“I’ll take care of everyone,” Brian said. “They’ll never know what happened.”
“Does he have the power to do that?” Isabelle asked Stefan as he led her out to the idling cars.
“Yes,” he said, opening the backdoor of Jack’s car for her.
She waited for him to slide in beside her and close the door. “Do you?”
“Yes.”
She frowned as she leaned against his side, absorbing his warmth, and comfort. “Will you tell me everything?”
“Yes.”
CHAPTER 23
Isabelle woke slowly the next morning, instinctively snuggling closer to Stefan as she drifted awake. She didn’t remember being placed in the bed, or losing her clothes, but both had occurred. She smiled softly, almost purring as Stefan ran a hand lightly down her back, causing shivers of delight to course through her. She moved closer to him, savoring in the warmth of his body as his hand dipped between her legs.
She gasped and jerked as pleasure coursed through her. His mouth seared into her neck and back as he left a trail of hot, lingering kisses across her skin. Trembling with need, Isabelle was swept away by his touch as he continued to make slow love to her with his hand. Isabelle moaned her displeasure when his hand slid away from her. She was about to roll over, when he slid on top of her, his hard body pressingagainst her back.
“Stefan,” she gasped in surprise as his strong thigh parted her legs.
“Shh,” he soothed, lightly nibbling upon her ear.
Isabelle forgot all about her fearas he slid slowly into her, enfolding her as he moved over her, his hands clasping hold of hers. Isabelle was whimpering with pleasure when he seized hold of her waist and pulled her to her knees. She was swept away by the feel of him, the delicious sensations that flooded her body as his movements became fiercer, more demanding. His hands encircled her, fondling and caressing her breasts as he lightly teased her nipples.
Isabellecried outwith the force of the orgasm that ripped through her, shaking her legs, and causing her entire body to convulse with pleasure. His arms held her up as he drove fiercely into her, groaning loudly as his trembling arms tightened around herand he spilled into her.
She collapsed onto the bed, panting for air, and trembling from the shivers of delectation that still wracked her. Stefan fell beside her, pulling her on top of his chest and entrapping her tightly against him. She sighed happily as she nuzzled his chest, relishing in the feel of him against her. Her hands curled tightly around his neck, lightly playing with the soft hair that curled at the base of it.
The memory of everything that had happened yesterday, and the day before,crashedbackover her. Her hands tightened as a soft whimper escaped her. She buried her head in his neck as she tried not to think about it, tried not to recall the fear and horror that had filled her. He gently soothed back her hair as he lightly stroked her back. Isabelle didn’t want to move, didn’t want to think about anything, but she knew that she had too.She had to know the truth, and she couldn’t put it off forever, no matter how much she wished too.
“Stefan...”
“When I was eleven my family and I were coming back from the theater when we were attacked,” he said softly, knowing what she was going to say before she even spoke. The time for the truth had arrived, and he wanted to get it over and done with as soon as possible. His hold tightened on her as he opened himself up to memories that he had been trying to forget for a long time. Memories that he had never wanted to return to, and had never wanted her exposed to, but she had to know, and he was going to tell her.
“There were three of them, two men, and one woman.Vampires. They trapped us in an alley,andkilledmy mother and father instantly. My brother was sixteen at the time, and my sister had just turned fifteen. My brother tried to stop them, he went after them, but he was useless against them. My sister grabbed me and started running toward the street. I tried to go back, but she wouldn’t let go of me. My brother’s dying screams followed us out of that alley.”
Isabelle shuddered against him; tears welledin her eyes as she continued to stroke the back of his neck. His voice was hard and cold as he spoke,itrevealedno emotion. If it weren’t for his hands tightening upon her waist, she would have thought that the death of his family had had no effect on him. But his hands, and the stiffness in his body, belied the coldness that radiated in his voice.
“We were sent to live with my aunt and uncle in Wales.Neither my sister, norI, ever spoke of what had happened, not even to each other. I think we were both scared that we would end up inBedlam;at least I knew I was. She married three years later and moved back to London. I didn’t see her again until I was eighteen, and by that time, she had a son. That was the only time I tried to talk to her about what had happened, she screamed at me, telling me that they were just thieves,andthat I was crazy. When I pressed the issue, she told me to get out of her house, and to never come back. I never did.
“After that, I searched London. I knew what I had seen, what they were, and I was determined to seek vengeance for my family. When I couldn’t find them there, I went to the continent. I spent a long time searching France, Spain, and Germany before moving onto Italy. That was when I met up with a group of vampire hunters, and joined them. I was twenty one at the time.”
Stefan paused to take a deep breath. Isabelle remained silent, her hands curledtightly into his neck as she fought back the tears that wanted to flow. Tears she instinctively knew would cause him to stop speaking. He didn’t want her tears, but her heart was breaking for the boy that he had been, for the cruel twist of fate that had ripped his family away from him and caused him to grow up in an instant.
She couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to lose any of her family, it was like a knife in the chest just thinking about it. She couldn’t imagine what it had been like for him to see them murdered, and so viciously. She wanted to cry for the man that had gone to his sister, only to be turned away by the only family he had left. If the woman had still been alive, Isabelle would have ripped her to shreds for being so cruel to him, for hurting him in such a way.
“For the next five years I searched the continent, destroying any vampires I came across. I found the two men in that time, both in Greece. With the help of my new friends, I was able to overtake, and destroy them, but the girl still evaded me.”
“I ran into her again two years later, in Dublin. Her name was Brenda.” His voice was hard and strained, his hands dug painfully into her soft skin. She knew that he wasn’t aware of it, and she made no sound, no protest to let him know. “She recognized me, remembered me. I was alone against her, consumed with vengeance, and hatred. It wasn’t enough. She won the fight, but thought that it would be more fun, moreamusingto turn meinto the one thing that I had hated for the last sixteen years.
“She changed me, instead of killing me. I fought like hell against it, but as you know, the harder you fight, the more it hurts and the harder it becomes to fight. She forced her blood into me, and disappeared. After that, I had nowhere to go, no idea of what to do. I couldn’t return to my friends, they would have killed me instantly, so I left Europe and went to Canada.”
Isabelle could no longer hold back hertears;they slid down her cheeks to wet his shoulder. Pain engulfed herforthe man that he had been, for the man that he could have been if things had been different. She bit back a sob as his hands eased on her waist and he began to stroke her back again. She was the one that should have been offering comfort, not the other way around. She snuggled closer, pressing herself tighter against him as she stroked his neck, hoping to ease some of the anguish that radiated from his body. He sighed softly, nuzzling her neck for a moment before speaking again in a softer, less cold voice.
“I spent the next fifty years traveling between Canada and the states. A lot of our kind had come here. It was a wonderful place for them to feed. People could just disappear into the wilderness with no questions asked.
“I hunted the killersamongstour kind, feeding off of them, growing stronger. I couldn’t go for the most powerfulones;they would have destroyed me so I bidedmy time, destroying the newer ones until I grew stronger. I met Brian in Boston when I was seventy eight. He had been changed twenty years earlier, his wife, and children were murdered at the same time.”
