Page 13

F uck, fuck, fuck.

My guards carry Teddy to the car and we’re off, heading to an overnight clinic that treats humans attacked by supernatural beings.

I’m going to murder Henry.

I check Teddy’s pulse and try not to freak out with how slow and weak it is. My hands are covered in his blood since I’ve been keeping pressure on the wound to slow the bleeding. Thankfully, it’s not deep enough to have hit an organ, but he’s still going to need a transfusion.

I curse myself for taking too much. Not just when I claimed him on that dance floor, and again when we fucked outside the club, but earlier at my penthouse .

He passed out for fuck’s sake. But he begged me to drink from him. I was a fool.

You couldn’t have known Henry would show up.

What the hell did he use to impale my mate?

My mate.

It’s the first time I’ve truly let myself believe this human is meant to be with me.

It takes about ten minutes to arrive at SPN Emergency Services. It’s discreet and disguised as a bodega to humans, but the medical clinic is in the back and spans three floors.

I had called ahead and told them to be ready.

“What do we got?” a wolf shifter asks upon meeting us at the door with a stretcher.

My griffin guards set him on top and the doctor gets to work.

“Stabbed by a vampire. He’s lost a lot of blood tonight, because, um…”

The shifter holds up his wrist, then points at his neck. “Because you drank from him?”

“I claimed him at The 27 Club.”

She raises a brown brow at me. “Twice?”

I shrug. “Wanted to be thorough.”

She checks his pulse while a nurse hooks him up to an IV .

“It’s weak. We need to get blood in him.” She sniffs him, and her brown eyes glow yellow. “He smells different. Is that why you’re drawn to him?”

“Or maybe I think he’s hot and charming.”

She snorts at my lie. It’s not really a lie. Teddy is charming, and he’s a beautiful man. He makes me laugh, feel appreciated, wanted. And while his blood is special, and he’s likely my mate, I felt connected to him the moment I accidentally slammed a door in his face.

“What’s his blood type?”

“AB.”

“Negative?”

I nod.

“Interesting.” She nods at the nurse who runs off to get a blood bag.

AB negative is a rare blood type. The moment I tasted him, I identified it. However, his blood type has nothing to do with why all the supes went crazy for him tonight. I mean, it didn’t help having blood that isn’t common. It’s like a special treat for vamps.

If he’s my blood mate, his blood would reflect that. I just don’t know why or how, but it’s the only explanation as to why everyone keeps saying he smells different.

There’s just so much I don’t know about this… bond? Destiny? Fate.

The nurse returns and hooks up a bag of O negative and they wheel him back into a room. I follow, taking Teddy’s hand in mine.

Before the doctor can get to work on his wound, Teddy begins seizing. His body flails on the stretcher.

“He’s rejecting the blood,” the shifter yells, removing the line from his arm. She curses, palming her forehead. She looks at me, then back at him before returning her eyes to me. “Give him your blood.”

“What? Why? You know it won’t help—”

“I have a hunch.” She doesn’t let me question the request any longer and takes my arm to wipe it with an alcohol cloth. She finds a vein, stabs me with a needle, and connects the other end of the tube to Teddy’s IV.

Within seconds of my blood entering his body, he stops seizing.

“That’s what I thought,” the shifter says. “The vampire queen has a blood mate.”

T he wolf shifter, her name is Claudia I later learned, confirmed what I’d suspected after grabbing my best friend by the throat when she joked about killing Teddy.

I need answers. I want to know what to expect, especially since I’m no longer planning to face the sun—a decision that came too easily the moment Teddy’s life was threatened by my sire. But also because Teddy being my blood mate will change everything. He gives me hope that I can love what I am.

I’ve put out a search for the two vampires who’ve experienced the blood mate bond and I’m awaiting their calls. Though it’s an hour before sunrise and since they’re extremely secretive and difficult to track down, it will likely be weeks until I hear from them.

I need to head home so I don’t burn to a crisp under the sun’s rays. Even once inside out of harm’s way, and we stay awake when it’s high in the sky, we become feverish. Our eyes, nose, and ears begin bleeding.

We were not created for the day, and we’re punished when tempting the curse.

Ironic that death by sun is what I wanted just hours ago and now I’m rushing to avoid it.

Claudia says Teddy will sleep until sunset so my bodyguards load him up in the car and bring him back to a guest room in my penthouse. I’m worried about sleeping next to him. What if he wakes up after being nearly killed by a vampire and sees me and freaks out?

Teddy will also be starving when he wakes, and since I have no food or cookware at my penthouse, I send a text to one of my human assistants asking them to go to the store to pick everything up.

My sleep is restless. I toss and turn and dream about Teddy holding out his bloody hands, his face ashen, and his wavering voice as he said my name. I wake at sunset, not even sure how many hours of sleep I actually got, and head to the guest bedroom to check on him. But panic races through me when he’s not there. I rush out into the living room and hear the clank of dishes in the kitchen.

“Hey! You’re awake!” Teddy’s cheerful voice greets me.

He smiles and gets back to work setting out his breakfast buffet.

“I woke up fucking starving and found all this food in your fridge. Man, I wish you could eat. I made pancakes, French toast, eggs, and sausage. It’s going to taste so fucking good.”

Oatmeal and an array of fresh fruit also crowd the kitchen table. He pours himself a cup of coffee and carries it to his place setting, adding to two other glasses of orange juice and apple juice.

He sits in front of his spread and digs in .

I gawk at him. “How… how are you…”

“Oh, I’m fucking fantastic!”

“No, I mean, how are you up and walking around after being stabbed over twelve hours ago?”

He takes a huge bite of pancake and shrugs. “No idea. I just know, I feel great. Kinda how I felt last night right after I licked your tears. My body is electrified almost. I can see clearer, this food?”

He stabs his pancake with his fork and tears off a chunk, then shoves it in his mouth.

He moans. MOANS.

“The flavors burst in my mouth, and it’s like I can imagine the tree where the maple syrup was made from.”

I walk to the table and grab his arm to stand him up. I lift his shirt and brush my fingers over his stomach.

No wound. Not even a scar.

Vampire blood can’t do this. Our blood isn’t a healing substance.

He giggles and folds away from my touch. “That tickles.”

Wait. WAIT.

“Are you high?”

He sits back down and piles some eggs on his fork, devouring them in one bite. He waves the empty utensil at me .

“Perhaps.”

Did my blood make him high?

“I need to make some calls.”

“Alright, I’ll be right here. You better come back so I can lay you out on this table and have you for dessert,” he yells after me as I head to my room for my phone.

Layla is the first person I call.

“Hey! How’s the puppy?”

I pace my bedroom. “He’s high. Off my blood.”

“Oh… that’s not supposed to happen. Do you think that’s a blood mate thing?”

“It has to be. Not to mention I was able to withstand a fae’s magical current when it should have knocked me out cold. Any luck tracking down Elia and Noran so we can ask them about this?”

Layla sighs. “These vampires made it difficult to be found. They have no phone number or email on file. We have to send someone to their last known residences to deliver word that you are trying to get a hold of them, if they’re even still there. We believe Elia and her mate are in Europe, Paris possibly, but Noran is said to be here in the states. Don’t worry, we’ll track them down eventually.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose and close my eyes. I rarely stress and right now I am losing my mind not knowing what’s happening with Teddy .

“Any updates on the search for Henry?”

“Nothing. The gargoyles are keeping a lookout. In the meantime, you should lay low.”

“I will after the council meeting—”

“It’s been canceled. They are up to date. We’ve also deployed soldiers to help track down Henry. We have it under control. You rest. Get to know your mate. Have lots of sex.”

I laugh at my best friend who always knows how to talk me off a ledge.

“You should be on the throne, you know.”

“Maybe one day.”

That day will come sooner than she knows.

“I’ll have extra guards stationed at your penthouse. Now that Henry knows about Teddy, I have no doubt he will try to find him and kill him.”

I wince. “He was always a jealous prick.”

He could have easily killed Teddy outside the club. Instead, I believe he only critically injured him to punish me.

I left him all those years ago after finding a witch to break his sire connection to me. Something that required black magic. The process was painful, as if my entire body had been engulfed in flames. It lasted for days.

Henry must have felt the same effects because he’s been searching for me ever since .

I’m confused as to why he didn’t capture me outside the club. To be fair, kidnapping a queen would be a dumb thing to do. Even he knows this.

Or maybe he doesn’t want me at all. With Henry, anything is possible.

Still, he will not hesitate to take Teddy from me. I have no doubt he watched us fucking and heard us talking about Teddy being my blood mate.

Henry is a masochist. He won’t want me to be happy.

I’ll keep Teddy safe. Now, I just need to convince him to move in.