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“Ryan, are you okay?” She crawled over to him.
One of his hands moved, but he didn’t turn his head toward her. “Get away from me.”
She gasped. “What? Ryan, just let me help you.”
“Keena, for your own safety, get away, damn it!”
He struggled to sit up, clutching his side. Even in the dim light of the moon and the flashes of lightning, she made out the blood coating the grass under him. If he didn’t get help soon, he would die.
She ignored his warning and lifted his arm to lay it across her shoulders, but he tugged against her. The fact that he couldn’t shake her off attested to how weak he was from the blood loss. Keena brushed his hair, which was plastered to his skin, from his forehead. “Let me help you, Ryan. You can do what you want to once we’re both okay.”
She tried to look into his face, but he turned his head. When they were on their feet, all at once, his strength returned enough for him to flatten her on a tree and press his length along her body. She winced at his roughness, but attributed it to his injuries. The fact that he was able to stand said a lot about how strong he was.
Because his back was to the moon, Ryan’s face was in shadows above her. He lowered his head toward her. “I told you to back off, Keena. I don’t want to hurt you, but I
need . . .”
Lightning flashed, and Keena screamed. Ryan’s canine teeth were sharpened. She fought against him, but his hold had turned to steel. Keena beat at his arms and kicked him. The points of Ryan’s teeth edged her skin. She whimpered, knowing this was it. This was his secret that everyone knew but her. This was what Jerry had meant when he said what if Ryan hurt her and what Mirabelle referred to when she said Ryan was better off alone.
“Ryan,” someone called.
Her lover froze and raised his head to look into her eyes. The pain and anguish she saw there almost made her collapse all over again. He released her and stepped back. Several men filled the area, and one woman Keena didn’t recognize. She watched with her heart aching as Ryan zipped across the space toward the woman, but someone blocked her vision before he got there. She glanced up to see Jeb.
He offered a gentle smile
. “Come with me. I’ll get you back to the ranch where you can rest.”
She opened and closed her mouth, but couldn’t speak. Her knees felt like Jell-O. Unable to stop him, she just stood there while Jeb turned her head to look at her neck and tsked like she hadn’t just been about to be sucked dry by a vampire. Jeb put her on his horse and hoisted up behind her. When they were back at the ranch, he saw her to her cabin. Keena went in, in a daze. Jeb speaking from behind her made her stop.
“I think it’s better that you leave here in the morning, Keena.”
“Better for me?”
He shrugged. “And for Ryan.”
“You’re probably right.” She turned to shut the door. “I’ll pack my things now because it’s not likely I’ll get any sleep at all.”
Chapter Eleven
Vampire. The word reverberated around her head while she sat on the plane going home. The whole thing was unreal. Vampires were not real. She’d read about Count Dracula in English class while still in college, had laughed at how unbelievable the story was while her classmates had been spooked, most refusing to read the material at night. Now here she had been face-to-face with one who had been ready to drink her blood. She closed her eyes, and tears welled in them. Worse, she knew she loved Ryan, loved him more than she could ever have loved Steven.
Over the last couple of weeks, she’d had the time of her life—spending time with him, making love. He had been attentive and eager to stay by her side. Only at night did he have to work and come to her later. Now she knew it was because he went out to feed, to drink someone else’s blood. Jeb had explained some of it to her.
“I think I can see it in your eyes that you love him,” Jeb had said. “So I can share a little of what it means to be Ryan.”
Keena had wanted to say never mind, she didn’t need to know because she would never see him again, but she remained silent anyway, listening.
“He can never have someone in his life, someone to love. You already know the story of his wife and how she left him after that attack in Paris.” He noticed her questioning look about how he knew she knew. “Mirabelle reports everything. She loves Ryan, as we all do. We’ve known him for many years, when his uncle owned this place. I guess we were glad that coldhearted bastard died. He made Ryan earn the money to buy the place from him instead of inheriting it. Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. The night Ryan became a vampire, his wife left him. He came home devastated, half out of his mind. I got the truth out of him about what happened. Like I did for his uncle, I did what I always did, took care of business. I found him donors. I helped him find support.”
Keena frowned. “Support?”
He smiled. “Vampires Anonymous?” He laughed. “No, but I did find another like him. Wasn’t easy. He taught Ryan how to survive, and through a series of unfortunate accidents in his training, most of the staff learned what he was. Some left in terror, and some we bought off to keep silent. Most of the long-term staff loved him enough to stick by him. But it’s a lonely existence, one where he has to be very careful. What happened to you last night should never have happened. I advised him against seeing you when Mirabelle phoned me about how he kept seeking you out. Ultimately, Ryan is the boss. We can’t stop him from doing what he wants.”
Although flashes of his fangs ran across her mind at a constant rate, she still couldn’t take it all in. “That woman last night . . .”
Jeb nodded. “A donor. With the amount of blood Ryan lost, he needed to feed, and it took all his strength not to take it from you. He never wanted to hurt you.”
“You say that like he gives a damn about me,” Keena muttered. “If he did, he wouldn’t have—” She fell silent. She was relieved when Jeb didn’t push to know what she was about to say.
