Page 52 of The Predator
My gaze took a long, slow hike up and down his body while I tried to reboot my brain. Damn, if he wasn’t a sight for sore eyes. His Navy SEAL T-shirt stretched across his muscled chest. His jeans were slung low on his hips, and his black hair was tied back into a low ponytail.
I licked my chapped lips. “Why are you giving me blood? Did I lose that much? I only hit my head.”
He examined me like a doctor. His lush green eyes had way too much emotion in them that I couldn’t quite figure out. He was holding something back.
“Oh my God. I have the vampire gene, don’t I?”
No response as he continued to cast an unnerving look at me.
“Sam, you’re frightening me. Am I dying of cancer?” My mom had died of breast cancer. “Did the doctors find something?”Please say no.“Does the drug in those darts have some sort of poison in them?”
It seemed as though someone had cut out his tongue as he loomed over me.
“Talk, dammit!” I shouted, and the bed moved.There must be some heavy construction going on across the street.“Something bad happened, didn’t it?” The only thing that came to mind was Rianne. “Please tell me you didn’t harm Rianne.”
He sneered.
I closed my eyes briefly, counting to three. I swore if he hurt her, I would break his neck. If he killed her, I would claw out his heart, cut off his dick, and poke out his eyes, in no particular order.
“She was fine when we left Montana.” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “She’s lucky I didn’t break any of her limbs.”
“Then spill already!” I screeched like a cat who’d been stepped on.
He scrubbed a hand down his scruffy jaw. “You know what Tabitha told you about your mom’s family, vampires and all?”
I knew it. “I’m going to crave blood for the rest of my life? That’s why you were giving me your blood.”
His features were stonelike. “Nope. The baby needs my blood.”
Time stopped. My breath halted in my lungs. My vision blurred, and my pulse pounded in my ears as the heart monitor beeped like crazy. I opened my mouth to speak, but I was at a loss for words.
He grabbed my hand, brought it to his lips, and kissed my palm softly.
I snagged my hand from him even though his tender actions had made my stomach flip like a gymnast performing her mat routine. “Could you please repeat that?” My voice wasn’t my own.
“I’m as astounded as you are,” he said. “We’re going to be parents.”
A bark of laughter, and not a happy one, tore from my lips. “Like hell we are!” I shouted as heat whipped through my body to clutch my cheeks. “It’s impossible. I don’t have that rare blood type.”
He cocked an eyebrow with an award-winning smirk that could land him in the beds of a thousand women, and my freaking belly flipped and fluttered again.
Damn vampire.
“Apparently, you do,” he said. “There’s a lot your parents didn’t tell you.”
Dr. Vieira waltzed in, lighting up like a kid on Christmas morning. “Good to see Sam’s blood helped. Your color has returned.” He stood on the other side of my bed, adjusting the stethoscope around his neck. “How are you feeling?” His brown eyes held warmth and excitement.
“Please tell me I’m not pregnant.” Tears were on the verge of spilling. I wasn’t one to cry, but I couldn’t be pregnant. I wasn’t prepared for kids. I wasn’t ready for a vampire kid.Holy fuckety fuck.
Dr. Vieira swapped a knowing look with Sam. “Tests don’t lie.”
I popped forward, tensing every muscle in me. “Then run it again!” My heart slammed against my rib cage. “I am not pregnant!” The machines behind me sang like a canary on a warm sunny morning. “I can’t be pregnant. Not by a vampire.”
Sam’s eyes flashed silver. “While I get you’re in shock, I have feelings too.”
I laughed, sounding like a crazy woman. “I’m supposed to care about your feelings? What about mine? Do you know how crazy it is for me, a vampire hunter, to be pregnant by a vampire?”
That was one for the books. My family would surely carve out my intestines—and the baby, for that matter. My father would roll over in his grave. My uncle would hunt me down and kill me for sure. I could never go home. I could never make amends with Rianne. The news of my pregnancy would seal her fate to do as Abbey’s vision had warned.
