“I’m getting ready to have wicked vampire sex with you.”
She gasped with pure, undiluted fear and reached for the door handle.
He laughed. It was so unexpected that she stopped and stared at him, at all that expanse of toned, well- sculpted chest, free of hair just the way she liked them.
“That’s not even funny,” she said.
“Just trying to break the tension.”
She jerked her gaze away from his chest when it wandered there again, but unfortunately it caught his and the knowing smirk tugging at his lips. He lifted the shirt then proceeded to use it to wipe away the blood covering his face.
“Don’t worry. Your precious human virtue is safe.”
She didn’t believe him for a second, and some part of her that evidently had a death wish was disappointed.
When he finished wiping away the majority of the blood, he tossed the shirt in the back and started the engine. “Where to?”
She opened her mouth but nothing came out. Did she really want him knowing where she lived?
“The sooner you tell me, the sooner you get to step beyond the point I can’t cross. And it’s not as if I couldn’t find out anyway.”
She gave him her address, hoping she hadn’t just made the biggest mistake of her life. As he pulled back into traffic, she scooted as close to her door as she could. Not that the space between them afforded her any semblance of protection, but it was the best she could do in the current situation.
“You got a name?” he asked.
She didn’t answer. Instead she counted the seconds, minutes until she could truly be safe from this most confusing and frightening of vampires. He’d almost killed her then saved her, all within the space of a couple of hours. Add to that the fact that he was the most gorgeous male specimen she’d seen in ages, and she felt as if her brain were going to short-circuit, sending sparks out her ears.
Unable to look away, she watched him. But he stayed on his side of the truck.
“Why aren’t you attacking me?” What was she doing, inviting death now?
“Because I fed, nearly drank the blood bank dry of AB-negative.”
“Oh.”
He glanced at her as he made a turn. “Don’t think that makes me any less dangerous.”
“If you can control yourself, maybe other vampires can, too.”
He gave her a hard stare. “Some don’t want to.” He pulled to the curb and turned off the engine.
When she looked out the window, she recognized the dark street as where she’d been when the other vampire had stolen the truck with her in it. “This isn’t where I live.”
“No, but there’s something you need to see.”
“You said you were taking me home.” Her heart rate picked up again. Had everything been an act to mess with her head? Was he going to kill her now, drain her body and leave her on the sidewalk?
“I will, but first you need to see this.” He got out and rounded the truck, then opened her door. “Get out.”
“No.”
“Either you get out or I carry you.”
With fear consuming every part of her, she got out of the truck and followed him through a door and up a darkened flight of stairs. “Where are we going?” Only she was afraid she knew.
“Before you start letting the fact that I’m not draining you make you think maybe vampires aren’t dangerous, I’m going to show you how wrong you are.”
Olivia stopped, frozen by his words. But when he kept climbing, the dark and what might follow her frightened her more than keeping up with Campbell.
When she entered a large high-ceilinged room behind him, the thick coppery scent of blood nearly overwhelmed her, causing bile to rise in her throat. Other unpleasant odors—those of unwashed bodies, rot, a dank wetness—mixed with the blood. She put her hand over her nose and mouth and tried not to gag. Her horror only increased as Campbell walked toward one brick wall and lifted a thick set of chains anchored there.
“This is what happens to humans who get caught by vampires if they’re not immediately drained. You end up in a blood den, a living lunch for one vampire if you’re lucky. Dozens, hundreds if you’re not. It doesn’t take long for you to start praying for death.”
The stories weren’t half as awful as the reality.
“That girl we just saved...she was chained in here, along with about a dozen others,” he said. “You could’ve easily been headed to something similar if we hadn’t happened upon you earlier.”
It was all too much after everything she’d been through. She rushed to a corner and vomited. Cold sweat broke out all over her body, and she started shaking. Beyond the buzzing in her ears, she heard Campbell drop the chains and walk toward the door.
“I’ll take you home now.”
She lifted her head and looked at him. In that moment, she didn’t know if she hated him for forcing her to see this evidence of vampire cruelty firsthand or was thankful to him for reminding her that her fear was well- founded.
He disappeared down the stairs, but she took a few seconds to make sure she wasn’t going to heave again. Then she forced her shaky legs to carry her out of this room she was certain would show up in her nightmares.
Campbell didn’t speak to her for the remainder of the drive to her apartment. When he pulled to a stop outside her building, she wasted no time slipping out of the truck and hurrying through the front door of her diner, which provided access to her second-floor apartment. Only when she was safely behind the protective barrier of the glass did she venture a look back at him and find him staring at her. Despite the space between them, she felt the intensity of that stare and wondered what it meant. Wondered if she really wanted to know.
Campbell pulled away from the diner in Hell’s Kitchen, hoping to leave not only the woman but also his dangerous thoughts behind. Because it’d been all he could do to not grab her and kiss her senseless. Too easily he could imagine stripping off her clothes and thrusting into her warm body. Just the thought had him hard as a stone pillar.
He shook his head as he headed back toward Tribeca, to the area where she’d been attacked earlier. If he was lucky, maybe the cold air barreling into the truck would knock some sense into him. Because as he’d watched the still-nameless woman step beyond the safety of her front door, he’d finally allowed himself to think about how beautiful she was. And not just physically. Though it put her in danger, he admired how she stood up for herself, how she fought back even when the odds were hopeless. He hoped it didn’t get her killed after everything he’d done to keep her alive.
When he approached the area where the blood den had been, he noticed some of his team heading for the door that led to the stairs. He pulled over and hopped out of the truck.
“You get everything sorted out?” he asked.
“All the humans dropped at the hospital,” Len said. “Colin and Travis are questioning the vamps at Detention.”
Detention was nothing but a big almost entirely underground room with white walls, but it still gave Campbell the creeps every time he stepped foot into it. Maybe it was the retractable door on the roof, the ever- present threat that those in holding could be exposed to the sun if they didn’t cooperate. He didn’t know if anyone had ever suffered that sentence before going to trial, but the Imperium was very good at spreading the word that they had. Keeping order through fear.
He followed the others up the stairs, his nose twitching at the foul smell of old blood.
Kaja sniffed and scanned the room. “A human has been here since we were,” she said, sounding
