Chapter 25 A Mother Vampire #2
“Not too bad. They are thin, you won’t need stitches.” He took something out of his pocket and pressed it on my back, and then began to wrap my wounds with a bandage, his fingers soft and fast.
I glanced over my shoulder; his face was taut with tension. “Do you carry a bandage in your pockets?”
“Yes, now that I have you, I do.”
The king of vampires carried plasters and bandages in his pockets. I huffed a laugh. “You realize that’s definitely bordering on cotton-wool protection, right?”
“You’re fragile.”
“I’m not that fragile.” I snorted. “Next you’ll be wrapping my entire body up and I’ll be a walking Egyptian mummy.”
A low growl slipped up his throat. “If I need to wrap you up and have you walk around like a mummy to keep you safe, that is what I will do. She’s lucky I didn’t tear her head clean off.”
Did that mean he was going to give Leah a chance? Hope flared.
I pulled my top back down and moved over to look at her. Her blonde hair spilled out, her lips were parted, she looked like she was asleep, but I couldn’t see her breathing. “Is she still alive?” I asked hesitantly.
“Yes, but a broken neck will disable her for a while.”
“Can we lock her up and try to teach her to not kill people? And don’t just say no—can we at least try?”
I half turned back; his look was cold. “If you are to remain in this world, Amelia, you will need to be stronger emotionally. I cannot and will not change what I know has kept me and others safe for centuries.”
His words struck down the broken pieces inside, the shards left where everyone left me, including him once. Fear of being left rushed through me, but it was anger that surfaced.
“If I’m to remain in this world?” I threw out a hand and my head protested with the spike in my blood. “What are you saying that you’re going to walk away? Because you can’t take it when I’m disappointed, when I show empathy to another human, when I make you question your own integrity?”
He glared, his eyes dark and broody and filled with torment. He looked away to a point in the wall.
“What did you think of earlier?” he asked, an odd bitterness in his tone.
“What?” I asked, confused.
“When you were on the couch and I was with Lottie, what were you thinking?”
So, this was the problem. He had caught a look on my face, or read my mind, and it had unsettled him. I avoided his gaze for a moment, and when I looked back, I didn’t like the cold, hard look he shielded his emotions with. “I was thinking one day I would like children with you.”
A flicker of torment. “I cannot offer you that,” he said quietly. “And you know it.”
Was he saying he didn’t want a life with me? “Can’t or won’t?” I whispered.
“Does it matter?” He twisted away, his fists curled at his sides, his gaze on the open door as if he wanted to leave.
“It does to me.” I raised my voice. “And have the decency to look at me and not block your fucking emotions when you speak to me about something so important.”
He whirled back and stepped into my space. He was angry now, those emotions well and truly let loose. “Both! I cannot and will not bring children into my world. So if you want that, Amelia, you best run back to your doctor.”
A look of shock and guilt crossed his features as if he regretted the comment. But the blade had already struck my chest, cruel and twisting.
He knew how hurt I was by Tom’s betrayal.
He knew I spent my life in foster care and how I never felt I fitted in anywhere until my parents adopted me and how it was cruelly ripped away from me.
He knew the last remaining stability of my world had crumbled when I caught Tom, my fiancé, the man I planned to marry, to have a life with, in bed with my best friend.
“I will not be with anyone who can’t be faithful, and I refuse to stay with anyone who won’t even discuss a future together!” I shouted. “I deserve better!”
“You do deserve better!” he yelled right back. “You don’t think I know that? I told you what I am, I warned you, and you, you …”
“I what? What’s my huge crime, loving you?” I thumped a hand on my chest, tears burning my eyes. “Wanting you to choose empathy over death?”
A thousand emotions flickered over his face—pain, regret, guilt, anguish.
“Yes, Amelia, yes.” His voice came out a near whisper. “I cannot be something I’m not.”
The anger drained out of me. “Your problem isn’t choosing to be something you’re not. The problem is you hide everything you are.”
Caught in a web of emotion, neither of us noticed Leah’s eyes click open. Or her hand moving toward my leg, or her teeth baring. There was a sudden fierce pain slamming into my calf.
Startled, I cried out and looked down. Leah’s claws were digging into my calf, tearing my skin as she yanked me to her. Her face was coming for my leg, her razor-sharp teeth only inches away, so close I could feel her breath on my skin.
I lifted my other foot and kicked her in the face as hard as I could. With bare feet, it was like kicking concrete. A sharp pain shot through the bottom of my foot as my ankle cracked, the pain vibrating up my leg. The floor shifted, I was about to go down, and if I fell, she’d kill me.
A fast black blur.
Crack!
His fist slammed down on her head.
Her claws went slack and she collapsed to the floor, her mouth opening with a ravaged scream.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Her skull shattered. He slammed down over and over again. The screaming turned into a pitiful moan.
And … something wetter, slushier. Blood and brain leaked through a huge gaping hole in her head. She stopped moaning, her mouth gaped open, her eyes glazed and flat like marble.
My stomach curdled. She was dead.
A vampire who was going to kill me.
She was still a woman.
She was still the children’s mother.
Karson stopped. His breathing was ragged, his body stiff, his fists still curled—
Oh God, his fist—a mush of what look like brain dangled from a knuckle.
He lifted his eyes—his dead black eyes. I stumbled back.
He blinked slowly and the black faded to hazel. He blinked again as if he finally registered my presence.
My hand slapped to my mouth as I gagged, choking on the bile. My ears rang and my vision, soaked in blood, became raided with black dots. I closed my eyes and swallowed heavily, trying to get rid of the burn.
She was dead. He killed her because I couldn’t protect myself.
“Amelia, are you alright?” His panicked face wavered before my blurred vision. “Did she bite you?” His voice seemed close and yet far away.
My gaze dropped to his hand. Oh, he’d wiped the brain and blood off, his fist already clean. The doctor in Tom would be impressed. I almost laughed. I almost cried.
“Did she bite you?’ he repeated as he scooped me into his arms, and in flash he sat me on the stairs and lifted my foot up. I heard him, but the words wouldn’t come out. I winced as pain shot through my ankle.
Relief washed over his face. “It’s fine.” He placed my foot back down and stood up, then began to pace back and forth. “Do not ever kick a vampire in the mouth without shoes on.” He stopped and turned; the panic was gone and in its place was fury. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
“I was thinking of getting her teeth away from my leg,” I snapped.
His expression softened slightly. “Why didn’t you use your powers?”
There was barely any power left, but enough for at least one more burst. I chewed on my lip. I had learned as much as I could in training under controlled conditions, but in the moment, fear had blinded every other thought process, making me react instinctively without any common sense.
“I don’t know, I guess I forgot in the fear of the moment. It’s not like I have much real experience fighting vampires.” I rubbed my hands over my face, feeling frustrated by my inadequacy and thoroughly nauseated.
He began to pace again. “And you wonder why I do not let you go out alone.” He shook his head, tilting his head to the ceiling as if praying for divine help. Then he said quietly, “Go upstairs. I will clean up the mess and get someone to attend to your wounds.”
“The mess you refer to,” I said bitterly, “is the children’s mother. Where the fuck is your humanity?”
He snorted, and the look he gave me made my toes want to curl up and hide. “She was about to take your life. Would you prefer I had let her?”
“Would you prefer she did?” I asked, which was a stupid comeback, but it was all I had. He had done nothing but try to protect me. “Think about it,” I added, digging myself in deeper. “No pesky human witch wanting to share a life with you or calling you out on your bullshit.”
He blinked. “Obviously, you’re tired and upset.” He suddenly looked exhausted. “We will discuss it later.”
My mind numbed, my body numbed. I didn’t even register the walk along the hall when I found myself outside the children’s door. I paused and steeled my face. I wasn’t the best actress, but they would want to know what had happened.
My breath jammed as I pushed open the door. Both kids looked up from beside Georgie. She had a book clasped in her hand.
“Mommy?” Lottie asked, her innocent eyes round and enquiring, almost breaking me.
I forced a smile, but it felt wrong on my face. “She’s fine. She has to go away to get better for a few weeks, but she’ll be back once she is.” The lie fell from my lips but sliced my heart like blades.
They’d never see their mother again. She wouldn’t celebrate their birthdays or be there when Lottie needed a woman; she wouldn’t be there when they graduated or got married.
Georgie took in the blood seeping through my jeans. “Are you alright, do you need me to help?” She placed the book down and went to get up.
I shuffled my leg back behind the other. I was going to cry. I felt it scorching my eyes, my throat. I blinked rapidly, trying to fight them back. “No, I’m fine, stay there,” I rushed out. “Maybe you can stay with Billy and Lottie and see if you can all get some more sleep.”
She nodded slowly and drew in a deep breath. “Of course.” She forced a brightness. “And if we can’t sleep, we can finish the book or watch a movie on my phone.”
Lottie yawned and snuggled into Georgie’s body.
I clicked the door softly shut and went to my room.
On autopilot, I walked to the shower and pulled off my clothes, my hands shaking as I turned on the water.
Who told Leah the children were here? How did she get past the vampires on guard?
And who let her in? The questions whirled through my throbbing head.
If she hadn’t come to the house, Karson might have been willing to talk her down …
What would happen to the children now? Would they be thrown into the welfare system, at the mercy of a stranger’s pen?
A system with too many kids and not enough loving families to take them all in.
There were plenty of good foster parents out there, salt-of-the-earth-type people.
Like my parents were. They started as foster parents and adopted me shortly after.
But I knew what happened when you were left at the mercy of a bad foster parent.
I slumped against the shower wall, slid to the floor, cupped my hands over my face, and cried for the second time in as many days.