Then he turned his attention to her wrists. The iron manacles provided no resistance in his powerful hands. With exquisite tenderness belying the angry strength in him, Cole cleaned the blood from her chafed flesh and then dropped kisses softly upon her wrists. As his lips lingered over the frail pulse, grief sliced through him.
Why wasn’t she waking up?
He knew the answer, knew the truth but fought with every ounce of his being against acknowledging it. He’d just found her. He couldn’t lose her already. He’d rather greet the coming dawn, outside and exposed.
“Alex, don’t do this!” Unable to control the raw grief surging through him, Cole slammed a fist into the wall beside the bed.
“Don’t…”
Her eyelids
fluttered…finally.
Opened. Closed. Her lips moved. Cole leaned closer, straining to hear her words. “Don’t…wreck my…space.”
“I’m so sorry, Alex. I’m so sorry.” The words, anguished and filled with regret, tore from Cole’s lips. “I shouldn’t have left you… I shouldn’t have even thought that you could ever… You never told me… If I’d have figured out who…” Alex lifted a shaky hand and pressed her trembling fingers to Cole’s lips. “Shhh…not 317
your…fault.”
She shook her head, eyelids drifting closed, her arm falling limply onto the mattress at her side.
“Baby, don’t leave me. Don’t…” Cole’s voice broke. He couldn’t finish the words, couldn’t fight them past the lump in his throat. Tears swam in his eyes, splashing down upon her cheeks.
“Cole.” Barely a whisper. He pressed his ear closer. “Cole, I…love you. My answer…wanted to…tell you tonight…wanted forever, only with you…”
Her head lolled to the side and oblivion claimed her once more. Cole’s heart seized inside his chest.
No, no. Please…
He pressed his tousled, tawny head tight to her chest and squeezed his eyes closed. Praying like he hadn’t in a millennia. Prayed, bartered, threatened…
Odin. Freya. Forseti. Frigg… Anyone who would listen.
The tiny, fragile thud of her heartbeat finally reached his ears. Cole reared back, staring down at her, tears tracking down his cheeks. She was still alive. She hadn’t died. Not yet. If Alex took Vampyre blood now, could it work without the words, without the rest?
Was she close enough to death that it would change her?
If he waited until the final thump and she died before he gave her his blood, he would turn her…or would it be too late. Would he change her into the same as him, Vampyre?
If he was lucky…
For the first time in his life, he cursed the fact that he’d never done this…never sired another. At least then he’d have some idea how to do this the right way.
She’d want to make that choice for herself, 318
and he respected that. It was nothing less than she deserved. But right now, her very life hung in the balance. She was slipping away right before his eyes, slipping through his fingers. The change didn’t always take. Sometimes the process was trickier with females, the success rate much, much slimmer, though no one knew why. But if he gave his blood to her
before
she died…
Would it be enough? What would it do to her if
it did work?
As long as she lived, he didn’t care what it did. Immortal, Mortal, Vampyre, Human… He loved her. He would
not
live without her, not for a single moment. If she was angry, if she turned?
She’d be alive, and that was all that mattered.
If it didn’t work, and she died…
If she died, he wouldn’t be far behind…only as far as the next sunrise.
“Forgive me…” He whispered the words, even as he set his fangs to his wrist.
Tilting her head back so that her lips parted and her jaw fell open, Cole held his wrist to her mouth. And he waited.
Blood poured from his vein and ran in a steady rivulet over her lips and into her mouth.
At first there was no movement, no indication that his desperate attempts were making any difference. His blood just pooled in her mouth, slipping into her throat.
She convulsed, swallowed, and sputtered.
Swallowed again, and hope soared in his breast.
How much would it take?
He held firm, even as her head lifted and her tongue snaked out to lick at the gash on his wrist. She swallowed again. And once more. Then she subsided back against the bed. Unnaturally still. Cole sealed his wound and sank back on the bed, his hip pressed to hers, leaning over her. The 319
minutes ticked by. He swore an eternity passed as he waited for her to open her eyes. He listened, straining his ears for some sign she would recover.
Wake up, Alex. I can’t do this anymore, not
without you.
320
Just as he was about to press his head to her chest once more, her body convulsed. Her back arched off the mattress and she went rigid from head to toe. She held ther
e for a painful moment, before sagging back onto the
mattress.
Breathless. Motionless.
Cole’s mouth fell open in horror. His hands clutched her shoulders. What had he done?
He’d killed her.
Oh, gods, he’d killed her.
Her body shuddered in his hands, hard. Her lips parted, and she
dragged in a soul deep breath, her eyes
flared open.
Brilliant
aquamarine.
Human
aquamarine. All the pent up anxiety in Cole’s lungs released in a mad whoosh.
Color slowly blossomed in her cheeks once more, and fire snapped in her beautiful eyes. Her heart beat strong in her chest, the sweetest sound he’d ever heard.
Those beautiful eyes locked on his for half a second, and then flew around the room, confused. She blinked, glanced down at herself, then up at him again as she pushed herself up to sit at his side.
“What happened? I was… Then I thought I saw… I couldn’t move, but I could hear…” Her sentences were jumbled and disjointed, tumbling out one after another before she could finish the last. Then she froze, her hand flew to the side of her neck, and she gasped as her fingers encountered Deacon’s marks, slack-jawed. “What 321
did you
do
to me?”
Before Cole could reply, she scrambled away from him, eyes accusatory. “Did you change me?
God, tell me you didn’t change me!” He surveyed her with forced calm, though fierce emotion glimmered in his chest. His tone was utterly bland, his question throwing her off kilter. “Do you want blood?”
“What?”
“Do you crave blood?”
“Well, I…” She paused, as if considering his words, considering her own body’s desires. “No, I… I don’t think so…”
“Believe me, you’d know it if you did.” Weak with relief, Cole pushed to his feet, dragging a shaking hand through his riotous, damp hair. “I gave you my blood, Alex. It was the only way I could think to heal you. You were dying. Deacon damned near drained you.”
“But, I don’t understand. I was so weak. Now I feel so…so strong. Are you sure you didn’t change me?”
“It doesn’t work that way. You would have had to die. Your heart would have had to stop.
Yours didn’t. My blood apparently restored you, brought you back from the brink. Though you better take it easy for a few days.” Her eyes widened in horror. Her hands began to shake. “He bit me. God…it hurt so much… I couldn’t fight him off, I tried…but I couldn’t…” Cole flew to her side, the sight of her, shaken and fearful, was more than he could stand. The bastard had purposefully made the bite a trauma…he’d withheld the sensual influence of the
Kiss
and made her suffer. Cole wanted to tear out Deacon’s throat, rip his head from his body with his bare hands all over again. “It’s all right,
you’re
all right. He can’t hurt you anymore.” 322
“But he’s…”
“He’s
dead.”
Cole’s voice was flat,
emotionless, satisfied vengeance burned through his system. Then she finally noticed the blood covering his clothes, speckles of it on his neck.
Her fingers brushed where his skin was torn, and he sucked in a sharp breath, glancing down at himself. Odin’s teeth, he needed blood…soon.
Deep gashes covered his torso and arms. His wounds were severe. His limbs trembled from his weakened condition. And he’d given her his blood, weakening himself even more.
He’d do it all again, no matter the risk. Alex was worthy of any sacrifice.
“You killed him.” Her words were little more than a whisper. “Why did he want me dead? Why did…”
“Alex, calm down. Take a deep breath. Let me explain…”
After a long, wary moment, Alex subsided back on the edge of the bed. Cole sat down beside her, drawing her hand into his. He searched her face, and sighed.
Where to start?
“I love you.”
Where had that come from?
“When I explain everything, when you get angry…please, remember that.”
She nodded her head slowly, her eyes locked on his. “Just tell me, Cole. Tell me all of it, this time.”
“First, please, let me tell you I’m sorry for losing it earlier, with your ex.” The lines tightened around her mouth, and he squeezed her hand, urging her to be patient with him. “I should have trusted you. I was just so…jealous. I couldn’t think straight. I reacted before I stopped to think.
The sight of you in another man’s arms…” Her face softened, and Alex leaned toward him, silencing him with her lips. When she pulled 323
back, her eyes were warm, forgiving. “That doesn’t matter anymore.
He
doesn’t matter. You do. And I love you, too.” Then her gaze turned serious, warning. “But you better think twice before you fly off the handle like that again. Next time I might not be so understanding.” Cole swallowed, humbled by her words. He couldn’t resist. His hand snaked out, cupping the back of her neck, gently drawing her forward for a deeper, more demanding kiss. Then, abruptly, before things got too far off course, he severed the contact, and pushed to his feet. His wounds were beginning to heal, but his limbs felt like rubber just now. He was going to have to get some blood in him soon, or he’d be in bad shape. Thrusting his hands deep in his pockets, Cole began pacing at the foot of the bed, shooting her worried, assessing glances now and again.
“Several months ago, a Rogue began stalking women, murdering them in the dark alleys behind popular nightclubs. Any woman involved in the music industry, in any way, was fair game.
He followed a pattern, killing only on the eleventh of the month, and only at locations with the number eleven, or variations of eleven, in the physical address. All the victims were either twenty-two or thirty-three.” Cole paused, dragging in a deep breath. He turned and faced her squarely. “A few months ago, the Task Force for Rogue Apprehension—kind of a Vampyre police force, if you will—contacted me. Enlisted me, is more like it, as they don’t take no for an answer.
Anyway, I was to be their eyes and ears inside the business.”
Her hand cupped her throat. He could see the gears turning in her head.
She fit all the criteria.
Cole stared grimly at her. “You heard what he said…about his female?”
324
Alex nodded, then held a hand up to stop him, palm out, her eyes filled with confusion and a hint of anger. “If there was a killer hunting women who got involved with the industry…and you knew about it…why did you pursue me? Why did you drag me into the middle of all this?” Drawing another breath, Cole leveled a guilty gaze at her. “We needed you. The band did. In order to keep up appearances and guarantee I had access to circles I needed to monitor, I had to have a writer talented enough for us to stay at the top of the charts, popular. Then I met you, and I just needed…
you
. I thought, if I kept you close, I could protect you.
“Then I started getting pictures from the killer. Pictures of his handy work. Pictures of…you.” Cole shifted, remembering his horror at opening those envelopes and seeing the female he’d come to admire and love, painted the target of a sadistic killer.
Understanding slowly dawned in her eyes.
“That’s why you didn’t want me to go into town alone the day I resigned from the paper. That’s why you tagged along.” She waited a moment and then, blushing at the memory, added, “That night, when I went to the club with Gina…it was on the eleventh. You were there because you were expecting him.”
Cole simply nodded. “No matter what we did, no matter where we hunted, Styx and I couldn’t find him.” Cole gazed at the flawless skin of her neck, puncture marks fully healed thanks to his kiss, and his eyes filled with remorse. “We never thought to look in our own house.”
“Why, Cole? Why would Deacon go to such extremes?” She broke off, shuddering.
“He was crazed, sweetheart. Deacon was a Rogue, power-hungry and blinded by bloodlust 325
and the loss of his female. I’m so sorry I didn’t see it in time. I’m so sorry I left you alone and vulnerable.” Cole dropped down to kneel at her feet. He gingerly cupped her hands in his, as if she were made of the most fragile glass. “I’m so sorry for not protecting you, Alex.”