“What happened to you?”
“Choked on a chicken bone.”
“Really?” she asked.
“No. I stepped in a bear trap when I was feeding my dogs. It was right under this huge tree, completely covered in snow. The race had been in a whiteout, and it was hard to see anything, hard to stay on the trail even. And then in one second, everything changed. I knew the second I stepped on that metal trigger that I was done for. My dogs were barking, howling, trying to get to me, but I’d made camp and they were still tied to their stakes. I was in so much pain I couldn’t think straight. Was bleeding too much. The snow around me was red, and I was trying to dig the post out of the ground that had the trap anchored, but it was frozen solid. The harder I tried to escape, the faster I bled out. I remember laying back in the snow, freezing, shaking, in shock from the pain, and I looked up at the clouds above me. I was sad that I couldn’t see the stars. I didn’t want to die staring at storm clouds. I don’t know why that mattered to me, but it did. I couldn’t get to my dogs to set them free, and they were going to die with me. Starve or freeze or get eaten by the animal that this trap was intended for. Then I heard something.”
“What was it?” she asked softly, imagining everything he was describing so clearly.
“This screeching sound, and then I saw them. I saw the bats. They covered the clouds. My blood had drawn in a predator, but it wasn’t any predator I’d ever seen.”
“Vampire,” she uttered on a breath. “Did it hurt? Dying?”
“I don’t remember. The dogs were going crazy, and I could see this dark figure walking through my pack. They were lunging at it, gnashing their teeth, trying to protect me. The creature didn’t even pay attention to them. They were nothing. No threat to him. He only had his black eyes trained on me. He disappeared into a plume of smoke and reappeared hovering over me. I remember he said, ‘I’m sorry.’ And then…nothing.”
“You don’t remember him?”
“Oh, I know my origin. His name is Masterson. Still lives in Alaska as a trapper. He Turned me and taught me how to control the bloodlust.”
“What happened to your dogs?”
“Masterson set ’em all free before he took my body back to his cabin. Most of them found their way back to my family.”
“Did you see your family again?” she asked.
“A few times when I was sated and thought I could handle the bloodlust enough not to kill them. I only watched them from the woods, though. I was dead. I didn’t look the same, and my skin was cold and pale. My eyes stayed black back then when I didn’t have the control yet. Vampires weren’t out to the public, so I had to hide.”
“Why did you leave Alaska?”
“I didn’t leave Alaska. I left the memories there.”
“You miss the sled dogs?” she asked.
He nipped at her neck and swayed them to the side. “Yes. Very much. I try to focus on my life here, though. Looking back isn’t good for a creature like me. Moving forward keeps me steady.”
“I like that. A wise fish once said, ‘Just keep swimming.’”
“Did you just quote a cartoon to a vampire?”
“Never give up,” she said, cracking a smile as she looked up at him.
“Oh, God, you’re doing inspirational quotes.”
“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” She widened her grin as he rolled his eyes heavenward. “Whatever is meant to be, will be.”
“I actually like that one.”
“Yeah? Why?”
The grin fell from his lips and his eyes turned soft as he searched hers. “I think I was supposed to be Turned that night so I could live long enough to meet you.”
Bats fluttered this way and that in her stomach. She twisted in his embrace and hugged around his neck, rested her cheek against his.
She didn’t need to say anything else here in the darkening night, and neither did he.
That’s how love works. Sadey’s voice whispered those words through her mind, and Nicole let off a contented sigh. This wasn’t love yet. It couldn’t be because it was too soon.
But it was the beginnings of something important.
It was the beginning of her realization that monsters were capable of a deeper bond than she’d ever realized.
It was the beginning of an acceptance that maybe…just maybe…he was right.
Perhaps this was meant to be.
Chapter Six
“Where the fuck is he?” Evan snarled. He raked his long claws down the middle of the old workbench in the abandoned barn and splintered it in
