Enraptured (3 page)

She gave a brief bow of her head before
slipping out the front door. Ian watched as Bear shut the door
behind them. Turning away, he searched for the other brunette who
had caught his attention. He spotted her in the booth. Leaning out,
she looked toward him before giggling and ducking back again. He
took a step toward her with the resolve of sealing the deal and
getting this over with, but he found his attention drawn to the
door and the mystery woman who’d just left.

The man she was with was probably her
boyfriend, he told himself. He still stood there, torn between his
sure thing and the woman who had just walked out of the bar. There
had been something about her, but then there was something about
all women. They were all so tempting and attractive; he’d yet to
meet one he could refuse. He’d also never met one with eyes quite
that color before, or one who had him turning on his heel and
walking toward the front door. Bear opened it up for him as he
approached.

A cool breeze drifted through the open door,
cooling his overheated skin as he stepped free of the crowd. They
may be tough about who they let into the bar, but they weren’t
great at adhering to the occupancy limit. He was almost to the door
when he heard a small squeak. He froze, his ears adjusted to hear
over the music, and the heavy breathing and low moans of a couple
having sex in the back storage room. A room he had used a few times
before when the opportunity presented itself. Stretching his senses
further into the night, he picked up on what sounded like a scuffle
behind the building. Worry filled him, what if the woman who had
just left was the one in trouble?

“Leaving alone?” Bear’s tone was one of
disbelief when he stepped out the door.

“Maybe,” Ian muttered.

He didn’t look back, but he heard the click
of the door closing behind him. He hurried down the side of the
building toward the alley running between the bar and the back of a
bank. An empty beer bottle rolled across the pavement; it clinked
as it knocked up against the brick wall of the bank. A small squeak
sounded; no other noises followed. If he didn’t know better, he’d
think the woman and man were back there having sex, but the
alluring scent of sex wasn’t what he smelled right now. No, the
cloying, sickly sweet scent like that of an overripe peach hung
heavily in the air. He recognized it as the aroma of fear. The
rapid beat of an accelerated heart drummed against his ears as he
slid around the corner.

There, between the dumpsters and the
buildings, a hulking figure hunched over someone. Instinct alone
told him the figure wasn’t human before the foul reek of rotting
garbage emanating from the vampire filled his nostrils. His gaze
slid to the woman in the vampire’s arms. Anger speared through him
when he saw the spill of chocolate curls flowing over the vamp’s
forearm. Pouring on the speed, Ian lowered his shoulder and smashed
into the side of the vampire who had been too focused on his prey
to notice Ian’s approach.

The man let out a low grunt as he flew
twenty feet in the air before crashing into the corner of the
opposite wall. Ian glanced at the woman lying on the ground. Her
head was turned to the side; blood trickled down her neck from the
ragged gashes torn across her ivory flesh by the vampire’s fangs.
Her heart beat sluggishly, but she’d survive if he could get her
out of here soon.

The vampire he’d thrown across the way
staggered back to his feet, shook his head, and released a low
snarl that may have made other vampires run. Ian only laughed
instead, “Bring it.”

In the dim glow of the streetlights spilling
into the alleyway, the vampire’s eyes glistened like rubies. The
vamp’s fangs flashed when his lips skimmed back and he released a
hiss. Bracing his feet apart, Ian waved his hands at the vamp in a
come on gesture. The vampire raced across the short distance and
leapt at him with his arms and legs outstretched in the Superman
position.

Idiot,
Ian thought. He darted to the
side at the last second, clasped his hands together, and smashed
them into the back of the vampire who had mistakenly believed he
was some sort of comic book creation. A burst of air exploded from
the vampire; a vertebrae in his spine cracked from the force of
Ian’s blow. The vampire’s facedown impact onto the pavement broke
his chin and jaw. The coppery scent of his attacker’s blood filled
the air. Ian inhaled it eagerly, his fangs pricked, but he fought
back his yearning to feed. Grinding his teeth together, he stalked
toward the man rolling over on the ground. Blood streamed from his
broken nose but was slowly starting to ease as his healing
abilities kicked in.

Before the man could regain his feet, Ian
slammed his foot into his chest and shoved him down again. Blood
sprayed from the vampire’s mouth as a round of coughing wracked his
body. Those red eyes burned up at him hatefully. Ian grinned at
him, revealing his own fangs. He grabbed the stake tucked into his
waistband and pulled it free.
Never leave home without it
,
he thought.

The man’s eyes widened when he saw the
stake. Ian’s smile grew as he flipped it in his hand. “Normally I
wouldn’t do this. I’d let you go about your way, but you smell like
a landfill, which leads me to the conclusion she’s not your first
victim, and unless I end you she won’t be your last.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,
what smell?” the man snarled.

“No, you wouldn’t,” Ian replied. “Pity too,
because if you could smell yourself, you
would
have stopped
killing. Oh, well.”

The man seized hold of his calf and tried to
yank Ian’s foot out from under him. He leaned more heavily into the
man’s chest, feeling the satisfying collapse of ribs beneath his
foot as bones gave way beneath the pressure of his weight. The man
released a howl that would draw Bear’s attention, but he planned to
be out of here before Bear arrived. He wasn’t much for torture, he
didn’t enjoy killing, but he had to admit he’d been enjoying
this.

Lifting the stake above his head, he was
about to drive it into the man’s chest when the sound of
approaching footsteps caught his attention. The man, taking
advantage of his distraction, jerked Ian’s foot upward. A startled
curse escaped Ian when his leg was knocked out from under him. He
fell back, and would have landed on the ground, if he hadn’t
managed to flip himself around in the air and land on his other
foot.

The vampire launched to his feet, his upper
lip curled into a sneer. Instead of launching himself at Ian, he
turned and fled into the shadows lining the alley. Ian took a step
after him to finish what he’d started, but the dwindling beat of
the woman’s heart brought him to a halt. He’d take care of the vamp
later if he could find him, right now he had to get the girl out of
this alley. She couldn’t stay here, not with the proof of the
attack on her neck, and her life rapidly slipping away with each
drop of her blood.

Spinning away, he raced toward her and
carefully lifted her off the ground. Her eyelids fluttered open
briefly, her dazed eyes met his before closing again. The sound of
the approaching footsteps echoing off of the buildings and slapping
against the concrete spurred him into motion. He cradled the girl
against his chest as a figure came charging at him from around the
corner. He’d been expecting Bear, instead he came face to face with
the man she’d been inside the bar with. A thunderous expression
crossed the man’s face when he spotted Ian with the woman in his
arms.

Thrown off by the arrival of the stranger,
he didn’t immediately see the crossbow in the man’s hand until it
was rising up to aim dead center at his heart. The twang of the
arrow releasing reverberated in his ears before he spun out of the
way. He felt the brush of the arrow tip slice across his back. The
warm trickle of his blood slid down his flesh from his split
skin.

He almost launched at the man but the woman
in his arms, and his need to get her to safety, stopped him from
doing so. If he went after this man, she would most likely die. His
lips skimmed back, his fangs elongated as the man reloaded the
crossbow and lifted it toward him. Ian didn’t stick around to see
this arrow fired. He spun on his heel and fled into the night.

Ian ran faster than he’d ever run in his life with
no idea where he was going. He couldn’t take her to the hospital,
not with those marks so evident upon her neck, and not with the
blood loss she’d sustained. The puncture wounds could be healed
with his saliva, but then there would be no explanation for the
blood loss. He couldn’t abandon her without the doctors having some
idea of what was wrong with her and the delay in getting her blood
could spell the end of her life. The idea of sticking a note in her
pocket fluttered across his mind, but he couldn’t leave her there,
not without knowing how she fared and he doubted it would make the
news. If he just left her for someone else to find, he would always
wonder if she survived.

He couldn’t take the risk someone might be
able to figure out what had happened to her. Humans loved to live
in the world of denial when it came to the supernatural and events
beyond their understanding. However, there were those who didn’t
live in the sunny state of denial, those who knew all about beings
like him, and they hunted his kind. Instinct told him the guy in
the alley with the crossbow was one of those people. He would bet
his life the man intent on spearing him with an arrow was a vampire
hunter.

He had no idea where her attacker had gone.
He refused to take the chance the man would somehow hunt her down
in the hospital and finish what he’d started. The scent of her
blood on the air would be enough to keep the vampire on their
trail, but he didn’t sense anyone else amongst the dense trees
zipping by him in a blur.

He barely felt the weight of the woman in
his arms as he ran through the thick woods surrounding the campus.
His mind continued to race through the possibilities of what he
could do with her. He couldn’t bring her back to the house, the
guys there let a lot of things slide, but they wouldn’t overlook
him carrying an unconscious woman who was bleeding all over the
place into the house. And the smell of her blood…

His nostrils flared as he inhaled her
delicious scent. Her blood carried the faint hue of cinnamon and
surprisingly, apples. He’d detected a scent like cinnamon in people
before, but never apples. Perhaps she ate a lot of the fruit, or
maybe it was her natural, heady scent. His mouth watered as his
fangs tingled. He felt like the worst sort of ass; the woman had
nearly been killed, and his mind was focused on what she would
taste like and how good her blood would feel running down his
throat.

Just as he cursed himself, her heart gave a
stuttering beat. Ian pulled up sharply to stare down at the bundle
in his arms. The blood flowing from the gash on her neck had
slowed, as had her pulse. A hitching, rattling breath escaped her.
Shifting her in his arms, he bit into his wrist. He stared down at
the blood beading on his skin before glancing at the girl again.
He’d never shared his blood with another before, but as her heart
gave another lurching beat, he knew it was either this, or she
died.

“Shit.” Before he could think too much about
it, he shoved his wrist against her mouth.

At first the girl didn’t respond, but then
she began to reflexively swallow the blood trickling into the back
of her throat. He stared down at her, marveling at the paleness of
her skin that made the freckles dusting her nose and cheeks appear
darker and more obvious. As the healing ability of his blood seeped
into her system, color began to return to her cheeks, her pulse
picked up and started to smooth out. She still required medical
attention, but the jagged tears in her neck were knitting closed
before his eyes.

He shut his mind down to the pathways
opening between them due to the sharing of his blood. He never
allowed himself to see into another. She may be unconscious, but he
couldn’t take the chance she might learn anything detrimental about
him. Besides, it was a habit of his to stifle the feelings of
others; he didn’t really care what someone else experienced when he
fed from them.

He knew he didn’t harm them, and he made
sure they weren’t frightened while he fed by taking control of
their mind and soothing them. Afterward, he erased all memory of
what had transpired between them. Even still, a glimmer of
heartache and suffering slipped from her mind into his that pulled
at his heart inexplicably. He didn’t know what she’d experienced in
her lifetime, but he sensed enough to know it hadn’t been good.

As the wounds faded more rapidly away, they
left behind two diagonal scars on the right side of her neck that
ran from the center of her neck toward her collarbone. At first he
assumed they would heal too, but as the fresh marks vanished, he
realized these scars wouldn’t heal. They were at least a couple of
years older and located to the left of the deep wounds she’d
sustained tonight.

A different vampire attack
, he
realized.
What had this girl gone through, and what was she
mixed up in?

Pulling his wrist away from her mouth, he
stared down at her as he listened to the increased beat of her
heart and tried to figure out what to do with her. Adjusting his
hold on her, he dug his phone out of his pocket. Flipping through
the numbers, he pulled up Ethan’s and hit send. He would have
preferred to keep his older brother out of this, would have called
his younger brother Aiden instead, as he had no wife, but Aiden
still hadn’t reached maturity and lacked strength. Aiden was
powerful, but he was no match for Ethan’s capabilities. Ian knew he
required as much strength as he could get right now. On the third
ring a groggy voice answered the phone. “Someone better be dying,”
Ethan grumbled.