father for it ever since she found out, because he didn’t care about her enough to turn her.”
“How did you even become involved with these people?”
I sighed. “When Mark and Saphrona met. See, the blood of an immortal human is a really powerful narcotic to vampires. Obviously my mother is not Mark’s birth mother—her name was Patricia, and she was attacked by a rogue vampire when she was about eight months pregnant. Patricia didn’t survive the attack but Mark did, because the vamp’s draculin had already begun to change him. My mother—do you remember she’s a nurse? Well, she was working in the ER the night Patricia was brought in after my dad found her in their house. She knew right away that it had been a vampire attack, and that Mark was becoming a dhunphyr , because she’s a weredog too. I inherited it from her.
“Mom reported the attack and Mark’s condition to her Packmaster, and he arranged for the rogue to be hunted down and killed so he couldn’t let slip the possibility that an immortal human had been created. She knew Mark would need protection, so she offered to help my dad take care of him. He was so devastated by his first wife’s death that he hired her as a full-time caretaker. Eventually he recovered enough to fall in love with my mom, and three years after they got married I came along.”
I took a deep breath and plunged ahead. “The dogs we had were members of my pack —one of my aunts and one of my uncles, in fact. They gave up a great deal of their lives to be Mark’s guardian, at least until they imprinted. And then he joined the Marines after high school, so we were less concerned with his needing a bodyguard.”
“Mark actually became a leatherneck? Are you serious?” Race asked with a raised eyebrow.
His surprise at this news made me smile. “Yeah, he really did. He was actually one of their best snipers. But a year ago he was injured by an IED, and he swears that he should have died…but he didn’t, because of the healing factor. He calls it Wolverine Syndrome. So he opted out and took a year off to clear his head and figure out what the hell was going on with himself. Just about a month ago, he applied to work on Saphrona’s farm.”
“Didn’t you say she’s part vampire ?” Race queried, and I nodded. “What kind of vampire lives on a damn farm?”
“The kind that gave up human blood when she found out her father left her mother to die without a second thought,” I replied. “She set up the farm back in the 1800s and got herself a veterinary degree so she could draw blood from the cows and pigs she breeds. She lives there for a few years, maybe a decade or so, then moves before people can start asking questions about her lack of aging. After a while she moves back again.”
“So Mark applied for a job on her farm, and then what?”
“Well, vampires apparently bond in a similar manner to our imprinting—they actually have soulmates too. Mark happens to be Saphrona’s.”
I felt my chest begin to tighten again as I once again remembered what had come after Mark and Saphrona’s bonding. Race noticed and he finally came back to sit on the edge of the coffee table, once again taking my hands in his.
“And what happened after that, Juliette?” he asked me softly. “Is that when them fucking leeches attacked you?”
I nodded. “Saphrona also had a sister, a she-vamp her father had turned after she disowned him. Evangeline was a raving lunatic who was jealous of Saphrona because Diarmid and Lochlan loved her so much, even though she’d pretty much walked away from the vampire life. She had these two males named Martin and Peter who were basically her puppets. I’d moved to the farm, too, after Mark and Saphrona bonded and he found out about me, about werekind and vampires. The three of us and Lochlan went to see a movie a couple days after they met and Martin had followed us, on Evangeline’s orders. He attacked Mark in the bathroom but since
“How did you even become involved with these people?”
I sighed. “When Mark and Saphrona met. See, the blood of an immortal human is a really powerful narcotic to vampires. Obviously my mother is not Mark’s birth mother—her name was Patricia, and she was attacked by a rogue vampire when she was about eight months pregnant. Patricia didn’t survive the attack but Mark did, because the vamp’s draculin had already begun to change him. My mother—do you remember she’s a nurse? Well, she was working in the ER the night Patricia was brought in after my dad found her in their house. She knew right away that it had been a vampire attack, and that Mark was becoming a dhunphyr , because she’s a weredog too. I inherited it from her.
“Mom reported the attack and Mark’s condition to her Packmaster, and he arranged for the rogue to be hunted down and killed so he couldn’t let slip the possibility that an immortal human had been created. She knew Mark would need protection, so she offered to help my dad take care of him. He was so devastated by his first wife’s death that he hired her as a full-time caretaker. Eventually he recovered enough to fall in love with my mom, and three years after they got married I came along.”
I took a deep breath and plunged ahead. “The dogs we had were members of my pack —one of my aunts and one of my uncles, in fact. They gave up a great deal of their lives to be Mark’s guardian, at least until they imprinted. And then he joined the Marines after high school, so we were less concerned with his needing a bodyguard.”
“Mark actually became a leatherneck? Are you serious?” Race asked with a raised eyebrow.
His surprise at this news made me smile. “Yeah, he really did. He was actually one of their best snipers. But a year ago he was injured by an IED, and he swears that he should have died…but he didn’t, because of the healing factor. He calls it Wolverine Syndrome. So he opted out and took a year off to clear his head and figure out what the hell was going on with himself. Just about a month ago, he applied to work on Saphrona’s farm.”
“Didn’t you say she’s part vampire ?” Race queried, and I nodded. “What kind of vampire lives on a damn farm?”
“The kind that gave up human blood when she found out her father left her mother to die without a second thought,” I replied. “She set up the farm back in the 1800s and got herself a veterinary degree so she could draw blood from the cows and pigs she breeds. She lives there for a few years, maybe a decade or so, then moves before people can start asking questions about her lack of aging. After a while she moves back again.”
“So Mark applied for a job on her farm, and then what?”
“Well, vampires apparently bond in a similar manner to our imprinting—they actually have soulmates too. Mark happens to be Saphrona’s.”
I felt my chest begin to tighten again as I once again remembered what had come after Mark and Saphrona’s bonding. Race noticed and he finally came back to sit on the edge of the coffee table, once again taking my hands in his.
“And what happened after that, Juliette?” he asked me softly. “Is that when them fucking leeches attacked you?”
I nodded. “Saphrona also had a sister, a she-vamp her father had turned after she disowned him. Evangeline was a raving lunatic who was jealous of Saphrona because Diarmid and Lochlan loved her so much, even though she’d pretty much walked away from the vampire life. She had these two males named Martin and Peter who were basically her puppets. I’d moved to the farm, too, after Mark and Saphrona bonded and he found out about me, about werekind and vampires. The three of us and Lochlan went to see a movie a couple days after they met and Martin had followed us, on Evangeline’s orders. He attacked Mark in the bathroom but since
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