Most of those involved in the kidnapping ofthe purebred vamps were in the process of being hunted down andslaughtered by Ronan and his men. David would love nothing morethan to join them—if they agreed to let him help, considering hewasn’t purebred or part of Ronan’s men—but again that would meanleaving Mia.
As a purebred vamp, she was stronger thanhim in many ways, yet he’d defend her with his life. He’d also doanything to make her feel safe, even if it meant staying here whenhe’d much prefer to be back with his friends and family.
He shared no blood relation to Liam andSera’s children, but he considered them all his nieces and nephews,and he loved them all as if they were his blood, perhaps more so.They were closer with each other than many were with their bloodfamily. He missed the laughter and the practical jokes thatabounded at home. He missed Liam, Sera, Jack, Doug, and Mike. Thelast time he’d spent so much time away from his closest friends,he’d been going to college in Pennsylvania while they’d beenattending school in Massachusetts.
Then Liam had encountered Sera at a party,their bond had grown, and David had left Pennsylvania behind tohelp Liam get through the uncertain time. Due to a chance encounterDavid had with Stefan and Brian years ago, David had known moreabout what Liam was going through at the time than Liam had. Stefanand Brian hadn’t been mated at the time, but they knew whathappened when a vampire found their mate.
David could live another thousand years andhe’d still never get over how small the world was, as Stefan andBrian were now mated to two of Sera and Liam’s children.
Pulling himself out of the past, he focusedon Mia again. “Do you wish to stay here?” he asked her.
“I have no idea,” she admitted. “I hadn’tconsidered it. I can’t return to my apartment, even if I wantedto.”
Mia had no idea why she stayed when all theother purebred vamps rescued from the warehouse had already leftand were in hiding. Aside from Vicky, she was the only survivor whoremained. True, she had nowhere else to go, but Ronan had made sureall the rescued purebreds were taken care of and safe.
She didn’t stay because she was afraid ofbeing caught and put back in chains. Most of the vampires who hadorganized the capture of purebreds and the selling of their bloodwere dead. The ones who weren’t were being hunted and wouldeventually be caught. Some of the vamps who were still alive knewwhat she looked like, but they would have no idea where to look forher if Ronan sent her into hiding.
The vamps that may still be looking for herwouldn’t be able to track her, unless they had some sort of abilitylike Brian’s. However, if there was another vamp like Brian outthere and that vamp had been working for Drake, Ronan believedDrake would have launched an attack against all of them and triedto destroy Ronan and his men.
She believed it had simply been a fluke thather captors had stumbled across her when they did. She hadn’t knownany of the vampires who had taken her, those who had paid to feedfrom her, nor any of the other captives before they’d all been heldtogether.
Most of her fellow survivors had chosenwhere they wanted to go. Ronan would have sent her anywhere in theworld she asked him to, as long as he believed it was safe for herthere. She could havefinallygone to Alaska or Finland tosee the Northern Lights. She could have lived out her biggestdream, yet she had stayed behind for some reason.
Mia’s gaze flicked to David, and she had toadmit that maybe she did know why she’d remained, and why she feltso safe. She didn’t know him well, but there was a calming,protective vibe from him that led her to believe he would never letanything happen to her again.
Ah damn it, she thought with asigh.
Just because she’d been celibate the pastthree years didn’t mean she’d sworn off men. She simply didn’t wanta relationship, and she had a feeling with David it may be deeperthan anything she’d experienced with a man before.
Well, she’d actually never had arelationship in her life, not really, and she’d never wanted one.There had been men coming and going, but none that she’d everconsidered her boyfriend.
Her parents had loved each other deeply.When she’d still been young, dumb, and full of dreams, she’dyearned to find their kind of love for herself. Then the bleakreality of life had slapped her in the face, and those dreams hadgone up like smoke in the wind.
Three years ago, Mia had made a choice totake a step back from the life she’d been living in order to focusmore on herself. She’d moved back to Connecticut, where she’d livedwith her parents before they’d been killed. She took a job in acoffee shop and rediscovered her love of the stars and space.
She’d sat down and evaluated her life in away she’d been avoiding doing since the night her parents died.Then, just when she was beginning to think everything was going tobe okay, that she would heal and move on, she’d been ambushed,enslaved, and used as a vampire pincushion.
Mia didn’t particularly like anyone, wasn’tsure she ever would again, yet she’d stayed because of David.
Okay, maybe she liked David more than alittle, and she had to admit that Aiden, Vicky, and Abby werefriendly. Vicky understood what Mia had been through in captivity,and even though he could be a bit of an asshole sometimes, Brianhad also grown on her. He wasn’t nearly as much of an asshole asLucien, but then Abby had probably tempered Brian’s harsher ways alittle.
Her gaze lifted to David’s full lips, andshe almost licked her own as she imagined running her tongue overhis in order to taste him. He’d be delicious, she was certain ofit. She’d lose herself in him,tohim, until her hands wereon him and his were on her.
She tried not to cringe at the thought ofanother’s hands on her again. Touching her, holding her down….
Her chest clenched as her breath caught inher throat. For a minute, breathing was nearly impossible as shebecame buried beneath the weight of her memories. She could feelthe hands of those who had forcefully drained her blood from herrunning over her body once more, feel them pinning her onto thecold, hard floor beneath her. Her skin crawled even as anger flaredhotly through her at what she considered her defect. She should notlose control of her body every time her past surged through hermind.
One, two, look at your shoes.
Her eyes fell to her sneakers as she laboredto breathe. She despised this crushing sense of panic that hadoccurred often after the fire, when she’d been left all alone inthe world. Back then, the panic had been triggered randomly and hither out of nowhere. She’d spent a lot of time running from it andtrying to ignore it. Over the last three years, she’d finally facedit, learned how to handle it better, and gained control ofherself.
Now the touch of another, or even thethought of another touching her, brought the panic forth again. Theidea of getting close to anyone turned her into that frightenedeighteen-year-old orphan all over again, or it put her back inthose chains with the slurping sounds of vampires feeding fromher.
She shuddered at the memory of those fangsin her, the weight of their heavy bodies, and their skin onhers….
“Mia?” David rested his hand on her arm whenthe color drained from her face and her breath wheezed in and outof her. She turned away. “Easy,” he murmured as he took his handsfrom her and held them in the air. “Breathe.”
He’d witnessed her having these panicattacks before, but the helpless feeling they created within himdidn’t ease with each new one. “Breathe,” he coaxed until herwheezing eased and some of the color returned to her face. “We canstay here for as long as you want to stay.”
