“Deal with it, I guess.And I don’t understand you when you say that she’s not spending your money?Why do you care what she does with her own money?It’s hers, isn’t it?”He said he was missing the point.“I think you’re just looking for things to be upset about.She does things on her own.Spends her own money.She sounds to me like the perfect mate for you.No one you have to mess with anyway.Let her be her own, and you won’t have to mess with her.Sure, she’s your mate, but other than her getting a little magic from you, it sounds like you’ve got it made.”
“I don’t want to have to deal with anything.This is just ridiculous.I thought that you’d be on my side.”He said he didn’t think that would be a smart move on his part.“Because you have a human mate too?”
“Because I love my mate and she’s no longer human.If you bond with Kimber, then she’ll no longer be human either.Have you given any thought to that?”He told him it’s all he thought about.Bonding with a human.“You’re just wanting to be in a bad mood, so I can’t talk to you anymore.If you see reason, then reach out to me.Otherwise, I don’t know what to say to you.
When the connection closed, he felt anger.As his king, he was supposed to help him when he had problems.All he’d done was listen to him for a while and tell him that he was shit out of luck.He knew that.He wanted someone to tell him what he could do to get out of it.
Rance found himself back by her house again.It was really in a poor neighborhood, and he could see where the police might be called down here several times a night.Waiting outside her door, he knocked and asked her to let him in.Instead of getting the reply that he thought he would, he was met with silence.
He couldn’t enter even though he’d been in the place before.She’d been right in her wording, and he wondered who she’d been speaking to in order to keep him out.Instead of going over that in his head again, he closed his eyes and searched her place.It was then that he found her on the kitchen floor, bleeding out.
“Open the door, Kimber.I can’t come in unless you allow me to.”Busting the front door down, the only thing he could think to do he saw her lying on the floor with a pool of blood all around her.He tried to enter her domain, but because of her, he was unable to get to her.“Damn it all to fuck and back.Just say the words.”
She looked up at him, and he could see the cuts and bruises forming on her face.Begging her to allow him in, she laid back down in her own blood and said nothing more.He could hear her whispering something, so he used his considerable hearing to make out what she was saying.
“I don’t know who that was.They said something about a check.”He knew he should have stayed with her, and now look, she was hurt.Maybe even dying.Reaching out to anyone in the building, he finally got a neighbor to respond.“I’m going to die right here.I hurt so badly.”
“You have to go inside and find her.”He hadn’t used compulsion in some time, so wasn’t sure it was going to work on the elderly lady.“The door is open.Just go inside and find her, then call 911.”
Finally, after several more tries, he got the woman to go into the room and to call the police.He didn’t know how long it would take for them to get there, so he begged Kimber again to allow him in.He was about ready to give up when she finally looked at him from the floor.
“Come help me.Please?”He said she had to say the words.“I don’t know what they are.I hurt.Someone hurt me.”
“I know, baby.Just tell me that I can come in, and I’ll help you with my blood.”She said that she was going to die and he’d like that.“Just say the words, Kimber, and I’ll come to you.”
“You can come into my house this one time.”It was enough for him to get into the doorway, and he went to her.They’d done a good job on making sure she was on deaths’ bed before they left her, and he had their scent now.As soon as he touched her head, he was shocked that she was still alive.The trauma to her head was a deep wound, and he could see part of her skull.“I’m going to die.You should be happy.”
“I’m not.Now hush so I can figure out where you’re hurt.”Her ribs were all broken, and he was surprised that she could even breathe, much less talk.Her left leg was broken, as was her right arm.But it was her chest and stomach that bothered him the most.It looked as if she’d taken quite a few blows there with booted feet.He opened his vein for her.“Here.I want you to drink this.”
“It’s warm.You should be cold.”He didn’t know where she was getting her information, but he was going to find her a book.One that had been written by a vampire to help newbies learn what they needed to do to survive and the rules that they had to follow.“I don’t want your blood.That will bond us.I remember you saying that.”
“Just hush and take it.It’ll save your life.”He put his wrist over her mouth and pinched off her nose.He didn’t know if this would work or not, but he knew that he had to do something.This was hisfault, and he was going to make sure that she lived, even if he had to drain himself dry to do it.“Come on, baby.You can do this.Take a bit more into your body.”
She must have passed out because his blood was dripping down the side of her mouth.When he moved her to another position to get her to drink more, she moaned, and he felt his monster pull at him.Right now wouldn’t be the time for him to show himself because he could hear the sirens coming.
By the time the ambulance pulled into the driveway, he’d given her a great deal of his blood.She was still hurting; every time he moved her, she would cry out, but he thought that she had a better chance of surviving than she had before she let him into her home.Even in pain, she’d kept him from entering again.He was going to have to do something about that wording in the event that something like this happened again.He got out of the medics’ way when they came in with their bags.
It was a good hour before they were able to get her stable.Then another twenty minutes or so before they got her into the ambulance and left.Instead of going with them, they didn’t have the room for him anyway; he willed himself to the hospital and called Brew.He couldn’t let him in his mind right now, for it was a jumbled mess.
“Where are you now?”He told him he was at the hospital waiting for the ambulance to arrive.“I’m on my way.I’m bringing Calla Lily, so behave yourself, or I’ll let her have you.You know that she’s not going to take this too well when all she wanted was for you guys to have mates so that she could have some friends.If you get out of hand, you’re all on your own.”
“I understand.”He thought about how much blood he’d given her and told Brew.“I don’t know if I changed her or not.She was beaten up badly, and she still might not make it.She coded twice at the house she lives in.”
“We’ll be there soon.”Thanking his friend, he was glad that he’d not told anyone about how he’d been acting.He was still pissed off that he was mated to a human, but there was little he could do about it now.They had exchanged blood, him taking a bit from her while she was out so that he could find her again, and that made them a couple.He didn’t know how she was going to take that either, but was hoping for the best.Time would tell, he knew.
The ambulance arrived just as he was ready to go look for it.He just knew that something else had happened, and he only had himself to blame.Two things that he noticed about Kimber when she was brought in were that she had a white streak in her hair, much like Calla did, and that she had some color to her cheeks.Good things he knew, but that didn’t make him worry any less.
She was taken right up to surgery to have her wounds looked into and her head sewn back together.When Brew and Calla showed up, they hugged him tightly and told him that they were there for him.Brew said that he’d give her some of his blood too if it came to that.That would be good, as he was the most powerful vampire there was, next to Calla.The two of them were the king and queen of their kind and had enough power to rule all of the vampires of the world.
He was asked to fill out the paperwork for her, and Brew suggested he put down that she was his wife.Otherwise, he’d not get any information about her when it was there.Doing as he said, he felt like this was going to be one more thing that she was going to be pissed about, and found that he didn’t care.She was going to live even if he had to make her, and that was final.As soon as the doctor came out to see them, he just knew that she’d not made it.
Chapter 3
Calla watched the young woman breathe.It was hard to miss since she was on a machine to help her breathe in and out.As soon as the monitor over her head beeped again, she had a feeling that the young woman was going to make it, and she’d have someone to talk to.Picking up her cold hand, she put it to her cheek and spoke to her.
“I know your name is Kimber.I have a feeling that you go by something else.Like Kim and the big bad vampire likes your given name.Same with me.My mate loves calling me his Calla Lily.I’ve grown used to it.”She put her hand down and covered it with the blankets.“I know you’re going to have lots of questions.I did too.I’ve read the book that Brew gave me, and it’s helped a great deal.”
The machine beeped again.She had no idea what it was for, but every time it beeped she knew that Kimber had lived for another minute.Just looking at her face and arms made her feel like she was lucky that she’d lived as long as she had.
