Page 60 of Ryder’s Storm

“It’s about what your father told me. That you’re ill. That you have episodes of—”

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” So her father had managed to plant seeds of doubt in Ryder after all. She should have known this would happen.

“Scarlet, baby.” He took both her hands and kissed her knuckles. “Whatever it is, it won’t change how I feel about you. All I want is for my mother to ask you a few questions about your symptoms, and to draw some blood.”

“But what would be the use in that? It’s just really bad PMS. Lots of women have that. My mother had it.”

“I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want to do, but my mother is a great doctor. She might be able to help you figure out why you go through this. Earlier today, before we had sex, your body was burning up. At least talk to her, tell her about your symptoms. I would never forgive myself if I didn’t make sure you’re all right.”

His eyes were kind, and she saw affection shining from them. “All right, I’ll talk to her.”

“Thank you.” He pressed his lips on hers and kissed her deeply, reigniting the flames of lust she’d felt when they’d made love earlier in the day.

When he released her lips, she said, “But afterwards, can we go back to your place?”

His eyes seemed to shimmer golden all of a sudden. “Are you tired?”

“No.”

“Yeah, me neither.”

“Good,” she rasped, her heart beating violently. “’Cause I need to feel you again.” She pressed her pelvis against him.

“Baby, I’m already hard. Let’s get you to talk to Mom, so we can get outta here before I have to find us a broom closet.”

“A broom closet sounds pretty good right now.”

“Don’t tempt me.”

28

Ryder waited in the V Lounge until his mother was done talking to Scarlet and drawing her blood. No humans other than the blood-bonded mates of Scanguards personnel were allowed in the V lounge, which looked like a VIP lounge in a five-diamond hotel with comfortable seating areas, soft music, a bar, and a fireplace. There was a good reason why humans weren’t allowed to enter: the lounge served human blood on tap. And Ryder needed it.

In the darkness on the backseat of his SUV, he’d given Lizzy some of his own blood, or she would have died on the way to Scanguards’ headquarters. He’d been as clandestine about it as possible, making sure that Scarlet couldn’t see what he was doing. When he’d returned from the OR and gone to fetch Scarlet from the waiting room reserved for humans, he’d feared the worst: that she’d seen a vampire and fled. It wasn’t an unrealistic worry. After all, on the medical floor, it happened frequently that injured vampires would be in such a state that their fangs showed, and their eyes glowed red. It couldn’t be avoided, particularly when a vampire was in pain, or hungry, or sometimes simply couldn’t control his urges around human blood. And this wasn’t how he wanted Scarlet to find out that vampires existed, and that he and his family weren’t human.

While waiting for Scarlet, Ryder ordered a tall glass of AB positive blood from the tap and gulped it down, feeling his strength slowly return. He ordered another one, when the door opened, and Luther entered.

Luther was a big vampire, broad-shouldered, tall, with a commanding personality. He hadn’t always been one of the good guys. Everybody at Scanguards knew his story. Over three decades ago, he’d made an attempt to kill Delilah and Nina, Samson’s and Amaury’s mates. For his crimes, he was sentenced to twenty years in the vampire prison in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Upon his release, he’d been instrumental in saving Isabelle, Samson and Delilah’s daughter, from a vampire associated with the prison, and earned Samson’s forgiveness. He’d joined Scanguards shortly after that, and was splitting his time between San Francisco and the vampire prison, where he worked as a security consultant.

“Hey, Luther, it’s been a while,” Ryder greeted him.

Luther approached and greeted him with a pat on the shoulder, then pointed at the blood on his clothing. “Been playing with your food?”

“Yeah, not so much. Nessie and I brought in a girl. She was attacked by a vampire.”

“Fuck! Did you get him?”

“Not yet.”

“Who’s the victim, another prostitute?”

“Yes, but what do you mean by another?”

“You hadn’t heard? There’ve been several attacks on prostitutes all the way from Grass Valley to San Francisco. I’ve reason to believe that a guy we recently released from prison may be behind it.”

“Is that why you’re here?” Ryder asked and took a sip of his second glass of blood.

Luther didn’t order any blood. As a vampire blood-bonded to a human, he only drank from his human mate, Katie. Were he to drink blood from any other human, it would make him violently ill. Only vampires bonded to other vampires could drink any human’s blood.