Enraptured (31 page)

“Ian told me about what would happen, that
there would be no turning back for him if our relationship
progressed. I knew what I was getting into, but I thought I’d have
more time before I’d have to transition. Maybe a couple of weeks or
months, not days, and not with the threat of being locked away
hanging over my head.”

Emma leaned toward her again and cast her
voice low. “What would more time get you?”

“I…” Paige frowned as she contemplated that.
“Time to accept my death maybe.”

“There’s never enough time for that. We
could live another thousand years, and we still wouldn’t accept
that. I’d think the prospect of imminent death constantly looming
over you would actually start to drive you a little crazy after a
while.”

Paige tapped her fork against her plate.
“Yeah, probably.”

“It will be easier on Ian if you do it now,
too. Ethan started to fall apart before I figured out what I
wanted. I wish I could take back what I put him through, but I
didn’t go into our relationship knowing what he was. To say I was
stunned would be the understatement of the millennia.”

Paige laughed and took a bite from her mound
of pancakes. It may be time for dinner, but if this was going to be
her last meal as a human, she was going out in a sugary fat
overload of maple syrup and mounds of butter. There was no reason
to care about clogged arteries and diabetes anymore. To be honest,
she would have dumped this much maple syrup on them if this were
any other day. Maybe she would have laid off on the butter,
maybe.

“Were you mad when you found out?” she
asked.

“Yes, but I loved him enough to let go of my
anger.”

“I can understand that.”

Ian glanced up at the diner window to find
Emma and Paige watching them. Paige smiled at him and waved her
fork in the air. His heart swelled as he watched her; he didn’t
think he’d ever get tired of looking at her. It had never been his
plan to rush her change, or force it on her, but he couldn’t wait
to have her mortality firmly behind her and have her safely in his
world. It would be easier to keep a vampire safe than a human, plus
the ritual would be complete. She would be his, and every vampire
they encountered would know it. They would never be separated from
each other again.

“They’re getting along a lot better now,”
David remarked.

“Paige doesn’t think we’re going to eat her
anymore, so that helps,” Ian replied.

Aiden laughed and slapped him on the back.
“I can’t believe you got taken down by a woman too. Who am I
supposed to party with this summer?”

“I’m sure The Stooges will be more than
happy to accommodate you on your escapades,” Ian assured him.

“I don’t know if they could keep up with
me,” Aiden replied.

David shot him a look. “I can run circles
around you, boy,” he scoffed.

Aiden smiled innocently back at him. “We’ll
have to find out.” He turned back to Ian. “Just sucks to have lost
you. I never thought
you
would settle down with only one
woman.”

“Neither did I,” Ian admitted. “But I’m
happy to have been taken down.”

“Ugh,” Aiden rolled his eyes. “You whipped
guys are annoying.”

“I am not whipped,” Ian enunciated
carefully.

“He doesn’t understand,” Ethan replied.
“Maybe when he hits maturity things will change for him, hopefully
not.”

Ian glanced at Paige again before stepping
closer to his older brother. “Things changed for you after you
stopped aging?” he demanded.

Ethan’s eyes were shrewd as they ran over
him from head to toe. “Yes.”

Ian’s mind spun as he tried to process this
information. He knew his sexual impulses had kicked into overdrive
after he’d stopped aging, but he’d never seen Ethan with a girl,
until Emma. “I don’t understand, you locked yourself away from
humans. You never willingly associated with them, until Emma.”

Ethan’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Of
course not, I wanted to kill every one of them.”

“It shows itself in different ways, with all
of us.”

Ian had been so focused on Ethan, the
brother he’d always considered somewhat of a hermit, that he hadn’t
realized Ronan had approached them until he spoke.
The man would
make a ghost sound noisy
, Ian decided. Ian glanced at Ethan
before taking a step closer to his brother and David. Ronan may not
be an outright menace to them, but any one stronger than them, was
someone he would be on guard around.

“What does?” Ethan inquired.

“The beast, the demon, whatever it is you
call what lurks within all vampires. In purebreds, it’s stronger
and more incessant. Upon reaching maturation it becomes this
insatiable, clawing thing inside of us that is only eased by
finding our mates or by losing ourselves to the pleasure of the
kill. In each of us, this insatiable hunger shows itself in
different ways. Some of us seek out pain,” Ronan replied.

Beside him, Ian felt a ripple go through
Ethan that caused his eyes to dart toward him. They were all so
close to each other, would kill for each other, yet they’d kept
this change within them hidden from each other.

“Others of us covet copious amounts of
blood,” Ronan continued. “Some cannot have enough sex, some lock
themselves away from humans, and others give in and kill in order
to make it stop. In all purebred males, maturity means three
things, they stop aging, their power increases and continues to do
so as they age, and they hunger for things so endlessly it nearly
drives them mad.”

“That’s something to look forward to,” Aiden
muttered.

“What you will yearn for most after maturity
is in you now,” Ronan replied. “You already know you have a
penchant for one thing over another, and it doesn’t have to be only
one thing. Many experience a combination of heightened urges, but
there will be one that is more dominant than the others.”

“What of the purebred women?” David
asked.

Ronan shook his head. “It’s not as prevalent
in them. They do not feel the drive in the same way the men
do.”

“Why not?”

Ronan held his hands out before him, his
strangely colored eyes appearing redder in the fading sunlight.
“Why do men think one thing, and women another? I’ve been on this
earth over a thousand years, and women are still a complete mystery
to me. The purebred women still exhibit some sort of change, it’s
just not as intense or dominant as it is within the men.”

“Issy withdrew,” Ethan murmured. “We
withdrew together.” Ronan’s eyes pierced him; his gaze flickered
toward the tattoo on his arm. Ian could hear Ethan’s teeth grinding
beside him. “You’re over a thousand years old, how have you kept
yourself in control for so long?”

“I haven’t, I’m a bloodthirsty killer,”
Ronan replied as nonchalantly as if he’d said please pass the salt.
Uneasiness turned in Ian’s stomach. “I’ve just turned my impulses
into hunting down those of us that murder innocents, so has my
team. We focus on destroying the most powerful of us who become
murderers. Killing vampires makes us stronger; they are also a more
thrilling hunt than humans.

“Unfortunately, that means we sometimes have
to hunt the members of my team who give in and turn to the
darkness. The lure of the taboo, and the insistent call of the
impulses within us, is sometimes too strong for even the strongest
of us to refuse, no matter how old and powerful we become, and they
give in. As we age, it becomes more difficult to refuse our
impulses. Many become tired of fighting it and some don’t bother to
fight it at all. Vampires who are turned don’t feel the urges with
the same intensity born vampires do. Some turned barely feel it at
all, and others,” he flicked a pointed glance at Brian. “Feel it
more.”

“What if a vampire who becomes a killer
finds their mate?” Aiden inquired.

“By then it’s too late. Once you give in and
start to destroy those who don’t deserve it, you give your soul
over to the demon lurking within you. No monster is capable of
love.”

“Way to successfully bring down the bachelor
party.” Ian elbowed Aiden in the side for his comment; his brother
glowered back at him. “What? You and Ethan have found your mates,
you’re all set. Yesterday I was at college, hooking up with a
hottie, enjoying a Mai Tai, and now I’m being told that when I stop
aging, and my power increases, the shit is going to hit the fan
inside of me.”

“You’ll survive it,” Ethan said.

“What if it takes me centuries to find my
mate? Would you have survived centuries? And honestly I much prefer
the single life to the taken one. I had plans, and they didn’t
include a family for at least another fifty years, preferably
longer.”

“Neither did mine,” Ian said. “But I
wouldn’t change any of it.”

“Emma saved my life and probably some
others,” Ethan added the last four words as an aside Ian didn’t
think traveled past him or Aiden. He realized Ronan had caught his
words when he lifted an eyebrow.

Ian folded his arms over his chest and
rocked back on his heels. “You’ll still have all of us here to
support you,” he said to Aiden.

“That didn’t answer my question,” Aiden
replied.

“I don’t know how long I would have lasted
without Emma,” Ethan admitted.

“What did you crave most after you reached
maturity?” Ian asked Ethan.

“Pain,” Ethan answered flatly. “Solitude,
blood, but mostly the pain, so I didn’t have to think about the
blood and death I wanted so badly.”

Ronan glanced questioningly at him. “I’m all
about the women and the sex,” Ian admitted without hesitation. He
looked toward where Paige sat. “Or I was. I’ll admit I really liked
the blood that came with sex, so it was a good way to kill two
birds with one stone.”

“What about you, Aiden? What do you think
you’ll crave the most?” Ethan asked.

Aiden shook his head as he stared at the
pickup truck. “I don’t know. I like women, but who doesn’t? I don’t
think I’m as enthusiastic about sex as Ian. I like to be around
people, so I guess that means I won’t withdraw from them. Ethan and
Issy were pretty anti-social even in high school. I’ve never
enjoyed getting my ass kicked by these two assholes,” he said with
a wave of his hand at Ethan and Ian.

“Nothing you didn’t deserve,” Ian
retorted.

“So I guess that rules out me liking pain,”
Aiden ignored Ian’s words as he continued to speak. “I assume blood
will become my obsession.”

“Perhaps,” Ronan murmured. “You are still
young, things may change over the coming years for you.”

“Oh, so it’s a grab bag of fun,” Aiden
replied sarcastically.

“We all must go through it. It’s better to
be prepared for it than taken by surprise. This conversation has
brought me to the conclusion your brothers weren’t expecting it and
didn’t know how to handle what was going on inside of them. As
mated vampires they can’t help you as much as I can. If you choose,
you can come and stay with my team and me when the time comes. We
can aid with what you will be going through, and I am always
looking for new recruits in our mission,” Ronan offered.

Ian glanced nervously at Aiden. He didn’t
want his brother going anywhere with this man, for any period of
time. They had no idea who he was, where he lived, or who exactly
his
team
consisted of. Aiden didn’t look as put off by the
possibility as Ian felt; he actually looked intrigued.

“It’s something we can discuss later,” Ronan
told him before turning to Ian. “Have you made your woman decide
yet?”

Ian released a bark of laughter. “You may be
over a century old, but you have no idea about women if you think
we can make them do anything.” Ronan glanced at the diner window. A
ripple went through Ian as he stepped in between Ronan and Paige.
“She’ll decide when she’s ready.”

“Make it soon.”

Ian’s lip curled, a low rumble of warning
escaped him at Ronan’s words. “Don’t get too annoyed with him,
Purebred,” Brian said to Ian. “One day he’ll be in your position,
and he’ll know what it’s like to be led around by a woman half his
size.”

Ronan looked Brian up and down scathingly.
“I highly doubt that.”

Brian grinned at him as he rested his arm on
the bed of the truck and leaned against it. “Believe what you will,
oh great leader. Whether it be our hidden desires that takes us
down, death, or a woman, we all must fall in one way or
another.”

Ian had to bite on his inner lip to keep
from laughing while Ronan glared at Brian. The vampire had no fear
of anyone, Ian decided when Brian smiled in return. “Death will be
your end,” Ronan grated.

“Probably one day, but not anytime soon,”
Brian replied.

A circle of red raced around the outside of
Ronan’s eyes, Ian thought he would say something more, but his lips
remained clamped, and he turned away from Brian. Ian was still
trying not to laugh when the door to the diner opened, and Emma and
Paige stepped outside. Emma shaded her eyes against the sun as
Paige looked toward him. She smiled before swiftly descending the
stairs and striding toward him.

He took hold of her hand before pulling her
against his side. Paige tilted her head back to look up at Ronan.
“I’m going to do this,” she said firmly. “But I’d like your help
with something afterward.”

Ian became rigid, he didn’t like the idea of
Ronan involved in their lives any more than he had to be. “Paige…”
he started.

Ronan lifted a hand. “I’ll hear her out.”
Ronan clasped his hands behind his back as he watched her. “And
what would that be?”

“You hunt down the murderous vampires and
you destroy them. When I’m changed, I’d like you to help me locate
my father. I’ve been hunting for the past four years, he killed my
mother, and he needs to be destroyed.”

“Do you know where he is?” Ronan
inquired.