“Yes. Nabel had gotten a tip he was in thearea and we went to look for him.”
She would have been the perfect bait for herfather. The realization caused his teeth to clamp down and hisfangs to slide free. He took a minute to steady himself beforespeaking again. “Where were you before?”
“California, and that’s all I’m telling youabout that. The hunters may have considered me chum in the water,but I’m still not revealing anymore about them. They may be wrong,but they still try to do good in this world.”
“I’m not going to ask you to tell meanything you don’t want to.”
“I’d planned to find him before he found meagain,” Paige murmured and lowered her head to stare at theunfamiliar images on the TV screen.
“How did he find you?”
“He discovered I survived his first attackand came for me. The newspapers printed my story. I always assumedthat’s how he knew I’d survived. But what do I know? Maybe he’dkept me alive so he could torment me, haunt me, stalk me until hefinally put me out of my misery, or drove me completely insane. Iguess it wasn’t difficult for him to find me after, not in thebeginning anyway, I didn’t know where to go. I moved to New York,got a job and searched for anyone who could help me, but I had noidea how to go about doing that.”
Tremors wracked her body when she pressedcloser against him. “What did he do when he found you?”
“He came at me again. This time when heattacked me, he left no doubt he meant to keep me alive. He beatme, he broke my ribs again, and he fed from me, but I was stillconscious when he left. I fled New York after, went to Florida andestablished a whole new life. One year later, he found me again anddid the same thing. I don’t know if he’d always known where I was,or if he’d just stumbled across me. After that I didn’t know whatto do, who to turn to, or where to go. I was convinced he’d find meno matter where I went; he told me he would and that he’d see meagain soon.
“I’d been trying to get into better fightingcondition, but I knew I needed more. I fled Florida for Kansas, andthen I went to Missouri. From there I went to New Mexico. It wasthere I found some other people who had survived vampireattacks.”
“How did you find them?”
“The internet.”
“Oh God,” he groaned. “You’re lucky youdidn’t get killed. And what did you type in to find these othervampire attack survivors?”
“Survivors of vampire attacks.”
“Of course you did,” he replied dryly.
“I met a lot of loonies.”
“Of course you did.”
She rolled her eyes at him and shook herhead. “But I finally came across a survivor who seemed legitimateenough to meet in person, Franco.”
“I hope you met in a public place.”
“Of course we did, I’m not a complete idiot,no matter what you think. He was also a survivor, and he had thescars to prove it.” Her hand pressed against the scars on her neckbefore falling into her lap again. “After a few months we began totrust one another enough that he introduced me to Nabel, and I lethim know where I lived. Franco was one of the people I would trainwith once in a while.”
“What happened after you met Nabel?” He ranhis hands up and down her arms, rubbing away the goose bumpsforming there.
“They gave me a whole new identity, moved meto a more secure location, and for the first time in three and ahalf years, I actually felt safe again. I was able to sleep atleast two or three hours straight at night, instead of waking upevery hour. I believed I might actually live a week or two into thefuture.”
Ian pressed a kiss against her temple, thenlifting her up, he settled her into his lap and cradled her closeragainst him. He really wished he’d been able to take out the pieceof shit who fathered her that night in the alley; the first chancehe got, he was going to destroy him. He’d make sure the man nevercame near her again.
“And now he’s found me again,” she murmured.Her head tilted back; her eyes were bright in the light of the TV.“How does he keep finding me?”
“I don’t know,” he murmured. “But we’llfigure that out and put an end to it.”
“How did he convince those vampires at thecabin to help him?”
“He probably created them.”
“Really?”
He rubbed at the stubble lining his chin.“Yes, I’ve seen it before. He created them, and they’re willing todo what he asks of them. They weren’t very old.”
Paige’s fingers dug into his flesh. “You’rein danger. You should send me away, you should get far away from meIan; he’s never going to stop.”
