Page 6 of Taken By the Vampires
I managed to open one eye. My blurry vision found faces. I waited a while for the six faces to become three. Three men. Three killers. Since words were all I had, I swallowed my pride and decided to grovel. “If you could just show me the front door, I’ll be out of your hair.” I could get to Gary’s truck. Drive back home. Desperation made people do idiotic things.
“Intelligent, despite being half dead. I like her. She’s going to make a great pet now that she’s somewhat awake. We need a bit of life around here.” The man with familiar caramel eyes stared dispassionately at me. He’d done something to me. Apologized. But for what? I didn’t want to find out.
The darker skinned man looked a little more compassionate than his friend. I turned my attention to him, “Don’t kill me. Please. My mother needs me. I…I need to go.” To my horror, tears welled. I hadn’t cried in years. I tried to hide it, but I was too slow, too clumsy and two wet drops fell to the pillow.
Blue-eyes frowned. Another ran his hand over his close-cropped hair and turned away. A wave of discomfort traveled through the trio.
“And that’s where we’re going to have a bit of trouble,” the man with caramel eyes said. I found I didn’t much care whenever he spoke.
“Tell us if it’s true, Xander,” the man with short, spiky hair spoke.
“Do you really want to know, Cassius?”
“We have to know. There is little choice.”
“Very well. Let’s see if this slip of a girl holds our future in her delicate, little hand.” He – Xander – leaned over me, determination on his face. Intense. Powerful. I looked away, wanting to preserve some of my sanity. I didn’t understand what they spoke about and I didn’t want to know. I just wanted to get the hell out of here and back home.
“Look at me.” There was a command in his voice not to be denied. There was something peculiar about his eyes. They were the color of warm honey, but the deep, tawny brown rimming his pupils gave them an otherworldly edge. He studied me closely, as though waiting for something. Expecting it.
I gasped as heat flared deep within my body, my skin prickling and tightening with awareness. His eyes drew me in, tighter and closer, until I was consumed by him. Something stirred within me, awakening for the first time, sparking to life with an expansion of consciousness that wasn’t entirely my own.
His eyes widened with surprise although I didn’t think he was one tobesurprised. He fell to his knees on the floor, his expression never losing its grimness. He was too stern for that. Cold and distant he may be, that didn’t stop me from this confusing awareness that held me in its grip, enthralled.
He opened his mouth, struggling for words for a long moment before he spoke, his voice low and tight. “It is true, brothers.”
“Are you sure?” the darker skinned man asked. He cupped my cheek and turned my head so that I had no option but to look at him.
“She is Fate. My bite has started the process. Look at her, Davon. See for yourself.” Xander moved away, turning his back to me and running a hand through his hair.
He bit me? What the hell?I searched my mind, but could only come up with a hazy recollection of lips at my neck, coupled with an intense climax. But that had to have been a dream. Or a nightmare. It couldn’t possibly have happened.
Could it?
A frown formed between Davon’s brows as he peered down at me. I tried to turn my head away, but a force bound me, compelling my eyes to his, despite my not wanting to. The breath hung in my lungs as Davon’s light blue gaze, so at odds with his darker skin, connected with me.
Because that’s what I felt. A tiny thread of connection had bound us in an instant, just as it had with Xander. A twining light of consciousness wound about my heart, a bond of a sort I couldn’t describe. Deep and without definition. I placed my palm over Davon’s hand that cupped my cheek, drawn to him by the same immovable force.
Davon’s eyes widened. “By all that is Holy.”
“Don’t swear like that around here, Davon. Nothing Holy has set foot on this soil for three hundred years,” Cassius spoke. Cassius, whose expression was shut down and wary stood over me with his hands on his hips.
“Then see for yourself,” Davon said.
“What’s happening?” I whispered, trembling. This was all too much. I was surrounded by killers. Men who could overpower me in an instant, and yet my blood smouldered with an indescribable spark. A connection that bound me to them by an ancient power I couldn’t begin to name.
I didn’t want to look at Cassius, but I was drawn to him by an irresistible pull, just as I had been the other two men. Our gazes locked and the final piece of a puzzle I never knew existed snapped into place. I knew this man. Thesemen. Intimately, despite never having met them before in my life. My breath stuttered, tight in my throat.
“Tu Ena.” Cassius’ gaze roamed my face, searching. The chill in his eyes eased, as he allowed wonder to wash it away. “It cannot be.”
“It is possible, brothers. She is our savior,” Xander spoke.
My heart rate kicked up a terrified notch. I didn’t understand what they referred to, or what had just passed between us. Because something definitely had. Something powerful and ancient.
Something I didn’t ask for or want.
I licked dry lips with an equally dry tongue. “I’m glad I’ve been able to resolve a long-standing issue for you guys. I’d appreciate it if you could just show me the front door and I’ll be on my way.”
Xander came down on one knee and brushed strands of my hair from my face. His touch was gentle despite his stern expression and I had to concentrate not to lean into his fingers. I could only assume concussion clouded my mind. That, or Stockholm syndrome, but surely it was too early for that.
