CHAPTER FOURTEEN

When I’d said that everything was different with Calla, I meant it. Especially when my ego was at stake. I could have been the bigger man and walked away and brought Calla home, but I also knew that I could scare these fuckers, wipe their memory in a split second, and then take Calla home.

I had no intention of fighting the guys. If I did, I wouldn’t be able to control my strength. I just wanted the one with the big mouth to shut up, and the only way I could do that after he called Calla and Valencia cunt bitches, was to make him piss his pants—literally.

“What’s the plan?” Athan asked me telepathically.

“Scare them.”

“We better make it fast. The girls are here.”

“I know, but they can’t get away with calling our women cunts.”

“I wish we didn’t have to wipe their memory after.”

“Me, too,” I stated. Once we compelled them, they wouldn’t remember that they’d almost got their asses handed to them for degrading women. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t want to go home with piss in my pants either.

“Get your hands off of me,” the one with the big mouth yelled.

All eyes were on us as we made our way to the side door. We exited, and the two guys put up their fists like we were actually going to fight. Instead, I looked at Athan and then in a flash we had the guys by their throats and up against the wall of the building.

“Does it look like I’m a bitch now?” I showed my fangs.

“What the fuck?” The guy’s eyes widened in fear.

“Don’t you ever call my girl—or any girl for that matter—a cunt again. Do you understand me?”

He tried to nod, but he couldn’t move his head, and I was so caught up in the moment that I didn’t hear the door open. Neither did Athan. I wasn’t expecting the girls to follow so quickly, but when I turned my head, Calla stopped and made eye contact with me.

Her glass fell to the ground, shattering into hundreds of shards, and then she started to fall backward. In a split second, I dropped the guy with the big fucking mouth and moved to Calla, catching her before she hit the ground.

“Fuck!” I roared.

“Calla!” Valencia yelled and then her gaze met mine. “How’d—” She looked to the wall that was ten or so feet away. “How’d you catch her that fast?”

I didn’t answer Valencia. Instead, I picked Calla up in my arms and barked to Athan who was forcing the two men back against the wall. “Sweep them including your girlfriend.”

Calla had fainted, and therefore, I only had a minute or two before she woke and probably would freak out, so I ran straight for her car. I knew Athan would handle the others by wiping their memories.

After laying her down in the backseat, I took off for Calla’s apartment. The moment she gasped for air, I clenched the steering wheel and waited for the second everything would come flooding back to her.

She sat up, noticed the car was moving and said, “You … Stop … Please.”

“It’s okay, sweets. We’re going to your place.”

She backed up as far as the car would allow. “It’s not okay. You …”

“I what?” I asked, wanting her to tell me exactly what she saw before she passed out.

“You have …” she hesitated, “fangs.”

“Fangs?” I chuckled.

“And you and Athan …” She paused and looked behind her as though she could see Athan and Valencia out the back windshield. “What did you do to Valencia? Let me go. I need to make sure she’s okay,” she cried.

“Valencia’s fine. Athan has her.”

“But he’s a … You’re a …” Calla hesitated again, and then she whispered, “How?”

“How what?” I turned onto her street.

“How were you strong enough to do that?”

“Do what?”

“Lift that guy by—by the throat.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied. I didn’t want to lie to her, but I wasn’t used to this. The two humans who knew I was a vampire hadn’t freaked out when they’d learned the truth, and all the others I’d compelled to forget.

“Don’t lie to me!” she yelled.

“Sweet—”

“Please, Draven. Just tell me the truth.”

“Can I do this when I’m not driving?” I pulled into her parking spot at her complex and threw the car in park. Calla flung the door open, and I quickly moved to her, grabbing her arm after getting out of the car. “Careful. You might still be lightheaded.”

She jerked her arm free from me.

“Calla,” I said, trying to plead with her that I wasn’t the monster she thought I was.

“You’re cold.”

“You know this.”

Calla grabbed my wrist and held two fingers to where a pulse point would be.

“Please, let’s just go upstairs,” I pleaded.

She closed her eyes and nodded. Once we were inside, and the door was closed behind me, she asked, “If I asked you to leave, would you fly out the door?”

Even though I knew she’d figured it out a while ago, hearing that question confirmed it. I closed my eyes for a second and then whispered, “More dragged out by an invisible force.”

Calla took a step back and crossed her arms over her ample chest. “Is your name even Draven?”

“Yes.”

“I thought that was your middle name?”

“It’s my real first name.”

“So your name is Draven Young?”

I paused for a moment. “No. My name is Draven Delano.”

She took another step back as though she had no idea who I was.

“Please,” I begged again, “don’t be scared of me.”

Her eyes grew wide, and her heart started to beat faster in her chest. “Wait. Did you … Did you kill my father?”

“What? No!” I roared.

“But—”

“I was in Anchorage on duty when the attack happened. You know this.”

She let out a breath to only quickly gasp again. “Was it Athan?”

I took a step forward, and she stepped back again. “It wasn’t Athan. We don’t know who it was.”

“How don’t you know?”

“Because I’m the only one in Burn Falls.”

“One what?” We stared at each other, and I realized she was no longer scared. She was angry. “Say it, Draven. Tell me what you are!”

I took another step forward, and this time she didn’t retreat. “A vampire. And there are no other vampires that live in Burn Falls except me.”

“How are vampires real?” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“It’s a curse that leads back to the Greeks.”

“A curse?”

“Yes.” I nodded.

“Tell me.”

“Tell you the story of how they came about?”

“Yes.”

“It’s long.”

“Humor me.”

“Okay.” I paused. “An Italian painter named Ambrogio fell in love with a Titan Goddess named Selene, and asked her to marry him. But Apollo, the son of Zeus, wanted her for his own, so he cursed Ambrogio by causing his skin to burn whenever it was exposed to sunlight.

“Ambrogio turned to Hades, the God of the underworld, for help. Ambrogio made a deal with Hades to leave his soul with him as a down payment, and then steal Artemis’s—Apollo’s twin sister—silver bow for Hades in exchange for a wooden bow and arrows for protection.

“But Artemis cursed Ambrogio for trying to steal from her, and she made it so silver would burn his skin. She later took pity when he begged for mercy and explained his predicament, so she gave him super strength, immortality, and fangs to kill beasts for their blood.

“Artemis was a virgin Goddess, and she forced Ambrogio to give up his love because all of her followers had to remain chaste and unmarried. He agreed, but that night he wrote a message to Selene telling her to meet him. They sailed to Ephesus and lived for many years in caves together. Ambrogio never aged because Hades still had his soul, but the years weren’t as kind to Selene, and soon she fell ill.

“Since Ambrogio’s soul still resided in Hades, it was impossible for Selene and Ambrogio to spend the afterlife together. Ambrogio killed a swan and offered it to Artemis, which caused her to make one final deal with him. She allowed Ambrogio to drink Selene’s blood so they could stay together forever and she too would become immortal.

“However, Selene began to radiate with light, and her spirit rose into the heavens and met with Artemis at the moon. Selene became the Goddess of Moonlight, and every night she reaches down from the heavens and touches her beloved Ambrogio and their vampire children, which he creates by a mixture of their blood after he drains a human.”

Calla didn’t say anything after I was done. She just stared at me.

“Sweetheart?”

“So this Ambrogio dude is the only one to turn humans into vampires?”

“No.” I shook my head. “He started the curse, and any vampire can turn a human.”

“Do you … Do you turn humans?”

“No. Never have and never will.”

She was silent for a few moments before she spoke again. “Did Ambrogio turn you?”

“No.”

“Who did?”

“A vampire in Chicago.”

“When?”

“You might want to sit down for this,” I suggested.

“Oh God,” she whispered. “You’re … old?”

I chuckled. “What’s old?”

Calla bit her lip, and I wanted nothing more than to take her in my arms and kiss her instead of telling her I could be as old as her grandfather’s father. “Sweets, just sit down, and I’ll continue telling you everything you want to know.”

She turned and moved to her couch. The night before the sofa had been used for something entirely different. Never had I’d imagined that after the night we shared, I’d be telling her that I was a vampire. I rubbed the back of my neck nervously.

“Please don’t freak out.”

“Draven, I think we’re beyond the point of freaking out. I’m just trying to process everything. All the lies—”

“I only lied to you about my last name and the fact that I’m immortal.”

“Don’t you think those are important details?” She stared into my dark eyes, searching for answers.

I shrugged. “It’s not like I go around telling people.”

“Who all knows?”

“Martin and Marcy.”

“That’s it?”

I nodded. “That’s it. Well, and now you.”

Calla sighed. “All right. Tell me how old you are.”

“One-hundred and fourteen.”

She bolted off the couch and gasped. “What?”

“I was born in 1904.”

Calla started to pace. “I think I’m going to pass out again.”

I stood and moved to her. “Just sit down and take a few deep breaths.” She allowed me to move her back to the couch and we sat side by side.

“Are you really a doctor?”

“Of course I am.”

Her eyes widened as though she’d had an epiphany. “You can’t go in the sun.”

I shook my head.

“I always wondered why you worked the night shift and now it makes sense. Plus, not being able to fly here until ten at night.”

“Exactly.”

“And having to leave early this morning before the sun rose,” she went on.

I smiled. “If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t want to leave.”

She returned my smile, and then we were silent again. I envisioned the wheels in her head turning. After a good minute or so she asked, “How do vampires turn humans, and why aren’t there more of your kind?”

“We have to drain them of most of their blood and then let them drink our blood so it mixes together. Once they feed on human blood, the transition is complete.”

“Like Ambrogio and Selene,” she whispered.

“More or less. It’s Ambrogio and Selene’s blood in me that causes humans to turn.”

Calla gasped. “You could have saved my father!”

“What?” I blinked.

“You knew he was dying. You could have saved him—turned him—whatever!” she shouted.

“Calla, sweetheart. You know that I couldn’t have.”

She stood again out of anger. “Why?”

“For one, how the fuck was I supposed to turn a human in the middle of a hospital and have it not lead to questions? Two, why would I turn him when I didn’t know why he was being drained to begin with? And three, I’ve never turned anyone—ever.”

“So why was he being turned?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know that he was. He could have just been being fed on, and then you showed up. By the time he arrived at Edgewater, he’d already lost a lot of blood. Given that he was still alive by the time the helicopter got him there, the vampire hadn’t drunk much of his blood. He was just bleeding out from the puncture wounds.”

“So if I wouldn’t have stopped the attack then he might still be alive?”

I stood and reached for her and brought her into a hug. “No, he would be dead like me.”

“But still here,” she mumbled into my chest.

“Maybe.” We were silent again as I listened to her heart rate return to normal and her breathing even out. “Let’s get you in bed. It’s been a long night.”

“I have more questions.”

“I know, and I’ll answer them as we get you ready for bed.”

“Shower then bed.”

“Can I join?” I smirked.

She raised her head from my chest and looked directly into my dark eyes for a few breaths. “Draven …”

“Calla, it’s me. Just because you now know what I truly am, shouldn’t make things different.”

She closed her green eyes briefly. “It doesn’t. I’m just in shock.”

“I understand. Let me make it up to you.” I grinned again.

Calla swallowed hard, and then she took a deep breath. “Okay.”

“Lead the way, sweets.”

“Are you going to drink my blood?”

I chuckled. “Only if you want to have sex.”

Calla stopped right before the door of the bathroom. “Why do you need to feed to have sex?”

I smirked and looked down, suggesting that I needed to get hard. “The blood needs to flow through my veins.”

“Oh. So, your blood isn’t pumping unless you drink blood?”

“Hence why I’m always cold.”

“Right.” She sighed. “And while the idea of shower sex with you is appealing, I don’t think I’m ready for you to feed off of me.”

“I don’t think you’re ready either.”

I wasn’t even sure I was ready. What if her blood was my kryptonite? What if I couldn’t stop once I started? The night before, I’d got a brief taste, and it was the sweetest I’d ever tasted. Like the cotton candy I remembered having at a fair in 1927. It was safe to still feed from blood bags until we were both ready.

But there were other things we could do that didn’t involve me getting hard.