Reclaimed(23)
Author: Diane Alberts

But she needed to know every detail about his amazing life. It felt so new and incredible.

“Yes, he acts as a vampire and drinks blood, though he tends to stay away from people. He has, on occasion, weakened and succumbed to his desires. But he mostly feeds off of wildlife and blood banks. He doesn’t change into a bat or anything, and sunlight doesn’t bother him, either. Elijah does, however, hate garlic. It will keep him away from your blood.”

“Crucifixes?” she asked.

“Hates them, especially gold ones. Gold burns vampires.”

“Gold? I thought silver hurt them.”

“A myth they put about to make everyone steer away from gold,” he stated as he shook his head. “It worked, too.”

“Son-of-a-bitch,” she grumbled. “I need to get a gold crucifix.”

“It won’t stop Elijah, or Louisa. It’s merely an annoyance for ones who are as strong as they are. They’d rip them off and heal right away. They’re most effective on newborns.”

“Well, there goes my grand plan. At least he hates garlic, since I happen to love it.”

“That doesn’t, I repeat, doesn’t make him safe or trustworthy. Sometimes, no matter how much a vampire tries to be good, he just can’t resist the lure of human blood—garlic or no garlic. I’ll be honest and say there are ones who succeed in resisting their animalistic nature. Elijah is one of them, and as such, he’s not high on our list of targets. But if I were to come across him, it would be different.”

She nodded, accepting the warning for what it truly meant: stay away from Elijah, or I may run across him and have to kill him. She didn’t want to put any of them in that position. Isaac had been trying to protect her, and in some twisted way his brother, all along. Her suspicions at his secrets faded away.

He hadn’t spoken to her about it before because he’d feared to turn her away. Plain and simple.

“If you came across him and let him go, what would happen?”

“Theoretically, if no one knew, nothing would happen. But if I were caught doing such a thing, I’d be tracked down and killed, like any other target of ours.”

His eyes glittered like ice, and she could almost hear his teeth gnashing together. “Did you find him earlier?”

“No, he’d already left and I didn’t follow his trail. I wanted to come here to explain this whole mess to you.”

“Can I ask another question, about Elijah?” She hated making him mad, but she had one last question. At his nod, she continued. “When I talked to him, he told me he couldn’t tell me what he is. Not wouldn’t, but couldn’t. Why? Did I misunderstand his words?”

“No, you understood. Just as my kind have their sets of rules, so do his. He’s not allowed to tell anyone of his existence, unless it’s a person he’s about to change. Or a person about to become his dinner, neither of which you are. Or ever will be.”

It would be impossible to miss the proprietary tone in his voice, or the warning he gave. She belonged to him and him alone. That didn’t sound too bad, even if he were some kind of freak of nature.

She’d never been normal anyway.

“Oh. I-I see.”

Staring off into space, she wondered what had happened in the meadow after Isaac had lost consciousness. Elijah had said he had killed Amelia, but had he really? Or did he blame himself for his weakness?

Isaac believed her to be Amelia reincarnated. It could be possible, she supposed. She’d been drawn to this area, and God knew she’d become obsessed with Isaac. And, to be honest, to some extent she felt drawn to Elijah as well. They were like two incredibly hot magnets, pulling her in opposite directions.

But she couldn’t deny it any longer; Isaac’s pull was stronger. And would win, hands-down.

“You’ve been quiet for a while now. Are you okay? Got any more questions for me?” He smiled playfully at her.

“Um, yeah. Tons. So many I can’t even sort them out to make sense.” She massaged her temples and flinched at the headache rapidly gaining strength. “You said you change into the creatures you fight. Do you have to become a werewolf to fight a werewolf, or can you fight a werewolf as a vampire?”

“I can become whatever I feel I need to be to win the fight. More often than not, I morph into the same species. It makes sense.” He shrugged his right shoulder, and then rubbed his head. It left his hair sticking up in places, looking delightfully mussed. Sabrina yearned to run her fingers through it. She reached out to touch his soft waves and jumped when a pounding on the door broke into their conversation. Before she could even hop to her feet, Isaac stood at the door, swinging it open.

Would she ever get used to how fast he moved?

Probably not.

All thought left her as she caught sight of their visitor. The man was huge, at least six-and-a-half feet tall. He had to be a bodybuilder or something, judging by the bulging muscles straining underneath the black skin on his biceps. It didn’t even look like he could fit through the door.

Yikes.

“I smell a mongrel.” He scrunched his nose as if disgusted. “I’d say it’s close by, no more than a mile. It must be looking for—” He threw a meaningful glance in her direction, and finished, “dinner.”

Isaac tensed, looking torn. She could tell he couldn’t decide whether to stay here, or to go after the mongrel. “Please, Isaac, I’ll be okay. Go. I’ll stay inside. I promise.” She met his eyes, eager to show him she told the truth.

After all, she didn’t have a death wish, and she could do without seeing this ‘mongrel’, thank you very much.

He rushed to her side and grabbed her arms. “I’ll get him. Connor will stay here to watch the house. He won’t let anything by.”

She had no trouble believing that.

“Be careful, Isaac.” Even knowing his strength, her heart dropped to her stomach at the thought of him chasing a dangerous…whatever it had been called. He grabbed her face and kissed her, leaving her clinging to him in need. But unfortunately, the kiss was brief. He had a mongrel to kill.

She staggered when he released her, and she didn’t miss the smug smile on his face as he vowed, “I’ll return soon.”

You better.

She bolted to the window to watch him jog away. Wait, why could she still see him? She knew for a fact he could move faster than the human eye could see. His pants hit the ground, and she caught a glimpse of bare bu**ocks before he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.