Laura Kaye - Taken by the Vampire King

At least, that’s what he told himself.

Kaira mumbled. Her eyelids flickered. When she finally managed to open them all the way, her eyes remained unfocused.

The truck came to a rest in the garage. The men in the front got out.

“What’s happening?” she said so softly he wouldn’t have heard it were it not for his preternatural abilities.

“You’re at my home, Kaira. Fear not. I won’t hurt you.” He slid with her across the seat.

Her gray eyes fought to focus, and her gaze landed on his. “Promise?”

Sitting on the edge of the back seat, legs halfway out the door, he paused. He didn’t know whether to be more amused that she thought extracting his word would protect her if he intended her harm, or that even as she lay semiconscious in his arms she found the strength to talk and the will to negotiate.

Either way, he found her more than a little endearing.

“I promise.”

She stared at him a long moment as if weighing his words against whatever expression he wore, and then she drifted off once more.

Henrik felt the weight of another gaze on him and looked down.

Jakob stood with his hand on the door, holding it open. “Sure that’s a promise you can keep?”

Henrik ignored his brother, hoping with everything he was that he could keep his promise to her, no matter what it took. Or what it cost.

Kaira surfaced into consciousness like she was swimming in mud. Everything felt slow and heavy. She forced the ten-pound weights of her eyelids open. Dim lighting cast a low glow over what looked like a hospital room.

She pushed herself up, and a twinge in her left wrist drew her gaze. An IV. She traced the line to the pole standing bedside. Just fluids.

“How are you feeling?” came a deep voice.

Kaira’s head wrenched to the right as her heart vaulted into her throat. Henrik sat in a chair by her elbow. He’d been so quiet, she hadn’t even realized he was there. “How long did I sleep?” she said through the cotton in her mouth.

“About five hours.”

She studied him for a long moment. He’d cleaned up. A pair of jeans and a navy turtleneck stretched taut to accommodate the breadth of his shoulders replaced the ruined clothing he’d worn before. Her gaze traced up to his face. It was the first time she’d seen his hair out from under the black knit cap. Most of it was thick and long, but the hair behind his left temple was thin, revealing a patch of his scalp.

He tilted his head in a way that hid the baldness from her line of sight.

She met his observing gaze and gasped. “Your eyes.”

He sat forward and clasped his hands where they hung between his knees. The closeness gave her a wide-open look at his once again nearly colorless eyes. Still as penetrating and intense, though. “You never answered my question.”

Why did his eyes keep changing? Last night, when they’d appeared a bright, deep blue, he and his men had seemed awed, definitely happy. Now, the set of Henrik’s big shoulders made her think he carried a burden nearly too great to bear. She frowned. “What question?”

“How do you feel?”

“Oh.” Kaira conducted a mental rundown from her head to her toes. “Better than last night. Tired. Achy. I think the fever’s down.”

“We didn’t want to treat you beyond the fluids for dehydration until we had a better sense of what was going on. Our doc specializes in patching up wounds and setting bones, when need be, but since we don’t get sick, your situation is outside his area of expertise.”

“‘We,’ as in...vampires.”

He gave a single nod. “That’s right.”

She ducked her chin, drawing her attention to the fact she wore a johnny over the smooth fabric of the gown she could still feel against her skin. They’d covered her. Last night, they’d protected her. And both Henrik and Jakob had been more honest with her than they had to be. “May I have some water?”

Henrik was on his feet before she’d finished enunciating the last word. He crossed to the sink in the corner and was so tall he had to bend down to fill the cup at the faucet. How old was he? Looking at him right now, except for the white hair, she would never guess from his height and the athleticism of his movement and his upright, commanding bearing that he was older than his twenties. Thirties, maybe.

“Um, not to be rude, but how can vampires exist and nobody knows?”

He returned to her and handed off the drink.

His body was nearly mesmerizing to watch. Quick. Efficient in movement. Confident. There was something totally magnetic and appealingly masculine about him. But then you got to his face, and it seemed to belong to another person. Between the intensity of his eyes, the square jaw, and the strong, expressive brow, no doubt he’d been handsome once, in a rugged sort of way. But now, sunken circles darkened the skin below his eyes and his cheeks were thin and hollowed. Wrinkles pulled at the corners of his eyes and mouth. How could he and Jakob be brothers, yet look so different?

Realizing she’d been staring, she mumbled her thanks and drank three long gulps before she convinced herself to slow down. She was just so thirsty. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she found him watching her, gaze focused on her mouth with such longing.

Kaira’s heartbeat tripped and heat flooded her belly.

He turned on his heel and paced across the small room. He finally settled against the wall at the far end by the door, arms crossed over his chest. “People know. My kind has long been in alliance with a select number of yours, for the good of everyone.”

“People know? ” She sipped at her water, attempting to settle the strange, visceral reactions he elicited within her. “Wow.” Out of nowhere, a wave of nausea washed over her. She eased back against the pillows and cupped her hand to her forehead.

“What’s the matter?” he said from immediately next to her. How the hell had he moved so fast, so silently, that she hadn’t noticed? Maybe a vampire thing? The thought did nothing for her stomach.

She blew out a breath. “Am I a prisoner?” When he didn’t answer right away, she opened her eyes and peered up at him.

He returned her stare for a long moment, and then his shoulders sagged. “ Ja. ”

Goose bumps erupted over her flesh, even though she’d already known the answer. “Are you going to kill me?”

“I told you no harm would come to you.”

“Forgive me if my current status is making me a little shy of trusting you.” She stretched to put down the cup. Kaira debated for a long moment, then released her next words on an exhale. “You asked me what’s the matter. Everything that happened last night aside, I’m sick. Without the meds I need, I’ll get sicker. So if your word really means something, you have to let me go.”

He grabbed the rails along the side of her bed, his knuckles going white. A large gold signet ring with some sort of engraved crest sat prominently on his right hand. “What kind of illness?”

She shook her head. No matter how much her instincts said she could trust him, part of her brain refused to forget that last night he’d bitten her, drank her blood and kidnapped her. Now his brother believed she’d seen too much to be let free. How could this situation end up in any way good for her? At the very least, she probably shouldn’t advertise that she had a disease likely to put her in an early grave. If they thought she was going to die anyway, whatever compunction they had against killing her now might just evaporate.

“You will tell me.” He towered over the bed.

His nearness brought his tantalizing scent to her nose. It rippled along her nervous system and warmed her everywhere. What the hell was wrong with her? “I won’t.”