Page 13 of Taste of Forever (Vampires of Sanguine #3)

Heather

I walked to the edge of the vampire city, up the hill, and through the woods as if in a trance.

My body was on autopilot but my mind was back in that club, sitting with Laith at the bar.

From the moment I walked out to when I reached my car, I asked myself several times why I had been so quick to leave.

The logical answer was simple. I had a life. A job I worked hard for, and a partner I hoped to spend the rest of my days with. It would be insane to give up everything I had to become a vampire’s wife-slash-meal.

And yet there was a discomforting tug pulling me back in the direction of Sanguine. Back to the tall vampire with an angel’s face and a demon’s teeth.

Laith was deadly, there was no doubt in my mind about that. My instincts had been on edge throughout our entire conversation, like something deep in my DNA recognized him as a natural predator.

That kiss, brief as it was, felt like licking honey off the edge of a knife.

Sweet and a little dangerous. I could still feel the press of his lips and the long fangs just inside his mouth.

His tongue flicking inside for that curious, playful moment had done too much to me for such a small action.

Sensation had rippled over my whole body during that kiss, and that was exactly why I’d stopped him. Exactly why I didn’t stay.

I left because I had to. Because talking to him felt too much like flirting, which felt like a betrayal. Because in the brief few times he touched me, my physical response had been more intense than it had been in years with Justin.

It wasn’t until I’d been sitting in my car for a few minutes that I realized I had completely forgotten to take any pictures or video.

“Goddamn it,” I groaned, scrubbing my hands over my face.

Even before I’d seen Laith, documenting had slipped my mind. I was too fascinated by my surroundings, like all the mismatched currency the bartender had shown me. And after Laith and I began talking? It felt like nothing existed outside of him and me.

Just another reason why I had to remove myself from the situation.

My fingers drummed on the steering wheel as I started the drive home.

If I went back to Sanguine again to document proof, chances were good I’d run into Laith again.

He seemed like a dog after a bone. A little obsessive, to put it lightly.

The guy basically said we, despite being total strangers, were destined to live happily ever after, and he was more than ready to start our life together.

As if that wasn’t a blinking neon sign to stay the hell away. Not just from him, but Sanguine altogether.

The whole concept of blood mates was crazy to me.

Absolutely bananas. Not to mention presumptuous as hell.

How were two complete strangers supposed to deal with the fact that they were expected, even predestined, to become life partners?

It sounded like disaster and a lifetime of misery waiting to happen.

And strangely, I wasn’t as pissed off or horrified by the idea as I expected myself to be. I could probably do worse than someone as hot and funny as Laith.

A smile broke out across my face, remembering his silly little quips and comments. The playfulness in his magenta eyes and those fanged smiles that made my heart skip a beat, and not entirely out of fear.

Yeah, I could certainly do worse. The fact that he seemed all-in, ready to do the vampire equivalent of walking down the aisle and saying vows, was oddly flattering.

But he didn’t even know me, so how could any of it be genuine?

You’re flattered by the attention of a stranger because your relationship hasn’t moved toward real commitment in years.

Ah, there she was. My little resentment demon back to haunt me again.

“I love Justin,” I said out loud, as if that would make the declaration more real. “We may not be married yet, but we are serious about each other, no matter what some vampire says. We’re committed. And I won’t do anything to jeopardize that.”

Keep telling yourself that, my resentment demon said. And are you 100% sure Justin feels the same way?

“Course he does,” I muttered.

Still, the doubts lingered. They came and went in waves throughout our whole relationship, but were more frequent over the past year.

Since we’d moved in together, honestly. But was there a single couple out there who had zero doubts of their partner’s feelings?

No one was that certain about their relationship, were they?

I pulled into my apartment complex, feeling victorious about seeing our covered spot open until I remembered that Justin would be gone all night playing poker.

Part of me felt relieved. The other part was filled with longing. I missed us, how close and loving we used to be. While I enjoyed having our place to myself, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d rather see his friends than spend time with me.

We might need to have a talk. Again.

I should have been more vigilant as I got out of the car. Even though I could see the front door from the parking spot, I should have been watching the shadows.

Then I might have been able to see him coming.

“You don’t know when to quit, do you?”

By the time my head snapped around in the direction of the voice, he’d already clamped a hand on my upper arm and roughly spun me to face him.

I stared in confusion and rising fear, recognizing the man who’d bumped into me last week. He still had that clean-cut, all-American look, but his eyes held annoyance, even contempt. His lips pressed together into an aggravated line.

“Excuse me?” I tried to pull my arm away, but his grip was unrelenting. “Let go of me.”

I was alone in the middle of the night, but surely someone in the apartment complex would hear me if I screamed.

“You need to stop visiting that place. It’s not safe for civilians.” He leaned in, crowding my personal space. “This is your only and last warning.”

“What are you talking about?” I demanded.

“Don’t play dumb, Heather. You know I’m talking about the hidden place you’ve been to multiple times. You’re messing with something way too dangerous to comprehend.”

He knows about Sanguine? He wasn’t a vampire or a brusang, but one thing was clear. He knows and he really doesn’t like that I know.

“Why’s it dangerous?” I demanded. “And how do you know about it?”

He opened one side of his jacket to flash a badge attached to the inner pocket. “The federal government pays me to gather intelligence on that place and other phenomena like it. This is a matter of national security.”

“National security?” I repeated. A few puzzle pieces clicked together in my brain. “Did you corrupt those files on my phone when you bumped into me?”

“And took down your blogs and Youtube channels, yes,” he said. “Just leave this alone, Heather. Stop the internet searches. Stop going back there. Leave it up to the professionals.”

“Hold on.” I raised my free hand. “Are you spying on me?”

The man grabbed both of my arms then, and shoved me backwards until I was pressed against the wall of the building.

His fingers dug so deeply into my flesh that I whimpered from the pain.

Part of me was in disbelief, feeling a strange disconnect from my body.

I was too shocked to struggle, not that it would have done any good.

He held me pinned to the wall like a butterfly in a shadow box.

“Please, stop. You’re hurting me.” I wanted to scream, but my voice came out small and terrified.

“Spying is the last thing you need to worry about, Heather,” the man hissed. His eyes were so cold, they almost looked dead. “You know how easy it was to make your digital footprint disappear? I can just as easily make you disappear if you don’t stop fucking around.”

Panic made all my systems freeze. I still couldn’t find my voice except to mumble, “Okay. Okay.”

“I need your verbal confirmation that you won’t go back there again.”

“Okay, I won’t.”

“Won’t what?”

“I won’t go back to…to that place again.” I couldn’t bring myself to meet his cold, dead eyes, so I stared at his throat column instead, silently begging for this to be over.

Finally, he released his iron grip on my arms. “We’ll be watching you.” He turned and headed swiftly down the sidewalk.

I hugged myself as soon as he was gone, shocked and unable to move for several long moments. My arms were sore from where he grabbed me, and I was almost certainly bruised.

“What the fuck?” I whispered through my uneven, panicked breaths.

Government operative or not, that guy was a fucking psycho. I was ten times more afraid of him than Laith or any of the people in Sanguine.

And if he really was spying on me, not even the inside of my apartment was safe. But where else could I go? The only place that felt safe was inside those four walls.

I went to my front door, fumbling for my keys with shaking hands. Where the fuck were they?

“Damn it.” I dug out my coat, my phone, sunglasses, pens, everything that could possibly get lost in the abyss of a huge purse. Where the hell were my keys? My mind felt like a scrambled mess. I couldn’t have driven here without them.

“Heather?”

My head jerked up, and then I froze like an animal trapped in headlights. Laith stood at the end of the walkway, a leather jacket bulking up his frame slightly. A sleek, black motorcycle idled behind him in the lot, rumbling with a low growl.

“What are you doing here?” My back flattened against the door. “Did you follow me too?” I had been so rattled by the guy in the shadows that I hadn’t even heard a motorcycle approach.

Laith’s eyebrows lifted. “What do you mean, too? Did someone else follow you?”

I shook my head, shutting my eyes. All of this was way too much for one night. One lifetime, even.

“How are you even here? Why are you here?”