Page 17 of Make Me Bleed (Sanctuary #2)

CHAPTER 16

POWER

I try not to shudder in renewed revulsion at the way he cooed my name, or how he added the word ‘dear’ in front of it. Instead, I think about Peter out in the wilds of Alaska after encountering a male vampire who thralled him.

Was that even Peter I heard the other night that sent me spiraling into the darkness? Is it possible it was my own imagination, or is Peter still out there now? Conall hasn’t found him… but if Julian found him first, who knows what there is to find?

I left him to the woods… Julian didn’t say he left him alive, did he?

“You didn’t kill him?” I ask.

The way Julian’s lips curve, I have my answer.

No, what he did was even worse, and a hundred times crueler. He found Peter lurking around Dyea, searching for me, and?—

“Would that disappoint you?” He cocks his head slightly. “He’s just a human. They break so easily.” His smirk returns. “And if you know how to target the beasts, so do they.”

Who is Julian threatening? Conall for ‘interfering’, or is this back to Julian thinking something—some one —is his? Is he going to target Hank?

I’d like to see him try. There might have been a centuries-long war between vampires and wolf shifters, but maybe there’s a reason that my people never went after some of the other predatory shifters like the big cats and the bears. Hank is nearly double Julian’s size. Though Julian didn’t come out and say that he murdered Peter, I wouldn’t be surprised if he did; disappointed, yes, I’d be slightly disappointed that Peter’s relentless obsession with me led to his demise, but not surprised. If Julian tried to attack Hank, he would never win.

I honestly believe that—which is why I refuse to entertain this any longer.

“I’m done with this conversation,” I announce.

Forget freshening up. Forget the shower. Let Julian have this house if he wants it. I’ll stay with Hank at his den if necessary.

The river doesn’t sound so bad after all.

I just want my beloved. I want my mate. I want his arms wrapped around me, the warmth of his bear soothing me all the way down to my soul?—

“Elise van Duren.” Julian’s blasé voice as he uses my full name is so cold, it’s dripping icicles. “This conversation is over when I say it is.”

I go still.

Elise van Duren…

“How did you know my surname?” I whisper.

It’s not that it’s a secret. Not really. Just like how Bridget hid the fact that she’s a witch from Dyea, I was careful to conceal my former Fang City—and my heritage.

The van Duren name signifies two things: just how far back my lineage goes, plus the truth that I’m a born vampire instead of a turned one. Shifters and humans don’t care about that. But other bloodsuckers? There’s the idea of superiority existing between our two types, similar to how vampires as a whole look down on wolf shifters in particular. Overall, born vampires trump the changed-over.

Would the vampires in Dyea care? They all came here for their own reasons, though there’s no doubt that they’re hiding out in the sanctuary. Would they approve of having a born vampire living among them—or would they be full of disdain?

It wasn’t worth the risk. So I kept my secrets from the rest of the town, and I asked Mayor Lou to do the same. In Dyea, we don’t need surnames anyway. I only know Conall’s because of Bridget, and that was okay… until Julian just admitted he knows mine .

How? From Peter?

He takes a moment to respond, but before I can demand he tell me, Julian scoffs. “I’ve known from the beginning.”

My stomach goes tight. “The blood coolers,” I realize. “My name was on them.”

He nods. “And from the moment I accepted the first one, I knew you would be mine.”

What? No.

“But I’m not,” I tell him, trying to conceal my rising panic. The first delivery… whatever he’s plotting, it’s been at least three months. Vampires are patient, of course, but for Julian to decide to make his move now… it’s not because Conall confronted him.

His next words confirm that it’s because he seems to think I’ll still accept him as my mate even though I’ve already found mine.

“Such a pretty unmarked neck, Elise. It begs for my bite, don’t you think?”

I shake my head slowly. I know what he’s doing. He’s pointing out that, in spite of all of my denials, it would be fairly easy for him to make me his mate. It would be cruel, but for a vampire who believes he deserves whatever he wants, it would be too, too easy.

Hank is my beloved, but he’s not my mate. Not yet.

And for a hundred different reason, I have the urge to run to him to change that…

First, though, I have to end this charade.

Shuddering out a breath, I cross my wrists in front of me, hiding how my fingers tremble. “You don’t love me, Julian. I’m sorry, but to even think about taking a male as my beloved, I need him to love me.”

It’s just that simple. Even if I never stumbled on the sleeping bear and let hunger make me do something so crazy as to take a sip, then a guzzle, I would never choose a male who has his own reasons to settle on me—and not one of them is affection for me.

There’s something about Julian… I noticed it the day that he cornered me and left me so frazzled, running out into the woods for a meal was a better option than to accept his blood. Beneath his slick, haughty exterior, there’s something cold and calculating—and I’m seeing that now as he rises to his full height.

“You think this is about love? Please. I don’t need a beloved, or particularly want one. However, what I do need is a partner. Someone to lead the vampire community with. You, Elise… from your arrival in Dyea, I could see that you’re quiet, but also level-headed compared to your witch. Your last name will make you respected, your docile nature easily controlled. You’re the kind of born vampire those in this sanctuary will follow without question until we expand and grow and build a Fang City of our own to lord over. And when I tie you to me— permanently —we will rule together.”

That’s what this is about? The flirting? The offers of blood, the idea that I trade my body for a taste of his? The harassment as he followed me around the sanctuary?

Because he wants to be a knock-off Thorn Wilkins up in Alaska?

I stagger a few steps back, even more disgusted than I was when he suggested I choose him. “You don’t want me. You just want power.”

Julian shrugs. “Same thing, isn’t it?”

This time, I don’t even tell him that this discussion is over . Hoping I can use the element of surprise on my side, I just turn on my heel, rely on my own increased speed to grab the knob, twist it open, and fly out the door before he knows that I’m even gone.

I’m quick. Not as quick as a wolf shifter, though with enough of a lead, I did manage to outrun Hank’s slightly sluggish bear. Too bad that, in comparison to Julian now, I’m the sluggish one.

I make it out the door, down the porch steps, and about ten feet away from the house before he lashes out, his hand snagging my arm.

I instantly freeze, and it’s only his strength spinning me to face him that has me moving at all.

His handsome face is twisted into a fierce grimace. “I tried to be nice. I tried to be friendly , van Duren. I thought I could give you what you want, and I can have what I need. But you keep rejecting me?—”

Rejecting him? Is that how he sees it?

“I have to! You’re not my beloved, Julian.”

He shakes my arm, squeezing it tight. “Forget the bear, Elise. Choose me, forget him, and we can both have what we want.”

I want Hank .

But… “What is it you want?”

His laughter is just as icy as his tone was before. “I’ve lived in Dyea for four years. I was the first vampire let in. I should be the one to rule the Cadre.”

The Cadre… That’s what he’s talking about?

Wait—

“We don’t have a Cadre.”

“Not yet,” he admits. “And the other vampires in Dyea have outright refused my leadership. They feel I’m too impulsive. Too vindictive. Just because I’ve had to replace my donor a couple of times with some of the locals, that doesn’t mean I don’t have the temperament necessary to take over the sanctuary.”

It hits me. Probably far later than it should’ve, I finally understand why his eyes are such a dark shade of blue, they’re nearly black. Why his scent is bitter. Why he’s talking about taking what he wants, whether it’s me or power over the rest of the vampires in Dyea…

“You’ve gone rogue,” I whisper.

Rogues are the most dangerous vampires that exist. Any humanity they have? It’s gone. Closer to a feral shifter than a civilized vampire, he could sink his fangs into me for real, not caring at all about the repercussions.

Thorn threatened to drain me once. I like to believe it was a bluff. That he was using me as a pawn against Bridget and her affection for me. He wanted her to show off her magic in front of him and, if she didn’t, he would suck all of the blood out of me.

It takes a powerful vampire to do that. Like a Cadre leader—or a rogue with aspirations to become one.

Vampires can be killed by decapitation. That’s undeniable. But while I would never starve to death without blood, if a more powerful vamp takes every last drop I have, I’ll be nothing more than a withered husk with ruby-red hair.

And his fangs are mere inches from my throat.

Even more frightening is how he grins, showing off the saliva dripping from his fangs. “Am I?” he says softly, a hint of amusement seeping into his tone. “I hadn’t noticed.”

He’s not lying. He can’t.

But Julian is rogue—and I’m in big, big trouble.

I let out a soft cry. Lost between fear and regret, wishing I hadn’t fallen into the age-old trap of letting the villain monologue like they do in most of the shows I binge with Bridget, I realize that a gentle vampire like Elise van Duren is no match for a rogue.

But you know who he is?

Blood and honey. Spices and heat. Hank’s scent reaches me on the breeze, and as though my soft cry summoned him—and knowing my possessive mate, it’s possible—he’s here.

He steps out from behind my house, his warm honey-colored eyes finding me first, then Julian, before he throws his head back and roars so loudly, my bones shake.

Or maybe that’s simply from the force of my relief.

Because it’s Hank. My Hank.

My mate.

And he’s here.

Julian might be rogue, but he isn’t insane. An insane vampire would continue to threaten a raging bear shifter’s mate. An insane vampire might even test his super speed against that of his enemy’s, sinking his fangs into my throat in a bid to see if he could drain me before Hank rescued me.

But he’s not insane. That’s why it took me so long to realize he’s turned rogue in the first place. All this time, I thought he wanted what nearly every male I’ve ever known has: sex. When males look at me, it’s always been about their desire to fuck me.

Except for Hank.

Oh, my bear wants to mount me. He wants to claim me. It’s a shifter’s pure impulse, their drive, to find and take their mate… but Hank knows that we’re fated. We have the rest of forever to enjoy each other once our bond is finalized.

He got to know me . My fears. My wants. Even my desires when he pleasured me, then I returned the favor because I wanted to. Not because it was my purpose, but because he’s my beloved and I love to see him come…

He came in a completely different way. He’s here, and unless I use my influence as his mate to stop him, my sweet honey bear is going to go grizzly and rip Julian to shreds. I just know it, and while the other vamp definitely deserves it, the part of me that’s determined to be as self-sufficient as ever has this urge to stop the challenge before it can be issued.

“It’s okay, honey,” I call out, trying my best to calm him. After all, that’s what Elise does. I can take care of myself, but I’m not as brave as Bridget. I’m not as strong as Hank. I’m not as ferocious as Conall… but I can be a peacemaker.

As Hank hesitates, I’m suddenly reminded of the words Julian threw at me when were still in the house.

Level-headed. Respected.

Controlled.

Like he controlled me by freezing me out along with all of the other vampires when I first arrived, leaving me lonely and in need of a friend after Bridget moved in with Conall. How he left me desperate for blood, thinking I would turn to him instead. How he waited until I found my mate to decide to proposition me to choose him instead.

Okay? It’s not okay.

And the dark expression that flashes across Hank’s rugged features tells me that he agrees as he starts lumbering my way.

He’s trying not to scare me, I realize. The echoes of his roar are still rolling around my sensitive ears, and I’m sure I reacted as terrified as the rest of the villagers when it sounded.

That’s what happens when a bear roars. It’s the same as a wolf’s howl. Some primal instinct warns you against catching the predator’s attention—but I have all of Hank’s.

Or, I should say, Julian’s bruisingly tight grip on my arm does.

Hank’s honey-colored irises blaze with tempered fury. He’s still in his skin, though his fangs are playing peekaboo with me as his frantic gaze reassures him that I’m still in one piece before he turns it on Julian—and his expression turns wild.

“Let her go,” he snarls.

I have enough time to glance up and catch another of Julian’s calculated looks before he shrugs again.

“If you say so,” the vampires agrees readily right before he sends me flying through the air.