Page 21 of Taken By the Vampires
I stood mute, keeping my gaze trained on the floor at my feet, unable to move. Unable to speak. Trembling on the outside while a war raged on the inside.
“Ella. Please. Listen to me.”
His voice, filled with such anguish, snapped me into action. I held out my palm toward him. “I am so sorry, Cassius. I didn’t mean to kiss you.” I licked dry lips. “This. You. Me. Davon. Xander. It can’t…can’t happen. I don’t…don’t even know what to think. Just…don’t come near me, okay? Please, just don’t touch me again.”
“Ella!”
I nearly looked up, but right at the last second I managed to turn and bolt to the open door. “Don’t say it, Cassius. Please don’t say it.”
There was silence as I ran from the room but I didn’t leave my terror there. No, that would be too easy. I took it with me every step of the way back into the bedroom.
Chapter Fourteen
I leaned against the closed door, my breath ragged. I closed my eyes and banged the back of my head against the wood.
Why did everything I did not make any sense? Why did I kiss not one, but three men? Why did they think that was not just okay – but appeared towelcomeit?
I seemed to be as drawn to all of them the same way they were drawn to me. All four of us connected by an irresistible tug of war that, if I didn’t get the hell away, was not going to end well at all. If I wasn’t damned by the Trinity now, I certainly would be if they found out about this.
It just seemed soright. My traitorous body wanted nothing more than all of them. Indeed, even seemed intent on over-ruling the logical part of my mind. It was totally unacceptable. Inconceivable. Completely unlike me.
I’d been in control all of my life. It would have been so easy if I’d capitulated to the Holy Trinity and lived my life like everyone else in the town. I would have friends. People to stand by me. Help with Mom. Maybe even the farm. They’d do business with me. Maybe I could have taken Mom to a doctor years ago. Saved her years of sickness.
But every time I wanted to surrender, something stronger inside me held me back. It kept the words in my mouth, took the actions from my body, the urge from my mind. Maybe in the back of it, I knew this small-town life was not for me, and if I engaged, even on some small level, I’d be stuck here forever.
Everything I’d fought for, thought about, taught myself, was to escape Conway, despite never managing to do so. Yet now, I was trapped in a mansion I’d had no idea about in the middle of nowhere. Which, in itself, was strange enough. I knew every hunting hut, every trail, every dip and turn of the road in, out and around this town. I’d traveled and hiked them all. Yet still, I’d never known about this mansion, let alone the men who lived within its walls.
I peeled open my eyes, my body sagging with exhaustion. My injuries and emotions were strained. Open curtains framed the window filled by the blinding snowstorm. I’d never known one to last this long. Or go this hard. I hadn’t even heard it coming through on the scanner. If it’s one thing the townspeople did well, and did include me in on, was the weather forecast, only because it meant if I was lost, they’d need to send out people and risk lives to look for me. Especially this time of year.
My Grimoire was on the end of the bed. I barely questioned why it was there, but the need to hold something familiar was too great to ignore. I sat on the end of the mattress and held it to my chest, inhaling the dry parchment. The familiar scent helped soothe my heart, but then I remembered the spell I was sure had never been there before. Not even my grandmother or my mother had read it to me when I was a child.
I opened the book and spent several moments rifling through the pages until I found it. The ink looked as dry and faded as the rest of the book, and yet it was unfamiliar to me. I read through it again, half surprised there was no more information than was there before.
I’d heard of mythical creatures, but only in fiction. Vampires called up images that were frightening, to say the least. Undead bodies brought to life by a virus that reanimated flesh without a heart or soul. I ran my fingertips over the letters. The ancestor who wrote this must have hated them for some reason. They seemed to me to be tortured beings, forced to drink the life-force of living things so that they could stay alive. Cursed, to be sure.
Minister Jeremiah would say they were sinners and condemn them forever to hell. I snorted, the sound brash against the background of the crackling flames. I couldn’t think that creatures were bad just because they were different than I was. That was a key word. They were different. Not bad.
In my dream, they’d done something to my mother, but they’d also done something to me that was both fearsome and heady at the same time. My body hadsung.Feltin a way I’d thought impossible, maybe because I’d never known it to be true.
But that had been a dream, no doubt born of a tired, worried mind. I’d taken out my fright on Cassius. Shame crept around the confusion. They were probably wondering why I was reacting like I was.
They’d kissed me, and more, but they’d backed off when I’d asked them to. They’d also saved me from certain death and nursed me back to health. I’d been fed, placed in a comfortable room, given a bed and I’d treated them like they were the townsfolk, when they were nothing like them at all. I had to find some middle ground because we were stuck together for the foreseeable future.
I really should go and find them, talk to them, get to know them. Apologize. Tell them there’d be no more kissing and ignore what my body wanted because ultimately, my body wasn’t in charge. My head was.
Then I would leave.
I ignored the way my stomach rolled, combed my fingers through my hair and went to the door. I lived in a town where people either flat-out hated me or didn’t understand me. Keeping three guys who had more testosterone than they knew how to handle at a distance would be a piece of cake.
They’d listen. And if they didn’t, I’d make them, just like I’d done to Gary and Dean and everyone else.
I threw open the door to see three startled faces peering down at me.
Chapter Fifteen
I squeaked, putting a hand over my racing heart and jumped about a foot back from the door.
“Tu… Ella. Are you all right?” Xander asked in his direct manner.
