Page 73 of Love Bites
Talon sat at the edge of the bed and I sat next to him. "Ready?" I asked.
He took a breath and exhaled. "Ready." He showed me his neck. I leaned over and bit.
God, biting Talon felt so good I almost wanted to lose myself in the sensation again. But I had a job to do here.Focus, Collin,I told myself. Talon's spirit—no, hissoul—was all around me. We were connected, I only had to... reach out.
Suddenly, I felt myself drawn into him. I didn't resist.
Show me everything,I thought.
A scene unfolded in front of my eyes. I felt as if I was simultaneously floating above it and right in the middle of it. I was bodiless. I was everywhere. I watched as a young man was being attacked by a vampire on a dark street. It wasn't Talon. But Talon was there, walking down the same street, toward the vampire and its victim. As he came closer, he broke into a sprint.
"Hey, what are you doing to him?" he demanded.
The vampire let go of his original victim and turned to Talon with a slow, bloodied smile. "You, I like your spirit."
I wanted to close my eyes from everything that happened after, but couldn't. Horrified, I watched as the vampire overpowered Talon and sank his teeth into him. Talon didn't struggle. If his experience was anything like mine, I knew that he couldn’t. He was at this vampire's mercy, but the vampire drank until Talon had no more blood to give. When the vampire finally let go, Talon hung lifeless in his hold.
The vampire smiled again, and then he punctured his own wrist with his teeth before pressing his wrist to Talon's lips. "Drink, young one," he said. "Drink and rise."
The scene cut there, but it wasn't the only one I saw. Every time, Talon's memories seemed to go a little farther back.
I watched him go to work at an accounting firm or something like that, something that involved a lot of numbers. I watched him read his daughter a goodnight story involving a bunny and a fox. Elizabeth, that was her name. But he called her Lissa, or sweetheart, or darling. She called him Daddy. His wife called him honey, or Rob. Robert, that had beenhisname. I couldn't think of Talon like that, though.
Rob had led a fairly normal life, not a bad one, by any means. He smiled often and readily. He was affectionate with his wife, Helen, and regularly brought her flowers even years after they married. Even further back, I watched him enroll in college. I watched him graduate high school, an all-boys school that made him wear a ridiculous brown school uniform that broke so many laws of fashion it wasn't even funny.
I watched him and his mother celebrate the end of the war that had taken his father from him, and I felt immediate sympathy when I watched him comfort his mother at his father's grave as a teenager.
When I came up for air again, I felt emotionally exhausted just from watching and I could only guess how Talon might be feeling. He sat still by my side, rubbing his face before reaching for the bottle of blood again. I rested a hand on his shoulder, just to let him know I was there, really.
"Was that what you needed?" I asked after we'd passed a few minutes in silence.
"I'm not sure," he admitted, his voice gravelly. I pressed myself against his side, wanting nothing more than to make him feel better.
"Your daughter was adorable," I said, kind of hoping that my kid with him would be equally as cute.
Talon gave a heavy sigh, making me wonder if he wanted to see Lissa, even if she wasn't a little girl anymore.
"How long has it been?" I asked.
"Just about fifty years."
Yes, definitely not a little girl anymore.
Talon shook his head. "I'm not that person anymore, even if I remember him."
I agreed. Talon was nothing like Rob. In some ways, my heart ached for the kind man whose life had ended so abruptly, but if that hadn't happened... I'd never have met Talon, and that possibility wasn't something I wanted to contemplate. "He's still a part of you, though," I found myself saying, because that was true too. The affectionate way he'd treated his wife, I saw that reflected in the way he treated me. Whatever else had happened to 'Rob' when he'd been turned into a vampire, he hadn't lost his ability to love. Only his memory of it.
Talon ran a hand back through his hair. "I suppose so."
"You should take some time to process."
"I don't have a lot of time to process. Zenon has summoned me to speak to him privately in a few days’ time. He doesn't do that often. His guard will be down. It's my time to strike."
Zenon? I could only assume that was the vampire who had turned him; his sire. I hated the man, and I didn't even know him. "You could wait for your next chance." Truth be told, I didn't like the idea of Talon putting himself at risk. Especially not so soon.
"I can't wait that long. I keep thinking about that kid who died when your home was attacked. That could have been you."
I grimaced when Talon brought up Damian. "Luke's still grieving. I've never seen him so down, not even after Dad passed. I think he's blaming himself."
