Ties to the Blood Moon 2nd Edition (27 page)

She was really cool about the whole thing too, not like some of my friend’s moms had been. She didn’t even try to tell me sex was bad or anything like that. She told me that sex was for two people who were truly in love and when I really did fall in love I would know. She explained how when your heart aches for him and when you feel like you can’t breathe without him, or you think about his feelings more than you think about your own, that’s true love.

What she said had really clicked with me, and I guess that’s why I never had sex. I never felt that way about anyone … until I met William.

He opened my door and I stepped down, but didn’t make eye contact at first. I suddenly felt very self-conscious about my outfit, and I tried to pull my jacket closed.

When William didn’t speak, I looked up. He had a strange look on his face, and his jaw hung open.

“What?” I asked, searching his eyes. “I look stupid, don’t I?” I flushed with embarrassment.

“Uh …” he trailed off, and a huge smile covered his face. “My God, Genevieve … you’re the most beautiful girl I have ever seen,” he said sincerely, his eyes danced over me. He just stood frozen in front of me, like he was completely in awe.

“Are we going to hang out in the driveway all night or …,” I trailed off, and smiled.

“Oh, right. Yeah, come on. Let’s go inside,” he said happily, and placed his hand on the small of my back, guiding me to the door. He unlocked the door and pushed it open, leading me inside.

When he flipped a switch and the foyer light came on, my eyes about popped out of my head.

“You said you and your dad had a ‘cabin’ on the lake,” I said, doing air quotes for cabin while slowly checking out the room.

“Technically it
is
a cabin,” he said trying to act serious. He pointed to one of the outer walls made from stacked logs. “See … it’s made from real logs, so that qualifies it as a cabin.” He cocked his head to one side and shrugged his shoulders while holding out both arms, palm up, trying to smile innocently.

“You are so full of crap, William Novak. You know this is far from a regular cabin.” I had my hands on my hips, and furrowed my brow, but he knew I was only pretending to be angry.

The living room was more beautiful than I could have imagined. It was a huge open room with a big overstuffed sectional couch on one side, facing a fireplace made from river rock. The side facing the lake boasted tinted glass from the floor all the way up to the two story ceiling. On the other side of the room was a large bar area, pool table, some arcade style games, and the biggest flat panel television I had ever seen. There was even a small row of slot machines.

William showed me the rest of the house which consisted of a gourmet-style kitchen with a large breakfast nook, a formal dining room, five upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms, and a master suite on the main floor complete with its own deck and Jacuzzi.

After the tour, he asked me if I wanted anything to drink, but I declined since I wasn’t sure if vampires ate or drink anything—I mean, besides blood.

I started chewing on the inside of my lip. “Why does it have to be anything? Why can’t I just want to be with you?” I asked severely, turning away from him so he wouldn’t see my tears.

He sensed it or something, because I felt his hand wrap around my waist. He pulled me in close, but I still wouldn’t look at him. “If you tell me nothing is going on, I’ll believe you,” he whispered softly.

I felt an aching in my chest and my eyes stung. I wanted to hate him, should hate him, but I couldn’t. Even though my heart had been ripped from my chest when I learned of his lies, I couldn’t hate him and I couldn’t lie to him either. It’s not the kind of person I was.

I didn’t answer. Instead, I just shook my head. He lifted my chin, gently forcing me to face him.

“Come on, Genevieve, don’t shut me out. Please.”

I thought about what he said and I quickly became enraged. “Don’t shut you out? Don’t lie to you?” I shouted, jerking away from him. “What about you, William? Huh? Shouldn’t that be like, a two-way street?” I jumped up from the couch, and headed for the door. “This was a mistake. I never should have come here.”

“Genevieve … wait,” his voice echoed through the room.

At the same time I reached for the doorknob, William’s hand covered mine. He had to have run, but I never heard a footstep. I guess that was another thing with vampires … their agility.

“Wait! Please tell me what all of this is about.” His voice sounded desperate, like he really had no idea why I was angry. What if I had been so quick to believe Joseph and it turned out he was the one lying, not William? No. I was sure Joseph had been telling the truth. He cared too much to lie to me, knowing I would eventually find out the truth and would hate him.

I jerked my hand loose and spun around to face him. “You want to know? I’ll tell you. I know Zane sent you here to keep me from taking the throne. And your little rescue operation in New Mexico … it was all a set up,” I screamed. “I hate you, William Novak!”

“All right,” he caved and threw his hands up in surrender. “I’ll tell you everything if you’ll just stay and hear me out.” he pleaded.

“Oh. Now you want to tell me the truth? What … like the truth you told me in New Mexico? Or the truth you told me on the plane?”

“I—”

I held my hand up in front of his face. “It’s too late. You had your chance to be honest with me and you blew it.” I opened the door and started out, but stopped abruptly. “Besides, someone else already told me the truth … the whole truth. Let me give you some truth, William.” A single tear ran down my cheek. “I don’t know if I would believe you.”

I walked out and slammed the door behind me, then ran all the way to my Jeep. All I could think about was getting the hell out of there. I would figure out a way to rescue my mom and defeat Zane on my own.

I cranked my Jeep, stomped my foot on the gas pedal, and popped the clutch. I took off way too fast, but I was so hurt and angry I wasn’t thinking clearly. All I wanted to do was get as far away as possible from the source of my pain. I was sobbing and tried wiping away the tears using the back of my hand, but fresh tears replaced the old ones, keeping my vision blurred.

I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye, but by then it was too late to react. A Lycan quickly leaped from behind some bushes, landing dead center of my hood. Out of sheer reflex, I screamed and swerved.

Chapter 44

When I cracked open my eyes everything was fuzzy at first. I slowly blinked away the fog and found William sitting by my side. His sparkling emerald eyes had turned almost black, and he had this look on his face like he couldn’t breathe. I tried to sit up, but the pain in my head was so severe I couldn’t. He gently pressed on my shoulders until I lay back. I glanced around and discovered I was in a bedroom I had never seen before.

“Where am I?” I asked in a maze of confusion and pain.

William pressed a wet cloth to my forehead and when I pushed his hand away, I noticed it was covered in blood. I promptly realized why he had that look. He was a vampire, and it appeared I was bleeding profusely. He rinsed out the cloth in a large bowl of red stained water, and patted it against my forehead.

“The bleeding is stopping now,” he said without emotion.

“Where are we?” I was already starting to feel much better. I pushed the cloth away, and sat up. My head still pounded, and I felt a little woozy.

“We’re in the basement,” he said quietly, and started cleaning up the blood covered towels thrown about on the floor.

“Let me do that.” I tried to stand, but got dizzy and fell backward onto the bed.

“You need to rest,” he said, not unkindly, but still very short with me. He disappeared from the room, but returned quickly with a soda he handed me.

“Thanks,” I halfway smiled, and leaned back against the pillows. “Why are we in your basement?” I asked earnestly.

“Lycans tracked you here. They’re outside … waiting,” he said, grabbing some fresh linens from a closet. “They can’t smell you down here. They can’t get in either. We’ll stay down here until your scent dissipates. It’ll take a while, though. I’m afraid you won’t be going home tonight … or anywhere for that matter.”

“It’s okay. My aunt doesn’t expect me back for a few days,” I said, watching for his reaction but he didn’t have one. Any other guy would have been thrilled to be locked away with a girl for even one day, but it didn’t seem to faze William.

“Why is that?” He stood facing me with his hands tucked in the front pocket of his jeans. He had on a tight black tee-shirt that showed off his exquisitely formed muscles, and his hair was perfectly disheveled.

I smiled sheepishly and lowered my eyes. “Um … I kind of told her that I was, um, going to train with Luna’s family up at Bear Creek.”

He walked over to me, taking a seat on the side of the bed. “I know you’re angry, because you think I’ve been lying to you, and the truth is, in a way I have. But not in the way you think.” He gently placed his hand over mine. “Zane thinks I’m working with him, but I’m not. Everything I have done has been to protect you. Zane is evil and very manipulative. The Amalric believes that somebody on the inside is secretly helping him. I had to live it and think it so everyone would believe I was working for him.”

I couldn’t believe it, but everything he was saying actually made perfect sense. And Joseph had only thought he was doing what was best by telling me. Maybe the whole thing had been a big misunderstanding after all. Or, maybe he was working for Zane, and this was all just another part of the cover-up. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth when we were flying home? You hurt me so badly, William.” I felt tears starting to form, but I didn’t want to wipe at my eyes or it would have just made it worse.

“Don’t you see? I couldn’t trust anyone. Not even Luna and her brothers. We still don’t know who it is. Genevieve, I hate to say it, but it could be one or all of them.” He lowered his eyes.

“I refuse to believe that,” I scoffed.

“I’m not saying it’s them. I’m just trying to make you understand that until we find out who the traitor is, you can’t trust anyone.”

“Not even you?” I asked, my voice husky from tears.

The side of his mouth curved up in a smile, and he raked his hand back through his russet hair. “Well, you have to start somewhere, and personally, I can’t think of a better place.”

I giggled and slapped his arm a little harder than I meant to. He laughed and rubbed his arm.

He leaned over me, putting his hands on my pillow on either side of my head. I reached up and placed my hand on his chest. I felt his heart barely beating at first, but the longer I left my hand there, the quicker his heartbeat grew.

He moved slowly toward me, his eyes locked onto mine. I inhaled deeply and exhaled in short nervous bursts. As soon as his lips touched mine a tingling rushed through my body. His kisses were short and soft at first, but when he really kissed me the passion became so intense I thought I was going to explode. I felt his hunger for me, but it was more than just lust. For the first time I felt William’s love for me, and in between kisses I looked at him and saw his tears. I gently pulled my head back.

“What’s wrong?” I asked quietly, confused.

“I didn’t want to admit it, but I … love you. I love you so much my chest aches for you,” he answered, kissing me hard afterwards, so hard in fact, my lip started to bleed. “Mmmm,” he moaned passionately, running his tongue over my lip.

I knew he was weak from his bloodlust, and I saw my opportunity. I bit down on my lip so hard I wanted to scream, but didn’t. He gently sucked on my lip until it stopped bleeding again. I turned my head revealing my neck to him. My heart pounded so hard, I knew he couldn’t resist me.

He moved to my neck, kissing it softly at first. Then I felt his teeth press against my neck, but he hesitated. I sunk my nails into his back, pulling him against me, pressing my neck to his mouth until he finally gave in and bit down.

A sharp pain shot through me, but gave way quickly to a euphoric pleasure that filled me completely. It was an indescribable feeling. I trembled and went limp under him, moaning, and praying he wouldn’t stop. His mouth worked ferociously against my neck and everything started to fade away.

Chapter 45

William jerked away from me, but I was so drunk feeling I was unable to move. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that,” William whispered, not unkindly, and rolled away from me.

“You didn’t do it … I did.” I had my eyes closed and was still smiling, but had started to come around. When I gained enough strength I turned toward him and lay my head on his chest. He put his arms around me and held on tightly. “Did you mean what you said earlier … you’re in love with me?”

“I’ve loved you since the first time I saw you,” he whispered, pushing a few damp tendrils of hair away from my eyes. He looked at me in a way that seemed genuine enough, but how would I really know for sure.

I slowly began to feel normal again and that confused me. Once I’d been bitten, I thought I would almost immediately start going through some kind of change, but I just wasn’t feeling anything. I sat up and stared straight ahead, thinking for a minute before saying anything. “I thought I would feel different,” I uttered, turning to look at him.

William raised an eyebrow. “Why?” He asked earnestly.

“Because. I thought being turned would feel different.” I lowered my eyes feeling cheated somehow.

William laughed lightheartedly, shaking his head. “Is that what you think happened?” He laughed again. This time a little more heartily as he reached for me. “Come here,” he said, with his sexiest smile.

I lay back on the pillow, and he propped up on his side, gently running the back of his fingers down my jaw. It tickled, and I finally smiled.