Love Bite (Just One Bite #1) (11 page)

She opened the
cans of tuna and mixed them up according to her favorite recipe- she found that
adding a splash of lemon and a few drops of ketchup made a huge difference in
the taste. While she puttered about in the kitchen she gave a lot of thought to
the man in the other room. Eamon was handsome, she’d give him that. He had
sleek, short ivory hair that matched the color of his coat while in his feline
form. His eyes were a deep sapphire blue, and they radiated intelligence. He
had a slim waist, a muscular upper body and strong, thick legs. He was tall,
probably 6’3” or so. She was amazed such a large man could turn into such a
delicate cat.

I don’t
know
, Eamon said in her head.
I think I make a sexy cat, too
. His
laughter echoed as she tried to figure out how to get him out of her head. The
laughter abruptly was quieted in her head as he uttered a small yelp of pain
from the other room. Apparently the mental slap she had given him actually
worked. She chuckled to herself. Nice to know!

She carried a
tray laden with two plates of tuna fish sandwiches and potato chips as well as
two tall glasses of room temperature blood back into the parlor. Eamon was
slumped in the chair where she left him, rubbing his temples. He shot her a
dirty look that made her laugh again.

“Don’t
eavesdrop and you won’t get slapped,” Diandra said primly as she set the tray
down on the solid oak coffee table between them. She sat down on the loveseat,
curling her legs up on the cushion next to her. She took a deep sip of blood
and sighed. How delicious and refreshing. Her fangs protruded a little and she
licked the blood from the tips.

Eamon reached
for his tuna fish sandwich and chuckled. “All right, so maybe I deserved it.
But watch yourself or I won’t teach you how to keep the fangs from coming out
when blood is nearby.” He shook a teasing finger at her, grinned, and bit into
his sandwich. His face instantly lit up. “Okay, I’ll tell you anything you want
as long as you promise to keep making this for me. This is so good!” As Diandra
watched in amusement, he scarfed the sandwich down in less than a minute.
Good-naturedly she handed him her sandwich as well and watched him devour that
one as well. He let out a belch, turned a little red at the tips of his ears
and apologized.

“Glad to see
you enjoy it. I see your cat-like tendencies carry over to your ‘human’ form.
How does that work?” she asked as she snacked on her potato chips and sipped at
her glass of blood.

“Oh no,” said
Eamon. “My story is for another time. It’s not important at the moment, but I
promise you’ll learn about me in due time.” He emptied his glass and looked
over at Diandra. “Now we get into the rules, background information, and the
importance of protecting your head and your heart.” His eyes were serious now,
so she set her plate to the side and leaned in a little to show she was
listening.

“Protect my
head and heart? I thought that was some weird metaphor for being careful who I
fell in love with,” Diandra replied.

“Oh no, I was
quite serious. You see, we can only be killed two ways. One of them is damage
to the brain- a bullet through it, a crushing blow, being decapitated,
something along those lines. The second way is to do irreparable damage to the
heart- a bullet, a knife, anything. It doesn’t have to be a stake, or something
silver, or anything that ridiculous. A car accident where something impaled us
upon impact would do the same damage as someone Hell-bent on killing us. Most
other injuries we can heal on our own. The bigger the damage the longer it
takes us to heal, but still even the most horrendous injuries can be healed
within a day or so.”

Diandra was
amazed. “So much for immortality, I suppose. Those same things would kill a
human. I guess in some ways we’re not that changed after all.”

Eamon looked
thoughtful for a moment. “I guess that is true. I never really considered it
that way before. The good news is good health. You will keep the perfect figure
you have now. No stretch marks, no blemishes, no colds or flu or allergies. Any
health problems you may have had are long gone. But on the other hand a lot of
things have changed. You’ll never need any immunizations, and stepping on a
rusty nail will hurt like Hell still, but at least you won’t need a tetanus
shot.” He grinned. “So immortality definitely has a leg up on humanity,
wouldn’t you agree?”

Diandra
ignored that and thought hard for a moment. “What about religion? What about Heaven
and Hell, God and the devil, and our souls? What about that?”

Eamon smiled.
“It’s still the same as before you were changed. Everyone’s beliefs are
different. I personally have had this conversation with a few members of
council when I was changed. They remember the birth of Jesus Christ, and swear
by their belief of Heaven and Hell. Just because you are a vampire does not
mean you have to be evil. It’s still a matter of choices. I believe drinking blood
that is donated is fine. I believe attacking a human and drinking their blood
against their will is evil and you will go to Hell.” Eamon shrugged. “It works
for me. But religion is a personal choice, and your beliefs don’t have to
change just because you did.”

He cleared his
throat and continued. “Now for the rules- most of these are common sense. Do
not show off your new abilities- you’re not a toy, selling yourself on the
market. We need to keep a low profile to avoid witch hunts, or in our case,
vampire hunts. Do not share the methods a vampire can be killed. This is a
secret from humans for a reason- we enjoy living. Do not reveal what you are to
another human. Lizbeth gets a free pass, obviously, since she was here and
helped you. Telling others is a huge no- no unless you have no choice, and then
if you have time you should run it by the council to make sure you won’t be
hunted for it. And
the but
most important rule- no
biting or turning someone against their will. This is an automatic death
penalty. Do you understand all I have told you?” Eamon asked her.

Diandra
nodded, just as serious as he was. “I understand. But how did you know you
could shapeshift? Is that a rare gift or is it something you can develop on
your own? Is it one of those ‘you either have it or you don’t’ kind of deals or
is it something you can learn?”

“It’s a skill
you either have or don’t, but you don’t need to worry about that just yet. It’s
very draining and it can be dangerous,” Eamon warned.

“Dangerous?
Dangerous how?”
Diandra asked, honestly curious now.

“It’s very
draining,” Eamon answered. “Your thirst can overwhelm you the first few times
you shift. It’s even difficult for those who have been vampires for years. It’s
quite easy to lose control and rampage through town.”

Diandra
frowned at him. “You must be joking.”

“Hey, where do
you think the tabloids get their stories about Big Foot? What about all those
stories about werewolves? There’s no such thing as werewolves- they are
actually shapeshifted vampires,” Eamon explained.

Diandra mulled
this new information over for a moment. It made sense when she thought about
it. “This is all fascinating. So at some point you will test me to see if this
is an ability I have, correct? I mean, it seems like it could come in handy. It
sure worked for you, skulking around my house in cat form, begging tuna off
Lizbeth because she’s a soft touch.”

Eamon flashed
that cocky grin again. “Yeah she is. She can’t resist petting a cat, and I sure
love being petted.”

Diandra hissed
at him, only half in jest. “Just watch it, kitty cat. Or you may find that
tomorrow I’ll go dog shopping.”

Eamon put his
hands up. “It was a joke, that’s all.
Just a harmless little
joke.
I’d never try to come between you and your love or what have you.”
He raised his eyebrows at her.

“That’s good,
because I’d hate to hurt my mentor. I’d hate it, but I absolutely would do it,”
she warned.

“Then how
about we continue our discussion at a later date? I do believe we have
somewhere we must be- now.” Eamon stood up quickly and headed for the front
door. He looked back at Diandra where she still sat on the loveseat, puzzlement
written across her features. “Are you coming or what?”

“Sure,”
Diandra said as she stood up. “But where exactly is it that we are supposed to
go?”

Eamon sighed
heavily as he hurried back to grab Diandra’s arm. “Look, we don’t have time for
this. Just open the fucking door and fly with me.”

“I can’t just
take off, you know! I have a baby- I can’t leave her. What’s your issue?”
Diandra demanded. She protested as he scooped RaeLynn up in his arms and
wrapped her in three separate baby blankets. “It’s cold when you fly as we do.
I don’t want the little one to catch a chill or something. Now get your ass in
gear.” With than he strode to the front door, flinging it open wide before
taking to the sky with RaeLynn held securely in his large arms.

Diandra flew
off as well, hurrying to catch up with him. She pondered to herself how
something so new could feel like an old habit to her already. “So what’s going
on? Why did we have to hurry?”

“I got a
message from a clairvoyant friend of mine- Lizbeth is being set up for an
ambush. If we hurry, she’ll be fine. If we’re late, she’s dead,” Eamon answered
gruffly without thinking.

For one moment
all she felt was a numbing confusion as she tried to put those words together
in her own mind so they made sense. Then it hit her all at once with the power
of a physical blow. Diandra’s eyes rolled back in her head as she started to
fall from the sky, all memory of how to fly forgotten. The last thing she heard
before she lost consciousness was Eamon’s angry expletive- “Son of a bitch!”
Then everything went dark.

A sharp slap
brought her back to herself. “We don’t have time for your weak female garbage
right now,” Eamon said, acid dripping in his tone. “If you want to change her
fate you need to get up and fly now. Are you going to save your lover or are
you going to lay here and leave her to her fate? I’d go by myself but the only
one who can change what happens is you.” With that he stood up, stretched a
bit, and then flew off once more, leaving her dazed on the ground.

“Why you
nasty, miserable creature,” Diandra mumbled as she shot into the sky like an
arrow, bolting after him with twice his speed. She reluctantly let him take the
lead because he knew where they needed to go. She only hoped he was correct and
they could make it in time to stop whatever was about to happen.
God,
Diandra prayed,
don’t let me fail her now.

They touched
down light as feathers in an alley next to a warehouse in Rehoboth Beach. Eamon
gestured for her to stay silent while he levitated up enough to see in the
window near the roof.

“This is your
show, Dia. They are onto Lizbeth’s identity and know that she must be there to
set them up. I suppose they found the wire. Whatever you plan on doing, you
must do it now,” Eamon said urgently.

“What should I
do about RaeLynn? What am I supposed to do to keep her safe?” Diandra asked,
clearly torn between the two people she loved. RaeLynn looked at her and
giggled. She waved a plump little fist in the air and then disappeared.

“What the
fuck?” Eamon said. “What did you do to her?”

“Nothing!
I didn’t do anything. She’s still here. I can feel
her in my arms, but I can’t make my eyes see what I can feel with my hands. She
must be doing this. What in the Hell is this?” Diandra asked. RaeLynn gave
another giggle and became visible again.

“We’ll worry
about that later. Right now I suggest you put her down under those bushes there
and ask her to hide herself again. Now,” Eamon urged, gently pushing Diandra
towards the bushes he was pointing at. Diandra rushed over to the bushes and
kneeled down, praying that God would help her.

“Baby girl, I
have to put you down here and go help out. I need you to play hide and seek for
me again, okay? Don’t let anybody see you but Mommy, Lizbeth or Eamon. Do you
understand?” She felt so foolish talking to her baby this way, but knew she had
little choice but to try. To her surprise RaeLynn locked eyes with her for a
moment, nodded her little head and then disappeared once more.

“Well, that
was disturbing on a whole new level,” Diandra mumbled to herself as she dashed
silently back to Eamon’s side. “I have a plan, Eamon, so just follow my lead
and back me up, all right?” With a smirk Diandra floated up to the window and
slipped herself inside without a sound.

Eamon rolled
his eyes and followed her lead. He landed gracefully on the ground behind some
shelving out of sight of the men who had Lizbeth surrounded. He only looked at
them long enough to determine that while time was short, it wasn’t too late.
Then he turned his attention to Diandra who stood very still beside him. Her
eyes burned with anger as she stared at the scene before her. She made a sound
low in her throat and then all Hell broke loose.

Lizbeth had
showed up right on time at the warehouse. She took a deep breath to bolster her
confidence before she opened the door and brazenly strode in. Rodriguez stopped
her before she’d made it more than six feet inside.

“I told the
boss you’d know right where to be tonight,” he said to her.

Lizbeth
smiled. “But of course. I told you I knew everything that was going on. I know
all the key players- but who’s the boss around here?” Her eyes searched the
darkness, trying to adjust so she could see who was here and who was missing
from the group. As far as she could tell everyone was present but her asshole
former boss and, of course, Jonah.