High Stakes (Vegas Vampires #1)(61)
Author: Erin McCarthy

He raced down the hall when the elevator opened, and fumbled with his key for a second before giving up and just shoving the door open, breaking the lock. Pausing in the doorway, he scanned the room, listening.

But it wasn’t sound that assaulted him. It was the smell of blood.Hordes of it. "Oh, Lord." Ethan ran into the room and saw Alexis immediately.

She was on her side on the floor by the coffee table, eyes closed. Blood ran down her side, across her abdomen, and in a wide, wet circle on the carpet.Way too much blood. Falling to his knees, he pressed at her fleshy, gaping wound, afraid to check for a pulse, scared of what the answer might be.

"Alexis, love, what the hell happened?" Why was she in her bra and panties and nothing else? Who’d put the knife in her side?

"Ethan?" Her eyelids fluttered open.

"Yes, it’s me." He brushed her hair off her face in agonized relief. "It’s all right, I’m here now. I’m here."

"I don’t want to die in my underwear."

He would have laughed if he weren’t choking back tears. "You’re not going to die in your underwear." Feeling in his pocket, he fumbled around for his cell phone. "I’m calling 911 and they’ll patch you right up."

Except he could already tell by the pallor of her skin and the amount of blood she’d lost that it would be a miracle if they could save her. He felt his throat closing up, and he gathered her into his lap so he could wrap his arms around her, feel her warmth, hear her heart beat slow and sluggish. The knife in her side was twisted at an awkward angle, like she’d fallen on it. When he glanced around the room, he saw the missing Kelsey, drained of her blood, propped up against the glass door.

Good Lord. What the hell was going on?

Anger boiled in him, hot and fierce. He had finally found a woman he could love and she was being taken from him before he could even blink. He hadn’t even had time to live with her, to make her his wife. And his cell phone wasn’t in his pocket, damn it, not that he seriously thought she had a chance.

"You’re crying," she said, sounding surprised.

"Vampires don’t cry." But he felt the wetness on his cheeks, knew blood tears had fallen from his eyes. He gripped her closer, tighter, wishing he could give her his strength. "And you’re going to be okay."

Her head went back and forth. "No. You’ve got to turn me. I’m dying." Her words were faint and pain-wracked.

"Turn you?"

"He stopped stroking her cheek and stared down at her, not daring to hope. "But you said you didn’t want to be a vampire. That you didn’t want to drink blood or quit your job or other things." He couldn’t remember what else she’d said, didn’t really care, but he wanted to remind her.

The temptation to take her fear and use it to his advantage was powerful, so he needed to be rational. Alexis hadn’t wanted to be turned, and he couldn’t be selfish and do it now when she was vulnerable and suffering with pain.

"Are you nuts?" she said, with characteristicAlexis attitude. "That was before I was dying. I choose living as a vampire over not living at all." Her eyes fluttered open, locked with his, clear and certain. "Do it. Please. I’m not ready to leave you and Brittany."

Hope flooded his chest, made him pull her closer to him. "Are you sure?" God, he wanted her to say yes. With Alexis turned, they wouldn’t have to settle for ten or fifteen years together.

He could have her for the next thousand years, until he died of old age, an ancient vampire. She was his chosen one, and they could be together forever.

"I’m sure." It was barely a whisper, her lips moving slowly,white and cracked, but Ethan heard her clearly. "I love you," she said. "I want to be your wife."

That was all he needed to hear. "I love you, too, Alexis, for eternity."

Chapter Twenty

Ethan sent a call to Seamus for assistance, then bent to Alexis and whispered in her ear.

"It’s going to hurt, love, I’m so sorry." Since he couldn’t throwa glamour over her, or use pleasure to numb her senses, he was going to have to hope that she was in so much pain from her wound, a little more wouldn’t matter.

He hadn’t turned anyone since Seamus in the eighteenth century, and never had the outcome been so important to him. Closing his eyes, he lowered his head, while raising her limp body to meet him. Hovering over her shoulder and neck, he brushed his lips over her cold flesh and pulled the knife out of her side. The smell of death clung to her, her breathing a labored in and out, a soft rattling in the back of her throat.

"You’ll suffer no more," he told her. "You’ll be strong, powerful, my chosen one, my wife."

And he sank his fangs into her neck and drew what little remained of her lifeblood into him. She barely reacted to his invasion, giving only a slight shudder, and within a minute Ethan had drawn all that was necessary. Most of her blood had spilled on the carpet, down her side, over Ethan’s hands.

Moving quickly, he punctured his wrist with his fang and sliced an inch-wide gash. Pushing her lips open, he let a few droplets touch her lips, pool on her tongue. Once she got the taste, she clamped on to him, her body going rigid as she sucked hard, drawing his life into her.

Ethan closed his eyes, felt the tug and yank throughout his body as she fed from him, a sexual flush rushing into his groin. It was an intimate act, one of joining, and while he’d certainly never felt it as a sexual desire with any of those he turned before, his feelings for Alexis were different. He loved her, lusted for her, feared for her, and with all of those emotions churning within, her eager sucking at him tugged at his soul, pleased and aroused him.

He cupped his hand over her breast, stroking her nipple, feeling it tighten for him, her mind flooding with pleasure. Locked together like this, her thoughts were flowing and mixing with his, the fear receding, while the pleasure grew and replaced the pain. Anticipation, excitement, love washed over him from her, and Ethan projected his own thoughts back to her.

Happiness that he’d found her, love, glimpses of his very long and lonely life were sent to her to show Alexis that she was special, the one, his only.

Knowing it was time—her grip strong, her body warm again, her eyes rolled back and dilated with pleasure—Ethan broke her suction on his wrist. She whimpered, but her eyes focused on him, and she smiled.

"I heard your thoughts."

"Yes." Ethan"checked her wound, saw that it was healing already. "How do you feel?"

"Much better.The pain is going away and I don’t feel so weak. And everything feels sort of sharp and neon you know what I mean?"