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

I woke to the sound of tapping. First it started solely in my mind, in a world void of dream and void of my Dark Angel. But then the sound moved out of my head and into the real world.

  I opened my eyes to a dark room. It was my room, thankfully. Before the reality of where I'd been and what had happened only hours ago could fully take shape around me, I realized the tapping sound was coming from my window. I shot up in my bed and looked out to find Dammon tapping his fingertips on the windowpane.

  I quickly slid the window open. The cool night air licked at my face, reminding me of Sean's tongue on my cheek when he had licked the tear away.

  Then it all came back to me, crashing violently into me. I had to grab the window frame to keep myself from falling backward. The impact of reality caused me to feel off-kilter.

  "Are you all right?" Dammon asked, reminding me that he was there.

  "Yes," I said. "No." I sat down on the foot of the bed next to the window. "I don't know."

  Dammon put his hand over mine. Only to quickly lift it back off. "I'm sorry. Your finger!" he said. Then he peered at it more closely. "What the hell!" His eyes darted up to me. "What the hell happened?"

  "Dammon, I never heard you cuss before."

  Dammon glanced nervously over his shoulder. Then, in a much quieter voice, he said, "I can't stay. He's out here. He's watching you. But there are things you need to know about him, Luna. There are things you need to know about yourself, as well. It's very important---"

  "Things I need to know about myself? For real? I'm pretty sure I know the things about myself, Dammon."

  "No, I'm pretty sure you don't," he said, firmly. Then I remembered that when I met Dammon he had freaked out on me when I told him I was a Lanchester. I couldn't believe I had actually forgotten about that until now.

  "What don't I know about me?" I asked.

  Dammon glanced over one shoulder then the other. "Luna, Sean is out here, right now, watching you. I really don't have time to explain it all to you. Please, just promise me you will meet me tomorrow night behind Jesters Bar. I will take you to see Guenevere. She told me to tell you that she knows what it is the Dark Angel of your dreams longs to know and that she will explain everything."

  "Bane? She knows about Bane? But. . .how?"

  "Just promise me that you will meet me. She will tell you everything."

  "I promise. Now, go! Hurry, before he finds you." I looked out over his head into the dark night. I could barely see a thing. The moon had been swallowed whole. The bloated clouds were evidence of their lunar ingestion.

  "Ok. I'll see you tomorrow night then," he said. He was about to turn and leave, but I stopped him. I wasn't sure why it was so important to me to say what I had to say, but it was. I felt it in my gut.

  "I want to leave him. I'm afraid of him," I said. "I want to be with you, Dammon." I watched a smile spread through his face, putting the sun where it belonged in his sky-blue eyes.

  "K, go now," I pushed his arm away from the window sill and watched him disappear into the darkness. There were so many questions I wanted to ask him. But Dammon was in danger. When Sean undid the stitches in my finger, I really felt like he knew Dammon was the one who had put them there.

  Which meant Sean knew I was seeing Dammon behind his back.

  Which meant Dammon was in trouble.

  I felt a little sick. A little dizzy.

  I walked down the dark hallway, toward the living room. I was trying to remember how I had gotten home. Everything was so very clear up until Sean had told me to sleep. I was pretty sure the pain from his bite was just too much to bear, and that was why I ended up passing out. But a little voice inside my head said that it was magic, that Sean had the power to drag me into slumber against my will like Bane could.

  And how the heck does he make the wound go away?

  I cupped a hand to my neck as I crept into the dark living room. It would have been better if Sean was actually a vampire. With vampire teeth. The sharp ones. It would have certainly eased some of the pain of his bite. I had never felt such an excruciating pain as that before. And I never wanted to feel that again.

  And I wouldn't! Because Sean was never going to bite me again. I would see to it that he wouldn't. I had to find a way to escape him. There was a part of me, the fighter within me, that assured my self that I would definitely find a way. But there was another part, one less stronger than the fighter in me, that said escaping Sean was utterly impossible.

  I snuck up to the kitchen window and looked out. I didn't see a silver Cadillac parked anywhere on the street. But, dugh, if I were going to spy on someone, I wouldn't park my car out side that someone's house.

  Sean was out there somewhere, though. I could feel him and that dark, spooky presence of his. I could feel him as though he was right here in this very room with me.

  I shivered and started to move away from the window. Slowly, I began to back out of the kitchen, while keeping my eyes on the darkness outside the window. I was just inside the living room, when I backed into something solid. I screeched as I spun around on my heels, knowing I would find Sean, knowing he was about to grab me up.

  But no one was there.

  I had backed up into something solid, and yet no one was there.

  Goose bumps spread over my entire body. I froze with fear. Even though there was no one there, there was definitely something there. I could sense it. Not only could I feel something dark, something spooky, floating in the air before me, I could hear it. The nothingness right in front of me was breathing. It was inhaling and exhaling, slowly and deeply.

  "Sean?" I asked the empty living room around me. And, unexpectedly, it responded.

  In a flash, something wet and soft licked my cheek in a downward stroke. I screamed, swatting at the air in front of my face, but by then, it was gone. That something was no longer in my house. I could feel the exact moment that it vanished into nowhere and I was left with an empty nothingness.

  I had a hard time convincing myself that it was safe to move. I was afraid that if I moved that something would return, just as quick as it had vanished, and it would grab me. Yet, I was afraid that if I stood there any longer, that something would come up from behind and attack me.

  I ran through the living room, down the hall to my bedroom and closed the door behind me. I jumped into my bed and wrapped myself in the blankets, tightly, leaving no cracks except for a little peek-hole. Somethings could get in through tiny cracks, especially the Somethings that were made from the Nothings.

  Bane! My mind cried out for him automatically.

  Dammon would not be able to save me from Sean.

  The preacher man would not be able to save me.

  I could not save my self from Sean.

  No one could save me from him.

  But I knew in my heart that Bane could.

  If only he was real.

  "But he's not," I whispered into my little cocoon. Surely, one day I would come to believe this in my heart. Surely, one day I would accept the fact that Bane was only a figment of my imagination.

  But until then, I had to keep hearing myself say the words. "Bane is not real!" But saying this only made me feel more frightened and alone.

  Sean was a kind of demon like my father. This meant it would take someone like Bane to keep me safe from him. Because, no matter how tough I felt I was, Sean was, by far, much tougher than I. And there was no man capable of besting Sean. I was certain of this.

  Bound---

  I was bound to Sean, somehow.

  But somehow I was going to find a way to unbind my self from him. When I did, would I finally stop aching to be near him?

  I closed my eyes, hoping the sheer desperation of my desire would manifest Bane into the real world.

  ****

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Luna