Page 31 of Blood Ties
“Wow! I thought he’d never leave.” I turned to see a petite woman with blazing red hair sitting next to me. Strange, I hadn’t even heard her approach. How long had she been sitting there? She was staring at me like I held her captivated, then eyed me up and down. It was really uncomfortable. “You. Are. Gorgeous!”
“Um… Thanks.” I turned back looking through the crowd willing Grayson to reappear.
“I mean, I knew you’d be beautiful, but damn.” I looked at her through my peripheral. Her elbow was resting on the bar top as she leaned against it. Her legs were crossed allowing her to bounce her foot in her high stilettos. She looked like someone circa the1920s with her short hair pressed smoothly to her head and her silver dress that glittered and adhered to her figure. I didn’t even bother with a reply. “Come with me,” she abruptly stated.Was this woman serious?She must have been sitting there long enough to have seen me with Grayson and as soon as he left she starts hitting on me. Shawn would be so proud. I rolled my eyes.
“No thanks.” I tried not to sound snide.
“You sure?” She swiveled until her body was facing me. “There are things you want to see; answers you seek. The truth will open your mind and blow your world.”
I doubted it. “As I said, no thanks.”
She sat there grinning for a minute longer before she stood with a shrug. “My mistake. I assumed you were Damian’s daughter. I mean you’re basically a carbon copy of him, but I guess I was wrong.” She turned and began walking way. Then it hit me. Damien. According to my mother, my father’s last known alias was Damien.
“Wait!” I shouted.
She turned and stared at me with a hint of mischief twinkling in her eye. “I knew you couldn’t resist my charms. You must be Gabriella.” She held her hand out for me to shake. “I’m Jade.” It was then I realized she too was a vampire. I had been so busy trying to ignore what I had assumed to be cheesy pickup lines that I hadn’t even noticed the eerie ripple of power I felt coming off of her. It was much stronger than the doorman. She was an old one. “Follow me.”
“Wait! My…”
“Your father wishes to speak with you first,” She cut me off. When she saw I didn’t budge, she continued. “Don’t worry. Your lover is already being detained.”
Detained? What the hell did that mean? Before I could contemplate it more, Jade was on the move. I deliberated only a moment before following her. As much as I detested leaving Grayson to his own devices, I needed to speak with Damien. Nothing was more important and I truly doubted that my father’s people would hurt him. They had no reason to. Jade led me to the back of the club. We walked down a dark corridor that led to a flight of stairs. It was oddly silent back there for a club. Reaching the top step, before Jade even had a chance to knock, the door was opened and we were ushered inside.
There wasn’t anything special to it. It looked like you would expect any office over a club to look. There was a large gunmetal desk resting against the center of the wall farthest away from the door. Gray filing cabinets lined the wall to the right of the desk. Chairs were scattered here and there. I froze as we entered taking everything in and watched as Jade strode over to the large office chair sitting behind the desk that was facing away from the door. Bending down she whispered something that, surprisingly, even my vampire hearing didn’t pick up.
The chair spun around and I couldn’t breathe past the lump that had formed in my throat. He looked so familiar from the shape of his face, his full lips, to his killer cheek bones. Then I saw my eyes looking back at me, all the way from the shape to the sapphire blue color. I had always thought I looked like my mother with our complexion, along with our physique, but looking at this man before me, I knew, without a doubt that I was his daughter.
“Gabriella?” he whispered.
I gave a slight shake of my head to ease myself out of stunned state. “Damien.”
His lips pressed into a tight line. “If that is what you prefer to call me than that will be acceptable.”
“It is.”
“Very well then. It has come to my attention, Gabriella, that you have been searching for me. I assume there is a reason, besides wanting to meet your long lost father.”
“There is.” I saw the corner of his mouth twitch and I thought that I had offended him with my honesty. I could deal with the proper etiquette of meeting my father at another time. For now, I needed to know about Grayson and if Damien could help me save him. I prayed he could. I looked around at the room full of what I had to assume were vampires, with the vibe I felt coming off of them. Damien seemed to notice my glance.
“Would you prefer to speak to in private?”
“I would.”
With a wave of his hand, everyone trailed out the room. “Better?” he inquired once we were alone. I nodded. “Good. Then tell me why you have been tracking me down. It has been causing quite the disturbance for my nest and I.”
I knew why I was there. I needed answers for Grayson, but standing there in front of my father, a man I had always assumed to be dead, I couldn’t help but blurt the one question that had been on my mind since my mother told me he was alive. “Why did you abandon me?” I immediately regretted it. Why he left didn’t matter. Grayson mattered, I told myself.
Damien didn’t even blink in surprise. He almost seemed to know the question was coming. His face relaxed as he inhaled a heavy breath. “Surely that is not why you are here.”
“It’s not. I just… I want to know why?”
He stood. Running his hand down his smooth face, he came around to sit on the corner of his desk. “Did your mother not explain to you?”
“She said that it was your way of keeping me safe.” I could hear the sadness in my voice, but I did my best to swallow it. Not needing to cry in front of this man who was all but a stranger to me.
“That is the truth, Gabriella. I have many enemies and I wanted to keep you safe. So I thought the best way to do that was to remove myself from your life permanently. It was why I sent you and your mother back to Anton after you were born. He was your mother’s sire and would be able to keep you both safe.”
“Anton is dead,” I spat. I was tired of hearing how everyone thought Anton would keep me safe and he happened to be the one putting my life, and Grayson’s life, in danger.
