favor
After a few tense seconds, Nicoli released her head and stepped back. The tension in the air snapped.
“Let’s go,” Ramsey said, bringing Nicoli’s attention back to him.
Nicoli snarled. Bloodlust filled his eyes. Fledglings had a precarious relationship to blood. It took many years to overcome bloodlust. Blood was like a drug that they craved. It was more than a habit, a rush. It would be hundreds of years before the tides turned, before they realized that it was a necessary evil and weaned themselves from it and only indulged when required, no longer for pleasure. He would strangle Angelina for sending fledglings into his city unattended.
“Nicoli!” Antonio yelled. “We have what we came for.”
Nicoli growled.
Ramsey needed them away from Dani and off their minds. “Your mistress won’t appreciate that you’re keeping her waiting.”
That seemed to work on Nicoli. Self-preservation trumped his bloodlust. “Come with us.”
“Ramsey?” Dani asked.
She looked so small, so vulnerable. There was no way that she could survive in his world. He shouldn’t have indulged. Dani shouldn’t have ever known that vampires existed.
“This is my world. Go home,” Ramsey told her.
Hurt flashed behind Dani’s eyes.
He turned and let Antonio and Nicoli lead him away. He didn’t look back.