Enraptured (8 page)

Paige’s mind spun as she tried to process
what he said. He really was giving her memories that would explain
away what had happened last night, that would land her safely back
in her small hotel room near the college. He wasn’t even going to
take away her knowledge of vampires. They were going to leave her
to live her life. They really were unlike anything she’d ever
encountered before. She almost felt bad for pretending to agree
with Stefan, almost.

Stefan took hold of her chin. She managed to
keep herself from flinching at the sudden contact with him. Ian
took a step forward, his forehead furrowed; his azure eyes were
troubled as they ran over her. Was she doing something wrong? Could
he tell it wasn’t working?

Drawing on her training, she envisioned a
serene lake, rippling against the shore as she tried to keep her
breathing and pulse rate steady. She’d been taught how to play
along, instructed to keep herself as calm as possible, but she’d
never been confronted with the reality of having to do so. She felt
like she was blowing this right now. That somehow they knew
Stefan’s power didn’t work on her.

“If anyone asks, the house was only a few
miles away from campus, but you don’t remember the exact route of
how to get there.” His words made her wonder where she was located
right now, but she didn’t dare ask. “Do you understand?” Paige
nodded in response. “Good. Now repeat it back to me.”

In a steady monotone, Paige recited his
words back to him. Stefan searched her gaze before rising to his
feet. He started to walk away from her, but Ian rested his hand on
his arm, stopping him before speaking, “It didn’t work.”

Despite her yearning to jump up and flee the
room that his words caused, she kept her face relaxed and her eyes
ahead when Stefan turned to look at her. From the corner of her
eye, she could see the scowl marring his brow. “Ian, I’ve never
failed at manipulating someone’s memories.”

“I know,” Ian said. “I don’t know how I
know, and I don’t know why I do, but it didn’t work on
her
.”

Stefan stared at him before turning on his
heel and coming back to her. Paige’s heart rate remained even and
calm, her eyes straight ahead and her face slack, but her stomach
was a squirming mass or worms tumbling over top of one another. How
could Ian possibly know when the others didn’t?

Before Stefan could touch her again, Ian
stepped forward and took hold of her chin. “You’re far older than
us, Stefan, more adept at doing this, but I
know
it didn’t
work. Isn’t that right?”

Ian turned her head toward him and bent to
look into her eyes. Paige didn’t fight against his grip, she
remained lax and immobile, but as his gaze burned into hers, she
knew he wasn’t buying it. A knowing smile curved his mouth. Before
she knew what he planned, he moved closer and pressed his lips to
hers.

Reacting as if she’d been shot, Paige threw
herself backward so forcefully she almost toppled out of the bed.
Blankets tangled around her legs, she struggled to maintain her
balance as Ethan lurched forward and wrapped his arm around Emma’s
waist. He pulled her away from the bed and positioned his body so
he stood in front of Emma and her friends.

Finally managing to right herself, Paige
spun toward Ian. “How dare you!” she spat.

He simply grinned at her while he rocked
back on his heels. “I think that means she remembers us, don’t
you?” he inquired again.

Her teeth ground together so hard she
thought they might crack as she glared at him. She didn’t know if
she was madder at him for rattling her in such a way, or herself
for allowing him to slip past her cover. Either way, it didn’t
matter; they knew the truth. Their powers were useless against her,
for now anyway.

“How is that possible?” Emma breathed.

“I don’t know.” Stefan turned to Ian. “How
did you know?”

Ian didn’t know the answer to that question.
“I just knew.”

He couldn’t take his eyes away from the
fiery turquoise ones across from him. There was no denying Stefan
hadn’t been able to pierce the veil of her mind. “Shit,” Ethan
muttered.

“You’re human,” Ian said to Paige. She kept
her mouth closed as she stared straight ahead. “I’m certain of
it.”

“Are you sure she’s not one of the not
entirely human, no one seems to know what they are, hunters?” Emma
inquired.

“No,” Stefan answered. “I’ve come across
them before, I’ve killed one of them before.” Paige inhaled sharply
as her gaze shot nervously toward Stefan. Ian suspected Stefan was
trying to bait her into losing her composure and possibly revealing
why he couldn’t change her memories. “They’re different than she
is.”

“How?” Mandy asked.

“For one thing, they’re stronger. A vampire
never would have gotten one of them so easily. They’re abnormally
fast, one of the things that has led to many of the rumors about
them, but her reflexes are one hundred percent human. She is
working with them though.”

“She’s human, she’s all but confirmed it,
even if she didn’t mean to,” Ian said.

Stefan leaned closer to her. Paige
instinctively shrank away from the breath she felt rippling over
her skin. “I’m not entirely sure what is going on here, but I will
tell you we’ll do what we must to survive, and to make sure our
loved ones stay safe.”

The color faded from Paige’s face. Ian knew
what Stefan was trying to do, knew it had to be done, but a ripple
of annoyance slid over his skin at his intimidation tactics.
Without meaning to, he stepped closer to the bed. Stefan was a
killer, but he wasn’t a cruel man. However, he’d been telling the
truth, Stefan would do what he must to keep everyone in this house
safe. Just as Ethan would.

Ian’s gaze traveled to his brother, Ethan
already didn’t like or trust Paige. Ethan had killed before, and no
matter how much he struggled to keep it hidden from all of them,
Ian knew a darkness resided within his brother. Emma had helped to
ease it, but Ethan wouldn’t hesitate to kill Paige, and walk out of
here with barely a twinge of conscience.

Normally Ian would agree, his family had
always been the most important part of his life, but something
about this woman made him determined to keep her safe. He didn’t
have any idea how to go about doing that if they couldn’t change
her memories. She may not know where they were now, or where they
lived normally, but she had far more information than any human
should have about them. Especially any human who harbored as much
dislike for their kind as she did.

Her refusal to look at him began to try his
already fraying patience. Stepping closer to her, he took hold of
her chin and turned her head toward him. “Why can’t we change your
memories?”

Paige folded her arms over her chest. The
anger and resentment notched up a level within the room, she could
almost see them debating over what they were going to do with her.
Part of her training had been how to stand up to vampires and the
things they could do to her. She’d withstood torture, been put
through the wringer by Nabel and her father, and she was still
here. Her fingernails had grown back, her bruises and broken bones
had healed; even her shattered heart had a partial scab on it. She
could take whatever these creatures threw at her.

“I’m not saying anything,” she replied.

“Son of a bitch,” Ethan growled. “Emma, take
Jill and Mandy into the other room.”

“She’s a human Ethan; she’s not a major
threat,” Emma protested.

“I’m not taking any chances, not with
you.”

Emma shook her head. “No, we’re staying
here.”

Ethan looked like he was tempted to throw
her over his shoulder and carry her from the room. Emma folded her
arms over her chest and gave him a look that suggested she would
consider castration if he tried it. Ethan shook his head and
stepped further in front of her. Ian’s attention was drawn back to
Paige as she rose to her knees on the bed and tilted her chin
defiantly.

“So now you plan to kill me?” she inquired.
Ian found her unexpectedly fiery for someone facing four vampires
with nothing more than her humanity to protect her.

“No one is going to kill anyone,” Mandy
assured her.

“Not yet,” Stefan grumbled.

“Stefan!” Jill hissed.

The hostility surged within the room, it
pulsated against his skin, pricking his appetite and arousing his
murderous impulses. He stepped protectively closer to the bed.
Stefan and Ethan were two of the strongest vampires he knew, but he
wouldn’t let them touch her. There was a shuffling within the hall
as Mike and David stepped forward. “I think we all just need to
relax and take some time to think about this,” David said in a
calming voice.

“David’s right,” Mike said.

Turning to face them, Ian nodded toward the
door. “Leave. Let me talk to her.”

Ethan glanced at him before focusing on
Paige again. His eyes had taken on that strange hue they’d become
when he and Emma had first gotten together. They weren’t quite
emerald, but they weren’t a fiery red color either. Paige’s gaze
locked on Ethan’s as that color danced through his eyes. If she saw
Ethan Hulk out, she may lose her mind. Thankfully, Ethan kept that
side of himself suppressed right now.

“Ethan go,” he grated through his teeth.

Emma wrapped her hand around Ethan’s arm,
drawing him further away from the bed. Mike and David stepped back
to let them leave the room. Ian followed them to the door and held
onto the edge of it with his hand. “Stefan.” His brother-in-law
turned to face him. “How much experience do you have with these
hunters?”

“Not much, and none of it pleasant.”

“I know my parents and the Stooges don’t
have any. Do you know someone who does?”

A muscle twitched in Stefan’s cheek. “I
do.”

Ian realized immediately who Stefan knew.
“Brian?”

“He’s one of them.”

“Them?”

“I know of some others, but I haven’t had
much contact with them over the past ten years or so. They would
know the most.”

“But…?” Ian prodded, catching something
hesitant in Stefan’s tone.

“But they tend to keep more to their own
group.”

“Don’t we all?”

“These are some of the most powerful
vampires on earth, Ian. All they care about is keeping our race
safe and secret.”

“And she could stand in the way of that,”
Ian realized.

“Yes.”

The last thing he needed were more vampires
looking at Paige as nothing more than a threat. He glanced back at
Paige, still kneeling on the bed and looking like a warrior despite
the fact her neck could be snapped and her life ended before she
blinked again. “Start with Brian.”

He closed the door before Paige could hear
Stefan or Ethan’s violent curses, even though he could still hear
them loud and clear. Turning, he leaned against the door to stare
at the woman across from him. “Will you be the one to kill me?” she
demanded.

“No one is going to kill you.”

“You say that, but you can’t guarantee it. I
saw the look on their faces.”

“You have to understand they have wives to
protect, and I have my family to protect.”

“If you have a wife I feel sorry for her,”
she snorted and folded her arms over her chest. “Hopefully those
men treat their wives with more respect than
you
treat
women.”

“I don’t have a wife, and believe me neither
one of them would ever think twice about looking at another
woman.”

“If you do get married your wife probably
won’t be able to say the same.”

“You know as much about me as you know about
vampires, which is nothing.”

She rose up further on her knees. In the set
of scrubs Mandy had brought to the cabin and lent to her, she
looked like an avenging angel. Her brown hair tumbled over her
shoulders in curls, her eyes were abnormally bright. The loose
scrubs hid her thin, athletic body and the apple-sized breasts he’d
felt pressed against his chest when he’d carried her.

He’d never been overly picky with his women,
never had a “type,” but his gaze raked admiringly over the figure
concealed beneath the baggy clothes. Images of her lithe body
pressed against his, beneath his, filled his mind as his eyes came
back to hers. Blood rushed into his dick, he adjusted his stance as
he berated himself for thinking about sex right now. It was often
the only thing that kept him sane, but it also had its place in his
life, and now was not it.

Her mouth pursed when his gaze raked over
her. The hungry gleam in his eyes made her heart accelerate. She
didn’t know if he was contemplating draining her or climbing on top
of her. Given everything that had transpired between them, she
guessed it was the first one.

“I know all I need to know about your kind,
and I don’t care what else there is to know,” she retorted.

“Spoken like a true fool.”

If she’d had a stake, he had no doubt she’d
be trying to drive it through his heart right now. “Monster.”

“You’ll never know the truth.”

“Just kill me and get it over with.”

“I’m not sure what we’re going to do with
you, but we don’t murder innocents. We will do everything we can to
keep our family and friends safe, which may include locking you up
for the rest of your life.”

She sat back on her heels. Her shoulders
slouched as some of her feistiness finally left her. He felt bad
frightening her, but at this point it had become necessary. He
didn’t know what else to do with her, and no matter how much he
felt the urge to protect her, she was a threat to everyone he cared
about.

“I’d rather die,” she retorted.

“If others had their way that would be a
good possibility.”

She rose back to her knees and threw her
shoulders back. “Then grow a set of balls and get it over
with.”