Crimson Debt: Book 1 in the Born to Darkness series (39 page)

“That’s because you’re a vamp.
Your kind don’t need wide open spaces to let loose in—you’re
monsters all the damn time, not just once a month like us.”

“
We’re not monsters,” I
said, stung. “At least,
I’m
not.”

“Oh no?” The glance he threw me
was a lot less than friendly. “Last time I looked, vamps are undead
and live on blood. That’s the fucking definition of monster if you
ask me.”

“
At least I
look
normal,” I
snapped, losing my temper. “At least I don’t grow hair all over
and…and turn into an animal.”

“
At least an animal
is
alive,”
he snarled. “More than I can say for you undead
fangers.”

That was it—I had suddenly
had
enough
. Years of repressed anger and hurt rose up inside me. I
didn’t care what the consequences were for breaking the blood-bond
between myself and the huge werewolf were—I wasn’t going to take
one more minute of this.

“That’s it,” I snapped. “Stop the
truck.”

“What?” Victor gave me an
incredulous look and kept driving. “Why the hell would I do
that?”

“
Because I’m leaving.” I
fumbled for the handle on the unfamiliar door. “How do you open
this damn thing, anyway?” Falling out of the speeding truck
wouldn’t be a picnic but I was a vampire—I would heal. Of course,
my body was in pretty bad shape because of the enforced starvation
I’d endured recently so it might take a while. But even a slow and
painful injury was better than taking any more of the were’s
abuse.

The handle clicked and
suddenly the door flew open. The truck took a sharp curve and I
felt myself slipping sideways at an alarming rate.

Oh my
God!
I braced for the fall but just as I
started to slide out of the cab a big hand reached out and grabbed
me by the arm.

“What the hell do you think you’re
doing?” Victor brought the truck to a screeching halt and dragged
me back across the seat.

“
I told
you—
leaving.
So
let me go.”

“I don’t think so,” he snarled.
“We’re blood-bound—you’re not going anywhere.”

“
So I’ll find a way
to
break
the bond,” I snapped, yanking at his seemingly unbreakable
grip. “Anything to get away from
you.”

“
You
can’t
break the bond unless
you’re willing to go down some pretty dark roads and find a witch
that deals in the Shadow Lands. You want that?” Victor demanded.
“Because I sure as hell don’t. Like it or not, we’re stuck
together, sweetheart.”

“
Oh, no we’re not.” I
lifted
my chin. “I spent the last
six years
of my
life being stuck in an abusive relationship—one I couldn’t get out
of no matter how hard I tried. I refuse to spend even one second
more that way.”

Victor’s eyes got wide. “Abusive?
What the hell are you talking about, abusive? How have I hurt
you?”

“
Abuse isn’t just physical
or…or sexual, you know.” I felt my throat getting tight but I
refused to let my pain show on my face. “There is such a thing as
mental and emotional abuse too. Although when I think about it,
you
did
promise not to lay a finger on me and you’re doing a hell of
lot more than that right now.”

I glared at him and then looked
pointedly at the big hand encircling my upper arm.

“Damn it!” Victor pulled his hand
away as though he’d been stung. “I was just trying to keep you from
killing yourself, lady.”

“
My name is Taylor. Not
lady, not sweetheart, and most certainly not “fanger”—it’s
Taylor.
And I
wouldn’t have died—I couldn’t. I’m already dead,
remember?”

“Oh, hell…” He ran a hand through
his wild black hair and blew out a breath. “Look, I’m sorry, all
right?” he said, apologizing much to my surprise. “This is
just…such a bad fucking night for this. The moon is getting high
and if I don’t get home soon…”

“Oh.” Understanding suddenly hit
me. “You’re going to…what, change into a wolf?”

“
If you’re lucky,” he said
darkly. “And if you’re not…” He shook his head. “Let’s just say I
really need
to get home and I don’t
have a lot of time for polite chit-chat right
now.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, chastened. “I
didn’t realize your problem was that, uh, urgent.”

“Well, it is. And it wouldn’t be
good for you if I changed around you.”

My heart was suddenly in my
throat. “Would you hurt me?”

“Not on purpose, no. But my
wolf—the wolf inside me…” He thumped himself on the chest. “It
would see you as a threat. It’s an instinctive thing—we don’t like
vamps. And I don’t think too well in that form—I mostly feel.”

“So we’d better get to a place
where you can, uh, change as far away from me as possible,” I
said.

“
Yeah.” He sighed again.
“Look, I know I’m being an ass right now and I’m sorry. It’s
just…the moon.” He gestured at the full silver orb climbing higher
in the sky above us and his voice dropped to an even deeper
register, sounding almost like an animal’s growl. “She’s calling
me. I’m strong but I can’t hold off my change forever.”

“
Oh, right.” I nodded
nervously. I had no wish to be caught in the cab of the truck with
a huge, ravenous wolf who hated vampires. “Well…can you get us
home? I mean,
your
home of course,” I added quickly.

“Yeah, if we go right now.” Victor
started the truck’s engine and looked pointedly at my door, which
was still swinging open, letting in the warm, humid Florida air.
“Could you close that? I don’t care if you’re undead or not, you
don’t look like you’re in any kind of shape to survive being thrown
from a truck doing sixty.”

“I’m stronger than I look,” I
protested, but I closed the door as he had asked. “I heal
fast.”

He snorted and put the truck in
gear. “Yeah. Right.”

“It’s true,” I said, stung. “I’ve
had every bone in my body broken multiple times and I healed every
time.”

The look he cast from the other
side of the truck was both incredulous and pitying.

“You what? How the hell did you
break all your bones? You into skydiving or something?”

I crossed my arms over my breasts
and looked down.

“
I
wasn’t the one who broke them. But that’s not the
point—the point is that I can take a lot of abuse and still live.”
I looked up at him. “But I won’t. Not anymore. Not from you or
anyone else.”

He nodded thoughtfully and I
thought I saw just a touch of respect creeping into his golden
eyes.

“I got it. You’re tougher than you
look. But you don’t mind me saying so—you don’t look too good.”

“
Thanks a lot,” I snapped.
“That makes me feel just
great.
Are you always this
smooth?”

“
No, damn it…” He slapped
the steering wheel in frustration. “Look, it gets harder to talk
when the moon is full. My wolf comes forward and that part of me…it
doesn’t have words.” He took a deep breath. “I didn’t mean you’re
not pretty—you are. Fucking
gorgeous
. I’m just saying you look, I
don’t know, sick or something. Kind of weak and frail.”

“
You’d be weak and frail too
if you hadn’t had any nourishment in almost two weeks,” I said
tightly. “I’m just
thirsty
that’s all.”

“Oh, right. I, uh, guess that’s my
fault.” He gave me a sidelong look as he turned the truck onto a
smaller dirt road.

I said nothing. He could
assign himself the blame if he wanted to but I wasn’t going to say
anything else.
I’m not going to
beg,
I told myself, even though his warm
scent was making my thirst for blood almost unbearable.

Victor cleared his throat and
killed the truck’s motor.

“Well, here we are.”

I looked out the window and saw a
large clearing inside a dense thicket of woods. This being Florida,
there were plenty of vines and creepers too, all of them dark
greenish-black in the deepening night.

The house itself looked like an
upscale log cabin—one of the two story kind with high ceilings,
hardwood floors and a fireplace in every room. The arched eves
managed to look graceful and rustic at the same time and the
windows sparkled silver in the moonlight.

“It’s lovely,” I said grudgingly.
“I’ve always liked log cabins.”

“Designed and built it myself.”
There was an unmistakable note of pride in the big were’s voice.
“Wait ‘til you see it in the sunlight. It’s really, uh…” He trailed
off, obviously realizing what he was saying. “I mean, never mind.
Come on.”

I started to open my door but he
was around the side of the truck in a flash. He offered me a hand
to get down from the high cab. After a moment’s consideration, I
took it and stepped down onto the sparse grass of the driveway. His
skin was as hot as I had imagined and I took my hand out of his as
soon as I could.

“Can I get your stuff?” Victor
asked gruffly.

I felt some of my resentment
melt a little. Clearly he was at least making an
effort
to be
less of an ass.

“
I don’t have any,” I
reminded him gently. “You didn’t really give me time to pack
anything.” In fact, he had dragged me away from
Under the Fang
with nothing
but the clothes on my back—a simple black skirt and a white button
down silk blouse with black flats. It was one of the plainest
outfits I owned, which was why I liked it. Celeste always liked to
dress me up and show me off like a doll in expensive dresses with
the most elaborate hair and make-up possible. I was glad to put
that part of my life behind me.

“Oh, sorry.” Victor rubbed the
back of his neck. “Well, let’s go in. I’ll show you around and then
I really have to go.”

“Right. You have to, uh, change.”
I nodded stiffly and followed him to the wooden doorframe. Victor
produced a set of keys and unlocked the front door with a muted
jingle. Then he stepped inside, clearly expecting me to follow.

“Okay, so this is the kitchen,” he
remarked, flicking on the light switches so that the long room was
flooded with light. “I don’t guess you’ll use it much but—hey…” He
turned with a frown to see me still standing in the doorway. “Why
are you still over there?”

“You didn’t invite me in.” I
crossed my arms over my chest. “I’m a vampire—I can’t enter the
dwelling of a living person without an invitation.”

“Oh, right.” He cleared his
throat. “Damn it, I’m making a fucking mess of this whole thing.
Uh, Taylor, would you like to come in?”

Not
really,
I thought but was too polite to say
out loud.

“Yes, thank you,” I said, stepping
over the threshold and into the house that was going to be my home
for the next three months. “I appreciate your invitation.”

“Sure.” Victor shrugged uneasily,
his broad shoulders rolling under his plain white t-shirt. I had
yet to see him in anything but t-shirts, jeans, and work boots.
Except for the ill-fitting jacket he’d borrowed from Corbin for our
“wedding” that was.

“So, like I was saying, this is
the kitchen,” he continued, once I had come forward to join him.
“You can um, make yourself at home and there’s plenty of stuff in
the fridge—”

“I don’t eat,” I reminded him. I
was hoping against hope that he would offer me some of his blood
before he went, but I wasn’t going to ask. Not even if I starved to
death.

“Yeah, of course not. You
need…need blood. My blood.” He was looking more and more
nervous.

“
Only if you want to give
it.” I looked down at my hands. My fingers were clenched together,
the knuckles white. My throat felt like it was lined with barbed
wire and my gut twisted with need.
Please,
I thought.
Oh please…oh please…

“
Fine.” Victor seemed to
come to a sudden decision. He leaned back against the kitchen
counter, both hands braced on the
Formica
top, and turned his head, baring his neck for me.

I approached him slowly, my
heart suddenly pounding. His big body was tense, the muscles
standing out hard under his thin white shirt. Under his olive skin
I could see a steady pulse beating
in the
strong column of his throat.

The closer I got, the more
intimidating I found him. He was so massive, so
alive—
his muscular body
pulsing with animal energy. Even though as vampire I’m
supernaturally strong, I sensed he was stronger—
much
stronger. He could
crush me in a heartbeat if he wanted to. I could feel his heat,
could almost taste his wild scent on the tip of my
tongue…

He’s so
big…
too
big.
I wanted his blood
desperately—my fangs were fully extended and aching to pierce his
warm olive skin. But to get close enough to feed, I would also have
to be close enough for him to grab me—hurt me. My time with
Roderick rose before my eyes and I pushed it back down again
quickly.

That’s over now—I won’t think
about it. And Victor promised not to hurt me. Corbin made him swear
an oath. It’ll be okay. Everything is going to be fine…isn’t
it?