Her toes scraped across the ground as her head lulled forward and she was dragged toward the balcony.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ethan lifted his head from the young woman he'd been feeding from. After tasting Emma's blood, the woman's seemed flat, bland. It wasn't awful, but more like water compared to champagne. Looking around the small bathroom, he scented the air as he sensed a strange disturbance in it. The woman swayed on her feet when he released her and took a step away; her glassy eyes were focused on the curtained window in the corner of the room. The bite mark on her neck had already healed when he ordered her out of the room.
He'd fed from four women and one man since leaving the house, and with Emma's blood coursing through him, he felt almost lightheaded from the power pulsing within his veins. The acrid scent of sweat and sulfur drifted to him, he recognized the combination as fear, but the laughter and music from the bar continued to flow into this backroom. He realized the scent wasn't coming from anyone out there.
Unreasonable foreboding gripped him. He took another step forward and inhaled deeply. Where was it coming from?
Grabbing the handle, the door to the bathroom slammed against the wall as he flung it open and strode purposely from the restroom. Ian and Brian were standing by the pool tables, they each held cues in their hands as they talked with a group of young girls who were eagerly hanging on their every word.
One of the women started to come toward him, but he paid her little attention as he walked toward the door of the bar. His gaze ran across the beach as the sun dipped over the horizon.
"What are you doing?" Ian asked as he placed his cue against the wall and hurried to his side.
"Do you smell that?" Ethan inquired.
"I don't smell anything, are you all set for the night?"
"Yes," he answered absently. "How do you not smell it?"
"Maybe you've had too much," Brian suggested as he approached. "How many humans have you fed from at one time before?"
"Only Emma," Ethan answered absently.
"Wait, what?" Ian blurted as he did a double take.
A strange, knowing gleam came into Brian's eyes as his gaze ran over him from head to toe. "I see," Brian murmured, and Ethan got the distinct feeling he really did see. That Brian knew the dirty secret, Ethan hid all these years. That the man he least wanted to understand him, was the one who did.
"You've had human blood before," Ian insisted.
"Only in bags."
"Ethan—"
"Enough, Ian!" Ethan interrupted brusquely.
"But I thought—"
"There's a lot you thought you knew that you don't. Now drop it," he snarled as he stepped out the front door. His head turned as he searched for the scent, but there was a hollow feeling growing within his stomach.
"What does it smell like?" Brian inquired.
"Fear." And then it hit him who the smell was coming from. "It's Emma."
He broke into a run as he fled the bar. It felt as if his feet weren't even hitting the ground as he raced up the road toward the house. He'd never moved so fast in his life, he was nothing more than a blur, one barely perceptible to the human eye and could easily be written off as a fleeting shadow.
The doorknob never came into play as he smashed into the door, tearing it clean off its hinges and flinging it across the room. Isabelle let out a startled shout, Stefan and Aiden leapt up from the couch. It took him only a second to ascertain Emma wasn't with them. He fled down the hall and burst through the bedroom door with the same recklessness as the first, but this one stayed on its hinges as it crashed into the wall.
The scent of blood hung heavily in the room; he detected the aroma of Emma's blood immediately before the smell of someone else's filled his nose. His head turned, his nostrils flared as he spotted Mandy lying on the floor.
"What happened?" Isabelle cried as she ran into the room behind him.
Ethan turned and ran for the bathroom, but even before he made it to the doorway, he knew Emma wasn't there. Isabelle was kneeling at Mandy's side when he returned; she was carefully holding her head as she turned Mandy over.
"She's alive," Isabelle whispered as Aiden knelt by her side. "I don't understand; we sensed no one else in the house, no other presence. How is this possible?"
"Aiden give her some of your blood," Stefan commanded.
Aiden bit into his wrist and pressed it against Mandy's mouth to help her heal faster. Ethan was drawn by a small puddle of blood on the floor just outside of the bathroom. He knew even before he knelt beside it that it was Emma's. A bellow of fury tore from him, his back hunched up as his muscles constricted. Stefan grabbed Isabelle and pulled her backward; he pushed her toward the wall and positioned himself in front of her.
Red suffused Ethan's vision; madness crept through his system and twisted within his mind. His body pulsed with the power of the blood he'd consumed today and the rage tearing through him. Something strange was happening to him, his hands fisted at his sides causing the veins in his arms to stand out.
At first, he thought the red hue of fury clouded his eyes, but as he looked closer, he realized his veins were standing starkly out from his body and turning red. The blood pulsing through them was visible, or
