Blood Mate (16 page)

He’d held off
feeding, allowed himself to suffer so that she could have more time
with her husband, and the bulk of that time she’d been in the
mental ward. He’d suffered pointlessly. And so had she. The
seething rage gave him a renewed sense of energy.

He slipped down
the hallway to the nurse’s station, pausing to listen when he
realized they were talking about Nicolette.

“I’ve never
seen anyone with such a high drug tolerance. We had to give her
almost three times the normal dose to keep her knocked out last
night.”

“You think she
has a history of drug abuse?”

“Hell if I know,
I’ve never seen someone who could take so much and their body shake
it off like that. I’m not kidding, within an hour she woke up and I
had to dose her again. She was thrashing about, making a fuss. She
didn’t remember it this morning, though, poor thing.”

August emitted a
low growl at the thought of someone putting a needle in Nicolette, of
tainting his food source. The drugs would have cleared her system by
now with the bond, but it still set his teeth on edge. No one had the
right to imprison her but him. No one had the right to put anything
inside her but him.

He didn’t
require directions. He only had to follow the call of the bond—and
now her scent. His mate’s fragrance wafted down the hallways,
beckoning him. He waited for the women to leave the nurse’s station
and for the remaining nurse to go back to her book before he shot
past in a blur the humans might notice as the sense of movement one
sometimes sees from the corner of their eye, but when they turn,
nothing’s there. But something
was
there. It simply moved
too fast.

He found her on a
narrow white mattress, clothed in a plain t-shirt and sweatpants, her
feet bare. Plain canvas tennis shoes were shoved underneath the bed.
He kept his voice quiet and calm. “Nicolette.”

She turned toward
him, her face vacant. “Go away. You aren’t real.”

So he was a
delusion now, was he? He’d been many things in his time, but never
a delusion. What a novelty.

He shut the door
and moved further into the room.

“We’re not
allowed to shut the door before bed.”

“Well, if I’m
not real, you don’t have to worry about that. The door must still
be standing open. You’re just crazy.”

She weighed that
thought for a minute and stared at the closed door, fear for her
quickly fraying sanity naked in her eyes. It made him feel bad for
the wisecrack. This wasn’t the woman he was used to, the woman
who’d resisted him for two months. How could something like this
happen so quickly? Oh, right. They’d been armed. With drugs and
numbers. He’d only had empty threats—unwilling to truly damage
the woman he must spend eternity with even if the bond could heal
anything he inflicted. She was a number to them, another patient.
They’d had nothing to lose. He’d had everything.

“Come with me,
we’re leaving.”

“Did you know my
Uncle Chuck has delusions? His are pretty harmless, so we never made
a big thing about it. It’s not right that I recovered from months
locked up in the cellar. Like it was nothing. I should be angry at
you about that. I should hate you forever and fear you and be
traumatized. And all those people you killed. I can’t erase them
from my head, but it’s like a movie I watched. Where are the
emotions? Where is the pain I’m supposed to feel? I-I don’t feel
anything at all. I don’t believe you made it go away with magic.”

“Do you want
that? The pain? Do you wish to suffer as I have suffered?”

“No. But it’s
normal. This isn’t normal. There is a world that makes sense and a
world that doesn’t. And your world doesn’t make sense. What else
am I supposed to think? How can I ignore the evidence in front of
me?”

“I don’t know.
How
can
you ignore me?”

They’d really
done a number on her. He imagined with him being gone longer than
expected and with everyone against her, with the drugs, with an
intense intervention… she might be more easily swayed, the way
prisoners and suspects were broken when all their life lines were
taken away. When August had kept her prisoner, she’d had Dominic’s
love to hold on to. She wouldn’t have held on to a vampire she
hadn’t wanted in the first place.

Maybe she wanted
free of him so desperately that she’d rather be a locked-up mental
patient who had imagined him into existence than suffer the reality
of his presence for even another day.

“We’re
leaving.” He extended a hand toward her.

“I… ” She
glanced past him to the door, waiting for it to open, to be rescued.

“Are you afraid
of me?”

She looked away,
and he could smell the salt of her tears. “I ran again. You said if
I ran again there would be consequences.”

“Come with me
now, and I will forgive you unconditionally.”

***

Nicole didn’t
budge. She’d hoped for him to come for her, but now that he was
here, now that she could see the anger in his eyes…

And he’d aged
considerably. He hadn’t started that horrible rotting thing yet,
but he seemed close. The combination of such hunger and pain and
anger made her hesitate. He was crazed.

Yet, so far he’d
kept every promise. He’d let her go back to her husband. He’d
spared her parents’ lives. He’d spared Dominic’s life. He’d
freed the rest of the people in the cages. He hadn’t hurt her the
first time she’d run away, but he hadn’t been this angry the
first time, either. There had been a warning, an expectation that
this extension of mercy for the crime of running would be indulged
once. But now it was twice.

If she reached out
and took his hand, would he be solid? Or would he fade into the air
like a mist?

“Nicolette, my
offer of clemency will expire soon. You must come with me now. I
promise I will show you mercy.”

She closed her
eyes and reached for him, surprised when warm, solid flesh closed
around her hand, shocked by the sense of safety in him and that she
trusted him.

As soon as she’d
taken his hand, he had her pressed against the wall, his fangs in her
throat, drinking her like she was the last stream in a desert. The
tears rushed down her cheeks as she found her body reacting to him as
it always did. Need. Desire. Longing. She hadn’t seen Dominic since
the night they’d checked her in. It was August who’d come for her
to take her out of this awful place. She wasn’t sure whose side she
was supposed to be on. Who she should want. Who she should be loyal
to. The lines of Dominic Good, August Bad blurred in the suction of
the vampire’s mouth on her throat.

Finally, he
pulled away from her, his youth and vitality restored.

“Let’s go.”

“H-how will we
get out? Are you going to kill people?” Her anger and bravado when
she’d threatened others with death at the vampire’s hands had
faded. Now, the idea of a bloody massacre at the hospital terrified
her, and she couldn’t stomach being partly responsible—of having
blood on her own hands.

There was a knock
on the door, and Dr. Cronan stepped inside. “Mrs. Rose, you know
our rules about doors.”

August spun toward
the doctor, shielding Nicole. He’d become territorial. He was a
dog, and she was his meaty bone, and woe to the fool who tried to
jerk it from his jaws.

The doctor was
nonplussed by the presence of a strange man in her room. “You also
haven’t been authorized to have visitors. And who might you be?”
Dr. Cronan turned his attention to the vampire.

Nicole couldn’t
see August’s face, but she could imagine the smile as fangs pushed
through gums.

“I’m
Nicolette’s delusion. It’s lovely to meet you.”

Dr. Cronan’s
face turned as gray as the walls, as if he were a chameleon, blending
in for safety. But it was too late for that.

August blurred
across the room and gripped the doctor by the throat, pushing him
against the wall so that his feet dangled like a child in the grasp
of a schoolyard bully.

“You will tell
me everything you did to my mate or I will bury you behind the
parking lot. And it will all be finished before a single orderly has
noticed your absence.”

“I-I brought her
in for observation. W-we didn’t know you were real. H-h-how could
we? We gave her a few sedatives, that’s all.”

“You’ve done
more than that. You must have. Nicolette? What happened?”

“I-it wasn’t
that bad.”

“What.
Happened?”

“They held me
down and put me in a straitjacket. When I wouldn’t take a sleeping
pill they cornered me and strapped me down and shoved a needle in my
hip. A-after that I didn’t fight them. I was scared of what else
they’d do. They only gave me drugs at night, and I was too afraid
to fight them after the first night.”

She’d seen too
many scary mental institution movies. If they’d force her into a
straitjacket and strap her down to sedate her, would they do ice
baths? Electroshock? Isolation? Each of those possibilities had been
too frightening to entertain. Even when logic said Dominic would come
see her soon and she could go home, she feared Dr. Cronan would
convince her husband and a judge that she wasn’t competent to be
released, and then she’d be at their mercy indefinitely.

The fear of the
mentally ill—that it might somehow be contagious and spread the
pathogen of insanity—often kept others from doing what was right.
Given that she’d been brought here to begin with, it was hard to
know where Dominic’s line was. Or her parents. If fear for her and
for themselves drove them, then could there be any boundaries that
would keep her safe? Hadn’t she already foolishly trusted that
they’d be on her side? That they could be reasoned with?

August stepped
back and allowed the doctor to fall, then he hauled him up and threw
him on the ground at Nicole’s feet.

“Beg her for
your life. You had no right to touch her or make her do anything.
She’s mine. Not yours. Beg her forgiveness, and maybe she’ll
spare you.”

Nicole couldn’t
bear to look at the doctor.

“P-please, Mrs.
Rose. Y-you know I believed you to be ill. I was t-trying to help.
Please, don’t let him kill me.” From his expression, the doctor
had a clear memory of Nicole screaming that the vampire would kill
him when he came for her.

August shook his
head, and let out a derisive snort. “That is the most pathetic
apology I believe I’ve ever had the displeasure of hearing. Did
that sad display win you over, Nicolette? Does he live or die?”

“L-live.” As
if it were a question. As if she could allow the doctor to be killed
over this. The fear over being locked up and drugged faded in light
of her rescue. Why did this upset her so much more than her memories
of the cellar? She pinched herself, trying to ascertain if she were
truly delusional. Maybe none of this was happening.

August grabbed the
doctor by his collar and jerked him up until their eyes were level
and locked. “You will escort us personally to the exit. You will
entertain no questions about who I am or why we are leaving.
Immediately after we go, you will destroy her records and forget
either of us exist.” He released Dr. Cronan’s collar and the
doctor stumbled to the door.

“This way,” he
said, disoriented but obedient.

Before Nicole
could protest, August picked her up.

“I-I can walk.”

“No.”

The doctor led
them down the hallways. August took the opportunity to instruct each
orderly and nurse and janitor he saw to “forget Nicolette Rose,”
ending with the receptionist before Dr. Cronan buzzed him out.

The vampire didn’t
put her down until they reached the Bugatti. He unlocked the
passenger side, waited for her to get in, then shut it without a
word.

“A-August?”
she said, when he got in on his side and turned the ignition.

“Not right now,
Nicolette.”

“B-but you said…
”

“I forgive you
for this, but this will be the last time. You knew I could find you.
You knew our bond had grown stronger. Why would you attempt something
that was impossible and might anger me?”

Nicole looked at
her hands. Why should she feel like a disobedient child over this? “I
thought if I could get Dominic to see the truth he would run with me.
If we evaded you long enough, you’d feed on someone else. You’re
free now, so you could be a vampire without the suffering, and then…
eventually you wouldn’t care about me. Y-you’d let me go.”

“Nicolette.”
His tone caused her to look up to see the betrayal on his face. “I
can’t believe you’d do that. I don’t want to be a killer. How
would it be better to be an unrepentant one?”

She shrugged.
I’m
not the bad guy.
But she could barely manage to hold that thought
in her head. It kept breaking apart.

They rode in
silence for several minutes before he spoke again. “It’s not
about killing. Not anymore. With or without killing, I would always
find you. You should be grateful for that. You would have rotted in
that institution. That doctor was determined to keep you.”

“Dominic
wouldn’t let… ”

“Do not speak to
me of Dominic. He let the doctor take you. Why wouldn’t he let him
keep you? They can’t handle our world, Nicolette. They are too
weak. What would you do without me? How would you get by?”

“You sound like
an abuser. That’s the kind of thing an abuser would say.”

“Even if it
happens to be true? You are my mate. My highest priority now is
keeping you safe.”

“Wouldn’t want
to lose your convenient dinner,” she said bitterly.

“I won’t deny
your blood is the sweetest I’ve ever had, but have you paused to
consider that it’s because when I’m finished I’m satisfied and
you’re not dead? You’re impossibly still there, and I haven’t
done something evil to eat.”