Taking a deep breath, she braced herselfbefore plunging in. “I was closing the coffee shop where I workeddown for the night. I’d been the one staying behind to closeeverything down a couple nights a week for the past year. I lovedthe quiet of the place after everyone else left. It was peaceful, atime for myself. During those times, I didn’t even mind the scentof coffee, donuts, and other human foods in the place.
“When I was done cleaning everything andcounting the drawer, I set the alarm and exited onto the sidewalk.My apartment was close by, and I walked there as I always did. Icould have gone in the front door of the building, but every time Icame and went, I took the fire escape. At the time, I told myselfit was because I wanted to enjoy the fresh air a little longer,even when it was winter time. Looking back, I realize it was reallybecause I felt a deep-seated need to know it worked, and that Iwould be able to use it to escape if I ever needed it.”
“In case there was another fire,” he saidwhen she grew quiet, and her gaze fell to her clenched hands in herlap.
“Yes,” she murmured. “Funny how I neverreally realized that until now.” Sighing, she lifted her eyes tohis again. “The fire escape was in an alley, but I was a fullymatured, purebred vampire who had survived living on the streets. Ineverworried anything could happen to me that I wouldn’t beable to handle myself. I was an idiot.”
“Every other vampire would have felt thesame exact way. We take our strength for granted, forget that wecan be brought down.”
“I won’t ever forget again.”
“Nothing like that will ever happen to youagain,” he vowed.
Mia smiled at him as she eased the painfulclenching of her hands. “They were waiting for me in the shadows ofthe alley. I smelled them before I saw them, but I do remember thatbefore I saw them, I had the thought the dumpsters needed to bepicked up soon.”
David’s hands moved back and forth againstthe wheel. “Who was waiting for you?”
“Four of the vampires who were killed in thewarehouse. At first, I was startled to see them coming toward me.It was only nine o’clock, but no one took their trash out at thattime of night, and there was never anyone else in the alley. Thenthe odor coming from them hit me, as did the knowledge they werevampires, and that it wasn’t the trash that reeked so badly.”
Her nose wrinkled as the potent refuse aromathey’d emitted flooded her senses once more. “I didn’t have anyexperience with pureblood vampires at that time. I didn’t know thatonly we could detect the killer vampires amongst us by scent, but Iknew the odor of those vampires waswrong.I’d encounteredmore than a few vampires during my time on the streets and duringmy many moves, but none of them had been pureblood or possessed therotten odor of a landfill like they did.
“To this day, I have no idea how the four ofthem knew I was a pureblood vampire and not a turned one, butsomehow they did. I’d never told anyone about my birth. It wasn’tsomething I tried to keep secret, but I’d just never been closeenough to anyone else to talk about myself or my family withthem.”
Those words briefly pushed aside the furywithin him. Not only had she experienced so much adversity in herlife, but there had also been so much loneliness. He’d never beenalone. From the time he was born, he’d always had someone to loveand care for him. He hadn’t even been alone in his turning asElizabeth had also turned his three best friends, ones he’d hadsince childhood. But Mia hadn’t had anyone in years.
“You’ll never be alone again.”
Mia’s heart soared at the promise of hiswords. It was such a wonderful prospect. She hadn’t dreamed abouthaving someone who would care for her again in years. Now shewanted to seize the dream with both hands and hold it close, butshe was afraid she would crush it. She didn’t dare hope for toomuch. She’d been disappointed and hurt too many times in her lifeto not go into things with one foot already out the door.
“I knew those vampires in the alley wereoff, and they outnumbered me,” she continued. “I tried to flee, butthree of them jumped me from behind. I fought and kicked againstthem as they dragged me down. They each easily had a hundred poundson me and subdued me faster than I’d believed possible.
“At the time, I had no real idea how todefend myself against anyone. I’d carried some protection with mewhen I was living on the street, usually a knife, sometimes astake. But even if I was smaller, I was stronger and faster thanthe humans, so a weapon was my second choice in a fight. Once Igave up my nomadic life and hit maturity, I stopped carryinganything on me. I was stupidly confident that I could handle anythreat at that point.”
She’d never be that stupid again. Now shecould feel the reassuring weight of the stake tucked securelyagainst her right ankle. On her left ankle, the tiny crossbow Aidenhad given her before leaving the compound was holstered and loadedin preparation for an attack. Her coat was in the backseat, asshe’d taken it off for the drive, but more stakes were tuckedinside the inner pockets. She didn’t know if David had alwayscarried weapons on him before the warehouse, although she suspectedhe hadn’t, but she’d watched him strap some to himself thatmorning.
“Once they had me pinned me down, the fourthcame at me with those chains!” Now it was her turn to shake withrage as memories loomed to engulf her. Those awful chains that hadbeen strong enough to keep a purebred vampire restrained.
“Drake was an extremely powerful purebloodedvamp,” David said.
So powerful that he’d been orchestrating thecapture of other purebred vampires and making money by sellingtheir blood off to the highest bidders. Brian and Abby haddestroyed him, but Drake had managed to inflict a lot of pain onothers before his death.
“He must have seen you,” David continued,“or perhaps one of his lackeys did, and they somehow knew what youwere. There are those out there, human and vampire, who haveabilities. Drake may have had someone like that working forhim.”
“Like Brian’s mysterious ability to findpeople,” she said.
“Yes, like that.”
“You’re probably right,” she muttered andwatched as a Mac truck went barreling by them. The force of itspassing shook the car.
“Did they take you straight to thewarehouse?” he asked.
Mia’s chest tightened once more. This time,she didn’t do her rhyming game and focus on something else; shefocused on the contours of David’s profile. Memorizing the curve ofhis cheek and the line of his jaw helped to calm her before shelost control and the panic took over.
“No, I was taken to another building first.They kept me there while they allowed others to come and feed onme.” A muscle at the corner of his eye twitched. “They moved mefive times before they put me in that warehouse. In the beginning,there were three other purebreds with me, different than the onesyou rescued with me. I am the only survivor of the original group Iwas with.”
David’s head turned slowly toward her. Sherested her fingers over his, needing the contact with him.
“I huddled in the corner, watching whilethey carried the body of one of those purebreds out whenever theblood loss became too much for them to take. Or—” She swallowed asher throat tightened. “—when someone became too greedy and took toomuch from them. I also think some of them paid for the opportunityto be able to kill one of us.”
