Bloodline (Paranormal Romance, Dark & Twisted) Saving Demons Series Book 1

A bed tray full of fruit and eggs, muffins and bagels, sausage and pancakes topped with whipped cream awaited me when I awoke. It was probably the smell of food that caused me to wake. I was famished. But I was hesitant to eat. I sat up, pulling the tray to my side, examining the delicious spread of food. My stomach complained, so I plucked a sausage link up off the silver plate and devoured it. Then, like a pig, I wolfed down the eggs.

  Then the pancakes.

  Then the bagels.

  Then the muffin.

  I kept on going until there was nothing left on the plate except for a smidgen of whipped cream.

  I looked around the room, making sure no one was there to witness what I was about to do. Then I brought the plate to my face and licked up the whipped cream until the plate had a clean-from-the-cupboard look to it.

  That's when I noticed the bandages on my wrists. I paused, still holding the plate near my face, my breath bouncing off the silver. My mind felt much clearer and crisper than it had last night. I remembered the sharp, jagged bands that cut into my arms, and it all came rushing back to me. Except for the fact that Sean had bitten me, I still couldn't remember the stuff that happened while my mind felt like a scrambled egg, due to the drug I had been given. But what I could remember I remembered clearly.

  I discarded the plate without thought and lifted my jeans at the ankle to find more bandages. I glanced around the room. Finding what I was looking for, I rushed out of bed and across the room to the mirror. It was broken, like someone had punched it, but I could still see my reflection.

  And I was startled to discover that I didn't look like a complete mess. My hair had been combed. My skin had been cleaned of blood. I tipped my head to the side, moving silky, soft strands of white hair away from my neck. I wiped the unmarred flesh with the palm of my hand, growing even more confused. How could have Sean bitten me and not left a mark? Had I imagined the whole thing? Had I been given an hallucinogen? Was last night just a dream?

  I knew in my heart that it wasn't an hallucination or a dream.

  So then where were the teeth marks?

  What exactly happened to me? And why the freak did I need to be near Sean? I craved him. I wanted him to come into this room and just be near me. That's all. He just needed to stand there. Ok, maybe he needed to look at me with that adoration in his eyes, too. I liked that when he did that. I liked it a lot, actually.

  But I had to get out of there.

  I went to the door, but before I could even reach it, it opened up in front of me.

  And there he was.

  Oh, yes! And the ache was now gone.

  Sean was standing in the doorway. He was dressed in black. His silky, onyx hair was held back in a ponytail, enhancing the intensity of his sapphire eyes. Which, I just now noticed, were laced with copper. A brilliant copper color circled the edges of his irises. I had never seen anything like it before.

  Sean was just so breathtakingly gorgeous!

  I remembered the power he displayed to me last night. A glimpse of the magic he was capable of. The look he held in his eyes. The kiss. That remarkable, unforgettable kiss.

  I stood near the threshold, confused. I knew I needed to get away from him, but yet I couldn't. Right here, with him standing before me, that horrible ache was gone. For reasons I did not understand, my body craved being in his presence. There was an indestructible connection between him and I. Where it had come from, I had no flipping clue! But as sure as I was breathing, it was there. I couldn't even fake the fact that I didn't feel bound to him in some strange way.

  Bound---

  "You are anxious to leave me so soon?" he questioned me. I had a feeling he was standing there watching the battle taking place inside me. I had a feeling he knew that I did not have a simple answer to his question.

  Pulled out of the mess that was my thoughts, I focused my attention on him. Sean smiled. Softness glittered in his eyes. Adoration lightened his heavy gaze.

  No one had ever adored me before.

  This look in his eyes melted away the urgency to flee from him. My mind was made up. As complicated as it was, I was not going to leave him. I was not going to stay away from him. At least, not until I solved the mystery that shrouded him and I.

  "You said you would take me home in the morning." I gestured to the window, to the thin strip of light that splashed on the floor. "It's morning."

  Sean took one step into the room.

  Instinctively, I tensed. He seemed to notice. He seemed to be studying me closely.

  "You will find, soon enough, that I am a man of my word," he said. While he watched me with that intense, calculating, gaze, he took one more step into the room and then stopped, as if to evaluate my reaction.

  I really didn't want him coming any closer. I knew it was silly, especially when I longed to feel his strong arms around me and all but physically ached to be kissed by him again. But I just couldn't deny, no matter how tough and fearless I convinced myself I was at times, that Sean Hylander frightened me.

  "Can we go then?" My tension was evident in the tone of my voice. Even if it wasn't, I was certain Sean could see it, that he could see right through my flesh and into messy mind.

  I shivered.

  Sean did not answer me. Instead, he held out his large hand for me to take. My heart ticked a little faster with the thought of bringing myself near to him, of taking his hand.

  Instead of taking the hand he was offering me, I laced my fingers together to try to keep them from noticeably trembling.

  "Please, just tell me," I said.

  The look of compassion and affection in his eyes told me he did not want to deny me anything, that he would hand me the moon if it was within his power to do so. But for some reason, answering this particular question, seemed more difficult for him than acquiring the moon would have been.

  Sean straightened his spine, looking even taller and larger than before. The mounds of his chest strained against the gauzy, black fabric of his shirt. For a moment, I wondered what he looked like without one. I was only curious because I had never seen a man so big as Sean before. Of course there was Bane, who was bigger, by far, but Bane did not count. Bane was not in my real world. He existed solely in my dreams. He was simply a concoction of my wild and crazy imagination, spawned by my desire to be desired for what was hidden beneath my skin instead of what was on its surface.

  I had to find a way to let Bane go and to reclaim my heart so that I had one to offer the man who stood before me now.

  "What happened last night, you need not concern yourself with," Sean said. The finality in his tone told me that he was not about to explain to me what happened last night and why he had me bound to an X-shaped table.

  Bound---

  "Will you tell me where you're from?"

  "Stone Haven, Greenland, where this castle is from. I had it brought here. Stone by stone.

  "Wow," I said, looking around at the multi-colored stones that created the walls around me. Though the room should have seemed cold and drab, it was really warm and full of character. "But why go through all that trouble? Moving a castle probably wasn't really all that easy!"

  "This was my home there. When The Coven discerned there needed to be a hive here in Burling and requested it be mine, I gladly obliged. But I was not leaving Greenland without my home. I do not leave behind the things that I adore." Sean said. The smile on his face, in his eyes, made him look like a normal, happy, demon-less man. It made me smile back at him. But then I had to remind myself that in my world, demons were normal. And this man, Sean Hylander, definitely belonged amongst the demonic.

  "Why would you choose this nothing-little-town over a place like Greenland?"

  "One town in one state is all we are allowed. No more than that. Our hives need great separation. We work better together when we are apart. Burling was the last available place to establish a coven stead. There can be no more hives split from The Hallow's Coven. Therefor, Burling brought me that much closer to you, L
ittle One."

  What he said was only just another piece of the puzzle to this mystery that I needed to solve. I would have asked him what he meant by this, but I was certain he would not have given me an answer.

  Sean moved deeper into the room, toward me. I didn't back away from him this time. As a matter of fact, I longed for his nearness and I held my breath with the anticipation of it. He stopped in front of me. He raised his hand slowly toward my face, watching me again with that intense gaze. He brushed a long strand of white hair away from my shoulder. His eyes released mine and his gaze casually roamed to my neck, to the place where I was certain he had bitten me last night. His gaze lingered there. And for one split second, I would not have minded if he were to sink his teeth into my throat and drink from me. The idea was somehow both frightening and exciting, somehow erotic in a non-sexual way.

  But that split second passed, leaving me wondering just how psychotic I really was and believing Sean had something to do with what had just happened. There was absolutely no way in hell I wanted anyone biting my neck and drinking my blood.

  "There was too much space between Greenland and you," he said.

  "But you came to Burling long before I did."

  "True. Certain things must play out before certain things can unfold. Destiny is not always unwritten. You and I have been woven into the very fibers of fate and its unfurling."

  "What does that mean, exactly?"

  "I will just say, Adeline moving you to Burling came to no surprise to me. I saw it's unfolding into fruition, and waited --impatiently, I must add-- for that day you would came to me in Oak Park."

  "But, I didn't come to you."

  "Yes, unknowingly, you did, Little One. And by coming to me, you have set off fate's unfurling. The beginning of the rest of our long life together, began when you climbed the bank of Moss River and came to me."

  I wasn't sure what to say. And the whole thing about Sean knowing me long before I actually met him felt like a part of the mystery that I would never be able to solve. And who the heck was he to imply that I would spend a very long life with him?

  "Why me? I really want to know how, but---"

  Sean put a thick finger to my lips to silence me. "Shhhh . . . no more questions, Little One. They are irritating me. And believe me when I say that you will not like to be the one who irritates me."

  "Why do you have to call me that?" I complained, only to realize I had asked yet another question. But Sean didn't seem to get upset with me. He smiled, actually. Then he took me by the shoulders and turned me around. From across the room I could see our reflections in the shattered mirror. How wide and thick Sean was in comparison to me. How he towered over me and made me look so much smaller than I actually was.

  "Because my Little One you have always been," Sean said, catching my gaze in the mirror. Even from this far away, I could see the adoration in his eyes. I was going to tell him that his answer was pretty lame, but he turned me back around to face him. Then his mouth covered mine and the words were stolen right off my lips. I was locked against him, secured to him by his arms. He kissed me sweetly, softly. Then, all too soon, it was over.

  "If I do not get you home, and soon, while it is still morning, you will have made a liar out of me." He took my hand in his and tangled his fingers with mine. "And that will not please me, Little One."

  Sean led me out of his bedchamber. And although I was happy to be going home, I dreaded the coming of that awful ache that I knew would materialize inside me once he was gone.

  ****

  Chapter Twelve

  Luna