Chapter 15
O ne of the most important parts of courting Tessa was showing her how beautiful a life lived at night could be. Amos knew he wasn’t going to convince her to accept a bloodbond by sitting on the couch every night and ordering takeout. So, the next night she had free, he told her to dress in warm layers and wear sturdy shoes.
“Is this alright?” she asked when he met her at the foot of her front steps. She gestured at her outfit—jeans, sneakers, and a zipped-up anorak.
“Perfect,” he assured her. Instead of taking her to his house, he walked her two blocks over to where he’d parked his vehicle, a nondescript luxury sedan that he rarely drove, but occasionally needed. Like tonight, since he planned on taking Tessa far enough outside the city that driving her was more efficient than carrying her.
Conversation in the car came easy, comfortable—as if they’d been together for years. He put his free hand on her thigh as he drove, and was rewarded moments later by the subtle perfume of her arousal.
Later , he promised himself.
It was a little over a two-hour drive to get to Castle Rock State Park. At this time of year and this time of night, the park would be empty. Plenty of space for a woman to flee from a stalking vampire and far enough from civilization that nobody would hear her scream.
He parked the car and got out, reaching Tessa’s door before she could. She accepted his hand with a coy smile and stepped out of the vehicle. As soon as her door was closed, Amos had her pressed up against the side of the car, taking her mouth in a rough, demanding kiss. Tessa melted into him with soft, sexy little noises sounding in the back of her throat. He loved that he could be aggressive with her, that she wanted it as much as he did.
With a significant amount of effort, Amos broke the kiss. Tessa looked up at him, lips swollen, eyes dazed. Amos purred, dipping his head to inhale the scent of her hair.
“I’ll give you a five-minute head start,” he growled against her ear.
She shivered. “Five minutes?”
He pulled away from her and pointed past the nose of the car. “See the woods?”
“Yes.”
“Better start running. Time’s wasting.”
Her eyes grew wide. Biting back a grin, she whirled away from him and raced towards the tree line.
Amos had lied. He wasn’t going to give her a five-minute head start. As soon as she slipped into the darkness of the tree cover, he went after her. It wasn’t because he wanted to cheat, but because he needed to assure himself of her safety. He followed in silence as she wended her way along unlit trails, slowing to a walk as she squinted in the dark at narrow, diverging pathways. He gave her more than the promised five minutes, edging silently behind her, smiling to himself when she darted nervous glances over her shoulder.
It wasn’t until she was deep into the forested acreage, looking well and truly lost, that he attacked. He caught her from behind, one hand wrapped around her middle, pinning her arms to her sides, the other fisted in her hair. She let out a shocked scream that he didn’t bother to muffle. His fangs sank into her throat, pulling another scream from her that quickly turned into cries of pleasure. Amos held onto her tightly, knowing his grasp would be borderline painful for her—but also knowing she liked it. Christ, he could come in his pants again just from the unbelievable ecstasy of her . That she existed. That she wanted him.
When he’d finished drinking, he sank down to the cold ground with her, cradling her against his chest as he waited for the feeding haze to lift. When the clarity returned to Tessa’s eyes, she smiled and tilted up to Amos for a kiss. He kept his lips tightly closed so she wouldn’t taste her own blood on his tongue.
“Okay?” he asked when he pulled away.
“Mmhm,” she hummed contentedly.
“Hungry?”
She nodded.
Amos picked her up and took her back to the car to retrieve his backpack, then brought her to the scenic overlook at the top of the bluff. Below them, the river was swollen with spring meltwater. Overhead, the sky was thick with stars. Tessa looked up at it and gasped.
“Oh, wow . The sky never looks like this in the city. ”
“Too much light,” Amos said. “Beautiful in its own way. But it’s nice to see the stars in their full glory from time to time.”
Tessa shook her head, still staring at the sky in awe. “I can’t remember the last time I went somewhere where you could see the stars like this.”
“Well, you’ll see them even better tonight.” He unsnapped the fastenings at the bottom of his backpack that held his telescope case.
“A telescope?” Tessa asked.
Amos nodded. “Have you ever used one?”
“A kind of crappy one when I was a kid. But we could never get it to focus.”
“Lucky for you, I know how to get the focus right. While I’m setting this up, you should eat.” He nudged the bag towards her. It was filled with food, more than she could even reasonably eat in one night, but he’d wanted to be certain she’d have something she liked.
While Tessa munched on something chocolatey, Amos got to work setting up his telescope. Tessa had finished eating and Amos was still fiddling with the mounting plate when a high, ululating cry echoed from across the river. Amos froze.
“There are no wolves in Illinois,” Tessa said, gazing in the direction of the sound. “Do coyotes sound like that?”
Amos grabbed her, abandoning both telescope and backpack as he raced for the car.
“Amos!” she gasped, burying her face against his neck and clinging tightly to his shoulders as he ran. “What’s happening?”
They reached the car and he ripped the passenger door open, all but throwing Tessa inside. “Werewolves,” he said tersely.
A split-second later, he was in the driver’s seat, ignition started, peeling backwards so fast Tessa almost crashed into the dashboard.
“Seatbelt!” Amos snapped. “ Now .”
Tessa hurried to obey, wrestling with the mechanism to release the belt before she finally clicked herself in securely. Amos whipped the car around towards the driveway. The headlights panned across trees and field and river, catching a flash of movement. The wolves were here.
What the hell they were doing in Illinois was anybody’s guess. The nearest werewolf pack, as far as Amos knew, was up in the northernmost parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Why would they have come so far south? Or was this an entirely different band of wolves?
As Amos stomped on the accelerator, speeding towards the road, the werewolves surged out of the darkness, surrounding the vehicle with their massive bodies. Amos knew a hunting formation when he saw one. The wolves were trying to stop his vehicle. And considering their strength and size, there was a good chance they’d succeed.
He gripped the wheel, maneuvering carefully, not allowing the wolves to put too much pressure on one side or the other. With a sudden stomp on the brake, and then an equally sudden acceleration, he managed to briefly scatter their formation. Seizing the opportunity, he slammed the accelerator down and whipped out onto the street without slowing. He kept the pedal pressed to the floor, pinning the needle to the top of the speedometer nearly the entire way back to the city .
Werewolves were fast, but not as fast as the top speed of an Audi S8. By the time he reached Aurora, he’d brought the speed down to a reasonable number, mostly out of concern for being pulled over. If he could’ve guaranteed there’d be no cops, he’d have kept the needle pinned all the way back to his house. Tessa had ridden in stiff silence beside him, glancing worriedly out the window again and again. When he slowed, she turned to look at him, brows drawn together.
“Are we safe now?” she asked.
Amos hesitated. He didn’t want to frighten her, but he also didn’t want to lie to her. “Safe enough,” he finally said. “We’ll be safer in the city. Wolves hate densely populated areas. And they’ll have a hard time picking our scents out of all the other city scents.”
“Our scents?” she echoed nervously.
“They have keen noses—keener even than a vampire’s. They’ll have picked up both our scents, and they’ll remember them.”
Tessa let out a shaky breath.
“ But , they’re not likely to pursue us into the city. In fact, now that we’ve gotten away, I doubt they’ll look for us at all. They’re known to be defensive of their territory, and to attack vampires in general, but they’re not known for attacking humans.”
“Amos you’re a vampire!”
He suppressed a smile. Her concern pleased him, but he didn’t want her to think he was taking the situation lightly. “Yes, but there are quite a few of us in the city. And a small handful of wolves is no match for the number of vampires a city like Chicago has. If they have even half a brain shared between all of them, they won’t come into the city.”
Tessa sat back against her seat, quiet as she stared out the windshield. Amos’s heart dropped as he realized he had been taking the situation too lightly. Not because of the werewolves, but because of Tessa. For most of their courtship, he’d had to escort her from place to place because of the danger of Markov’s sireless thralls. Hell, she’d been attacked by one. And now, on their first night out together, they’d been attacked again by a different supernatural creature. He’d wanted to show her how beautiful the night could be, and so far, he’d only showed her terror.
“I’m sorry,” he said into the heavy silence.
“It’s not your fault.”
But it was.
“Do you want me to take you back to your house?”
Tessa frowned, finally looking at him again. “Do you want to be alone?”
“God, no. But I’d understand if you needed some space.”
Her frown deepened. “Why would I need space?”
Amos sighed, hands tightening on the steering wheel. “Because knowing me has brought nothing but danger to your life.”
There was a stretch of silence that drew Amos’s nerves as tight as piano wire. Suddenly, Tessa laughed, sinking back into her seat. “Are all vampires this melodramatic?”
Amos didn’t know whether to be affronted or relieved. “ Melodramatic ?”
“O fragile mortal!” she cried, putting the back of her hand to her forehead. “How canst thou bear my insidious nature? Forsooth! Our picnic has been ruined by my dark and dangerous ways!”
“That’s not how you use ‘forsooth,’” Amos grumbled, but he was smiling now. Relief won out over pride.
Tessa abandoned her dramatic pose, grinning at him. “ Look, I can’t say I’m eager to run into werewolves again. But we made it out okay. I trust you, Amos.”
That simple declaration hit him straight in the chest. He swallowed hard, keeping down the impulsive words that kept trying to rise from his throat. Accept my claim. Tonight. Now.
But he couldn’t. He’d promised Tessa a proper courtship. Etta had spent more than year courting before she’d asked Fran to be her bloodmate. Amos had only just met Tessa two months ago. And besides, he hadn’t even presented her to the Council yet. It was too soon. She deserved more.
“I’m glad,” he finally said, voice a little raw.
Hours later, in the minutes before dawn, Amos held Tessa outside her mother’s house and kissed her with all the want and hunger and desperation that he couldn’t yet allow himself to put into words. He kissed her until the tug of his impending daysleep was too strong to ignore.
“I have to go,” he told her, breathless and frustrated and aching with want.
She kissed him once more, a sweet, chaste little peck, and climbed the steps to the front door. At the top of the steps, she paused, lifting her foot to look at the sole of her shoe. Something dark was squashed into the tread.
“What the hell?” she muttered, gripping her ankle and angling her foot so that the porch light illuminated the bottom of her shoe. There was a stick protruding from the mass, and Tessa grabbed it, pulling it away from her sole.
It was a flower. A carnation or something like it, halfway decomposed. The delicate petals had probably once been red, but they were burgundy-brown now, and slimy with rot .
“More garbage,” Tessa groused, flinging it to the ground. Wiping her hand on her coat, she spared one last glance at Amos. “Sleep well,” she said softly.
He smiled. “Sleep well.”