“Vanessa! Please come in here.” Samson’s voice was sharp.
She flinched. Would he lash out at her? Hit her? Bite her? Kill her?
Vanessa appeared instantly.
“This is taking way too much time. Could you please stay back and watch her while I and the guys pay Saunders a visit” Samson asked.
Vanessa nodded. “Yeah sure. No problem.
” Thank you” Samson replied, and after one glance in Isabella’s direction, he bolted from the room.
Isabella’s eyes followed him before she looked back at Vanessa who casually sat on the wide bed as if nothing had happened.
“He wanted to kill me, didn’t he?” Isabella asked Vanessa. “If I try to leave then he’s going to kill me, isn’t he? That’s why he doesn’t want me to leave. He thinks I’m going to tell the whole world what he is… That he is a vampire”
Vanessa nodded. “Yes, he will” she replied, and grinned devilishly at Isabella. “He will compel you and bite you and drain you of every drop of blood in your body”
Isabella gave her an undignified look and she laughed at the expression on her face.
“Hey, don’t blame me; I’m just joking.” Vanessa said finally, “But trust me when I say this, no one, and I mean no one is going to protect you like Samson will. I know that you are scared and confused and this is a lot to take in, but I know Samson. I have known him for a very long time, and I haven’t seen him this way with anyone. He’s not going to Hurt you or let anyone Hurt you. ”
She listened to the footsteps downstairs. Samson and the guys were leaving.
“Don’t worry about him. He’ll cool off especially when he gets back. He needs to hit something to let his anger out and he will get to do a lot of punching where he’s going. So, let’s focus on other things, shall we? we haven’t really gotten to know each other since we met. Let’s do that now. Tell me about yourself and-”
“You want to talk like nothing has happened?” Isabella asked.
“Sure. Just because you now know that we’re vampires doesn’t change anything. We can still be friends and everything can still be normal. Nothing has changed.”
Isabella shook her head. “What are you guys? How can you think of talking right now? Shouldn’t you be biting me and drinking my blood by now?”
“Thanks for offering, but Samson would so kick my ass if I did that, and, yeah, most likely turn me into dust. So, no thanks. You’re safe from me.” Vanessa replied, and flashed her another smile
“I wasn’t offering . . . ” Isabella replied. Was she truly safe from Vanessa? She looked too relaxed, leaning on the bed post, to seem ready to attack her.
“I know that. Anyway, would you like something to drink?”
Alcohol was probably a bad idea right now, but Isabella felt she needed it to go through this weird day, so she nodded and watched as Vanessa stood, went to the table and poured them both a glass of bourbon.
“Here.” Vanessa handed her a glass.
” Thanks” Isabella replied and took a sip.
“Relax. I’m sure he’ll explain all important things to you soon. I know it’s hard but there’s no reason to be scared. Samson has been very lonely and angry for a while, until he met you. I noticed the change in him before he even noticed it himself. It’s always like that when vampires find a mate. It changes them. When I first blood-bonded with Mark, there was-”
“Excuse me, explain what to me?” She couldn’t follow Vanessa’s ramblings, as nice as the woman was.
“The blood-bonding with your mate and everything that goes with it.” Vanessa made it sound like that was the most obvious answer, but she immediately stopped talking when she saw the scared look on Isabella’s face. “Oh no” she said, “I was trying to make things better and I ended up making it worse, didn’t I?”
“What did you mean when you said ‘mate’ and ‘blood bond’?” Isabella asked.
“It’s not as horrible as it sounds. It’s very pleasurable in fact” Vanessa replied, trying to fix the damage. Samson was definitely going to kill her. Sometimes she just talked too much and found it hard to stop.
“You know what, that’s okay. I don’t really need to know anything about that. Once this is all over and Samson gets back I’ll just go back to my regular life. The less I know the better.” Isabella said. She couldn’t wait to leave this borrow show.
Vanessa’s face looked distraught. “But you can’t leave him now.”
“Why not?” Isabella asked, “I don’t belong in his world. I won’t tell anyone his big secret if that is what he’s worried about. I just want to go back to my life.
I want it to be the way it was before I met him, before I found out that vampires are real.”
“But you guys have been together for…”
“That’s really just a fling.” She had to downplay what they had. The less importance she gave whatever was between them, the better.
“A fling? Isabella. What you and Samson have is not just a Fling.” Vanessa’s tone was scolding.”You care about him and you want him. I have been in your position and I know how it feels”
Isabella reached for her glass and brought it to her lips. She finished the entire content in one gulp and Vanessa handed her own glass to her. She finished that too.
Vanessa grabbed her gently by the shoulders and shook her. “Listen to me, Isabella. Listen to your heart. Try to put the fear out of your mind and remember how you felt when you were with him. I probably shouldn’t be telling you this because Samson is going to kill me, but I want the best for him… For the both of you. Samson loves you and you love him too. He probably doesn’t even know it yet, but you are his mate, and you can’t leave him. It would completely ruin him.”
His mate. She-she was Samson’s mate. Isabella had watched some movies and read some books about vampires, and she had an idea of what that meant. It meant she and Samson belonged together… For eternity. Always. This couldn’t be true. It couldn’t be. How the hell did she get here?
The question pounded in her head as she lay on the bed. Emotionally and physically exhausted, she fell asleep, but still all she could dream about was Samson. Even in her subconscious he was there, erasing everything and everyone that wasn’t him.