Page 41 of Immortal Bastard (The Order of Vampires)

“You already know.”

Her head shook in denial. But his beauty alone made the possibility believable.

No. There was no such thing as vampires. It was drugs. He’d done something to the bath or the sandwich or the juice.

“I haven’t given you any tonics or drugs. Not once.”

His claws retracted and she sucked in a breath, slightly relieved. But his eyes remained an inhuman shade of silver, glowing like the moon.

Her hand drifted to her neck. She knew. He was right. She knew exactly what he was, but she didn’t want to admit it because that would make her as crazy as him. “Did you bite me?”

“I had no choice. If I didn’t complete the bond, I would have turned. People would have died—myself included.”

She looked down at her hands as they trembled. Did he…make her like him? She covered her mouth and dry heaved.

“Do not panic, little one.”

“What did you do to me?” Her words came out in a croak. She finally faced her memories, piecing all the confusing parts together in a way that made irrevocable sense but shouldn’t.

Her head shook and she gripped her temples, refusing to accept his bullshit. But her memories were unraveling. It was all there. Nowhere left to compartmentalize the truth once she looked it dead in the eye.

She was losing her shit. This wasn’t real. “There’s no such thing as vampires.”

“There are, but that’s not what I am. I’m…immortal. And now, so are you.”

Time slowed and there was a loud crack as the earth snapped right off its axis. Up was suddenly down. Fiction was fact. And she was trapped in some Alice in Wonderland Amish nightmare with a fucking vampire who tried to eat her.

“That’s not what happened.”

She twitched, sensing him in her head but unsure how to get him out. They had sex. He drank her blood. Was she now under his spell? Every vampire movie and novel she’d ever come across had different rules. What was real and what was fake?

Again, her gaze dropped to her trembling hands. Claws. All she had to do was think it and her nails sharpened and grew. She sucked in a horrified breath. “You bastard.”

“You’re not the first to make such an accusation.”

It was more than sex. She knew it when it was happening, and now she knew why. Fuck, fuck, fuck!

“When I found you, I claimed you, and now you’re mine. Forever. I made you like me because that was your destiny. It was always going to be the two of us, Delilah. We were torn from the same soul and have been incomplete up until now.”

She shook her head. “No. I'm only twenty-nine. You found the wrong woman.” She no longer wanted to escape the room or house. She wanted to escape her own skin.

“I found exactly who I was meant to find. You’re my mate, my true calling, the other half of my soul. It just took you longer to get here.”

She couldn’t breathe. Her heart was going to beat out of her chest.

“You know what we are now. You see why I could never hurt you. Should anything happen to you, my purpose on this earth would be lost. I exist for you and you alone.”

She glanced around the room, her collection of overwhelming memories in this place only added up to one day. How was that possible? How long would it take to live out an eternity here?

Too many uncertainties assured she’d stick around. She didn’t understand any of this. Ignorant and scared, she had no choice but to rely on his help—when he was the monster that did this to her in the first place.

“And the Amish thing?”

“It allows us to hide in plain sight and keep outsiders at bay. The farm provides privacy and safety, which you’ll come to cherish. It’s not safe out there for our kind. We’re hunted. Some have even been tortured and enslaved. Very few now believe we exist, thanks to our ability to stay safely removed and isolated.”

She was not like him. She couldn’t be. How would she survive? “I can’t drink…” Her stomach rebelled at the thought of blood.

“You already have.”

She swayed, once again fighting back the urge to throw up. The truth was there, but every muscle in her body tightened, fighting with hard refusal to accept it. She couldn’t acknowledge what she’d done. What he’d done to her. What they did together.

Doubling over, she held her knees and tried to breathe. The contents of her stomach threatened to rise. She fought back the rushing pressure of bile, her mouth filling with saliva as her shoulders tensed, and she moaned. “Oh, God…”

“We feed from the animals, Delilah, so no life is harmed. You’ll feed from me, your mate, when you’re in need. Just like before, it’ll be pleasurable. Instinct will guide you. Try not to overthink it.”