I Accidentally Hooked Up with a Vampire (Accidents Happen #2)

25. Dragon Cat

25

Dragon Cat

I clung to the back of my dragon cat with my one good hand as he ran through the night. I had no other fucking choice! If I let go, I would fly off and slam into a tree or something. A broken wrist was bad enough; I wanted to spare the rest of my bones. Lucky for me, there was a line of hair down his back, which I wrapped my hand in. My thighs clamped around him as best I could, but within minutes, they were burning. I knew I should have done those damn squats with Lena!

Maverick moved so fast, I had to shut my eyes against the rush of wind. I buried my face in his back and prayed I survived the ride. When the gushing air flow stopped, I opened my eyes to see the parking garage. Maverick had taken me home. How he’d managed to get there without anyone seeing him, I had no idea. Also, I didn’t know if that was true, but immediately determined it wasn’t my problem to deal with. Let the vampires solve it, since they were the reason all this was happening anyway.

He lowered himself to the ground so I could climb off, and once I was safely standing, he shrunk back to his cat form. I squinted at him; he wasn’t the lion-sized beast that tore through vampires, but he wasn’t exactly his normal size either.

“Maverick, you okay, buddy?” I observed him as he licked himself. The self-grooming did little to improve his appearance. He had blood in his hair, and his whiskers were stained pink.

Despite his unsettling appearance, the cat nodded as if he understood me, purred, and walked toward the door.

“I should go find the others.” I turned in the opposite direction of the cat and found my parking spot empty. “Damnit. Domino took my car to Jackie’s.”

I patted my pockets and realized not only did I not have my phone, but I also didn’t have my keys. That meant in order to get into my place, I would have to go down to the lobby and face the boy at the front desk.

“Oh, my God! Ms. Harris!” Cordell slammed the book in front of him closed and ran over to me as soon as I entered the lobby. “Are you okay? Did you get into a fight?”

“Something like that.” I nodded. “I also lost my key. Can you help me out?”

Rawwar . Maverick fussed beside me.

Cordell looked down at the cat, and his eyes widened.

“What happened to Maverick?”

“He’s a fighter too.” I winked. “Key?”

“Oh yeah. Sorry,” he said nervously before grabbing the key from behind the desk and leading me to the elevator.

We rode up the elevator in awkward silence. I could almost feel the questions spinning in Cordell’s mind. Of course, he would have a hundred questions about why I looked the way I did and what the hell was all over my cat, but the kid kept his mouth closed. Clearly, he had a momma who taught him to mind his business. Nothing good could come of him learning about what I’d been up to. I told myself I just had to make it into my apartment. Once I was inside, he would go back to the front desk and eventually forget about me and my mess. Unfortunately, when the elevator door opened, all hope of him forgetting what he saw flew out the damn window.

“Holy shit!” Cordell cursed then looked at me with much more suspicion than before.

The hallway outside my apartment was completely fucked! There were holes in the walls, blood on the floor, and what looked like claw marks on the carpet. Those vampires had torn the shit up. I said nothing. I didn’t want to incriminate myself, but considering I was the only one living on that level and I was coming home covered in blood, I was already the prime suspect. Still, I kept my mouth shut and followed him to my door. As soon as it was open, he stepped aside. I nodded at him and slid into my home, wondering how long it would take management to talk to me.

“Damn trying to pay a mortgage. They’re going to kick my ass out of this building.” I sighed and pressed my back against the door.

How the hell had things gotten so bad so quickly? A week prior, my biggest worry was finishing my pitch for a seaside artist and choosing the color pallet for my bathroom, then being scolded by Jackie for even mentioning the color mauve to her. Now, I was bleeding out, with a broken wrist and sore thighs, after riding a dragon home from a vampire fight.

Maverick slapped my leg with his paw and headed straight for his bowl. Damn my inner thoughts or self-loathing. The kings needed to be fed!

“Really? You’re bugging me for food now?” I fussed. “No, no. Don’t worry about it. We lost my sister to a bunch of vampires and my friends could all be dead. But you must eat!”

I marched down the hall and, despite wanting to scream, I didn’t. Maverick had saved my life. Who knows what would have happened to me after being cut open while surrounded by vampires? After filling his bowl, I found the first aid kit. Nothing I had was good enough to handle the cut on my arm, but going to the hospital was not an option. How would I explain what happened? Instead, I poured peroxide into the wound, waited for the fizzling to stop, and wrapped it about a hundred times with gauze, using every roll I had.

Sitting at the kitchen counter, surrounded by the bloody mess, I looked at my custom couch. Funny how just a few days prior, that couch meant the world to me. It was the marker of my success. I’d made it to the top. But damn it if life didn’t give me a swift kick in the ass. At that point, I felt lower than I ever had. It didn’t matter how low I felt. Jai was out there—because of me, her life was in danger. I had to get her back.

I stood, a newfound determination making me forget about the blood loss, and marched over to the door. I could catch a cab or ask the front desk to call me a ride. There wasn’t any point in trying to hide what happened. He would have already reported my mess to management anyway.

I had only made it halfway down the hall when I heard a sharp knock on the door.

I froze. Fear took over my body, and my mind raced with thoughts of attack. What if it was a vampire? What if it was Nyesha? She knew where I lived. She could have been there trying to finish what she started. The only thing I knew for sure was that if it was a vampire, I was safe.

And then, like a scene out of a horror movie, the damn doorknob turned. How the fuck did I forget to lock the damn door? Oh, sure, a city full of monsters chasing you down, no need to lock the fucking door! I don’t know what my next move was. Panic told me to run, and I took one step, spun and slammed down so hard, the wall shook.

The door opened, and instinct took over. I lifted my good hand and forced whatever light I had left inside me to shoot out of my palm.

“Damnit!” the voice shouted.

I looked back to see Domino standing in the hall. Behind him, a hole burned in the wall.

“Domino?” I gasped.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “What happened?”

“I-I fell,” I said as he ran over to me and lifted me from the floor. “My head.”

I looked at the vampire whose glasses were now crooked on his nose, his face blurred.

Domino looked at my arm and saw the blood seeping through the bandage. He moved into action and carried me to my bed. Once there, he bit into his wrist and pressed the wound to my lips.

“Drink. Now!”

“Huh?” I muttered against his lips.

“Whitney, drink. Please,” he begged. “You’re losing too much blood.”

It wasn’t long before my own instincts kicked in. Soon, I was gripping his arm and drinking from him like an ice-cold beer on a hot summer day.

I felt the flow of healing through my body, and soon, the haze lifted from my mind as I saw Domino, looking weaker than I’d ever seen him. I dropped his arm from my lips.

“Domino!” The vampire looked ashen and weak, his eyes sunken and dark. “Oh, my God. What did you do?”

“I did what I had to.” He smiled weakly. “You’re okay now.”

“Dummy, and now you’re going to die! You already lost too much blood fighting!” I fussed at him.

“I’ll be fine. The sun is coming up soon. I’ll recover.”

“Is that how it really works?”

He didn’t respond.

“Damn it.”

“Don’t worry about me. You’re okay now.”

“Where is your phone?” I patted his pockets and found relief when I felt the device inside his pants.

“What are you doing?” He frowned as I lifted his finger to the scanner on the screen to unlock the phone.

“I’m calling Jackie.” I dropped his hand once the phone accepted his fingerprint. “She got you blood once. Maybe she can do it again.”

A quick search found Jackie’s contact stored as, “Whitney’s Big Mouth Hunter.” After rolling my eyes, I dialed her number and waited. It went straight to voicemail.

“Damnit.” I waited for her greeting to play. “Jackie, this is Whitney. I’m at my place. Domino is here, and he’s hurt badly. He needs blood. Please call me back on his phone as soon as you get this.”

I ended the call and set the phone beside me.

“You need to lie down.” I pointed to the head of the bed. “Now.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He grinned.

“Now is not the time for jokes!” I fussed at him. “You’re dying! Lena and Jackie are missing, and those vampires have Jai! I need you to be okay, Domino.”

“I’m sorry. Whitney, I promise I’m not going to die. I’ve been through far worse than this. And we’re going to get your sister back. They won’t hurt her. They know how valuable she is.” He promised me, but I didn’t believe him. The man looked gray, not like the stone he was when he slept. This was more like the sickly gray of a man in his final moments.

“Just rest.” I didn’t want to think about what Vance and Nyesha would do to my sister. “Jackie will come through. She always does.”

“I’m sure she will.”

“Domino?”

“Yes.”

“This is probably the wrong time to ask you this, but are you okay? Not physically. I can see you’re not. But your brother died tonight. I know you two weren’t the best of friends, but he was your brother.”

“Yes, he was. And I don’t know how I feel about it. I’ve imagined ending his life myself so many times.” Domino looked out the window. “It’s strange to say part of me is sad I wasn’t the one to take his life. He took so much from me. It was the least I could do to pay him back for over a century of misery.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“I’d love to, but the sun will be rising soon.”

“Right.” I reached over and hit the button on the side table. The curtain slid shut.

“Whitney, lay down,” Domino said. “You still need to rest while your body finishes recovering.”

“How do you expect me to sleep?”

“I don’t. I expect you to lie next to me while I do. Because, unlike you, I don’t have a choice in the matter.”

“Fine.”

I climbed into bed next to Domino and waited for the woodsy scent to feel my room as he slipped into his sleep state, but it never came. Domino’s eyes closed, but it wasn’t the same. Before, when he slept, I couldn’t see him breathing. It was as if he had turned into a statue. That time was different. For hours, I watched his chest struggle to rise and fall. Then, as the day went on, a soft whistle came from his nose. I watched the hours pass and called Jackie three times before she answered.

“Did you get my message?”

“Yes, I’m waiting for the delivery,” Jackie said. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“Maverick brought me home, and Domino showed up here. He lost too much blood, and then he gave me his. Now he’s dying, Jackie. I can’t let him die.”

“Don’t worry. That stubborn vampire won’t die, Whitney. I don’t like him, but he cares about you, so I’m going to do whatever I can to help. We’ll be there in a couple of hours.”

“Okay. Thank you, Jackie. Really.” I stared at the phone a while longer after Jackie hung up.

I checked the time. It was already six o’clock. The sun would set soon. Would he make it that long? Time was slipping away, and with each tick of the clock, my desperation grew. Finally, unable to bear the weight of my fear any longer, I raced to the kitchen and snatched a knife from the counter. I returned to the bed where he lay, clearly struggling and clinging to life.

“I hope this doesn’t kill you.” I slid the blade across my wrist and held the wound to his lips.

Nothing happened. At first, I sat there, pressing my bloody wrist to his lips and just hoping he would take it. I almost gave up, but then his eyes opened, and he grabbed hold of my arm and accepted my blood. At first, he was careful, and it was almost like he didn’t want it.

“Is my blood not good enough for you?” I pressed my wrist against his lips harder. “Drink, damn it! You promised me you wouldn’t die.”

He locked eyes with me, and when I nodded, eyes brimming with tears, Domino pressed his lips against my flesh and drank from me. This was the point when I thought he would turn into a ravishing monster. He would grip my arm so hard, I would lose feeling and be on the brink of death. That didn’t happen. Domino was careful with me. Even though his pull was getting stronger, it was clear how much effort he was putting into keeping himself in check.

The vampire was careful, but that didn't eliminate all the risks. I felt the blood rushing through my arm to feed him. As nervous as I was that he might not stop, I was also relieved to see the life return to him. In minutes, his skin returned to normal, and he looked just as strong as the first day I met him.

“Domino,” I said when my head started spinning. That couldn’t be a good sign. I hadn’t slept a wink and had barely recovered from my injuries.

When he looked up again and saw the worry in my expression, Domino gripped my arm and jerked away, pressing his back against the headboard.

“Whitney,” he panted. “Why would you do that?”

“You were dying, and I had to sit here for hours watching you struggle. I wasn’t about to let you die.” I held my wrist to my chest. The blood still flowed from the wound.

Domino poked his finger with his tooth and rubbed his blood over the opening on my wrist. It quickly closed.

“That’s new.”

“Yeah, for small injuries, it comes in handy.”

“Are you okay?” I peered at him. “My blood—it’s not like toxic or anything, is it?”

“No, I mean, I’m fine.” He paused, really considering my questions. “Actually, I feel great. Better than I have in years.”

“Good. I was worried you would explode.” I still watched him for any signs of a delayed reaction.

“You can stop looking at me like that.”

“Oh, sorry.” I hopped from the bed. “Now that you’re up, I can open these curtains. I’m tired of sitting without a view of the sky.”

I pressed the button next to the bed, and the curtains rolled open.

And sunlight spilled into the room!

“Oh, shit!” I ran, trying to pull the curtain back and failing against the mechanical system that opened them. “Hide!”

“Wait.” Domino touched my shoulder, and I looked back at him. He stood in the sunlight—not fucking burning.

“Holy shit!” I gasped.