BloodGifted (42 page)

Do this!
I mentally yelled at myself. ‘I’m so, so sorry Matt, but I can’t be… with you anymore. Something’s happened to me and I can’t pretend that’s it’s going to go away.’ I took a deep breath and blurted, ‘I’m in love with someone else.’ There, I’d said it.

‘So you’ve come to say goodbye,’ he said flatly.

‘I’m sorry. It just happened.’

‘He must’ve made quite an impression in those few days. It’s Munro, isn’t it?’

‘What? How could…’

‘I may have lost my memory, but not my sight. It’s obvious from the way you b
oth looked at each other and the way he touched you.’ The muscle in his jaw ticked.

I stood there, biting my bottom lip. What could I possibly say?

He shrugged. ‘You know, it’s just as well I have no memory of our time together or this would probably hurt like hell. As it is, I really don’t care.’

I do
n’t know why, but that comment stung and for a moment I was speechless. ‘Well, since you don’t remember me…’

‘Obviously our short time together was
n’t memorable enough.’

Dr Cardacci gasped. I was stunned. This was not the Matt I knew. It was as if he
was being deliberately cruel—pushing me away from him. Or maybe this was the real Matt Sommers.

Okay, I probably deserved that
, an accusing voice in my head said.
After all,
it continued,
you’re the one leaving him for another man after he nearly died trying to save your life.
Until another voice in my head said,
He was planning to kill your family and the man you love! Say goodbye and walk out.

I felt Alec’s presence before I saw him. He’d strode back into the room and grasped my hand. ‘I can
understand your anger, Sommers, but don’t take it out on Laura. If you want to level blame where it’s due, then here I am.’

Matt tried to sit up. The action only made him grimace in pain. Dr Cardacci persuaded him to lie back.

‘Please, Matt…’ I began to say.

‘Don’t,’ he said.
‘Do what you came here for and… go!’

I swallowed hard.
‘Goodbye Matt. I wish you all happiness.’

I turned and walked out of hi
s life.

Chapter 50

Eternity

LAURA

‘How are you?’ Alec asked me. We stood at the end of the corridor, waiting for elevator.

‘Sad
but relieved.’

Just like that, Matt an
d I were no longer a couple and the sting of his parting words played in my mind. I blocked them out as I rested my head in the hollow of Alec’s neck, inhaling his scent and mulling over the last week. My whole life had changed, so had my world. Now at least I was free to love the man who truly claimed my heart and with that came a sense of acceptance and peace.

Neither of us spoke for a while, until
Alec lifted my face to him. ‘Goodbyes are always painful.’

I laughed bitterly. ‘
I didn’t realise how nasty he could be.’

‘Forget about him
.’

‘He has every right to be angry, though.’ I thought of his mother and sister downs
tairs in the hospital cafeteria, so full of hope my presence would restore his memory; full of expectation our relationship wouldn’t be affected by this. How on earth were they going to react when they discovered otherwise?

I dropped my head onto Alec’s chest and sighed.

‘He’ll survive, Laura. They all will. You’ve done nothing wrong.’ He paused a moment as if carefully structuring his next words. ‘You don’t belong with him—in his world—but the one you were born into and destined to share with me. This is where you belong, my darling’ —his arms tightened around me— ‘and the promising millennia that stretches before us.’

I was struck by the intensity of his words and angled my head to look up at his face. The depth of love I saw written there caused my heart to leap and in that instant I realised with absolute certainty that no man could ever love me the way Alec would; a love that eternity would not, could not, erase.

All thoughts of Matt faded as I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck.

‘Laura,’ he whispered, his voice a caress as he bent his head and kissed me.

I thanked whatever providence had mercifully provided my escape route. The blow Matt had received only resulted in wiping me from his memory
—as well as the last few months. I was sure pretty Doctor Cardacci would aid his complete recovery, very nicely. I’d said goodbye to him and the old me. This new, part vampire me had a thousand years to look forward to with the man whose arms now enveloped me. There was only one question that needed answering. ‘Alec, do you like bagpipes?’

‘Playing or listening?’

‘Either.’

‘Mmmmm, both. I have my own set. Why?’

‘Would you like to come to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo with me and Jen?’

He stared down at me a moment before letting out a peal of laughter.

I heaved a sigh of contentment and snuggled further into his arms.

Epilogue

Three days later,
Detective Inspector Matthew Sommers was allowed to go home. He left the hospital that morning. His sister, Clare, and her husband had picked him up and dropped him off in front of his flat. There was no need for them to come up, he told them. He’d be okay. He needed to be alone to work some things out. One included that woman—his alleged ex-girlfriend—Laura Dantonville.

Why had she bo
thered to see him if only to say they were breaking up?

A
package lay on the ground outside his door. He bent and picked it up. What had he ordered? Damned retro whatever-they-called-it. It was going to make life a misery for the next few days or weeks or however long his memory would be out. But he’d be damned if he wouldn’t try and recall something, anything. The doctors had tried some mental exercises on him, but so far, nothing had worked.

He dumped the package on the table and went to make hi
mself a cup of coffee. He’d been given three weeks off to recover, but he didn’t want it. Work is what he needed to keep
her
face out of his mind.

S
omething niggled at him, something he couldn’t put his finger on. He swore in frustration and briefly closed his eyes to try and summon a memory or an image or even a feeling of the last six months. Nothing. It was as if that time hadn’t existed. Back at the hospital, he’d rifled through his phone messages and notes and then his photo gallery. There wasn’t a single picture of her, not one, yet he was told they’d been together for four months. Had someone tampered with his phone? What the hell for? There was nothing on it worth erasing!

Sommers shook his head, took his mug of coffee into the l
iving room and sprawled into a settee. The package on the table stared at him. He took a few sips of his coffee and stared back before he got up and tore it open. Inside was a small, sealed cardboard box. Within that, were six wooden bullets.

What the hell had he ordered?

There was a receipt attached. He quickly scanned it to find that this order was the completion of a previous one —twelve white oak bullets in all. Had there been an earlier one? He left his coffee on the table and went in search of the other cartridges he’d supposedly bought. But he found nothing. Where were they? At his desk at work? Would he really have brought a box of those to the station? Not damn likely.

He sat at his computer and looked up any reference to white oak bullets and what he found made him shake his head. It seems they were the only effective substan
ce used against vampires. It killed them by crystallising the blood.

Huh! Nice, he thought as he downed the rest of his coffee. People actually believe this shit? He didn’t know whether to laugh and throw the damned t
hings away or keep reading. On the other hand, he had three weeks off. Why not? It’s not like he had anything else to do.

Another website
stated that vampires had the ability to mesmerise their victims and wipe out their memories. Those who were bitten didn’t remember it to tell.

Now that made him sit up and take notice. I
nstinctively he felt his neck. Nope, no bite marks. Yeah, sucked in! He laughed at his own joke. Then something caught his eye and the laughter abruptly ended. Vampires were distinguished by the unusual lavender colour of their eyes, so many had taken to wearing contact lenses.

What the hell?
He read and reread that line, then he thought back. Both his ex-girlfriend, and that doctor, had lavender-coloured eyes. But his brain had been too addled by painkillers at the time, so he couldn’t be sure.

Ah! It’s ridiculous!
he thought. But then for some odd reason he’d ordered those damn bullets.

H
e decided to google their names anyway, just to be sure. He’d been told she was a primary school teacher so her photo should feature on the school website, and his should appear on the hospital staff list. Dave mentioned the hospital he ran.

Their faces appeared and he magnified the images for a better view. Strange, but beautiful lavender eyes smiled back at him.

He sat back in his chair, picked up one of the bullets and twirled it around his fingers as he considered what a session with the hypnotherapist at the hospital would reveal. It took less than three seconds for him to ring Dr Cardacci and leave a message on her answering machine.

H
e stared at his keys where he’d dropped them on the table when he came in. Among them, was one he didn’t recognise. Could it be hers? His ex? Only one way to find out. Might even jog his damn memory. It’d be easy enough to get her address. He had a mate in Traffic.

Fort
y minutes later, he sat in his car outside her block of units. Nothing looked familiar. He fiddled with the key and wrestled with the ethics of what he was about to do.

What the hell!

He strode to her door and slotted the key into her apartment door. It fit.

END OF BOOK ONE

If you enjoyed
Bloodgifted,
look out for
Bloodpledge, Book 2 in The Dantonville Legacy,
which will be available in 2014.

Connect with the author at her website –
http://timamarialacoba.blogspot.com

On twitter –
http://www.twitter.com/TimaMariaLacoba

On Facebook –
http://www.facebook.com/timamarialacoba

Goodreads –
http://Goodreads.com/timamarialacoba

Here’s an exclusive sneak peak of chapter 1.

C
hapter 1 of Bloodpledge

LAURA

Abandoned. That’s how my apartment appeared to me after I’d been away a week. The police had been. They had even hired a cleaner to wash my ex-boyfriend Matt’s bloodstains from the doorframe and wooden floor after the forensics people had finished.

As I sorted through the mail, Alec casually checked out the framed photos I kept on the dining room buffet. Looking at him, I had to remind myself that he wasn’t human. Up until a week ago, the only supernatural creatures I believed in were angels.

He picked up the one of Matt and myself and looked at it for a long while. It was hard to know what he was thinking. His face betrayed nothing.

‘Who’s this?’ he asked as he held up another one. It was a silver-framed photo of Jenny and me taken at the Randwick races one Melbourne Cup Day. She had won a pre-cup sweep at work and asked me along.

We went out and bought hats and dresses especially for the occasion. Neither of us won anything on the horses, but it had been a great day out.

‘
That’s Jenny.’

‘The one who phoned you in hospital the other day?’

‘Uh huh. My best friend.’ Jenny and I had known each other for years; we taught at the same primary school and had become close friends, almost like sisters. I hated not being able to tell her about Alec and the vampire side of the family.

I noticed the way he smiled as he looked at it. I’d worn a black, knee-len
gth, figure-hugging pinafore I’d teamed with a jade silk scarf and matching peep-toe shoes.

His eyes lit up with a devilish glint. ‘I need to think of some excuse for you to wear that dress for me.’

I laughed and shook my head as I turned and walked into my bedroom and rummaged through my wardrobe, choosing what to take for the few days with my biological parents. Even though the walk-in closet in my bedroom at my father’s house was brim-full of the latest designer wear especially selected for me, I still felt I needed some of my old, familiar stuff. To me it was proof I hadn’t really changed; I was still Laura Dantonville, primary school teacher, albeit daughter of Lucien (Luc) Lebrettan, millionaire real-estate magnate, vampire and Alec’s sire.

As I began to throw a few things onto the bed, I noticed something odd. On my dressing table, next to another framed photo of me and Matt, lay the key to my unit. It was the spare I’d given him when our relationship had become serious. I’d posted my copy of his apartment key back to him three days ago.

A cold shiver rippled through me. He’d been in my apartment, without my permission!

‘Laura, everything all right?’ Alec’s voice came from the living room.

‘Um…yes.’ I wasn’t sure whether to tell Alec about this or not. I glanced around. Nothing else in my room seemed different or out of place. Yet, there it was, the unmistakable evidence of my ex-boyfriend’s presence.

Pushing the memories of our four months together aside, I unclipped the back o
f the frame, took the photo out and laid it face down on the dressing table. Later, when I’d have time, I’d place it in my album. Matt had once been a part of my life, even if only for a short while.

‘You’re very quiet
. Anything wrong?’ I spun around at the sound of Alec’s voice directly behind me. His gaze went from my face, to my hand, then to the key and I knew I couldn’t keep it from him.

There was a loud knocking on my front door. ‘Miss Dantonville? Are you in there?’

I groaned. That slightly croaky but belligerent voice belonged to one of my neighbours, Mrs Henderson, head of the Body Corporate. She knew all that went on and what she didn’t know, she made sure to find out. In other words, she was the local busybody. And unless I opened the door, there was a good chance she’d walk around the side of the building and press her face up against the windows to see if I was in. Matt and I once hid from her—behind the settee—pretending we weren’t home. ‘Checking up to see if everything’s all right,’ she would say.

‘It’s Mrs Henderson, from
upstairs. I have to let her in or she’ll come noseying around the windows.’

‘You know there’s a solution for that.’ Alec’s eyes lightened in mischief.

‘No! Don’t you dare!’ I knew he could mesmerise people; saw him use it once.

He chuckled.

I palmed the key and hurried to the door. ‘Hello, Mrs Henderson. What can I do for you?’

She was in the process of rapping her walking cane on my front door again and stopped mid-action. Her wide frame filled the doorway, blocking any escape.

‘Are you all right, love?’ She said breathlessly. ‘Such a to-do earlier in the week, what with all the police and ambulance and reporters here asking so many questions. We heard you and your young man were hurt… taken to hospital…’ Her triple chins wobbled in excitement making her look like an oversized ram. ‘Dreadful business, being attacked like that in your own home. Are any of us safe…?’ Her eyes landed on Alec and she stopped abruptly.

Her jaw dropped mid-speech and her hands smoothed down her tent-like dress. Before I had a chance to say anything, nosey Mrs Henderson barg
ed past me into the living room and made straight for Alec.

If I didn’t know what a big, bad vampire he was, I’d swear he backed up a step as she sailed toward him like a battleship on a mission.

Her cat, Salieri, on the other hand, took one look at Alec, screeched and arched it back. Its fur stood on end like porcupine quills as it hissed and ran off.

Mrs Henderson briefly turned to me and said, ‘Strange, that he’d react like that. Did the same, the night the police were here. I hope he’s not getting distemper!’

That was the night I was kidnapped and Matt was seriously injured trying to protect me. It appeared Salieri could sense the undead.

She promptly resumed her advance on Alec. ‘And who might you be?’ she asked in a honey-sweet voice.

‘Um… this is Dr Munro,’ I said. Alec was a doctor and head of Munro Research Labs, a research hospital that specialised in treating blood diseases. I’d been taken there the night I was attacked. Maris, a former lover of Alec’s, had tried to kill me by taking as much of my blood as she could, but in the process it had destroyed her. I’d been shocked to discover my blood is poisonous to all vampires, except those transformed by Lucius—Marcus Antonius’s son—such as Luc and Alec.

‘Well, well, a doctor. And how is your nice young policeman chap? He was here this morning, you know,’ Mrs Henderson said
, without taking her eyes off Alec. ‘Saw him from my window.’ I felt myself pale. Next to me Alec stiffened. Mrs Henderson continued on her merry rant. ‘Oh, but you have the same eye colour! How unusual…a brother or cousin perhaps? I had the telly on that night you see and didn’t hear anything—’ she turned to face me ‘—till all these flashing lights woke me early next morning. And then a couple of nice policemen spoke to me—’ back to Alec ‘—are you a GP? You know I have this mild discomfort, right here—’ she placed her hand poignantly on her ample bosom.

If I wasn’t so tense I may have giggled.

‘Mrs Henderson,’ Alec interrupted, ‘I’m sure it’s only mild indigestion. May I suggest some antacid.’ His eyes lightened. ‘Just to be sure, I think it best if you go back to your flat and lie down for the rest of the day.’

‘Yes, lie down,’ she repeated slowly, her eyes glued to Alec’s.

He placed his arm around her shoulders and led her to the door. ‘That’s right. A cup of tea and a lie down.’