Vampire Mate: BBW Paranormal Romance (19 page)

“
Now, Charlene!”

Charlene lurched forward, her
blade aimed at the demon lord's torso. Her aim was true, and she
sliced cleanly into the demon's groin and severed the arteries and
veins around the heart with one fluid motion. She had learned well
from Glenn. There was no wavering, no hesitation. With another
flick of her blade, she made the final cut.

Holding the demon's heart in
her hand, she stared into Glenn's eyes and plunged the blade straight
into the pulsing heart. Kron screamed, as flames engulfed his body.
The heart burst into flames, and Charlene dropped it in a hurry.
Before it could land on the floor, the black demon heart had already
been completely devoured by the flames, leaving only a small spark
which fizzled and died on the carpet.

Glenn staggered back, watching
the fire blaze around the demon lord, consuming him entirely. The
blazing ball of fire rose and flew out of the study room, heading
straight for the raging fireplace. There were terrible screams as
flames exploded all around the castle. Hundreds of flaming demons
hurtled towards the towering flames in the fireplace, diving straight
into the Abyss with their Maker.

Charlotte was standing a few
feet away, staring unseeingly at Glenn. He rushed to her, just as
tiny flames appeared at her feet and began to lick at her.

She collapsed in his arms, her
eyes closed and her body burning.

Glenn plunged his fangs into
her neck and sucked desperately, as flames leaped higher around her
body. They were both in the heart of the fire, being burnt together,
but Glenn didn't care. The heat and the flames wouldn't stop him
from doing what he had to do. He kept his mouth on her neck, forcing
himself to drain her even as the flames tormented him.

Her dark, red blood dribbled
from his chin and he could no longer feel her breathing, but still he
drank. He would drain every single drop of her blood. He had to.

Still red, still red, still
red...

The words beat into his brain,
blocking out the agony of the fire consuming them both.

This was his only chance. It
had to work.

Sucking up the last mouthful
of blood, he tore his fangs into his wrist and pressed his bleeding
wrist to Charlene's lips. Her lips were pale and cold, and he
screamed at her as his blood leaked from the corner of her mouth.

“
Drink, Charlene! God
damn it! Drink my blood! Drink! Please! Just...drink...”

Glenn forced her mouth open,
and squeezed his wrist frantically, trying to drip more of his blood
down her throat. He kept bleeding into her mouth, even as he ripped
his other wrist open and pressed both his trembling, mangled wrists
to her mouth.

“
Please, Charlene,
please...”

His words were incoherent, and
he couldn't feel the flames any more. There was no heat at all. Not
from her, not around her. Glenn shuddered violently, and looked up.
He felt cold, so very cold.

All the vampires and PAC
members and Enforcers had crowded into the study, standing in a
silent circle around him.

No one moved. No one made a
single sound.

The only sound in the room, in
the entire castle, was his own wrenching pleas.

“
No,” he
whispered.

Caleb Thorn moved forward and
grabbed his arm just as he was about to tear out another chunk of his
arm to release more blood.

“
Glenn! Don't!
It...it's over. You have to stop. Stop it! Glenn!” Caleb
grabbed him forcibly and shouted.

Glenn reared up, flinging
Caleb away with so much force the young vampire smashed into a
cluster of Enforcers and brought them down with him. Other vampires
moved to help them up and some approached Glenn cautiously.

He could feel hands on his
shoulders, on his arms, all trying to help him up and pull him away
from her.

“
No!” He wouldn't
leave her. They wouldn't pull him away from her.

“
Leave!” He
screamed at them. “All of you! Leave me! Just...leave...me.”

He glared up at them, aware
that his face was streaked with blood and tears.

His voice broke.
“She...Charlene...”

Bryn burst into tears and
buried her face in Jett's shoulder. At Lucas's signal, Blake stepped
forward with his cousin, Levi Madden, a senior Enforcer. The two
burly bear shifters approached Glenn cautiously and laid gentle but
firm hands on him.

Blake and Levi tried to haul
Glenn away from Charlene, but even two huge werebears were no match
for the wretched grief and wrath of a Master vampire.

Raising his bleeding arms,
Glenn let out a tormented yell and lightning zigzagged through the
sky and hurtled through the tall, arched study room windows. The
glass shattered as lightning flashed and crackled all around Glenn,
forcing everyone back.

But Blake and Levi wouldn't
give up. They staggered up and tried to brave the lightning to get
Glenn out. Just as Levi was about to launch himself bodily at Glenn,
Glenn twisted round and snarled a warning, his fangs as long and
deadly as daggers and his eyes completely and utterly black.

Gathering Charlene in his
arms, he let out a sound of raw anguish and rage and misted away,
leaving his vampires and Council members staring in silence at the
dark circle of smoke and blood that was left in his wake.

Charlene opened her eyes a
crack, and immediately closed them again. She recognized the smell
of Glenn's bedroom. She could smell him all around her, on the
sheets, on her skin, in the air.

She stretched out a hand
weakly. “Glenn?” she rasped.

Immediately, she felt his
hands covering hers, as he leaned down and kissed her forehead.
“Charlene, my love.”

“
Can you help me up?”
she whispered.

“
Yes. Sit up, and...you
need to drink.”

“
Drink,” she
repeated numbly and looked around for a glass of water. Instead,
Glenn propped some pillows up behind her and supported her by the
back of her neck. He pushed her head forward onto his neck, and
urged, “Drink me, Charlene.”

She didn't have time to gasp.
Her fangs descended on their own accord and pushed into his neck.
His blood flooded her mouth, and she found herself sucking greedily,
hungrily. He tasted so good and she was hungry for more.

As she drank, her pain and
grogginess left her, and her senses became sharp and focused. She
blinked around, and saw the moonlight streaming in from the windows.

Pulling away from him, she
instinctively licked at the puncture marks on his neck, and watched
them close up immediately. She raised her hand and gingerly felt her
fangs. They were smooth and fine, not course and jagged like before.
Did Glenn order some dental work done on her while she was
unconscious? How long had she been unconscious anyway?

“
You've been asleep for
three nights. It took three nights for you to fully turn,”
Glenn said, smiling.

“
Turn?”

“
I turned you.”
Glenn rubbed his upper lip uncertainly, as if afraid that she might
be displeased. “You're now a vampire.”

Her jaw dropped and she made a
wordless sound. Her hand fluttered unconsciously to the corner of
her eye.

“
Gone,” Glenn told
her. “The blood swirls are gone. And your eyes, they're the
same lovely shade of green.”

“
Vampire,” she
breathed. She couldn't believe that she was no longer a demon, but a
vampire.

“
It was touch and go,
for a while. I could have lost you.” Glenn dropped his gaze,
and she saw that he was paler than before, and when she reached for
his hand, she saw the terrible, deep scars on his wrist and arms.
His exhaustion, fear and worry were etched deep in the lines on his
forehead and around his eyes.

“
Glenn, what did you
do—to yourself?” she whispered, pressing his palm to her
face.

“
I did the best thing
for myself,” he smiled. “I saved my mate!”

They shared a tender kiss, and
Glenn gazed lovingly at her for a long time before finally getting up
from the bed.

“
There's someone here,”
he said, walking to the door. “For three days, she was by your
bedside, insisting I get some rest while she watched over you during
the day.”

Charlene bolted upright.
After a heartbeat, she scrambled out of bed.

“
Where is she?”

“
She's resting in the
guest bedroom.”

Careening down the hall,
Charlene exploded into the guest bedroom and rushed to the bed. The
bedroom was pitch dark, but Charlene found that she could see
perfectly well in the dark. Her vamp senses were clearly working
fine.

Curled up on the bed was her
sister. Charlotte was sleeping on her side, her face scrunched up in
a frown as she murmured and whimpered Charlene's name in her sleep.
Charlene leaned down and held her sister tight. Her tears dripped
from her eyes, wetting Charlotte's face and waking her up.

“
Wha-? Ch-Charlene!
You...it's you! It's really, really you! Oh...” Charlotte
choked out tearfully as she hugged Charlene back, clinging to her
like she would never let her go.

They wept and hugged each
other for so long, both speaking and crying at the same time.

Glenn had left the room
quietly, closing the door behind him.

Charlene grabbed her sister's
face and took a long, hard look at her. “Oh, look at you,”
she cried, blinking away her tears. “You—a PAC Enforcer.
The Alpha's mate!”

“
It wasn't easy,
Charlene,” Charlotte whispered. “I tried so hard to be
strong. I wanted you to be proud of me. I didn't want your...death,
to be in vain.”

“
I am proud of you! So
very proud.”

Charlotte let Charlene pull
her in for a hug, then jerked up. “How could you, Charlene!”
she said angrily. “How could you not tell me! You...saved me
from that blood demon, and you were planning to just destroy yourself
without ever letting me know! How could you do that to me! I...I
would hate you...” Her voice cracked and a sob erupted
painfully from her chest.

“
Shh, I'm all right now.
I'm...a vampire!” Charlene smoothed her sister's hair from
her wet face and laughed. “I can't really believe it myself.
I am a vampire.”

“
And you're a Master
vampire's mate,” Charlotte grinned. “Oh yeah!”

There was a soft knock on the
door. The sisters looked up as Lucas and Glenn entered the room.

Charlene stood and went to
give Lucas a hug. “Thank you, for your help. And thank you,
for taking such good care of my sister and making her so happy.”

Lucas hugged her back. “You
did everything, Charlene. You destroyed Kron. All the blood demons
he Made all burst into flames the moment you cut out his heart. And
those globes on the shelf beside his fireplace all exploded at the
same time. And speaking of his fireplace,” Lucas frowned.
“One moment an inferno was blazing in his fireplace, the next
instant, as soon as all the burning demons were sucked into the fire,
the fire just died down and vanished in a puff of smoke. And once
the flames disappeared, all we saw was a brick wall.” Lucas
gave a shudder. “Reminds me a little of that Gateway we went
through to retrieve Blake,” he muttered under his breath.

“
Blake...”
Charlene gasped. “The knife...”

“
I retrieved it, and
returned it to him,” Lucas assured her. “Blake said
Jasynta has decided to donate the knife to the PAC Enforcement Unit.
Of course Jett is thrilled to have a new weapon.”

Charlene smiled and went to
Glenn's side. Lucas was already at the bed, pulling Charlotte into
his arms. “Time to go home. You've been here for three days
now,” he murmured to her.

Charlotte started to protest.
“But...”

“
Go home, Charlotte,”
Charlene urged her sister. “I will see you tomorrow night...”

“
...at the PAC
Headquarters for the Enforcers' Recruitment Drive,” Lucas
finished.

“
What!”

The Alpha shrugged. “Jett's
idea. I think he had his sights on her the moment he received
reports of a vigilante female vampire running amok in New Moon City.
As it turned out, he's right.” Lucas nodded and smiled. “It
was a female vampire after all.”

Glenn smiled, hugging Charlene
proudly to his side.

Charlotte squirmed out of her
mate's arms and ran to hug both Glenn and Charlene. “My
vampire sister and brother-in-law!” she squealed and gushed.
“Have you met my best friend, Bryn? She's a vamp too.”

“
Yes, she's awesome,”
Charlene grinned.

“
Yes! Vampires are
awesome! Not as awesome as werewolves,” Charlotte added
quickly to a growl from Lucas. “I'll see you tomorrow, at the
Enforcers' briefing. And after that, we'll go to a blood bar! Lucas
never lets me go with Bryn, but now, I can go with you! We'll all go
together, you, me, Bryn, Glenn...and Lucas.”