Blood Ties (Book 3 of The Blood Bond Series)

9. Blood Runneth Over

"Quinn baby... Sweetheart, wake up."

She heard a slight slapping sound and realized someone was tapping her face trying to rouse her. She didn't know what day it was, what time, and she certainly couldn't tell whose voice it was that was speaking. The last thing she remembered was going to bed in her apartment on the Upper East Side in New York City. When the voice spoke again, her eyes blinked open and were met with a chiseled jaw of dark scruff under dazzling green eyes.

"Wha—what happened?" She blinked again, trying to clear the fog from her head. Intrinsically, Quinn knew that she wasn't at home, even before she'd opened her eyes to see Adam staring down at her.

Adam. His name is Adam.

Her eyes became wider, and the world came crashing down around her as she suddenly recalled every blessed detail that had occurred over the past several days.

"You're a vampire! Oh my God, what the fuck!" She sat up, realizing soon that she was actually in a bedroom and cradled upon Adam's lap on a strange bed. Her head swiveled wildly, her red hair whipping around her head and getting caught in her open mouth as she sputtered and tried to scramble across the bed and toward the door. For a moment, Adam let go of her, afraid of hurting her with his strong grip and doing worse damage, especially to her psyche.

Quinn scrambled across the bed to the opposite side and looked back him, her hands gripping the coverlet with her feet planted on the floor. She was leaning toward him, knees bent as if ready to run a marathon. It was almost predatory in nature, and Adam got up from the bed and sauntered over to the dresser before picking up a small glass of juice.

"How much do you remember, love?" He walked slowly around the bed to bring her the juice, holding it out to her while he was still a few feet away. She stared at it blankly for a moment and then blinked before taking it to bring up to her mouth. After she swallowed half of the drink down, she spoke.

"Everything, I think." She almost visibly shuddered and looked up at him. "You kidnapped me and took me to Upstate New York. We flew on a plane to Southern California. You had Lee come in and feed off a human, I remember. They... The person seemed to enjoy it. Was that woman willing? She didn't—"

"The person was willing enough. It's one of my employees that knows a little about what we are. Very discreet, a very comprehensive NDA signed. Plus, she is related to Mafia, so we have that over her head. We keep her secrets, and she keeps ours. The Mafia is not a group one to mess with, but my father's friend Michael is also related closely to another Italian family—one that is more dangerous than any other. She knows this, and it keeps any of the big players that know even a little bit about us in line."

Quinn's head felt like it was swelling with too much information. She took another cool drink of orange juice and set it down on the night table behind her.

This was all true, and she nodded her head. "I remember it all. She... Leandra drank from that woman's neck, and that woman, whoever she is, moaned like she was having an...an orgasm."

Adam nodded and tried to regain his composure. He didn't like that she ran from him as soon as she woke up, but he also understood that this was probably a shock, seeing a human female being fed upon. With all the other information she'd gleaned from them and seeing the old photos of Eli and Cassie's birth certificate, she was finally a believer, even if she didn't want to believe. It was hard to come to terms with something that should only be a thing of books or fantasy, but she'd seen with her own two eyes and—

Fuck.

"Did I pass out?" She glanced around the room, looking like she was tired of figuring out where she was.