Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [103]
Only a long silence answered.
“What do you mean I wouldn’t have survived….”
He swore through gritted teeth. “I was there, Gabrielle. Twenty-seven years ago, when a helpless young mother was attacked by a Rogue vampire at a Boston bus station, I was there.”
“My mother,” she murmured, her heart thudding hollowly in her chest. She felt for the wall behind her, and leaned against it for support.
“She’d already been bitten. He was draining her when I smelled blood and found them outside the terminal. He would have killed her. Would have killed you, too.”
Gabrielle could hardly believe what she was hearing. “You saved us?”
“I gave your mother a chance to get away. She was too far gone from the bite. Nothing was going to save her. But she wanted to save you. She ran away with you in her arms.”
“No. She didn’t care about me. She left me. She put me in a trash bin,” Gabrielle whispered, her throat burning as she spoke the words, felt the old hurt of abandonment all over again.
“The bite would have put her in a state of shock. It’s likely she was disoriented, thinking that she was putting you someplace safe. Sheltering you from danger.”
God, how long had she wondered about the young woman who’d given birth to her? How many scenarios had she concocted to explain, to herself at least, what might have happened the night she was recovered on the street, as an infant. Never had she imagined this.
“What was her name?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t care. She was just another victim of the Rogues. I hadn’t thought about any of it until you mentioned your mother tonight at your apartment.”
“And me?” she asked, trying to put everything together. “When you first came to see me after the killing I’d witnessed, did you know I was the baby you saved?”
He exhaled a dry laugh. “I had no idea. I came to you because I smelled your jasmine scent outside the nightclub and I wanted you. I needed to know if your blood would taste as sweet as the rest of you.”
Hearing those words made her think of all the pleasure Lucan had given her with his body. Now she wondered how it would have felt to have him suckling from her neck as he thrust inside of her. To her shock, she realized she was a lot more than curious. “But you didn’t. You haven’t…”
“And I won’t,” he replied, his words clipped. Another curse came from his direction in the dark, this one a pained hiss. “I never would have touched you at all, if I’d known…”
“If you’d known what?”
“Nothing, forget it. Just…Christ, my head is pounding too much for me to talk. Just get out of here. Leave me alone now.”
Gabrielle stayed right where she was. She heard him moving again, a stiff shuffling of feet. Another rumbling, animal growl.
“Lucan? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” he snarled, sounding anything but. “I need…ah, fuck.” He was breathing harder now, almost panting. “Get out of here, Gabrielle. I need to be…by myself.”
Something heavy hit the carpeted floor with a dull thud. He sucked in a sharp breath.
“I don’t think you need to be alone right now at all. I think you need help. And I can’t keep talking to you in the dark like this.” She smoothed her hand over the wall, blindly searching for a light. “I can’t see any—”
Her fingers brushed a switchplate, flipped it on.
“Oh, my God.”
Lucan was doubled over on the floor near a king-sized bed. His shirt and boots were off, and he was writhing as though in extreme pain, the markings on his bare back and torso livid with color. The intricate swirls and arcs changed from deep purples to reds to black as he spasmed, clutching his abdomen.
Gabrielle raced to his side and kneeled down beside him. His body contracted savagely, pulling him into a tight ball.
“Lucan! What’s going on?”
“Get out.” He snarled when she tried to touch him, lashing out like a wounded animal. “Go! Not your…concern.”
“The hell it’s not!”
“Get…aagh!” A convulsion gripped him again, worse than the last. “Just get away from me.”
Panic flooded her to see him thrashing with such pain. “What is happening to you? Tell me what to do!”
He flipped