Page 44 of Night of the Vampire
Home. I liked the sound of that.
Her eyes fluttered open and she looked around in somewhat of a daze. When she saw the house just ahead, she stared at the two-story structure like I was asking her to walk through the gates of hell. "I can't stay here anymore."
"What are you talking about? Of course you can. You can stay as long as you'd like." You will stay until the day I no longer exist.
She reached for the door handle. "No, I can't. I just need to go get Wiggles." Before I could stop her, she was out of the car and walking toward the house faster than I would have thought possible in the state she was in.
I got out and locked the car, catching up to her easily. "You don't have to leave. The house is empty. You're welcome to stay as long as you want. I told you this."
"That was before."
"Before what?"
"Before tonight," she spit at me.
Her hatred hit me so hard at first I thought it was a spell of some sort. Another consequence of our mating. She was angry. But at least she wasn't scared now that she was back on her own stomping grounds. I started to reach out to her with my mind, wanting to know everything she was thinking, but pulled back at the last minute. I didn't need to invade her privacy to figure out what she was feeling. It was quite obvious by her body language.
We reached the side gate and I punched in the code, holding it open for her. "I didn't know this would happen, Lizzy."
"Didn't you?"
What the hell was that supposed to mean? "No," I told her. "I didn't. No one ever knows until it happens. I explained this to you."
At the back door she stopped and pulled out her key. The one I had given her. She wouldn't look at me. "I can take care of myself now. You can go. I’ll be out of here by morning."
She was dismissing me?
I don't bloody think so.
Reaching into her mind, I twisted her thoughts to be in accordance with my own. "You will stay here. You need food. And rest. You can barely stand up."
She spun on me so fast she almost caught me by surprise. "And whose fault is that?" she railed, weaving on her feet. "Who did this to me, Killian?" She thrust her wrist into my face. Kenya's and my bite marks were still quite obvious beneath a streak of blood.
My fangs shot down and I breathed in through my mouth to control the thirst.
Lizzy's eyes widened, then flew back and forth between my mouth and her wrist before she lowered her arm and stuck her hand behind her back. "I don't want this," she told me.
I tried to reason with her. "You came here to start a new life."
"Not this life."
At least her anger was putting some color back into her face. Honestly, I was unsure how to handle the situation from here. My mate was staring up at me with fire in her eyes, denying me what was mine. Her blood. Her body. Her company.
Her love.
Anger flooded through me. I didn't need her fucking love. I just needed her to behave. Lizzy was mine. More so than Jamal or Kenya or any of the others. More so than any who had come before her. And she needed to get that through her thick head. And the sooner she did the better off she would be. "It's not a choice, Acushla. This is your life now."
"No, it's not."
"Lizzy, I understand this is a lot to take in, but you will accept it."
"Or you'll do what, exactly?"
I smiled at her. It wasn't a nice smile, and by the way her heartbeat picked up it got my meaning across perfectly. Wrapping my hand around her throat, I forced her to look up at me.
She met my stare with a rebellious one of her own. Even weak from lack of blood she stood up to me. It was admirable. And foolish. But what she didn't realize was that I liked it.
Lowering my head, I nipped at her lips. So soft. So perfect. She didn't say anything. Didn't touch me. But she didn't have to, because her body gave her away. The musky scent of her desire rose between us, eliciting a growl from my throat right before I took her lips with mine. She froze for a brief moment before her lips parted to let me in, an invitation I wasn't about to refuse. I gave her no time to think, only to feel as I possessed her mouth, just like I would possess the rest of her. Mind, body, and soul.
