chapter 16
Rose followed Yvette almost in a trance as she dragged her from one person to the next, introducing her to the assembled guests. The music continued to play, and portions of conversations drifted to her. The looks she got were friendly and curious, not suspicious like she had expected. Whenever she met other vampires for the first time, they had always treated her with suspicion. She was used to it. And she had treated the clans she’d been part of for short periods of time with equal caution. She’d never stayed anywhere long enough for any kind of trust or attachment to develop.
That’s why what she faced now felt so utterly different. The way the individuals in this group treated each other was something she’d never seen before. There was an air of warmth and camaraderie between them that she was unaccustomed to when dealing with vampires. And not only that: they weren’t all vampires. Several humans moved among them freely. They exhibited no signs of distress either, indicating to her that they were here of their free will.
“Oh, you have to meet Delilah and the baby,” Yvette chirped next to her and pulled her along. “Where did she go?”
Baby? Rose wondered. Had she heard right? Before she could ask another question, a beautiful dark haired human entered the room from another door, a baby in her arms.
“Oh there you are,” Yvette said and walked over to her.
Rose followed and stared at the woman with her baby. She’d never seen a baby in any vampire coven. How could this woman assume that her child would be safe here?
“I put the diaper in the trashcan in the guest bath,” she said to Yvette. “Hope that’s okay.”
“No problem.” Then Yvette turned to Rose. “Rose, may I introduce Delilah. She’s Samson’s mate. Delilah, this is Rose, Quinn’s . . . uh . . .”
“Acquaintance,” Rose said quickly and shook Delilah’s hand.
“Nice to meet you, Rose.”
So the owner of Scanguards was mated to a human woman? She’d never seen those things last. In fact, she’d rarely ever met a mated vampire. In most of the clans she knew, few vampires were mated, most lived footloose and fancy-free, without any ties whatsoever. Yet, since arriving at this party, she’d already been introduced to three mated couples. What were the odds of that?
Rose drew in a breath, suddenly picking up a scent she was unfamiliar with. It was both human and vampire, yet different. Stepping closer to Delilah, it intensified.
Instinctively she stretched her hand toward the baby, but before her fingers connected, a strong hand gripped her wrist. Her head whipped around, and she stared at a vampire with short dark hair, whom she hadn’t been introduced to yet.
His intense gaze pinned her, the underlying warning evident.
“Samson, my love,” Delilah’s soothing voice cooed as if to calm him.
He slowly turned his head toward her.
“I think Rose just wanted to say hello to Isabelle,” Delilah added.
Hesitantly, Samson released her hand. Rose refrained from rubbing it to ease the discomfort his violent grip had caused.
“I’m sorry,” Rose said quickly. “I’m not accustomed to seeing babies at a party.”
Samson nodded quickly, the tension in his posture easing. He had clearly perceived her as a threat. “We rarely leave our daughter with others.”
Rose couldn’t suppress her surprise. No wonder the smell had been so different. This was Samson’s and Delilah’s daughter?
“She’s a hybrid?” She’d heard of them, but hadn’t believed they actually existed.
Delilah and Samson exchanged proud smiles.
“She’s our little angel,” Delilah said.
“She is beautiful,” Rose responded, remembering what Charlotte had looked like at that age. She felt the familiar tug at her heart she always felt when thinking of her daughter.
The baby suddenly looked at her, then back at its mother.
“She says you’re beautiful too,” Delilah continued.
Rose shot her a confused look. Parents could act a little strange when it came to their kids. “Uh . . . thanks.”
Next to her, Yvette chuckled. “Takes a little getting used to at first.”
Rose looked at her. “Getting used to what?”
“Our little Isabelle is telepathic. She can communicate with her parents.”
Her mouth dropped open at the revelation. “Oh.” A telepathic baby. What else was she in for? Not only was the baby a hybrid, it also had a special gift. From what she knew, gifted vampires were extremely rare.
“And I think she wants Zane now,” Delilah added.
Before Rose could even blink, a bald vampire appeared next to them, and the baby reached its tiny arms toward him. He took her, then looked at Rose.
“We haven’t met. I’m Zane. And this . . .” He turned and waved at the young woman who approached behind him. “This is Portia, my mate.”
The moment Rose took Portia’s hand and inhaled, the same mix of human and vampire scent rose into her nostrils. Another hybrid? How many of them were there?
“I’m Rose,” she said automatically.
As she greeted Portia, she noticed how Samson whispered something in Delilah’s ear, making her blush in response. Then he took her hand, leading her away.
Hadn’t Samson just moments earlier said they rarely left their daughter with anybody else? Odd.
She looked back at the baby and noticed how she grinned up at Zane.
“Hey, my pretty Rachel, how about a dance?”
“Rachel? I thought her name was Isabelle?” Rose blurted without thinking.
“You didn’t hear wrong. Her first name is Isabelle, but when she’s with me, she’s Rachel.”
Rose felt confusion spread, when Yvette put her hand on her forearm. She snapped her eyes to her hostess.
“Don’t mind him. He likes to be cryptic! He’s her mentor, you know, the one she bit first? Anyway, you know what that means. In human terms he’d be her godfather, and that’s why he was the one who gave her her second name, Rachel.”
She nodded, feeling suddenly overwhelmed. There was so much that she didn’t know. But she couldn’t admit that. Somehow the vampires around her seemed to be so much more civilized and educated than the ones who had crossed her path. They appeared to live decidedly human lives, not like the hidden existence that she had led, always on the move, always worried about who was waiting around the next corner. Was that why she had never met vampires who lived like this? Like humans?
As she glanced around, she noticed bottles of blood on a small side table. Next to it, human food was spread out. It looked almost natural, almost as if the two things belonged together.
When her gaze drifted away from the table, she noticed that Haven and Quinn had entered the room. But Quinn didn’t come toward her; instead he steered in the direction of a young couple, Haven directly behind him. Yvette had not yet introduced them, but something was odd about them. With suspicion she eyed them.
“Oh, that’s Wesley and Kimberly, my in-laws,” Yvette said. “I’ll introduce you.”
“Later. I don’t want to interrupt their conversation.” It was only half the truth. In reality, she felt like her head was ready to burst, too many realizations slamming into her all at once.
She found herself in the middle of a tight-knit group, a unit that could only be described as a family. Names bounced around in her head: Amaury and his mate Nina, Samson and Delilah, Yvette and Haven. She’d also been introduced to Gabriel’s mate, the beautiful Maya, and now to Zane and his hybrid mate Portia. Then the baby. Now in-laws. She needed some air.
Now on full alert, she inhaled deeply and her nostrils flared.
Battle-ready she shoved her hand into the inside pocket of her light jacket. Her heart beat into her throat, her pulse raced.
Yvette’s hand arrested her movement.
“Intruders,” Rose tried to warn her and glanced around the room, trying to find out where the scent of witch emanated from.
“What?”
Rose leaned closer to Yvette, still scanning the room. “Witches. I can smell them. We have to defend ourselves.”
Yvette’s giggles took her by surprise. Had the woman lost her marbles?
Rose stared at her.
“Sorry, I guess nobody told you, but Wesley and Kimberly, my brother- and sister-in-law are witches.”
Rose took a quick step back, surprised by the revelation. “You consort with witches?”
“They’re harmless. Besides, Haven was a witch before he became a vampire. His siblings would never hurt us.” Then she leaned in closer. “Their powers are negligible anyway, even though Wesley seems to think otherwise.”
Rose felt her throat constrict. She couldn’t take much more of this. Too much was happening, too many of her beliefs suddenly put in question. Weren’t witches sworn enemies of every vampire? She felt heat spread in her body.
“Could I freshen up a little?” she pressed out, wiping pearls of sweat from her neck.
Yvette gave her a curious look. Then she pointed toward a door. “Through there, then the first door on the left.”
“Thank you.”
Her feet carried her outside into the corridor, where the music was less loud and the temperature lower. She felt as if her body was burning up with fever. She’d never known that vampires lived like this. Why had she not known? Why had she never realized that she could have had a different life, that if she hadn’t been hiding all these years, she could have had friends like these, maybe even a family of sorts?
Gasping for air, she turned the door handle to the bathroom and swung the door open. Only the light over the sink was switched on, but it illuminated the small room sufficiently for her to realize what she’d walked into.
Samson’s fangs were lodged deep in his mate’s neck, his fully clothed body grinding against hers in an unmistakable rhythm, Delilah’s hands pressing him closer to her as if she didn’t want him to stop.
Instantly, Samson released her neck and snapped his head toward Rose, his eyes glaring red, blood dripping from his extended fangs.
Rose jerked the door shut. Shock and disgust collided in her. These vampires weren’t any better than the ones she’d been with. No, they just hid it better.
She whirled around, ready to escape this madhouse—and bumped into a solid form.
Her eyes shot up.
Quinn. He wrapped his arms around her, preventing her from going any further.
“He’s not any better. He’s using her,” she choked out.
Quinn held the trembling Rose firmly in his arms, instantly realizing that she was about to bolt. He couldn’t understand what had her suddenly in such a frenzy.
“What’s wrong, my love?” he asked and stroked his hand over her hair, trying to soothe her, only belatedly realizing how intimately he was addressing her.
“Your vampires aren’t any different.” She jerked her head toward the bathroom door. “Samson. He’s feeding off her. He’s got her under his thrall. You said you all drink bottled blood.”
It took him only a second to realize what she was talking about. He shook his head. “Lovebirds.”
She gave him a puzzled look that made him chuckle.
“Rose, don’t you know what’s going on between blood-bonded mates? He feeds from her because she’s his mate. A vampire bonded to a human has only one source of nourishment: her blood.”
“But he’s using her. Just like everybody else I’ve ever known. We’re all using them.”
Could she really mean this? Did she not understand what it was like for Delilah to have her mate feed off her? “It’s the greatest pleasure he can give her.”
Her face froze in shock as she pushed back from him. “What?”
“The feeding. The sexual pleasure that comes with it can’t be compared to anything else in this world,” he said and crossed the distance that she’d created between them.
Her back was to the wall now. Quinn slid his finger under her chin and lifted it. He stroked along her jaw, caressing her smooth skin.
How was it that she didn’t know these things?
When she stared at him, a million questions in her eyes, he finally knew how to proceed with her. He would show her what was beautiful about the life of a vampire. He would show her that they all had the capacity to love, that being a creature of the night didn’t mean darkness in their souls.
“Sweet Rose. A vampire’s bite is like a kiss—passionate, sensual, tender. It’s anything you want it to be. Whatever your heart feels, the bite will magnify.”
He stroked his knuckles along her neck, noticing how her plump vein throbbed beneath his touch. Temptation made his gut constrict.
“Like a kiss,” she murmured. “But how?”
“Has no vampire ever sunk his fangs into you? Taken your sweet blood?”
He inhaled, filling his lungs with her tantalizing scent. Oh, God, how he was craving her blood now. The beating of her heart suddenly traveled to his ears, the sound so loud he thought everybody in the house could hear it.
“Never. I’ve never allowed anybody to use me like that.”
Her voice was trembling. He glanced at her eyes, noticed how dark they’d gotten. Her lips had parted, and her breaths were unsteady.
“Use? It’s not like that between people who love each other.”
He lowered his head to her neck, his fangs descending in the process. Slowly, he graced her skin with the tips.
He felt the shiver that went through her. It was a perfect mirror to his own reaction. The lust that raced through him was unparalleled. He wanted to take her right here, take her blood while burying himself in her. Show her what true ecstasy was like. And he would be her first, again.
“Oh, God, Rose, to know that nobody has ever—”
“I remember only one bite. It was horrible,” she pressed out.
Instantly, he pulled away from her neck. Her turning. It must have left her traumatized. No wonder she wanted nobody to bite her.
He stroked over her cheek. “It’s not like that. It should never be like that.” Not between them. It would always be an experience to cherish.
Rose closed her eyes as if wanting to dispel the memories. Her body stiffened, the pliable woman in his arms had suddenly vanished.
If only she were to confide in him, he could help her. But he could see she was distraught. This would have to wait.
“Come, let’s go back and see how Blake likes his new place.”
Before he could pull her along the corridor, the door of the bathroom opened behind them.
“Quinn, Rose, a word please,” Samson demanded.