“Cloe?” the choked whisper drew her attention to the beautiful blue eyes staring down at her in horror. “Oh………God………”
It was funny, she thought as everything slowly faded away, all the times she’d thought about dying and how it would happen, she’d been right.
She’d always been destined to die in the arms of a monster.
Chapter 19
“Don’t f**king die on me, mein Schatz,” he whispered harshly, shifting his attention from the blood soaked towel he had pressed against the side of Cloe’s neck to the alarm clock by his bed.
“Come on……come on!” he growled, waiting impatiently for another minute to go by and when it did, he couldn’t help but sag with relief.
“Thank f**king God,” he mumbled, pressing a quick kiss against Cloe’s cold forehead as he placed her on his bed, gently laying her down as he stood.
She was deathly pale, her heartbeat was sluggish, he’d taken too much blood and her throat had been viciously ripped open, but he couldn’t help but feel relieved. Somehow she’d made it to the ten-minute mark after consuming his blood, something that had never happened before. Whenever he’d been forced to watch as some unsuspecting volunteer received his blood he’d always kept his attention on the large clock hanging on the wall across from his cage, counting down the minutes as he waited for the inevitable to happen.
Before the clock managed to tick off ten minutes, the foolish volunteer who had been lured to his doom with promises of immortality and unimaginable power had been screaming in pain, begging for help and eventually praying for death. While the doctors had stood around, taking notes and clearly frustrated that their plans had failed again, he’d sat in his cage, torn between relief and horror that people reacted so violently to his blood. Those experiments had made it impossible to deny what the doctors had claimed the moment that he’d opened his eyes to find himself locked up in a small metal cage and chained to the bars.
He was a monster.
He was also a freak accident, one that couldn’t seem to be repeated no matter what they tried. The only thing that they’d managed to reproduce was a horrifying death. This time shouldn’t have been any different, but somehow Cloe had managed to escape the violent death that his blood should have delivered.
Not that he was going to complain. She had a chance and he was going to make sure that she took it. He didn’t care what he had to do to make it happen. After rushing to the bathroom to grab a small stack of facecloths, he shoved his keys in his pocket, replaced the blood soaked towel with the small pile of facecloths and gently picked Cloe up. He was careful not to shift the cloths away from her wound that was barely bleeding any longer, not a good sign, but for the moment he ignored the implications and moved his ass.
He headed for the back door, shifted her in his arms and opened the door, praying that he was able to-
“I have your……..,” Seth started to say as soon as Christofer yanked the door open only to let his words trail off as his gaze fell to the bleeding woman in his arms before shifting back up to his face. Seth closed his eyes in resignation and shook his head with a sigh as he murmured, “Please tell me that you really didn’t mark that bitch.”
*-*-*-*
“Whoa!” Seth snapped, holding his hands up in surrender as he backed away quickly only to manage to stumble over the coolers that he’d stacked near the backdoor.
“What did you just call her?” Christofer demanded between clenched teeth as he descended on the bastard, barely aware that the monster inside of him was struggling to take over and rip the vampire’s throat out.
“I didn’t mean it like that!” Seth rushed to explain, getting back to his feet and moving to put some distance between them.
“Then what did you mean?” Christofer snapped, moving to go after him when the sound of a small groan drew his attention back to the woman in his arms, reminding him that he had more important matters to deal with than a prick with a death wish.
“Where the hell are you going?” Seth demanded, moving quickly to his side, deciding that a peek at Cloe was worth the risk of having his throat torn out.
“To the hospital,” he gritted out, praying that the precious seconds that he’d just wasted wouldn’t-
“You can’t do that,” Seth snapped, quickly moving in front of him to block his path.
“Watch me,” Christofer said, stepping past the vampire and heading for his truck.
“No,” Seth said, once again blocking his path, his hands held up, but this time to stop Christofer, “I mean you really can’t do that.”
“She’s dying,” Christofer bit out, losing the tenuous hold he had on his patience as he tried to move past the determined vampire only to once again find his path blocked off.
“Then let her,” Seth said, shooting nervous glances around the poorly lit yard.
Let her die?
Not f**king happening.
He’d been forced to watch a lot of people die over the years and he wasn’t about to add Cloe to their ranks. She deserved better than this and he would do whatever it took to make sure that she got it. He’d royally f**ked up, lost control and he’d be damned if Cloe was going to pay for that. He’d promised himself that he was going to take care of her and that was exactly what he was going to-
“She’s been f**king marked!” Seth shouted, placing his hands on Christofer’s arms where they cradled Cloe and shoved him back.
“I don’t have f**king time for this!” Christofer shouted back, the sounds of Cloe’s heartbeat slowing down even further, making it harder with each passing second not to give into the monster inside of him, but he fought it with everything that he had.
It would be so easy to give in and let it take over, but he knew that if he did that Cloe wouldn’t survive. He didn’t know why the monster had given her up when it had, but he wasn’t about to give up control a second time and give it a second shot at finishing off Cloe.
“What the hell are you?” Seth suddenly asked, gesturing to his face and making him realize that he’d f**ked up for the second time that day as he noted that everything had taken on shades of red.
“No f**king clue,” Christofer bit out, shifting back so that he could move around the vampire when his next words stopped him.
“If you bring her to a hospital they’ll kill her.”
“What are you talking about?” he snapped, moving to take another step towards his truck, but fear for Cloe made him hesitate.