Page 44 of House of Deceit

Carver sucked again.

Dante was pretty sure that the blood had already stopped flowing from the small nick but the boy didn’t seem to want to release him quite yet.

“If my guess is correct, you were turned when the city was taken over five years ago by the rogues,” Dante continued.

As Carver stiffened and nearly dropped Dante’s thumb, he knew he was right.

“I’m so sorry, baby. That should have never happened. I blame myself. I had gotten comfortable here and wasn’t prepared for my enemies to attack my beloved city. They packed rogue vampires, shifters, demons, and mages into shipping containers that were delivered to the ports. They were released before my people knew there was a problem.”

Carver sucked slower as he listened. At least Dante had the boy’s full attention.

“As soon as we were made aware of what was happening, everyone from the clan went into the city to help. Even Jesse went to help and he was injured as well. That is one of the reasons that Nicholas is so protective of him now. We hadn’t expected to be attacked in our own territory.”

“Jesse was hurt?” Carver had removed Dante’s thumb to ask his question but continued to hold on to him.

“Yes,” Dante answered. “As he was helping a human mom get her kids inside their house, a demon attacked him. He was nearly killed. He is recovered now but it is hard for him to leave the safety of the house. Nicholas also has nightmares from when he found Jesse close to death.”

“I’m sorry that happened to him,” Carver said sincerely.

“And I’m sorry that you were turned that night,” Dante replied.

Carver nodded. He rubbed his fingers over Dante’s thumb as if he needed something to focus on. “I went out for ice cream. I’d had the worst craving for mint chocolate chip all day but was working on edits for my latest book. I told myself if I finished the edits, I would run to the corner store as a reward. That’s why I was on the streets so late at night.”

Pulling Carver close, Dante kissed the top of his head. That broke Dante’s heart.

“If I hadn’t wanted that stupid ice cream, or finished my edits sooner, or didn’t finish them at all, I wouldn’t…I wouldn’t be like this.”

Dante understood.

“I was in so much pain. I thought I was dying. And then I wasn’t dead but had this horrible hunger. I couldn’t eat or drink anything. That’s when I knew. I’d seen that guy’s fangs before he started to drain me. I knew I had been turned into a monster.”

He tried not to wince at the word monster. Dante had been hearing that term for a very long time. “What happened to him?”

“I don’t know. Someone threw something on him and he burnt up,” Carver said. “I was weak from blood loss and passed out. By the time I woke, he was gone. It was all over.”

“We looked for the injured and affected humans as soon as we killed all the rogues,” Dante explained. “There weren’t many that suffered as permanently as you did. The other vampires attacked and killed. Had the vampire finished draining you, then you wouldn’t be here with me now.”

“I wondered,” Carver said. “How I was changed. It’s not like the movies.”