Called By Blood

Chapter 11

Lacey turned and ran.

Helena opened her eyes, really opened them, and took a hard look at Alex. His mouth was smeared with blood and his bright tears. She was covered with blood. As was the tablecloth. And the front of his white shirt.

Lacey would call the cops.

Helena jumped off the table. Her legs, shaky from blood loss and orgasm, almost gave out on her. She stumbled to the door, Alex right behind her.

She gestured him back as she ran out the door, holding the front of her dress closed. The snow stung her bare feet. Lacey's truck was roaring in fast reverse down the drive.

"Lacey!" she screamed, waving one arm.

The truck came to a screeching halt and the passenger door flew open.

"Quick, quick, quick!" Lacey yelled, and Helena jumped into the warmth of the truck. Before she could say anything, Lacey gunned it.

Helena saw Alex on the porch, his face stark as he watched them race away.

"Are you all right? How'd you get away? I thought you were dead. I swear to God I thought he'd just killed you."

"No, I was fine."

"Honey, you've been hurt. You're in shock. I'm taking you to the hospital."

"No, I don't need the hospital. I need to go back. You need to meet Alex. He'll explain."

"I bet he would. With a chainsaw. I knew something was going on. I should have come over sooner. I should have called the cops. You've been alone with him for days."

"No! Well, yes. Sort of."

"When you didn't call about Milligan's, I called you, and your phone just rang and rang. I knew it was off the hook. And your cell went straight to message."

Helena swore to herself. She'd left her cell phone down in her office, and Alex had probably unplugged the house phone because he didn't want his gourmet extravaganza interrupted.

"Really, I was fine. What you saw looked bad, but it's not."

"That's called Stockholm Syndrome, honey. Identifying with your kidnapper."

Lacey fished her phone out of her jean jacket and started punching numbers with her thumb.

"Don't!" Helena grabbed the phone. Lacey fought to keep a grip on it, swerving all over the road as she did.

"Shit!" Lacey let go in order to avoid a truck. The screen read 911. Helena hit the disconnect button.

Lacey shot her an angry sideways glance. "Why are you protecting him? He's getting away while we fight."

Blowing a piece of hair out of her eyes, Helena said. "Take me to your house and I'll explain. Otherwise I'm jumping out of this car."

"A vampire." Lacey folded her arms and leaned back in her chair, very unimpressed. They were sitting in her kitchen with two mugs of tea and a bottle of Jack.

Helena spiked her tea with a generous splash of whiskey. It was going to be a long night. "They're real."

"You mean he's a guy with a blood kink."

"Um…" He had a blood kink, that was for sure. And now she did. "Um, no. He's not a wannabe. He's a genuine, honest to God vampire."

"Like, he turns into a bat and stuff?"

"No, I don't think he can do that." Helena frowned. Maybe he could. She didn't know enough about him. She brightened. "But he can kill an elk with his bare hands."

"Niiiice." Lacey popped a cookie in her mouth. "But if he was drinking your blood when I walked in. Shouldn't you have holes in your neck?"

Helena reached up under her jaw where he'd latched on. "You don't see any marks?"

"There's a red blotch."

Helena examined her fingers and her wrist, her ankle. All were unmarred. It left her a little lightheaded, the idea that such an intense experience should leave no trace. Yet he had bit her. It wasn't imaginary.

Lower, more concerned, Lacey said, "Where are you hurt, hon? Where's the blood from?"

Helena peeked down the neck of her dress. Dried blood glued the dress to eight tiny wounds. Proof positive. Whatever he'd done to make the other bites vanish, he hadn't done it to these when Lacey walked in. Anyone seeing her breasts would think him a sadist. They wouldn't know how each bite made her back arch with the purest, sharpest pleasure. She could still feel his tongue wrapping her nipples, the pressure of his teeth, the hot demand of his mouth. Her body would turn itself inside out to answer him.

"Hello?"

Helena blinked. "I'm okay."

"No, you're not. But you don't seem to be bleeding to death, so we'll come back to what he did to you. Look, you're the most rational person I know, and you're telling me that vampires exist.

Let's leave off whether I believe you or not. The Helena I know would have a stack of research and a hypothesis as to why this is perfectly explainable."

"I'm working on that. There is a good explanation for it, I just don't know all the facts yet. But I kind of like being surprised along the way."

"You hate surprises."

Helena laughed. "I do. It's true."

"And, my dear, you know I love you, but you are a bit of a maniac about keeping a nice house. So how am I going to believe that you consented to get up on your folk's antique dining-room table for a kinky little blood interlude, permanently staining what was—if I ID'd it correctly while peeing my pants—your grandma's best tablecloth?"

Helena started to laugh and couldn't stop. She almost slid off her chair. "It was! I did that! Oh, poor tablecloth."

"Are you high?"

"Yes. I'm free!" She blurted it before she even knew what she was saying, and then thought about it. "Lacey, I don't have to control things anymore. Sometimes things stain. Sometimes things break. Some things we never understand. It's okay."

"Of course."

"And sometimes you have to do things that frighten you. Because they frighten you. If you don't take risks, you don't know what you're missing."

Lacey tapped her long fingernails on the table. "Haven't I been telling you that for years, girlfriend? But you don't listen to me. Oh no. You listen to the vampire."

"He didn't tell me, he showed me. I trust him. He could have done anything he wanted to me from the beginning, and he didn't. He makes me feel safe, even when he's asking a lot from me. And just before you walked in, the most amazing thing happened—"

"What happened, solntsa moyo?"

Alex appeared just behind Lacey's chair, blood stained and tense enough to snap in two.

Helena heard him. Inside. Her head lifted and her pupils dilated wide when she saw him. And then she smiled. He let go of the breath he'd been holding since she'd run out into the snow, since they'd fought in the car, since he'd first tasted her, first seen her, first heard her name.

"I think I saw love in his eyes, Lace. I think somehow he really loves me even though I'm a wreck."

Lacey followed the direction of Helena's gaze and gasped.

Alex walked around her chair and knelt in front of Helena. He bent to kiss each of her knees, then kissed her palms. More of her stories lived in him now. Her bruised heart was infinitely precious to him.

"And the thing is, I think I love him too."

As soon as she said it, her hand flew to her mouth. Her eyes went wide, as if the thought shocked her, but in just a couple of heartbeats they overflowed with tears. She took a deep breath and lowered her hand. Then she smiled at him again. This smile he'd remember for the rest of his life. "I really think I do."