Blood Lust (26 page)

Then there was the most tender feeling, soft, warm lips and hot breath on her ear and neck. She moaned. And rolled to her back, and then there were lips on her mouth. Hot luscious lips and a tongue probing her eager mouth and that’s when her eyes popped open.

“Oh my God, Devon. You’re alive.”

“Yes, I hope so and so are you.”

“But I thought I was dreaming. I thought…”

“I thought so too, but here you are and I have missed you so much. Please come back over here.”

She couldn’t control it; the tears ran hot down her face. “God, Devon, I didn’t think I would ever find you! I looked for you for so long.”

“You found me, Sweetness. I’m here with you. Please come here, Darby. Please let me hold you.”

She fell into him and she held him so tight her arms hurt. “Please don’t ever go away again. Promise me you won’t ever leave me again.”

“I promise. I do, I promise. Just hold me, Darby. Please don’t let go.” He kissed her head.

She couldn’t control the tears. “I thought I lost you forever, Devon. I searched for months and months.”

“I prayed for you to find me and you did. I knew you wouldn’t give up on me, Darby. I’m sorry I hurt you. It must have been horrible thinking I left with Libby.”

“It was horrible, but nothing compared to what she did to you, sweetheart. How long were you chained there?”

“From the first night. She couldn’t seem to clear my mind of you and somehow that made it impossible for her to completely control me. When she tried to come on to me the first night and I refused, she was furious, so she put the chains on knowing I would leave if I could. How long has it been?”

“About four and a half months.”

“Felt like years. So you lived here during that time?”

“No.”

“Where then?”

“Massachusetts.”

“Why?”

“I couldn’t afford Connecticut and it was kind of in between all the places I searched.”

“So Rowan and Blake are here too?”

“No. Blake and Dean flew in to help me get you out this morning.”

“Flew in from where?”

“California.”

“You’re here by yourself?”

“Well, not exactly. I mean, Anton and Dominic are in Westport, so I wasn’t exactly alone.”

“Did Dominic give you money for the house you were living in?”

“He would have if I had asked.”

“How could you afford to move out here by yourself?”

“I sold the bookstore to Sally and used the money from that and my car that got totaled last fall and rented a place. I also worked part-time as a librarian. The money went a lot faster than I had anticipated since I hired Mark to help me.”

“Who’s Mark?”

“Mark is a P.I. I hired.”

“You paid for a private investigator to help you find me because my family wasn’t helping you look.”

“Well, you’ve got to admit, the way you talked about her and how much you hated Anton for what happened, everyone just assumed you decided you were in love with her and went back to her.”

“Really? They really thought no matter how mad I was at Anton, that I would shack up with his wife, leaving my girlfriend with my cousin?”

“It seemed feasible to most.”

“But not you?”

“But not me. Although, over the months, I wavered once or twice thinking I had gone insane, or into the deep end of idiocy, but the more proof I got, the easier it became.”

“What kind of proof?”

“Like the fact that whenever Anton got close to another woman Libby would buy them off and send them away. She didn’t want him full time, but she didn’t want anyone else to have him either. One girl fought for him and Libby had her committed to the psych ward. I had my suspicions about her the day you left with her and she tried to kill Anton.”

“What?”

“Yeah. Just before you left, she drained him almost completely dry. Since I was the only human around I had him feed on me to save his life.”

“You did what?”

“You know, I did it for you too today or you wouldn’t be talking to me. But that day you left, Dominic didn’t get Anton to pull away in time and I ended up in the hospital. I remember calling for you as loud as I could, but you didn’t come. That’s when everyone decided if you didn’t come for me then, you’d never come back for me.”

“So you almost died and I wasn’t there.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say almost died, but a little anemic maybe.”

“So you said you went through the money faster than you figured you would. Did you ask for money from Dominic then?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. They weren’t family at the time.”

“But they were my family and you should have gone to them.”

“Devon, you weren’t exactly treating me like family before you left. Plus everyone thought you ran off with someone else. Old girlfriends cast aside don’t usually go to the ex’s house and ask for money.”

“Yeah, I guess I wasn’t treating you right, was I? I was so screwed up with Libby, I pushed you practically out the door. I don’t know what came over me when she asked me to go to New York. I shouldn’t have said yes, but I did, I’m so sorry. The next day I don’t even really remember agreeing to leave with her. The next thing I knew we were in Anton’s penthouse and she was coming on to me. I pushed her away and the next thing I remember I was waking up chained to that bed.”

“You know, you and Anton really ought to talk. You both have been tortured and almost drained of life by the same woman for almost half a century. He didn’t have a whole lot to do with the elopement, you know. She planned it all. He also was the bait to get her away from you so Dominic and I could rescue you. She even played your uncle and held that over his head to keep Anton from getting a divorce.”

“Well, I guess you know more about my family’s dirty secrets than I do.”

“Maybe.”

“So how did you find me in the end?”

“Libby seemed to have a very specific taste in vampires. She would only feed on vampires of noble blood. After Mark and I found that out, a couple lists back and forth between Anton and Mark and I and we started putting the pieces together. Mark tailed her and found that she frequented the same guy once a week. After following her for a while, it was deduced she had one for every day of the week. But what really cracked things open was when Mark and I went to Anton’s penthouse in New York. Mark found an address on a post-it note in a woman’s handwriting and he found your overcoat there.

“The address on the post-it note turned out to be the address of the house you were at. At the time we figured it was just another address, but when we found seven men and eight addresses, with the eighth being the one she came home to every night, we figured that had to be where you were. The thing that kills me still was that I was outside the house two nights ago, all night, and I couldn’t save you. I had to wait until we knew for sure and we had Blake and Dean for backup.”

“So where is Libby now?

“Dead somewhere – Blake took care of that with Mark, Anton, and Dean. I don’t really know. Don’t really care. I don’t ever want to hear her name again.”

“I totally agree. I love you so much, Darby. Thank you for not giving up on me when I gave you every reason in the world to do so.” He kissed her so sweetly she melted right in his arms and they didn’t stop until morning.

Chapter 23

The morning was glorious, waking up in his arms, their two naked bodies entangled together, more in love than ever before. She actually pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. She rolled over facing him and kissed his forehead. He was still rather thin but his skin was radiant once more and his eyes were their warm chocolate brown with flecks of amber. He smiled his ‘I can make you do whatever I want to’ smile and she kissed him again.

“You are more beautiful than I ever remember, Darby. I dreamt about you so often in my stupor, sometimes I didn’t know if I had died or not. It is truly heaven here in your arms. Come, take a shower with me, I don’t want you away from me for a second.”

She washed every inch of his body as he did for her. Like rediscovering each other after being away for so long from one another, it was purely decadent. After, he made love to her like he never had before. Each touch was filled with such tenderness and love, that she cried at their climax from the completeness she felt their love had achieved.

He was starving and so was she so he quickly dressed. He wrapped a blanket from the bed around her beautiful body and they ran to her room where she got dressed as he watched her every move.

He noticed the black coat over the back of a chair. “Is this my coat you found in New York?” She felt a little ashamed, and nodded.

“It looks like it’s been worn a lot.”

“It has. Once I found it, well, I just couldn’t bear to take it off. It still had your smell on it and I couldn’t be without it. Silly, huh?”

“I think that’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.” When she was all done getting dressed they went downstairs to the dining room where they found Blake, Mark, and Dean, competing on how many pancakes they could consume.

As they entered the dining room hand in hand, Darby said, “Mark Rosenthal, this is Devon Bloomington.”

“Nice to finally meet you. You look a hell of a lot better than you did yesterday.”

“I suppose I have you to thank for some of that?” Devon said, “As I do everyone in this room. Thank you for helping Darby find me!” As he walked to the sideboard to get some coffee with Darby, he patted Blake and Dean’s shoulders.

“Good to see you feeling better,” said Dean.

“Good to be feeling better.” Continuing around the table, he patted his uncle on the shoulder and smiled until he got to Anton. He held out his hand in hopes Anton would take it and shake. “We’ve sure made a mess of things, Anton. I’m sorry I blamed you for so long for all that happened. I was wrong about you and I’ve treated you badly for way too long. Please accept my apologies?”

“I do, thanks, Devon. I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you about what happened; I was stubborn and stupid.”

“Not at all. Thank you too, for, well, I heard you were kind of the bait in my great escape.”

“My pleasure.”

They smiled at each other. Dominic was beaming with such happiness Darby thought he might explode. They both sat down and watched Dean beat Blake and Mark at consuming the most pancakes. The final count for Dean was twenty-six, however, he didn’t look too well the rest of the day and that made Blake and Mark feel much better about losing.

After breakfast, all broke off into groups going this way and that. Devon had a quick conference with Blake and then another with Dominic before returning to Darby’s side, but when he did, he apparently had a plan.

They borrowed Dominic’s Mercedes and drove to New Bedford, Massachusetts and took the ferry to Vineyard Haven on Martha’s Vineyard. Darby had never been on a car ferry before, so that in itself was quite a thrill. It was a sunny day for late March, so they spent their time cuddling on the deck as the world went by. After such a long time without him, every second was pure heaven. The ferry ride was about an hour long. She had learned not to ask about his surprises, from their first date, but she knew she absolutely didn’t care where or what he had planned as long as he didn’t leave her side.

It was a very short drive from the dock to their destination. Apparently, the Larsens owned a lovely little home in Vineyard Haven, nestled in among some trees. They drove up a gravel circle driveway to the most adorable house Darby had ever seen. Three dormers graced the sharply pitched roof and a two-sided fireplace that was open to the living room, and the sunroom was faced in river rock stone. French doors adorned the house almost everywhere. The sunroom was completely enclosed on all three sides with French doors and there were French doors on either side of the fireplace to enter the sunroom. The kitchen was airy and open and had all the latest amenities. The house was decorated in a comfortable French Country look that Darby absolutely adored.

The property also had its own little dock and was close to the sandy beaches on the sound. The house was the perfect size too, not huge but not itty-bitty where you’d be tripping over yourself. Of course, Devon had arranged for the house to be fully stocked before they arrived with anything they might need.