“If you tear the strips, I can bandage him,” she offered.
He could be around the man’s blood, but he couldn’t watch her touching him again. “Iwill do it.”
“Mike—”
Mollie’s protest died off when he lifted his head to meet her gaze. She didn’t understand the turbulence in his eyes, but she suspected pushing him on this might send him over the edge. His gaze latched onto her fingers when she rested her hand in a comforting gesture on the man’s arm.
When a muscle twitched in Mike’s cheek, Mollie released the man’s arm and Mike visibly relaxed. She had no idea what was going on with him, but she wasn’t going to aggravate a vampire, her only ally, and a man she was beginning to consider a friend with some additional kissing benefits.
Mike tore two small pieces of cloth from the quilt and set the blanket aside.
“You’re a vampire,” the man stated.
Mike would have to change the man’s memories before this was over, but there was no point in doing it now. It would only weaken him, and he was sure something else would happen to reveal his vampiric nature again to the man before they were out of this mess.
“You’re observant,” Mike replied as he reached for the man’s arm.
The man recoiled from him. “You’ll drink from me!”
Mike tried to keep his patience as he met the man’s troubled, hazel eyes. He understood the man’s apprehension, and he had every right to be scared as Mikehadcontemplated killing him, but they didn’t have time for this.
“No, I won’t,” Mike said. “Now give me your arm so we can get out of here before more of them come.” When the man kept his arm away from him, Mike continued. “Or you can sit here and ring the dinner bell by continuing to bleed all over the place, and we’ll leave.”
The man paled further and glanced at Mollie. “It’s okay,” she assured him. “We really are just trying to help, but you have to let us.”
The man’s eyes bounced between the two of them before he held his arm out to Mike. “Are you a vampire?” he demanded of Mollie.
“No. I’m human, and Mike has helped keep me alive through this. You can trust him.”
Can he? Mike wondered as their conversation with each other grated on his already irritated nerves. If she were his mate, his need to protect her and his jealousy would escalate until she became a vampire.
Ifshe agreed to become one. She barely knew him, and what she’d seen of vampires so far wasn’t promising. Plus, her sister was in the hands of Savages and probably dead. Before all this was over, Mollie might grow to despise him and his kind.
“What’s your name?” Mollie asked the man.
The guy didn’t tear his attention away from Mike while he replied, “Holden.”
“I’m Mollie.”
Holden grunted and blew a strand of his shoulder-length, brown hair from his eye. He had a brown goatee, lean build, and the look of a guy who spent more time on a skateboard than his feet. Mollie guessed him to be in his early thirties.
Mike finished tying the bandage on Holden’s wrist. “We have to cover your neck too, or they’ll track the scent of your blood.”
Holden nodded, and Mike set to work wrapping the cloth around his neck.
“How did you come to be here?” Mollie asked Holden.
“Some buddies and I were at the skate park the other night. One second I was on my board, and the next I was in a cage,” Holden replied. “I’m not sure how it all happened or where my friends are now. We ran in different directions when we were freed from the cages. How did you end up here?”
“I pulled over because my car had a flat tire. Someone stopped to help us, but they wanted more than to change our tire,” Mollie replied.
“And you?” Holden asked Mike.
“I was in a bar with some friends. The bar was attacked, and we were taken.”
“Why are they attacking their own kind?” Holden asked.
“I don’t know,” Mike replied gruffly. He wasn’t about to get into the intricacies of vampire life with a man who would never remember any of this.
