Turned (40 page)

A man. A vampire.

“Ty,” she called out.

In seconds, he was there. He immediately climbed into bed beside her, whispering words of reassurance and thanking her for choosing a future with him.

Ty had turned out to be her prince, after all. He’d changed her. Turned her in a way even Miguel hadn’t.

He’d awakened her from the evil spell that had imprisoned her for her whole life.

As he kissed her, the hunger inside her grew—the yearning for blood and sex—but at the same time, her soul was nourished by being in his arms.

She hurt. She grieved. She needed.

She loved.

In other words, she
lived
.

For my brother, James.

You take what life throws at you and you keep fighting.

You amaze and inspire me.

I love you!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I can’t thank my editor, Sue Grimshaw, and the Random
House publishing team enough for believing in me and this series. I’d also like to thank my agent, Holly Root, for her continuing support. Susan Hatler, Cyndi Faria, and Rochelle French, I adore you. A special shout out to Rhyannon Byrd, Tina Folsom, and Virna’s Vixens, and Danielle Gorman, Vanessa Romano, Karin Tabke, Grace Chow, Vanessa Kier, Kristin Miller, and Joyce Lamb for reading this manuscript during the early stages. Thank you to my fans, friends, fellow writers, and family, too many to name here but you know who you are—whether you write a review, message me on Facebook, provide brainstorming help, or lend me a hand during difficult times, I appreciate you all. Finally, as always, much love and thanks to my boys, Craig, Joshua, Ethan, and Zachary, who mean everything to me.

B
OOKS BY
V
IRNA
D
EPAUL

The Belladonna Agency Series

Turned

Awakened
(forthcoming)

Loveswept Erotic Romances

A Vampire’s Salvation
(novella)

Arrested by Love

Read on for a sneak peak at

AWAKENED

by

Virna DePaul

Published by Ballantine Books

Barrett regained consciousness with agonizing slowness
. She was lying down. Her head banged like someone was hitting it. Hard. Over and over. She willed the pain down, but it didn’t go away, interrupting her awareness of the rest of her body and her surroundings. Bit by bit she got it back.

Her wrists were loosely bound. She was alive, but she wasn’t sure why.

The decaying smell of the unseen creature that had nearly killed her still hovered in the air. It could be near. Watching her. Its captive.

Waiting to kill.

Vaguely she thought of working her hands free and running for her life … but … she was someplace inside now, no longer surrounded by stunted trees. It seemed to be night. The air coming in through a reinforced window was cool. She forced raw breaths in and out of her swollen throat.

A face swam into view. A man was leaning over her. He smelled nice. Like the outdoors. The sun. Trees.

She took in a few details. The shadowy light in the room didn’t help much. Dark brown hair, messed up. There was a leaf in it. He had rugged features that were somehow familiar and a strong jaw. Dark eyes, serious. He was strongly built with broad shoulders, wearing faded jeans and a camo shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
Brawny arms lightly dusted with dark hair reached out to her. He drew back when he saw her flinch.

She blinked, forcing herself to focus. Who was he?

“You got a hell of a knock on the head.” He reached out a hand and brushed his fingertips over an aching lump on her temple. The gentleness of his touch made her even more confused.

“Huh?”

He shook his head. “You fell. Do you remember?”

The effort of thinking made her head throb painfully again. Automatically, she tried pulling herself to a sitting position.

“Stay still,” he commanded. Something hidden in his other hand gave off a steely glint and Barrett cringed. “I’m not going to hurt you. Let’s get these off.” He clipped through plastic zip ties, by the sound of it, and released her hands.

She didn’t have the strength to hit him.

“Did you … why …” Barrett thought maybe it was better not to ask.

She had no idea who’d attacked her, but as the man got closer to the light and memory returned, she knew with absolute conviction that it hadn’t been him.

She didn’t know how and she didn’t know from what, but Nick Maltese had saved her. More fleeting memories came back to her. He’d drawn back the mechanism of the crossbow and aimed. The arrow flew. She’d heard it sing. After that, nothing.

“Sorry,” he said. “Had to tie you to get you across my shoulders and run back here. Two miles, uphill.”

Barrett blinked, summoning up a memory of stunted trees and scattered rocks. Seemed to her she’d been closer to the top of the hill than that. Nick was just as strong as she remembered. Maybe stronger. “I didn’t know when you’d come to or how you’d react.” He sat
next to her on the bed and examined her wrists. Then he let her go.

“You carried me here?”

“Like a little lost lamb.”

He’d said that about her once before. During one of their arguments about whether she was suited to military life and working with refugees. He’d never said it again, probably because she’d ripped him a new one and then hadn’t spoken to him for over a week.

Despite everything, Barrett managed a weary half smile. “I wasn’t lost. And I’m not that little. But thanks.” She touched her neck.

“You could have called or texted.” He held up her smartphone.

“Give that back. You never were reachable unless you wanted to be.”

Nick grinned as he handed back her phone. “So shoot me.” He reached into a pocket and came up with her gun. She noticed that the holster was lying on the bed.

“Would that get your attention?” she asked. “I did think about calling you when I was driving up, decided not to at the gate.”

A minor lie. She hadn’t wanted to give him the chance to tell her to go away, that was all. She’d just wanted to knock on his door and see his face when he opened it.

Hello, Nick. Imagine finding you here all alone
.

Stupid fantasy. He didn’t seem inclined to pursue the subject.

Barrett’s sigh hitched roughly in her throat. “So who or what tried to strangle me?”

“I’m not sure,” he said after a fractional pause. “Whoever he was, he was big.” His gaze moved to the crossbow he’d left leaning against the wall, then back to her. “I took aim the second before you moved. Threw me off.”

“I didn’t see you,” she murmured. “I was fighting for my life.”

He gave a curt shake of his head. “No shit. Good thing I got there in time.”

“Yeah.” She cleared her throat. It hurt inside and out.

“Anyway, not a total miss. The arrow took a chunk out of his ear. He let you go and ran. I thought it best to stay with you rather than give chase.”

“I appreciate that,” she said softly.

With more determination this time, she once again tried to sit up, bracing herself on wobbly arms. With an impatient sigh, Nick helped her until her back was braced against the wooden headboard. Other than that, the whole room seemed to be made of stone and furnished in steel. Taking shallow breaths to keep the dizziness at bay, she asked, “Are we in a safe location?”

“For now. I’ve got satellite tracking. It’s how I knew someone was heading up. But I had no idea it was you until the last second.”

“Oh.”

“I think the video feed from the gate cam broke down or got whacked. Did you park down there?”

“I was looking for a camera. Didn’t see one. And yes, I left my car.”

“The camera’s hidden in the poison ivy. One of my better ideas. Low maintenance and no one goes near it.”

“Kind of low tech for you.” Tiredly, she closed her eyes, then jerked them open again when she feared she was dozing off. What had she been talking about? Oh, right. His gizmos. “So you’re currently doing the type of research and development that requires you live on a mountain?”

“For some projects, yeah.”

She watched him carefully.

“Projects designed to identify vampires for the feds?” she asked. “Meaning the FBI.”

Given Mahone’s report to Carly, that was Barrett’s best guess at the moment. Why dance around the subject?

Rather than appear confused or deny what she’d said, he narrowed his eyes at her. “Then this isn’t a social call. And you still haven’t learned to stay out of trouble, I see. What happened to going back to your privileged life and taking up painting again? Wasn’t that part of the plan?”

“Maybe in your mind. Never in mine.” And he’d effectively avoided her question.

For the next few minutes, the tense silence pulsed between them, but she refused to go any further into their past, what he’d encouraged her to do, and what she’d known immediately upon stepping back onto U.S. soil was never going to happen. She also wasn’t going to bring up the mistakes she’d made and would make again if she had to, even knowing it would end the same way. She prayed he wouldn’t bring them up, either.

Nick finally sighed, then said, “So I guess you’re working for the feds, too.”

Thankful he wasn’t going where she didn’t want him to, she relaxed slightly, not thinking about why he’d assumed so, just that Mahone had been right. Nick knew about vampires and freely admitted he was working with the FBI. And he didn’t seem overly surprised by the fact she did as well. “In a manner of speaking.”

He cocked a brow. “Meaning?”

“Like you, I’m an independent contractor. I like my freedom.”

“I remember.”

Her gaze flew to his. Had that been bitterness in his tone?

He hadn’t seemed to mind when she’d ended things. But his next words seemed like another dig. “You never liked following orders, even if they were there for a reason.”

So she’d been wrong. He had no intention of letting sleeping dogs lie, but he couldn’t force her to talk about it. “Let’s not get into all that. It’s in the past, Nick.”

Clenching his jaw, he stood again, massive as a statue. For a moment he seemed to be listening to something outside that she couldn’t hear. Then he returned his dark gaze to her. “Okay. Then let’s get into something new: Why you’re here, how you knew where to find me, and whether anyone knew you were coming.”

The last part of the question confused her but only for a second. Then she realized why he was asking it. Her attacker …

It hadn’t been some random assault by a maniac wandering in the woods. He’d been inhumanly strong. What if he was a vampire who’d been instructed to follow her and kill her? If so, who had sent him? The FBI? Tash? And why had he smelled like a rotting corpse, unlike every other vampire she’d ever met or heard of?

She looked sideways at Nick.

Was it totally crazy to think he’d sent that thing after her? That he’d only pretended to save her?

She shivered at her thoughts and shook her head. She hated this. Being suspicious of everyone around her, including the man she’d once trusted enough to welcome inside her body. She’d come here for a reason; she had no choice but to trust Nick again. It shouldn’t be such a difficult task.

She answered him slowly. “There’s a lot I need to fill you in on.”

“Including what you know about vampires and what it is you need from me.”

At her slight nod, his mouth twisted. Something disapproving radiated from him, and he didn’t even bother to hide it.

“What’s on your mind?” she asked him. The Nick Maltese she’d known hadn’t gone in for displays of
emotion. But he was older now. His eyes showed it—and revealed more than he probably wanted to.

“I wish you were here for a whole different reason, Barrett. A personal one. But I’ve wished for a lot of things that never came true, and something tells me nothing’s changed.”

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