Page 42 of A Bond Beyond Blood (The Butcher’s Daughter Trilogy #1)

G annon

Vinny’s place was alright as far as bachelor pads go, and I really couldn’t complain. After we graduated and Jackie left for college, I’d stayed home to help my ma with her antique store, and had never even left the home I was raised in. So this newfound freedom was actually pretty great.

Well, save for the fact that I hadn’t asked for it, and with freedom came a loneliness that cut like the points of a thousand knives.

But other than that!

There was no shortage of blood banks nearby, and three bars in a two-block radius where I could find a girl who’d let me feed privately. The banks could be so... impersonal.

But I never did more than feed on them, something I hoped would earn points with Jackie—if she ever gave me the time of day again.

I’d been by her place a few times in the week since Vinny got me settled here, but two of those times he’d been there, so I’d left before even knocking on the door, and the third time she’d been busy at work in the butcher shop—and I hadn’t wanted to bother her.

I watched her, though, quietly from the street-facing windows, falling in love with her a little more with each second that passed.

Until Vinny showed up like the fucking stalker he is and told me to get lost.

But tonight would be different. I’d texted her in advance and asked her to meet me at our old spot.

And, by some fucking miracle, she’d agreed.

On the bench beside me was a picnic basket with her favorite food, a bottle of the red wine we drank together that night after prom, and two glasses. The view was perfect tonight, with the city all lit up across the water, glowing brightly against the dark horizon.

I heard her footsteps approach before she said anything, but kept my attention on the skyline so as not to freak her out with my enhanced hearing abilities. She might already be fucking a vampire, but as far as me turning into one? I had yet to know how she felt about that .

I mean, she had kissed me, but that might have been a one-off. For all I knew, she could be interested in finding our way back to friendship only, nothing more.

And maybe not even that.

Maybe she’d agreed to come tonight for the sole purpose of telling me to kick rocks in person.

My heart plummeted at the thought.

“Hey,” she said as she approached from behind me.

I stood quickly and turned around, grinning when I took her in.

Bundled in a black puffer jacket, with a bright blue scarf wrapped tightly around her throat and billowing out the top of the jacket, her light olive skin was ethereal in the moonlight. Those blue eyes popped even more than usual thanks to the similar shade of her scarf.

“Hey, baby—” I stopped myself abruptly, catching my mistake before she could reprimand me. “Hey, Jackie ,” I quickly amended.

Her lips twitched on a smile, then she looked over the bench, catching sight of the prepared picnic basket. When her gaze met mine again, she released that grin and my heart skipped a beat.

I had to hold my breath as she rounded the bench, lest the familiar scent of her overwhelm me.

“You packed a picnic?”

I nodded, swallowing hard, but the lump of emotions created by the sight of her remained lodged near my Adam’s apple. So I motioned toward the bench and she sat down, looking at me with a curious glint in her bright blue eyes.

My blue-eyed Italian princess.

Fuck, I missed her.

“I don’t forgive you yet,” she said with a hint of playfulness in her sultry voice, “but this is a good start, Gannon Hayes.”

I flashed her a smile, then got to work.

She sat quietly while I began removing things from the basket and setting them on her lap.

A napkin, a small plate, half a baguette.

.. Then I reached in and pulled out a half-moon of cheese that had always smelled fucking horribly to me, but now? As a vampire? With heightened senses?

This stuff smelled like death. The ability to hold my breath and not pass out was a welcome gift in this moment.

“Raclette?” Jackie whispered. Her stomach growled as she stared longingly at her favorite cheese, quietly but not so silent I couldn’t hear it, and I smirked as I grabbed the torch and began to heat the cheese above the plate resting on her denim-clad thighs.

She reached for the baguette, tore it open hungrily, then held it out to catch the melted cheese as it began to slide off the half-wheel.

The way she moaned after that first bite made my cock twitch, but I settled beside her on the bench and poured us a couple glasses of our old favorite— cheap —pinot noir. The same bottle we used to swipe from the bodega near our old high school.

Thirty minutes or so passed as she devoured her meal, little bits of small talk interspersed throughout, but the heavy topics we’d soon need to discuss were set aside so she could enjoy the food I’d packed for her.

This used to be our thing—the picnic, the nasty cheese, the cheap wine.

.. just the two of us sneaking off to be together. To be alone. In love.

Just us against the world.

Now it was her against me, and I had no one to blame but my stupid self.

When she was nearly finished, Jackie hummed happily and I smiled as I closed my eyes to revel in both the sound of her contentment and being this close to her again, just the two of us—as it should be.

“Remember when your mom caught us stealing this...” The words trailed off, and she winced as she side-eyed me. “I’m sorry, G, I didn’t mean to bring her up.”

“No, it’s fine.” I finished the last sip of my second glass of wine, then tucked the empty glass back into the basket and shoved my hands into the pockets of my coat. “It’s...” I paused, trying to figure out how to put my feelings into words. “It’s not her fault, Jackie. I can’t blame her—”

“What?” Jackie huffed, then followed my lead, tucking her plate into the basket.

She finished her second glass of wine as well, then placed it inside the basket beside mine.

Lifting the basket by the handles, she set it on the ground, then pushed it beneath the bench so she could scoot closer to me.

“Don’t do that, G. Don’t blame yourself. ”

Looping one arm through mine, she leaned on my shoulder.

My pulse sped at the sudden closeness and I dared to turn my head, dared to press my nose against her hair and breathe her in. The scent of her didn’t just set my hunger ablaze, burning in my belly and building up my throat, but it kicked up a million different feelings at once.

Of loss, of love, of home —

She huffed, annoyed by my nonresponse. “Your mom disowning you is not your fault.”

Her words ripped me back into the present and I sighed as I settled my cheek against the crown of her head. “It is, though. I scared her.”

“I’m sure it would scare anyone to discover their only child has been turned into a vampire.” She laughed awkwardly, then sobered and gave my arm a squeeze. “She’ll come around.”

Closing my eyes, I thought back to the night I came home, and the words fell from my lips before I could stop them. “I was so afraid, Jackie. Terrified. I’d never been more afraid in my life.”

I didn’t need to say more; she knew how horrific it had been for me to watch my father die. To say this was more terrifying than anything else I’d experienced before... she’d understand the gravity of that.

Bracing myself, I continued, “I wandered that first night, starving like never before. It hurt , Jackie, so fucking bad. The burning ... throughout my veins, my stomach... I felt like my body was eating itself from the inside out, like fire was licking at every inch of me. I didn’t understand what was happening—no, what had happened to me.

My teeth were...” I shook my head at the memory.

“They kept popping out, my new fangs, and cutting into my bottom lip, so by the time I strode through the front door in the middle of the night, I was covered in not only my own blood but the blood of countless others.”

She sucked in a breath and tightened the arm looped through mine.

“I don’t know how many I hurt that night or... or in those first few weeks following... until I found some sort of control and began to understand what was happening to my body.”

“Oh, Gannon,” she whispered, inching even closer to press her body heat against my side, her thigh pressed against mine.

“So I don’t blame her for freaking out,” I continued. “I should have...” I sighed and tipped my head back, staring up at the endless sky. “I should have stayed away until I was better in control. Because when she ran from me—”

“Oh god,” Jackie said, turning toward me, those big blue eyes wide with horror that punched me right in the gut.

“Yeah. She ran, so I chased.” I squeezed my eyes shut as if that could keep me from remembering that moment with perfect, excruciating clarity. But it was no use; I’d remember my mother’s fear for the rest of my life.

“Gannon.” Jackie slid her warm hand over my chin and turned my face toward her. “You wouldn’t have hurt her—”

“But I tried to, Jackie.” I searched her gaze and said firmly, “I wanted to.” My voice caught on the words as a pained sound climbed up my throat.

I pressed my fist to my mouth as the memory tried to rip me to shreds all over again.

I’m not even sure what happened, how I stopped myself from attacking my own mother that night, but I’ll never forget the way she looked at me, the terror in her eyes. ..

“Oh, Gannon, I wish you would have come to me.” Jackie wrapped her hand around my fist and brought it down between us.

“What if I’d hurt you?” It was so hard to get those words out, they were barely a whisper.

She shook her head adamantly. “No, Gannon. You wouldn’t have. And you didn’t hurt your mom.” Her eyes flicked back and forth between mine as she squeezed my hand.