“Was that so difficult?” he teased in thehopes of coaxing her into relaxing a little. The smile he gave herhad lured a lot of women into his bed, but she simply stared backat him. He’d met briars friendlier than this woman. Yet, somethingabout her had him enraptured, and it had nothing to do with herpretty face.
Paige refused to be swayed by the twinkle inhis sky blue eyes or the smile easing his handsome features. Shecould almost believe he was human, almost believe he was a goodman, but he survived on blood, and he wasn’t a normal man. “Whatare you going to do with me?”
“We’ll get you back to your family, to whereyou belong,” he assured her.
She stared doubtfully at him. “With mymemory intact?”
“You know that’s not an option,” Stefan saidfrom the doorway.
Paige tilted her chin up as she met theshark-like eyes of the man in the doorway. There were great whitesthat radiated more sympathy than him. “I have a right to keep mymemories,” she replied with more bravado than she felt.
“We have a right to keep ourselves safe,” heretorted.
The ringing of a phone silenced her protestas Stefan pulled it out from inside of his pocket. The strangelooking phone reminded her of a walkie-talkie. She’d never seenanything like it before. He looked at the phone and winced at thecaller ID. A smile lit his face though when he lifted it to hisear. “Hello love,” he greeted and turned on his heel to walk out ofthe room.
Paige frowned at the endearment and theabrupt softening of his tone. Someone loved that man? Andapparently he loved them too. She supposed even a shark had to kissanother shark once in a while.
“I don’t envy him,” Ian said.
She pursed her mouth as she fought againstasking the question he knew was on the tip of her tongue. Finally,she broke down and asked it, “Why not?”
“My sister is a little annoyed with himright now, and she can be worse than a bear when she’s in amood.”
“He’s in a relationship with yoursister?”
“It’sfarmore than a relationshipbetween them.”
Paige glanced over at him, her foreheadfurrowed as her gaze ran over him. “Were you and your sister turnedat the same time?”
Ian shook his head. “No.” He debated notelaborating further, but he didn’t see what damage it could do.She’d never remember this conversation anyway. “My siblings and Iare all born vampires.”
“How awful for you,” she muttered.
“You definitely had a bad experience tonightwith a vampire, and apparently at least one other time in yourlife, before tonight.” His gaze flicked pointedly toward the scarson her neck.
Paige fought the urge to touch her scarsagain. She felt inexplicably exposed before him. Most didn’t knowwhat the scars were from, and the ones who did recognize them,rarely mentioned them. They were proof she was a survivor, that shehad seen the darkness within this world, endured it and lived tosee another day. That was all most of the people she dealt with nowwanted, or needed, to know about her. She had no idea what he sawwhen he looked at her scars, but he appeared to have sympathy forher. Something she absolutely didnotappreciate from hiskind.
“But I can assure you,” he continued. “We’renot all like the vampire who attacked you tonight, or before.” Shewasn’t about to tell him they were one-in-the-same. “My family isfar from awful.”
“I’ll second that,” Mandy muttered as shefinished storing away her blood pressure cuff and stethoscope. “Imight be dead right now if it wasn’t for them, and Emma most likelywould be too, or she may be something worse.”
“Who is Emma?” Paige inquired.
“Emma is my sister-in-law,” Ian answered.“She’s also here. So is her husband, my brother Ethan, and some ofour friends.”
Paige really didn’t care to learn anythingmore about him, but her curiosity niggled at her. She’d never heardof a vampire being born before, and she’d definitely never heard ofa family of them, with friends. But then, he could be lying to her;she wouldn’t put it past him. It was what his kind did after all.Even if they did believe they could change her memories, she didn’tbelieve anything they told her was the truth.
She still couldn’t stop herself from asking,“How many siblings do you have?”
“Nine.”
“Nine?” she squeaked and wrapped her hand inthe blanket.
“And every single one of them would nevermistreat you,” Ian assured her.
Movement in the doorway drew his attentionto Emma as she stepped into the room. At five foot four she wassmall in stature, but she radiated warmth far beyond her size.“Hi,” she greeted and strolled across the room toward the woman.“I’m Emma Byrne.”
The woman recoiled when Emma thrust out herhand, her hand fisted on the bed, but before anyone could react ablur raced into the room. Ian barely detected Ethan before he stoodbetween Emma and the woman. His eyes danced with flames of red ashe glared at the woman who had quickly retreated to the far cornerof the bed.
