Page 61 of A Bond Beyond Blood (The Butcher’s Daughter Trilogy #1)

V inny

I was in my apartment above the fitness center when my entire world imploded. I picked up Jacqueline’s scent before the sound of the back door of the gym opening even reached me, then I caught Gannon’s scent immediately afterward—and something else... someone else’s blood was in the mix as well.

Dropping the stack of paperwork on my desk, I rose to my feet so quickly the chair toppled backwards.

“Ricci!” Gannon shouted, anguish so thick and palpable in his voice that it spurred a responding ache in my chest. “Help.”

That single word was said on a sob and my heart stuttered in response.

No no no. Jacqueline was injured, and by the strength of her scent, there was far too much blood.

I raced downstairs, reaching Gannon as he crossed the threshold from the locker rooms into the main gym, and I hauled Jacqueline from his arms to cradle her against my chest, eyes frantic as I looked her over as best I could from this angle.

With my hand supporting the back of her head, I stretched my fingers to feel for a pulse as I listened for the rhythm of her heartbeat.

It was there, faint and too goddamn slow, but there.

I looked up at Gannon and took quick stock of him.

“It’s not my blood,” he said, eyes wide and frantic as he stared at our girl.

“What the fuck happened?”

“It was... he was...” he said, his voice soft and without inflection. His face was stark white with shock.

“He was what?” I questioned, searching his eyes.

“A baby vamp. Like me.” His eyes met mine, wide and terrified, then flicked past me as a few of the late-night customers made their way into the room to see what the commotion was. “He was humming,” he murmured, dropping his eyes to the floor.

“Gannon,” I snapped, “look at me. Where is that vampire now?”

When his gaze returned to mine, Gannon’s face twisted in pain. “I-I killed him.”

I nodded as relief filled me; at least we didn’t have to worry about him coming for her.

“Tell me everything,” I said, and as Gannon began recounting his story slowly, the words stuttered and soft, I laid Jacqueline down on a wrestling mat, wincing when she didn’t even flinch from the movements, knowing just by looking at her that moving her even just a little bit should hurt like hell.

The fact she hadn’t even whimpered or recoiled told me she was already too close to death to respond to much—if anything at all.

“I could hear her screaming five blocks away,” Gannon was saying, snapping me back to his words. He moaned and pressed his fist into his chest. “Jesus, fuck , Vinny, do something.” Tears trailed down his cheeks as he looked to me to fix this.

I didn’t look up as members of the gym began to circle, but I knew what this much blood would do to other vampires, the way it would call to them, hunger burning up their throats like acid.

“Out! All of you,” I yelled. “Every single one of you, leave now !” These men and women respected me, trained with me.

I didn’t need to watch them go to know that they would.

A bubbling sound yanked my attention back to my girl.

Jacqueline was covered in blood, drenched in so much crimson I couldn’t make out the color of her shirt.

I scanned her body, trying to assess where her injuries were and to locate the worst of them but, oh God , there were so many.

She was wounded in too many places to count. Her throat—

Fuck , her throat .

“He was... he was...” Gannon made a choking sound and turned away from us.

He didn’t have to say the words aloud; the damage was evident. He’d torn into her.

A wave of hunger ripped through me at the sight of the blood pumping from her jugular, burning, carnal need that tried to consume me so I’d consume her , but that was followed immediately by a sharp rush of nausea.

The thought of losing her made me ache all over, my chest a throbbing, painful mass of anxiety and fear.

I squeezed my eyes shut and stopped breathing. I’d be better off without the scent of her in my lungs, able to focus without the need to feed.

The teeth marks in her neck hadn’t been gentle.

Someone ripped into my girl’s flesh like she was a fucking theme park turkey leg.

A horrible sound escaped my lips as I pressed my hand to the open wounds to stop the blood flow, but it was too much, too fast. Her human body couldn’t replenish her blood quickly enough even if I could somehow stop the blood flow.

“He was humming ”—Gannon gagged—“it was that... that same song.” Gannon lurched, then spun away from us and expelled his last feeding all over the mat.

My eyes widened. He was humming , like the vampire who’d turned Gannon. But if this was a baby vamp, it couldn’t be the same one...

“Fuck,” I roared as helplessness and anguish consumed me. I couldn’t focus on what that meant when my girl was dying in my arms.

I closed my eyes and made a decision.

I wouldn’t fucking lose this girl.

I tore into the flesh of my wrist and draped my forearm across her mouth. She’d hate me for this, but she’d live . And a living Jacqueline was all I cared about at that moment. I could spend an eternity apologizing for forcing my blood into her body as long as she still breathed .

“Drink, baby,” I begged. “Please.”

The blood flowed into her mouth but I couldn’t force her to swallow, couldn’t figure out how to make her body do the most natural thing when she was so far gone.

I roared again, then tipped her head back and flexed my fist to force blood to pour out faster from the wound I’d created. When my wrist started to heal, I bit into myself again and repeated the motions until her mouth was overflowing with my blood.

Tears dripped from my cheeks onto hers as I watched, waiting, breath held and heart beating so frantically I thought it might rip free of its cage to join hers.

Then her lips moved.

Gannon sucked in a breath, but I couldn’t look away from my girl.

Her throat moved with a swallow and I cried out in relief. “Yes, sweet girl, that’s it. That’s my good girl. Drink, Jacqueline.”

Gannon dropped to his knees on the other side of her, eyes wide as he watched her swallow down the blood that would save her life. His arm was suspended in front of him, wrist just inches away from his mouth. Ready to jump in if I needed to tap out.

We both cried openly, looking back and forth from one another to her over and over again as she swallowed the gift of my blood.

I pressed my wrist to her mouth and leaned forward. “You’re doing so good, sweet girl. I’m so proud of you.”

Her body jerked and her face twisted into an expression so consumed by pain I’d never get the image of it out of my brain. Then her body lurched into a sitting position and she vomited every drop of blood she’d just received from me in a projectile arc across the room.

She heaved and heaved until nothing could possibly remain in her belly. It spewed from her mouth, leaked past the holes in her throat, a grotesque, horrifying scene.

There was no way she could recover from this. No fucking way.

He’d destroyed her.

My body trembled with the weight of this moment, the fear and the anxiety shaking my limbs as shock and adrenaline warred inside me.

I looked at Gannon. His face was white as a sheet, and I absently wondered if he’d soon toss his lunch into the pile to join hers.

“She’s rejecting my blood,” I said, the words sending ice through my veins. “She’s...” I swallowed hard and—

Gannon stood abruptly, his face taut with determination. “It’s because of him.” His gaze flicked back and forth between me and our girl. “Isn’t it? His blood already runs through her veins, right?”

“Fuck.” Shaking my head even as I said the words, I growled, “Get him here.”

Gannon had his phone in his hands before I even finished the command.

I dragged Jacqueline into my arms and cradled her head against my chest, tucked up beneath my chin as I rocked her.

“I love you so much, sweet girl. Stay with me just a little longer, okay?” She didn’t respond, but the soft tempo of her heart didn’t fade away either.

The sound of that fixed rhythm was the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard.

Even as she continued to lose blood, it seemed that my blood had helped her, even just slightly, before she’d expelled it. If that meant I had to feed her again and again, even if she vomited every goddamn time, if it meant I could keep her with me until the vampire king arrived, then I’d do it.

One glance at Gannon, and the fearful, determined look in his eyes, and I knew he would too.

By the time Elias showed up, the floor of the gym looked like a massacre had taken place here. The bastard’s gaze swept the area before it landed on us, then he strode quickly toward me.

When he crouched beside me and reached for her, I growled, instinctively pulling her tighter against me, but he raised his eyebrows and extended his arms, waiting patiently for me to succumb to the reality of what had to happen next.

“Allow me to help her, Vincenzo.” He spoke the words softly, calmly, no threat in his tone.

“Vinny,” Gannon pleaded, his voice breaking on my name.

Closing my eyes on a long blink, I lowered my head and loosened my grip on my girl to allow him to pull her from my arms. He settled on the floor in front of me and tucked her carefully into his lap, then he leaned forward and dragged his tongue over the flayed flesh of her throat.

He moaned at the taste of her and I almost lunged for him, but Gannon’s hand on my shoulder stopped me.

I grit my teeth and closed my eyes, fighting to remain still while another man cared for the woman I loved.

After a moment, when I thought the sound of Elias’ mouth working over Jacqueline’s flesh and cleaning her body of blood was almost too much to bear, Gannon squeezed my shoulder and I opened my eyes.

Eli groaned and leaned back, resting on one hand as Jacqueline drank from him.

The pleasure written all over his face hit me like a punch to the gut.

But if I thought that had been painful, seeing that same pleasure in the crease of Jacqueline’s brow, the flush of her cheeks... her soft moans and the way she began to suck more ardently was even worse.

Elias had his arm stretched out in front of her beautiful face.

Her hands were wrapped around his forearm, holding him to her as she drank deep pulls of his blood.

Her eyes remained closed, but the color had returned to her cheeks with a swiftness that could only be chalked up to the power a vampire king held within his veins.

Her neck was completely healed.

But it was the scent of her arousal that knocked the wind from my lungs.

The euphoria they were both experiencing in this moment ignited a jealousy so strong I could taste the bitterness of it on my tongue.

The possessive beast in me roared to life.

It bellowed inside me, fighting to get free, struggling against the need to rip her from the vampire king’s arms because she was mine.

Mine! the beast roared.

My fangs broke free as I snarled and jumped to my feet, then I left the gym without a word.

The further I could get away from them, the safer we’d all be. If I stuck around, I’d tear the vampire king’s head off—and then where would we be?

So I ran through the darkened streets, hands aching for a fight.

Jacqueline would live.

But it wasn’t my blood that saved her.

And I didn’t know what to do with that information or the way it ripped my heart to shreds. So I ran. Fast and far, praying I could outrun the feeling that something had just been irreparably altered.

Elias Bristol had just won.