Blood Ties Book Three: Ashes To Ashes. Jennifer Armintrout

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СКАЧАТЬ eyes opened to slits and she laughed weakly. “Always trying to get me into your bed, vampire.”

      “You know it.” If Bella’s eyes hadn’t closed again, she would surely have seen the mix of relief and sadness, and the determination not to show them, that crossed Max’s face.

      “You take care of her. I’ll tell Nathan not to call the paramedics, ” I offered. Max and Bella needed time alone. If near death wouldn’t inspire them to talk without sniping at each other, nothing would.

      I found Nathan in the kitchen, slumped over the island with the phone in his hands. When he looked up, his eyes were rimmed with red. “Is she—”

      “She’s fine.” I pulled out the stool next to his and climbed onto it. “Banged up, but she’ll pull through. I’m not so sure about you, though.”

      Nathan sniffed and tried to cover it with a laugh. “Oh, I’ll be fine. Just rattled my nerves, is all.”

       Because she was possessed.

      My gaze dropped to his arm, where he’d rolled up the sleeve of his sweater. Though vampires heal quickly, for some reason the self-inflicted marks he’d carved under the Soul Eater’s influence had never completely faded.

      I went to his side and put my arms around him. “It still bothers you.”

      “You’re damn right it bothers me!” he snapped, pushing away from the island and stalking to the other end of the kitchen. “Jesus, Carrie! She found us. She nearly killed Bella!” He looked instantly repentant for his outburst. “She could have chosen you. She could have done that to you.”

      “Nathan,” I whispered, my heart twisting in my chest. “She didn’t pick me. She attacked Bella. There hasn’t been a time since I’ve know you that we haven’t been in danger. Why is it so different now?”

      “Because now…” His hands fisted at his sides, and he looked away. “It’s just different.”

      Because now you love me, I finished for him across the blood tie. He shook his head. The denial didn’t skewer my heart the way it would have before. “You love me, and you’re afraid to lose me.”

      “We’ve got to take care of this,” he said, changing the subject smoothly. “We have no idea if anyone else even knows what happened. If we’re the only ones, and we wait… I don’t even want to think of the consequences.”

      He was right. I hated it, but he was right. “What do you suggest we do?”

      “Tonight? Nothing. There’s no time. But tomorrow night we meet up again and we make an actual plan. Something concrete. Something—”

      “Bloody and violent?” The rage emanating over the blood tie was almost frightening. “You know, we might have a better chance of success if we didn’t make this personal.”

      Nathan jerked his head toward the door. “Tell that to Max.”

      “Good point.” I went to Nathan and leaned my head against his chest, waited for him to put his arms around me. He hesitated, until I said, “We’ve been through worse, haven’t we?”

      I felt the low rumble in his chest, but the laughter wasn’t enough to produce sound. “No. But there is a first time for everything.”

      Though I wanted to stay there, held by him forever, my thoughts strayed to the pair upstairs. “I’m going to go check on Bella.”

      There was a smile in Nathan’s voice when he spoke. “Always on call?”

      “Old habits die hard.” I tilted my face up, expecting a gentle peck and receiving instead a long, thorough kiss that left my limbs trembling. “What was that for?” I nearly gasped when we parted.

      “If anything like that ever happened to you—” He broke off, his fingers bunching my T-shirt where his hands rested against my back. “I swear, Carrie. I don’t like what I am, but I would kill anyone who hurt you. I’d kill them, and I’d enjoy it.”

      I didn’t know what to say. I don’t think I’d ever seen Nathan so angry before. At least, not an anger that wasn’t fueled by grief. I pulled away from him, tried to smile. But he’d frightened me a little, and the expression felt fake. “I know, Nathan. I know.”

      And I didn’t doubt him for a second.

      

      I had no idea where Max had put Bella, but she wasn’t in any of the guest rooms on the upper floor. A quick check of Max’s room revealed it empty. I suppose, given the carnage of empty ice cream boxes and drained beer bottles we’d left there, it was no kind of environment for a patient.

      I was about to try the rooms downstairs when I noticed the imposing double doors to Marcus’s room were open a crack. The brass key with its heavy tassel, which Max usually hung from his bedpost, dangled from the keyhole.

      “Now, what are the chances that got there by itself?” I mumbled, easing the door open a bit farther.

      I’d never been in this room, and though I’d never met Max’s sire, the moment I peered in the place screamed Marcus. Stern, heavy furniture; ugly, masculine colors; scratchy-looking, expensive fabrics. No wonder Max kept it locked up at all times.

      The room was dim. A bedside lamp with a gold shade and beaded fringe provided muted, warm light. Bella lay in the center of the bed, dwarfed by the antique monstrosity. The huge canopy nearly touched the ceiling, and I estimated there would be room for four people on either side of her. Max sat with her, holding her limp hand in his.

      For a minute it looked as though he would lean forward and kiss her forehead. I cleared my throat, so he wouldn’t go all “emotional shutdown Max” on me when he noticed I was there. “Knock knock.”

      “Who’s there?” he asked with a note of black humor in his voice. “If you say banana, I’m going to hit you.”

      I walked slowly into the room, feeling somehow criminal for invading this private sanctuary. On the nightstand, in dark wood frames, sat an assortment of snapshots of Max. It was an uncomfortably intimate thing to see. “She’s out again?”

      He nodded. “But she’s still breathing, if you couldn’t tell from the snores.”

      I dutifully took her pulse and monitored her respiration, timing it by the ticking of the ornate gold clock standing in the corner. “She’s going to be fine. Whatever the Oracle did—”

      “Don’t. Not around her.” He positioned her hand on her chest in a way that made her eerily resemble a corpse.

      “If there’s anything else you need—”

      Max waved a hand dismissively. “Go. If she wants to do this again, it’s not like the two of you will be able to stop her. And I think if she makes a return appearance, Bella’s gonna need a lot more than CPR to help her.”

      “Don’t talk like that,” I begged quietly. “Listen, we can talk about this tomorrow night. Right now, we all just need some time to think. But this isn’t a lost cause.”

      Max СКАЧАТЬ