Blood Mate (5 page)

He stood under a
light observing her, and his face… it was… Nicole had no words
to describe it. No longer did he look like the dangerous but
beautiful man she’d seen. He looked like a corpse, like he was
rotting. Now she understood the gloves and was thankful he’d put
that barrier between them. She turned and ran up the stairs.

“NO!” he
shouted.

The door at the
top slammed, and she heard the lock turn over. When she looked back,
his arm was outstretched as if he’d made the door shut and lock
with his mind and voice. But that wasn’t possible.

“Come back
downstairs, and you won’t be harmed. I give you my word. Don’t
make me come after you. I’m far too tired and hungry for it.”

Knowing she had no
choice and wanting to appease whatever he was, she descended the
stairs. But it wasn’t because of any promise he’d made. She could
never trust a man who kept people in cages in a cellar like so many
monkeys in a test lab.

She kept her
distance and backed to the farthest wall from him. “W-what happened
to your face?”

Maybe he had some
awful disease. But he’d been fine and perfect and beautiful when
she’d seen him outside the flower shop a few days ago. Something in
her mind desperately wanted to click over and put the pieces
together. It already hinted at a supernatural cause, but she pushed
the thoughts away. Those thoughts were for children, not adult women.
Whatever this was, there had to be a normal explanation.

“I waited
several days between feedings. I needed you to see the extent of what
I must suffer and why I need you to save me from this curse. This
doesn’t just look bad. It feels as bad as it looks.”

He moved to one of
the cages and withdrew a key from his pocket. The door creaked open
on its hinge, and with a blur of speed, August cornered the man
inside and pulled him out as if he weighed no more than a feather.
The man was in good shape. About as big as August. Tall. Muscled. And
yet, he flailed against her captor like a broken fabric doll.

The man struggled
and screamed—sounds she never would think could come out of a
strong man like that. August dragged him into the light.

“You will watch,
Nicolette. Or I will do this to as many people as it takes until you
do.”

She had her hands
over her eyes, peeking through the cracks, unable to stand the
barbarity of what was about to happen without a barrier in place.

Though his face
was a wreck and nearly gone, his teeth were fine. Fangs grew from his
mouth, glistening under the light, and he struck at the man’s neck
like a viper.

Vampire.
The thought pushed through her mind with such force that she almost
heard the word aloud and choked on it.

It wasn’t
possible. Things like this didn’t exist. She had to be dreaming,
but no matter how hard she pinched herself, she couldn’t wake up.
As the life drained from the man in August’s arms, the vampire’s
face healed and re-knit itself together. No longer did he look like a
rotting corpse, but like the man she’d first seen in the coffee
shop. As his face healed, Nicole recoiled at the bliss she could now
see in his features.

August flung the
man’s body away and collapsed, sobbing like a small child. He tried
to hold it in, but his shoulders shook from the force of the
emotional outpouring. After several long minutes of torment, he
collected himself, wiping his face with the back of his hand. He
turned suddenly toward Nicole, his eyes glowing, every ounce the
predator. He appeared angry that she’d witnessed his breakdown.

Unstable was
somehow worse than evil, and this man—or whatever he was—was
clearly unstable.

He rose in a
preternaturally fluid way and strode across the cellar floor. Nicole
cowered, as if she had any hope of escaping him when she’d seen the
futility of a powerful man’s attempt. She had nothing like the
strength of that man, and now he was so much meat, waiting to be
returned to the earth to fertilize something else.

August took her
hand more gently than she’d expected after what he’d done. She
couldn’t stop shaking.

“Please…
please not me,” she whispered, her eyes focused on the ground. She
couldn’t meet that terrifying, glowing gaze. Although a man had
died, her thoughts and fears were for her own fate.

His hand trailed
through her hair. “Not you,” he agreed. “And not any of the
rest of them if you’ll consent to what I propose. Their lives are
in your hands, Nicolette.”

She turned to the
cages with four people still alive. They looked like prisoners of
war. Shell-shocked. Almost like animals instead of people.

“W-what do you
mean their lives are in my hands?”

Was this because
she wouldn’t date him? He’d terrorize people until she did? Did
he think she could ever love him amidst such conditions? What was
wrong with him that he would become so fixated on her? Why her? Why
not move on to someone else who returned his affection? Now that his
looks were back, it was impossible to see how he couldn’t find
someone to share his bed willingly. As long as they didn’t know the
gory details. Those light hazel eyes glowing against the backdrop of
warm, brown skin and jet-black hair. That tall, sleek athletic frame.
Man-candy was the phrase her friends at work would have used.

“Vampirism is a
curse,” he said quietly. “It’s not like in the movies. I am
made to suffer. If I don’t feed, I suffer until I do. Inevitably I
must feed. When I feed, I can’t stop until my meal is dead. I must
take one each night or what you saw happening to my body starts. At
first I just age, but after about three days it turns into what you
saw.

I don’t want to
kill. I don’t want to hurt anybody, but I have no choice. Do you
know the heavy weight that is on my soul? All those human lives?”

“Why don’t
you end your life, then? Is survival of such great value that you
would kill every night to keep it going? Am I supposed to feel bad
for you when you could greet the sun?”

He smiled sadly.
“Would that it were so simple and easily remedied. Do you think I
haven’t tried? I’ve tried everything to end my life. Nothing
works. I’m only allowed death if I should pass this curse to
another. I wouldn’t die automatically, but I would be capable of
it, at least. If I passed the cup to someone else and died, what new
torments would await me on the other side for such a heinous sin
against another soul? After what I’ve suffered, do you think I
could bring myself to give it to another to carry? If I did, I truly
am a monster with no further excuses.”

Nicole’s gaze
shifted to the cages. “I don’t understand how I can save them.”

“By giving
yourself to me.”

Her heart stopped
for a moment and, after a great effort, started up again. “W-what?”

“I won’t be
able to die, but there is a way to stop this. It’s the one loophole
the old ones provided those they cursed. If I can find a human whose
mind I can’t control, and she gives herself to me, we’ll be bound
together, my life to hers. She’ll feed me nightly. I won’t have
to kill. And she can’t die, either. I can’t control your mind,
Nicolette. It has to be you.”

Pieces began to
come together in a vague sort of way—the instant change in Dominic
from loving husband to cold and absent. “You took him from me. You
made him stop loving me.” Maybe she should be grateful August
hadn’t killed him, but in some ways what he’d done was worse.
He’d stolen their love and life together and forced her to watch it
become a farce.

“I had to. You
wouldn’t come to me any other way.”

“I still didn’t
come to you!” she shouted. “You took me! You think this fulfills
your cure? You think kidnapping me and blackmailing me isn’t a
violation of my free will?”

“The curse only
cares about direct supernatural mind control. I require your verbal
consent. It doesn’t matter what methods I use to achieve it. Please
believe me when I say I don’t want it to come to that.” It was
clear from the determination on his face that his methods would
become ugly if she didn’t agree to this madness.

Never.
His
curse wasn’t her problem. He took the man she loved away. He’d
kidnapped and imprisoned her. And he thought she would willingly let
him hurt her every night, pull the blood out of her through sharp
fangs so he wouldn’t have to kill people anymore? And what other
things would he come to demand besides her blood? The thought of
sharing his bed sickened her. If she remained strong, eventually he
would snap and kill her. If that was the price out of this nightmare,
she would pay it.

Nicole pulled
away, and he let her go. She needed to put distance between herself
and the vampire. And preferably the dead body as well.

“There are
probably thousands of women out there who would have gone with you.
Willingly. You could have found someone single, someone unhappy. You
could have wrapped your story up like a romantic tragedy without them
ever having to see any of this.” Her arm swept out, indicating the
cages and the corpse.

“There is no one
else. I searched the world for centuries until I gave up hope. I
thought it was something to drive the knife in deeper, a cure that
didn’t exist. In over six hundred years you’re the one person
whose mind I can’t penetrate.”

Nicole began to
pace, shaking her head. She knew she must look like a crazed lunatic
talking to herself on a city sidewalk, but she refused to believe
this was real. There had to be someone else. She couldn’t…
give
herself to him. Not after he’d taken so much from her already. The
one man she’d truly loved, who had loved her with the same
fierceness. Gone. Erased.

The diamond
bracelet glittered at her wrist. When she was unconscious, August
could have taken it. He knew Dominic had given it to her, that it was
her only way of holding onto him. She tried not to let it mean
anything that he hadn’t, that he’d allowed her to keep this one
piece of her husband’s love.

“Why were you
cursed? You must have done something hideous to deserve this. Why
should I free you from it?”

His eyes narrowed
and flashed with anger. If she weren’t the only living soul who
could save him, she had no doubt he would kill her for daring to
withhold his precious cure. If she were the only human whose mind he
couldn’t control, he’d spent centuries getting used to the fact
that no one would resist anything he ordered them to do. Either
through force or mind control, he was never denied.

“They didn’t
curse me, but one of those they did had less scruples than I. He
passed the curse to me. I was a monk, trying to find a way to kill
the vampires. I fed hungry children, Nicolette. I worked to protect
my village from the monsters. And one of them turned me into a
monster for that effort. I’m sorry I can’t give you the comfort
of believing I deserved this. I didn’t deserve it, no more than you
deserve it. I’m sorry for taking you. I’m sorry for erasing your
husband’s feelings for you. But I will never release you. You will
give yourself to me because I can’t go on like this. No man could.”

Nicole’s chin
rose in defiance. “I am not your sacrifice. I’m not some virgin
you can throw into a volcano for the greater good. I’m not
responsible for rescuing you!” She shook her head and began to pace
again, staying clear of the cages, because even now she saw the
accusation in the eyes of his prisoners… his future meals.

“Dominic and I
were so happy. My life was… it was
complete
. Do you think
enslaving me to you forever is less evil than killing people? You
want to make someone else suffer forever so you can stop hurting?”

He sighed. “I
believe I can give you enough, make you happy enough that you’ll
come to care for me.”

Nicole’s eyes
blazed, her fists clenched. There were tears in her eyes, but she
managed to keep them from sliding down her cheeks. “Never,” she
shrieked. “Not
ever
. I will never give myself to you. So you
may as well kill me now.”

August closed his
eyes, taking a long, slow breath as if trying to keep control of his
temper. “I wish you hadn’t said that.”

He grabbed her and
tossed her in the cage he’d just emptied. She fought, but her
strength against his was like a moth trying to fight a bull. The key
creaked in the lock as he turned it.

“Think this
through, Nicolette. Your old life is gone. I will never kill you. You
will die of old age first. You are my only chance. How many decades
do you wish to live in a filthy cage?”

“How many
centuries could I tolerate living with you?” she retorted. “Why
do you keep them down here? They’re scared. Why don’t you hunt
and kill every night if you must? This is cruel.”

“You think that
wouldn’t be noticeable? I have to canvas a very large area to hunt.
I can’t do that every night. I’m sorry for their suffering, but
it’s a week out of their entire existence. For me, it’s forever.”

“Why can’t you
use mind control? Make it so they aren’t so afraid.”

“When I enthrall
someone, I use energy that I have to replenish with more death. And
they can’t go peacefully. The curse demands a sacrifice. Please
rethink this. Can you live with all the death on your hands? The
death you could prevent? It will wear you down until you’re a
carved-out shell. I don’t want that for you.” He reached through
the bars, the back of his hand brushing her cheek.

Nicole shrank from
him and turned her back. Her jaw clenched. He wouldn’t paint her as
the monster. She wasn’t being asked to give her life to save
others. She was being asked to belong to someone who would hurt her
every night for the rest of eternity. It was far too much to ask of
anyone, particularly for a man who’d already taken everything from
her. She didn’t turn back around until the cellar door opened and
shut. When she did, she found he’d taken the body up with him. She
didn’t want to think about where or how he disposed of them.