Bane's Choice (Vampire Motorcycle Club #1) - Alyssa Day Page 0,8
Bane had given him. What the fuck had just happened? How had he allowed himself to be distracted by this woman when Hunter needed him? A wave of self-disgust roiled through him like acid in his gut.
“Sleep. Now,” he commanded her, and he reached out to catch her when she fell.
Froze in shock when she didn’t.
“Who—”
But he didn’t have time for her questions or for his own questions about how she could resist his command or for the soul-searing wonder that threatened to overwhelm him about how she could possibly exist.
Instead, he reached out and touched her. “Sleep. Now.”
Strong mind or no, a human couldn’t resist compulsion combined with touch. She’d be out for hours. When she fell into his arms, the feel of her warmth and curves set off a tsunami of shock waves inside him—emotions he had long since lost any familiarity with: desire, protectiveness, an almost-feral need to possess—that rocked him back a step, still holding her.
But there was no time. Hunter was failing, and more humans would be coming.
He put her in the chair against the wall and read the name embroidered in script lettering on her white coat. “I’ll be back, Dr. St. Cloud.”
He thought he caught a glimpse of something that absolutely should not be looking in the window and almost absently threw a blast of power at it, just in case. Then he yanked the life-saving lines out of Hunter’s body, lifted the man into his arms, and stepped into the Between.
Before the Shadows had even fully formed around him, though, she was already opening those blue, blue eyes and leaping out of the chair, and his mouth fell open in shock.
Not possible.
It was utterly and completely impossible that any human could come out of such a powerful compulsion that quickly. Something was very wrong here…or else something was very wrong with her. He hadn’t sensed or smelled any hint of magic, but no ordinary human could just snap out of the compulsion like that.
And yet, she was almost across the room.
“I’m coming for you,” Bane repeated before the Shadows swallowed him, and not even he knew if it were a promise or a threat. He only knew that he wanted this woman with every fiber of his being—which made no sense at all. She was human, or maybe not. Whatever she was, her resistance to his magic and her glowing skin added up to a mystery. And he had no time for mysteries with the Chamber coming for him.
Sure, she was brave. And, clearly, she was smart. But…
Oh. Right.
He was horny. It had been a while. He’d come back when he had time and take her, fuck her, and get her out of his system. He ignored the way his mouth dried out and his body hardened at the mere thought of it. No.
Dr. St. Cloud would be no problem for him.
No problem at all.
Her ability to resist his compulsion, however—that was a big fucking problem.
Chapter Three
The surplus waves of the vampire’s portal magic blasted the Watcher off the side of the building, and he barely caught a tiny decorative ledge with one hand, but it was enough to save him from splattering on the ground far below.
He couldn’t track Bane through the Between, but he knew where the vampire called home.
They all did.
He scrabbled around until he was facing the ground and scuttled down the side of the hospital, and then he raced off into the night. First, he’d confirm, and then he’d report. And then, his master would reward him.
He flinched and then picked up his speed, not even realizing he was whimpering and grimacing. Too intent on his mission.
Hell-bent on returning to his lord.
Maybe the Watcher would be the first to survive delivering bad news. His ears flicked up at the thought but then drooped again.
Hope died early in Minor demons.
If it ever really existed at all.
Chapter Four
Ryan leapt for the man carrying her patient—actually jumped into the air, her body stretched out, to grab for him—and got two hands full of nothing.
Her leap had been aimed at stopping him, so when she encountered nothing, a body in motion stayed in motion, and she slammed into the wall, shoulder first.
“Ow!”
She put a hand up to rub her shoulder and whirled around, just in case…
In case what? In case the magically disappearing man suddenly winked back into existence?
In case her clearly fractured sanity duct-taped itself back together, and she was once again alone in a room with her