Page 24 of Life Blood
“Good luck with her,” I said as he opened the passenger’s side door of the Jeep. “She lives at the bar, and her blood type is vodka. She’s pretty much going to kill herself with no help from a vampire.”
“Your mom will be fine. I have to get back to the guys. They need to know about the bond, and we have to make sure we didn’t set off a beacon or some shit by getting too close to you. Son of a bitch probably set you as a trap for us.”
Braden was pretty much talking to himself now, cussing and rambling about all the possibilities of how they were supposed to protect me from a crazed vampire who wanted to feed off of my blood to juice himself up.
“So,” I interrupted him. Oddly, I was the onenotfreaking out, “What the hell are you going to do if Enzo set a trap? Do you plan on moving into my house or something?”
“No,” his eyes flashed dangerously black. “Not yet, anyway, but the minute we detect a collector, you will need to be with at least one of us at all times. If that means living in our home or us living in yours, then that’s what happens. Elle Simms,” he said nodding toward me, “you have no other option but to listen to me and take this deadly seriously. If my cousins and I have fucked something up, shit will get very real. We will die trying to protect you. If you believe nothing else, believe that.”
“I am not a damn damsel in—”
“I never said that,” he cut me off, voice low and oddly sexy, “you areoursnow. Ours to protect and watch over. Forever. The attraction may build between all of us, but we’ll deal with that as it comes.”
“The attraction?”
“An explanation to be saved if that time comes. For now, just know that my cousins and I will never leave you. One of us will guard your house tonight. Until the situation calls for us to watch over you 24 hours a day, we will give you as much space as we are comfortable with.”
I must have been completely overwhelmed by this and had temporarily gone insane—which was justified—because all I could say after Braden scooped me up and set me in his Jeep was this: “Well, if I have to be surrounded by all of you all the time, at least you’re all gorgeous.”
I saw a smile turn up in the corner of Braden’s mouth as we blasted out of the remote beach location and back toward my house…My house, where Braden could experience my drunk-ass mom who was most likely passed out on the floor. If he wanted to protect me from things non-supernatural, he could protect me from dealing with her.
Chapter Eight
The Jeep pulled up to the house, and I applauded myself for making the twenty-minute drive home without having a complete nervous breakdown. More than once, I felt Braden’s eyes on me, and I ignored the fact that being in his presence was most likely preventing my head from exploding after everything he had told me.
“You sure you’ll be okay alone tonight?” Braden asked.
Before I could respond, he was instantly at my door. The speed that he moved looked like super-fast motion, he was a blur before he got to my door and opened it for me.
“I’ll be fine,” I lied. “I’ll be a lot better if you tone down yourvampiretricks until I can wrap my head around this stuff.”
The smile that twisted up on his closed lips did something to my insides that I immediately repressed. They were gorgeous because they were vampires. Beautiful fucking creatures who were alluring by nature so they could easily take a human’s blood. This shit was true. Any girl would gladly let these beautiful sons of bitches do anything to her just to have one.
“Good God, Elle, you’re as pale as a ghost,” Braden said. “Here,” he offered a hand. “Let me at least walk you inside.”
I gulped and collapsed against the headrest of the seat I seemed to be glued to. That’s when the breakdown hit. I felt the tears boiling up and surfacing violently. Then I let my emotions have their way. I sobbed into my hands, and I didn’t know if I said the words over and over out loud or in my head, but all I could think waswhy me?
I was just supposed to go to work, feel good that I dumped my jerk boyfriend, deal with my drunk mom—if she came home tonight—and cry over losing my best friend so abruptly. All of that would have seemed too much for me to deal with in a day…it was now a teeny speck of an issue compared to what was really going down in my life.
I had no idea how, but Braden managed to scoop me into his arms, and the next thing I knew, I was on my bed, crying into my pillows.
“There,” Braden said, “let me stay with you. Your mom is passed out, but the alcohol isn’t at a dangerous level for her tolerance to it.”
I clutched a pillow against my stomach and scooted away from where Braden stood with a saddened expression. “Just leave,” I choked out.
“I can’t,” he said, his face sadder than before, “I can’t leave you in this condition. If I could change it all for you, I would.”
“Tell me none of this is real,” I said through tears that seemed they would never stop. My stomach contracted tightly, and that’s when I knew I was going to be sick. I shot off my bed and ran to my bathroom. I fell to my knees, held my hair back, and lost all of the contents of my stomach and more.
“You have the fucking ability, so get your ass down here and see if it works! Her shock is wearing off, and it’s killing me to watch this happen to her.” I heard Braden growling in a whisper just outside of my bathroom. “No shit!” he said after a pause. “There’s more to this story than we realized.” Pause. “Just get over here, Logan. Now!”
I groaned after flushing the toilet. I didn’t want to get up and face Braden. I didn’t want to face any of this shit. I took as much time brushing my teeth before I slowly opened the door.
“Just leave—”
I stopped talking when I felt the most unexplainable sensation of love and protection. It shot through the back of my neck and surged through my veins, shutting down every bad feeling I had and replacing it with an intense sense of security.
I felt a cold, sturdy hand gently holding onto the back of my neck. I smiled, and I wanted to turn and find the source and lose myself entirely in these sensations.
