Page 3 of Fated Mates and How to Seduce Them
“Really…out of it,” he finally decided. That was, unfortunately, the truth. His body did not feel connected to his mind just then. “Why…am I here?”
“Someone drugged you,” his big brother answered bluntly. “They had to bring you here to do some bloodwork and prove what she’d done. You took a half hour to wake up, by the way. When was the last time you fed?”
“Too long ago, apparently.” Well, at least he now understood why he was in the hospital. Even in his underfed state, whatever he’d drank shouldn’t have been strong enough to put him in the hospital. As a rule, human drugs didn’t work on vamps, but gathering evidence and letting him sleep it off made perfect sense.
Benedict scowled, more than ready to hit something if he had a target handy. His brother was generally mild mannered—right up until you crossed him, then he was the opposite of his namesake. “If you’d been properly fed, the drug wouldn’t have taken you out. Disoriented you, yes, but not anything near this level. Although it worked in our favor that you’re not well fed, as traces of the drug still lingered in your system, so we have evidence. Police said it was a girl you were drinking with?”
It took a second to click, the memory coming back in spurts. When it did, André groaned, eyes closing for a moment. “Shit. Now I remember. Todd invited me out, but I didn’t know he hada group of friends waiting at the bar. When we got there, one of the girls I’d never met before targeted me. I couldn’t avoid her, although I kept trying.”
In fact, he’d been trying to not start a huge thing. She’d been invited by Todd, and using Mesmerize on a pushy friend of a friend had felt like overkill. Also, unfortunately, illegal. Not that the humans around him had been sober enough to notice. Now he regretted not doing it, since he’d landed in the hospital. He should have been more forceful telling her off. Lesson learned.
“I started feeling off, woozy and out of it, so I decided I’d better leave. I…guess the drug must have taken effect then. All I remember is strong arms catching me and a male voice telling the girl off, saying she couldn’t have me. Then he lifted me and carried me into the back. I couldn’t get my mouth to cooperate enough to talk, and I think I blacked out, as I don’t remember anything after that.”
André also couldn’t remember much about the man who’d saved him, which was a rotten shame. He’d gathered the impression of a smooth baritone voice, and a brisk manner. A get-it-done sort of personality, or at least he had been at the time.
“One of the bartenders noticed her slipping something into your drink,” Mom told him, still with a worried frown pulling her brows together. “He alerted the other staff, took you into a back room, and had his boss keep watch over you while they called the police and an ambulance. Honey, when’s the last time you ate?”
André wanted to tell her that, as an adult, he could manage his own feeding, thank you very much. Except, well, he didn’t have a pinky toe to stand on at the moment. With a wince he admitted, “It may have been a few weeks?”
Her blue eyes narrowed at him with that patented Mom Look. “André…”
“I know, I know. I got caught up with schoolwork. Normally I feed from whoever I’m, uh, seeing, but it didn’t work out the last few times and…I have no excuse.” He gave her his best smile. “I’m sorry?”
“I don’t care how old you are, André, I’ll ground you if you ever do this again,” she threatened. Her expression said she was not joking.
André believed her. “I promise I won’t. I have definitely learned my lesson. So, um, what’s his name, the one who saved me?”
He could tell she didn’t want to let this topic go but, with another sigh, did so. “I’m told his name is Ian. He mentioned you go to the same university?”
André blinked up at her. Ian. Ian Moore? The bartender with the buzz cut? “I…think I know him? We share a Gen Ed class this semester, I think? We’re not friends, though.”
“Well, anyway, he did us all a favor tonight by watching out for you. I want to thank him personally if I can.”
André certainly would. He owed the man that much, at least. “What did she even give me?”
Vampires were immune to practically everything, after all. It was hard to find a single drug that would look at a vampire. Most drugs took in that rugged vampire physique and said “no thanks.” So what had the girl even tried on him?
“Hawthorn mixed in with a roofie,” Mom said with a wince.
Oh. Shit, yeah, that would do it. Hawthorn was the one thing vampires reacted to, like kryptonite. A common herb, unfortunately, and something people used regularly for medication, making it easy to lay hands on. Plus, it was SUPER effective on him, like potent Benadryl to the system, and he usually passed out just touching the damn stuff.
André hated hawthorn. A lot.
“I had a blood whiskey,” he explained to them both, kicking himself. “I didn’t even taste the hawthorn or the roofie, the shitty taste of bagged blood likely masking the flavor. Not to mention, not eating the past few weeks likely dulled my senses and made it hit even harder than usual.”
“That would do it,” Mom grumbled, looking pissed all over again. “You already don’t react well to hawthorn, so I’m not surprised it took you down so easily.”
“She’s in police custody.” Benedict had his evil smile on as he reported, “A security camera caught her drugging you, so we have clear proof aside from Ian’s testimony. She’s being charged with drugging you, attempted assault, and attempted kidnapping as, apparently, she’d been trying to take off with you.”
André couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Are you…serious? Who does that to someone they’ve known for ten minutes? Wait, why did—uh…I think her name was Janie?—have the drug on her to begin with? Did she have some sort of game plan? I can’t imagine a small thing like her carting me off, especially since I was basically unconscious.”
“She apparently just meant to make you compliant, not knock you out completely. She kept adding more hawthorn every time you ducked her, so she overdosed you, in essence. But yea, she knew you were coming in advance. Todd told her.” Benedict’s evil smile got a malicious glint to it. A promise of mayhem. Soon. “Todd and I will be having words later.”
“Don’t kill him.”
“Nonsense. I’d never. We’ll just have atalk.”
The talk sounded potentially dangerous. Limbs might not be attached afterward. Well, André could deal with that problem later. He turned to his mother. “I can be discharged now, right?”
