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“And stop speaking my name with such remorse. I donated happily. You’re my friend. Why wouldn’t I have done so?”
“This isn’t about your having fed me. And your body isn’t flushed because you opened a vein. Don’t you see?”
She stared at him, but kept shaking her head.
“Hannah.”
“No.” She held up both hands as though to ward him off.
Suddenly, the whirling in her brain stopped so that she finally had to stare at an enormous central monolith that had two words chiseled on it, all in caps: BLOOD ROSE.
“No,” she cried out.
She knew what it meant. She’d heard the women talk about how much their lives had changed and that was the last thing she wanted.
Jude caught her in his arms and held her.
“I don’t want this, Jude. I’m not that person. I love you as one of my dearest friends, but I’m human. I’m human.” She clung to his massive shoulders and started sobbing. It was all too much, her lust and longing for him, her respect for him, the sex that had just rocked her world. “I don’t understand how I could be a blood rose.”
“Abigail was human.”
Hannah drew back and stared up at Jude, though she still held tightly to him like an anchor in heavy seas. “And now she’s a vampire. Is that what I’ll become?”
“Not necessarily, at least, I don’t think so. Sweet Goddess, I don’t know. But I do think you’re becoming realm.”
She held out her hands and glanced from one palm to the other. “What is this, Jude? Why do my hands tingle? Why does my body grow so warm and flushed?” She drew in a long, slow breath.
Then she remembered when Jude had begun his vibration between her legs that she’d felt all this warmth and she now knew that heat had come from her. Oh, God.
But one more horrible thought intruded. “Did I really kill that vampire?”
Jude nodded slowly.
The thought that she had taken a life, even one that needed to be brought down, caused her to tremble.
Jude pulled her close once more. “I’m so sorry, Hannah.”
She let him comfort her for a moment, then pulled out of his arms. “You don’t understand. This bar is my life. I ended my last long-term relationship because my ex wanted me to give up the Gold Rush, to sell it, just to be with him.”
“I know. I remember.”
She planted a hand against her chest. “The Gold Rush is who I am.”
“I know. By all the elf-lords, I do know who you are. But we’re in trouble here, Hannah. Please tell me you understand. I didn’t ask for this and I definitely would never have wished this on you in a million years, but we’re here and we’re in trouble.” He then reminded her of what each of the bonded women would have already told her, that she would be pursued heavily by other mastyr vampires.
She put a hand to her forehead. “Oh, God. This can’t be happening. And I’m so unfit for anything like that. I thought I was performing a good-enough service here, giving you men a place to chill and even to sleep over, not to mention running the communications center. So why wasn’t that enough that somehow the powers of your world have descended on me? I just don’t get it.”
“I don’t know, either, but I do know someone who can help, who can give us some answers.”
Hannah began to relax. “Vojalie.”
Jude nodded. “Tell you what. Let me contact her and see if we can meet up tonight.” He glanced around. “How about at your house at full-dark?”
She couldn’t help the tears that rolled down her cheeks. “Sounds like a plan.”
She watched Jude move back into the bunkroom, pull out his locker and slip into a pair of boxers. He then sat down on the side of the bed and turned inward, eyes closed. From the energy she felt radiating from him, she knew he’d connected with either Vojalie or her husband, Davido. Most realm-folk didn’t have that kind of power to hold a telepathic conversation realm-to-realm. Jude did, as did all the other mastyrs of the Nine Realms, which was one reason power-levels defined the mastyr-status. The most powerful mastyr in each realm ruled. Simple.
When Jude finally relaxed and looked up at her, she knew the call had ended.
