Cold Blooded

“Well, we have no choice but to give it a try.”

“What if I don’t agree and I don’t want you as my new Master?”

“If you can come up with another alternative, I’m all ears. But I don’t see any other powerful vamps waiting in line to give you their blood. Like it or not, this is the only option we have in front of us.” I gestured at Naomi. “Ask her if she had a choice in picking her Master.” I turned to address her. “Naomi, did anyone ever ask you if you wanted to become a vampire before they turned you?”

“Non,” she said. “Of course not. Vampires hunt their prey and their prodigies with precision and care. There is no free will involved. If you are chosen, and given the gift, you are eternally grateful.”

I arched an eye at Ray. “See? If you want to stay a vampire, you bite me. There’s no other way.”

Rourke strode toward us, his face set. “Jessica, I don’t like it,” he said. “I’ve never heard of a shifter making a vamp. There could be unforeseen problems we don’t know about.”

“I know it’s not ideal.” I switched to internal because Ray didn’t need to know what we were discussing. But saving Ray has become a top priority in the last half hour. There’s no way I’m letting my father die if Ray is his salvation. And I’m not technically making him—Naomi did the making—but he already has my blood in his veins so there’s no choice. Rourke, I have to finish this or he dies and with him, my father. I can’t let that happen.

I still don’t like it. What if something goes wrong?

My best guess is this will work. I’m already getting hazy internal signals that he’s bonded to me. I think once he has my blood, he might actually be forced to listen to me.

Rourke crossed his arms and gave me a hard look. I understand you feel the need to do this, and I will support you if you choose to do it, but, Jessica, if something goes wrong, we have to agree to end his life.

I will agree—I paused, meeting Rourke’s gaze—but only after he fulfills his role in all this.

Jessica, the sacrifice may be too big. What if he goes crazy and we can’t control him? What if he kills you instead?

I have to do whatever it takes to save my father. We can’t go into all the what-ifs or we’d drive ourselves crazy. If this were your father, you’d be doing the same thing. We are having this conversation prematurely. Let’s go ahead with the transition and see what happens. If it’s anarchy, we can regroup after.

“Are you two finished?” Ray asked, glancing from me to Rourke. “Because I’m hungry as hell. And if I don’t have a choice about you being my Master, I can still choose to eat. And there’s one more stipulation. When you’re done making me, I want these chains gone.” He rattled them to accentuate his point. “Or the deal is off.”

“One thing at a time, Ray,” I said. “Let’s see if this works first and then we can negotiate your freedom next.” I leaned closer to him as Rourke’s worry thumped against my chest, along with Tyler’s and Danny’s. I extended one arm and met my mate’s eyes. Pull him off of me if I lose consciousness, but don’t kill him. Promise me you won’t kill him if he hurts me. He needs to stay alive.

I won’t kill him, but I’m not going to promise I won’t make it hurt.

I glanced at my brother. “Tyler, you know I need to do this.”

“I know.” Tyler nodded. “At this point, I’d feed the bastard too.”

“Come on, let’s go,” Ray said impatiently, his eyes oscillating between silver and full black as he eyed my arm like a meal. “I’m starving here.”

“Take it easy—I’m going as fast as I can,” I said as I maneuvered myself into a better position. I slowly moved my arm in front of him and braced the other one against the wall. His fangs elongated even farther as my flesh came closer, and then his face started to do the horrid vamp slide, his cheekbones extending, his chin lengthening.

He lunged once I was within reach, his fangs penetrating my skin deeply.

Followed by a loud crack.

“Dammit, Ray! You broke my arm.”

10

“Okay, that’s enough,” I told him after a few minutes. I was dizzy. Ray drank faster than I could replenish.

No response except for slurping noises. Ew. That was something I would never get used to.

“Let go of her now, vampire,” Rourke ordered. He stood over us, his voice threatening. “Or I’ll bash your head against the rocks and we’ll see how long it takes you to regenerate from that.”

Naomi stepped forward. “He is not in control. His instincts have taken over. It’s very hard for a fledgling to disengage on his own from any feeding, much less the blood of a supernatural.”

“That figures,” I muttered. “So how do we get him off?”

“You must rip your arm away. We will brace his shoulders.” She nodded at Rourke, who already had Ray by the back of the neck.

“Let’s go on three,” I said. This is going to hurt like a bitch, I told my wolf. A shot of adrenaline hit my system in the next beat, fortifying me.

“As much as I’d love to stick around and witness Ray tearing your arm to pieces, I’m going to head out if that’s all right with you,” Danny said. He inclined his head at me. “I’m assuming it’s not necessary to stay. Seeing you harmed is ghastly on any level, but this is particularly gruesome.”

Tyler grumbled, “I’m going too.”

I felt their need to somehow fix the situation, but there was nothing they could do. Giving them a task would help. “Yes, go. Hank is out there. Find him. We need to figure out what to do with his body.”

Tyler’s eyebrows shot into his hairline. “I scented him here, but it smelled off, too old to be recent.” His nose immediately went into the air and he turned toward the tunnel entrance.

“It seems he never left,” I said. “We fought last night. I’ll explain it all later.”

“We’re on it.” They both trotted out of the cave, and I turned back to a concerned Rourke and a poised Naomi.

They both nodded to me.

“Are you sure this is our only option?” I asked. “How about we try and coax him off with sweet talk? He’s such a sucker for niceties. It just might work.”

Naomi stifled a smile. “We must do this; I know it is not ideal, but he has already taken too much.”