Unforgiven (The Forbidden Bond 2) (5 page)

“Shit… I’m losing her!” he heard Tessa curse. There was a shuffling noise.

“Your Dad is on the way, baby.”  She was talking to Danielle.

Griffin looked up to find two matching pairs of ocean blue eyes burning a hole through him. The sound of shattering glass drew his attention back to the phone. “Tessa!” he shouted into the phone, but got no response.

“We need a car. Tessa found the limo with both girls in it two blocks south of the gate at my house.”

The double doors of the Country Club flew open and Samantha stepped out before anyone could move.

 “Mason, we need you in here. Now. Debbie has apparently been in labor for most of the day, but didn’t want to disrupt the ceremony. For the last two hours she’s been squeezing my mother’s hand and panting. So unless you want your baby delivered by Dr. Sarah Vaughn you better get moving.”

Samantha said it so dryly it took a moment for the words to sink in. She shrugged her shoulders and went back inside, as if she didn’t care either way if he attended the birth or let Debbie tough it out on her own. The three men looked at each other in stunned disbelief of the current situation until reality rushed in and got them moving.

“I’m going to get a car.” Chase rushed off to the parking lot.

Griffin continued to listen to the eerie silence on the other end of the phone. Mason looked torn between standing beside his wife for the birth of their second child or going with his son and his best friend to find his godchild and Griffin’s other daughter.

“Go to Debbie, Mason. She needs you now. Chase and I will bring the girls back, but I need you to have Doc Stevens come meet us.” Tessa’s words finally sinking in along with the continued silence. “Brandi has been shot.”

Thirty minutes later, Griffin stood between the open door of the van that held his injured daughter and the blood soaked limo that held the love of his life. Tessa had cut herself to give Brandi the blood she knew the girl would die without. It was a sacrifice he could never repay. And Tessa was dying because of it. Doc Stevens was pulling her beautiful blood covered body from the limo. Sarah was in the van with Brandi and a Wrath warrior that used to be a doctor.

“Let’s go Griffin. We need to get her home. Now!” Sarah glared at him.

He looked back to the limo. Doc Stevens was doing chest compression on Tessa. He was trying to restart her heart. All these years, all this time, he thought he couldn’t feel her anymore because she was dead. His bond to Sarah interfered and added to his belief that she lost her life after giving birth to their daughter. He had been wrong. There had always been profound warmth that had carried him through the darkest hours. There had been coolness, like spring rain, to bathe away the heat of his longing and sorrow. It was gone now. That buzz of awareness in the back of his mind that always said he wasn’t alone had ceased. He loved her so much. Griffin stood with Sarah screeching at his back and watched Doc turn over the compressions to a warrior in order to hook up an IV. They had fluids on site, but no blood until they reached the Enclave.

His gaze moved to Chase in his monochromatic black suit. He sat in the grass about ten feet from Tessa holding Danielle in her monochromatic white gown.  They were a sight. Like yin and yang, he had wrapped himself so tightly around her. Chase was spouting love words and giving her the vows of the blood bond there on the street. The warriors around them stood vigilant and tried to pretend they weren’t witnessing a future Councilmen losing his mind over a female. Chase was chastising her for being so lovely others couldn’t help but want her. He begged her to wake up and talk to him. He demanded that she stop breaking his heart and find a telepathic connection to him. He pleaded, cajoled, kissed, and stroked her sleeping form.

Griffin had never been so jealous in his life. All he wanted, all he had wanted for nearly twenty years was to hold his mate, to kiss her, and whisper words of love and devotion. But he stood there afraid to move. If he went to Tessa, Sarah would make his life a new level of hell, deeper than the one he had been living since finding his lost family again.

Tessa was dying; maybe she was already dead on the sidewalk only two blocks from his home. His heart revolted against the months of stern control he had exercised in staying far removed from her. She had been so close but he stayed away for the sake of his family, for the children he’d brought into this world with Sarah, and for the pride and legacy of his family’s House.

Doc Stevens looked up and met Griffin’s eyes. He saw disgust glaring back at him. When Griffin arrived he had almost cut himself to feed Tessa from his vein. He was going to try to turn her in order to save her life. Doc knew what he was about to do and tried to hurry him along. Tessa was already his mate so it made sense for him to do it. He had no idea how it would affect his weak bond to Sarah, but at the moment he hadn’t cared. He was her only chance and he loved her so much his heart struggled to break free from his chest. Griffin raised his wrist to his mouth. He bared his fangs and was ready to open his vein. Sarah grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him from the limo. She had just shown up and caught him hovering over Tessa while Brandi was being carried to a waiting vehicle.

“What are you doing touching that piece of filth?” She sniffed in disdain and turned Griffin to face her.

“Let’s get our baby home. These people have done enough harm to our family. Let the others clean up this…” She looked at Tessa’s still form for emphasis, “trash.”

Griffin walked behind her halfway to the van and stopped. He had to maintain his relationship with Sarah. He was a councilmen and his relationship with Tessa had already brought undue attention to his family. His parents were pissed about the negative publicity. Fortunately, society didn’t believe a true bond was possible between a vamp and human so his bond to Sarah hadn’t been called into question. He was being looked upon as a man who’d had a wild youth and made a mistake. It was just like Sarah wanted it. She called it his “human phase.”

He stood there with his mate getting louder and nastier behind him, Doc Stevens passing judgment, and Tessa slipping away in front of him. Twice in his life he had failed the person he loved the most. Twice in his life he had let the woman he swore with a blood bonded oath to protect and cherish, die with no action on his part to prevent it. Danielle wouldn’t forgive him, any more than he could forgive himself. Griffin turned and climbed into the van, his heart a frozen block of despair, his face the picture of calm indifference expected of the leader of the mighty House of Vaughn
.

THREE

“I need O negative hung and warm blankets now. We’re almost there.” Doc tried to speak in his usual calm tone to the nursing staff at the Enclave infirmary over the speaker of his cell phone. It was being held out to him by a Wrath warrior named Garrett because he was straddling his patient on the floor of the van performing chest compressions. He was known for being calm in the face of crisis, but the urgency pounding in his veins was seeping into his voice. The large crevasse opening in his composure was pissing Doc off. His hard won reputation was one of stony unflappability, but he was going to lose this patient if they weren’t prepared for his arrival, and she needed to live.

The van was overcrowded with warriors, weapons and the enticing aroma of human blood. Air, thick with the tension of restraint and need, choked him. The blood was a near irresistible temptation to the warriors now crashing from the adrenaline high of the previous hours. Doc’s fangs were filling his aching mouth, his hands covered with the bright red essence of a human woman that deserved better than she’d received. Tessa smelled so sweet, like warm vanilla and female.
No
. He couldn’t think of how delicious she smelled, or how it would feel to hold her to his chest, wrapped safely in his arms while the rich heat of her blood trickled down his throat, coating his tongue. Doc was also struggling with a rage that threatened to consume him after watching Griffin stand over his mate, the woman he had pledged to protect with his own life, and watched her dying. He could have started the change and it wouldn’t have done him any harm. They were already bonded and it would have saved her life.

But no, the coward walked away in fear of his second mate’s anger. His family name and reputation were more important than the life of the woman that had spent the last twenty two years loving him in spite of his betrayal. Who even knew it was possible to have multiple mates? Of course he had heard of parents giving blood to their children, or siblings sharing blood in an emergency to save their loved ones lives. That would leave them with a permanent bond, but somehow their bodies knew the difference between a mate and family member. There must be a marker of some sort in the blood that runs in families. The giving of blood from one vamp to another instead of an exchange of blood could be the difference also. He would have to research that in the future, but for now he had to deal with saving Tessa.

Continuing to perform compressions and breathing deeply as if he could breathe for her, Doc willed her to live, to fight and stay with him awhile longer. Doc’s temper spiked at the memory of Griffin just standing there, looking lost while Sarah bellowed at his back, and spat insults at the mother of his child. Doc was sickened by the weakness of the man who everyone looked up to as a Council member and leader of their people. Griffin was no more than a puppet dangling from his parent’s strings. He danced to whatever tune furthered his house’s agenda and his position on the Council. This is exactly how he had lost Tessa all those years ago. His parents tied him in a knot so tight the love of his life and his daughter were strangled in the cords.

One of the warriors, he thought it was Troy, flung open the rear doors of the van as they turned onto the access road leading to the Enclave. Fresh air swept through the enclosed area, helping to clear his head. The gates stood open and the guards waved them through.

He checked her pulse again. It was so shallow. They had managed to revive her with CPR and fluids on the scene, but he feared the end was near. Restarting chest compressions to keep Tessa’s heart going, Doc prayed for the divine intervention he would need to bring her back around. When they came to a screeching halt on the curb of the Enclave, the warriors leapt from the vehicle, no longer able to tolerate the heavy blood scent permeating the van. A gurney was rolled over along with the blood and the I.V. pump he’d requested. Within moments Tessa was hooked up and he straddled her delicate body, continuing to assist her heart while the nurses wheeled them into the infirmary.

****

The damn beeping was getting on her nerves. Sam needed to turn off her alarm clock. She could sleep through anything and the noise was coming right through the wall to wake Brandi. She’d probably snuck out again. She likely wasn’t even in her room to hear the annoying sound that would wake the whole house. It would serve her right if it woke Daddy and he came to check on her.

Brandi, being the sucker she was, contemplated going to turn it off so her twin sister wouldn’t get into trouble, but decided not to. That was something the old Brandi would do. New Brandi wouldn’t be such a push over. But nobody had met
that
girl yet. Because… because she’d never made it to the bonding ceremony. She struggled with that knowledge. She knew something wasn’t right but the memories were just beyond her grasp. Why hadn’t she made her debut as the hip and fresh faced Brandi Vaughn that was lurking beneath her baggy clothes and high I.Q.?

The beeping became more rapid and she tried to get up to go shut it off. She’d had enough of the noise. All she wanted was to go back to sleep. But when she moved, pain shot through her chest and had her gasping for air. Her stomach rolled and the pain made her want to toss her cookies. In the distance she heard a husky voice.

“Get Mr. and Mrs. Vaughn. I think she’s awake.”

Footsteps brought the voice to her bedside and a hand brushed her forehead.

“Hey there, Pixie. Are you ready to open those eyes for me? I’d love to see what pixie eyes look like. Can you hear me?”

The decidedly male voice was a deep rumble over her senses, soothing her back into sleep while simultaneously rousing her to find the source of the intriguing new voice. But was this voice really new? Had she heard it before? She struggled to recall the memory of a lifeline thrown to her from a distant shore. She had been floating away on a sea of pain when he came to haul her back in.

He’d held her and said,
“Drink now, Pixie. Drink and come back to me.”

She had done his bidding and drank the hot life pressed to her lips. A warm, calloused hand stroked her face, down her arm, and back up to brush her hair from her eyes.

“Come now. Open those eyes for me.” He was checking her pulse, the large hand at her neck made her turn and snuggle her face into the warmth of it. Brandi was cold in spite of the feeling of being buried under a thick layer of blankets. A low growl emanated from above her and the voice came closer while a thumb stroked her cheek.

“I suppose this means sleepy pixies like to be petted? Are you ready to talk to me yet, Nymph?”

Brandi groaned and slowly opened her eyes while snuggling deeper into the comfort of his palm and froze. Inches from her face, a pair of jewel-green eyes peered back at her. Beautiful, unearthly green beacons pulled her from the depths of sleep. He smiled at her sharply indrawn breath. Sandy hair lay over a tanned face with several days growth adorning a square jaw. Was it right to call a man beautiful? It had to be, because handsome just wouldn’t do it.  Uncertain, she raised her hand to his whiskered cheek to see he was real and not a dream as she told him what she thought in one word.

“Beautiful.”

His eyes widened and New Brandi was proud. She had shamelessly, if weakly, given her approval of him instead of blushing and hiding from the man. And he was a man, not one of the boys she had dated in the past. Feeling a bit smug at having surprised him, she turned her head and pressed a kiss of thanks into his palm. She knew he had been there with her. He had saved her. Darkness drifted over her again and Brandi relaxed back into a deep sleep feeling safe and protected by her unknown guardian.