Kathy Love: I Only Have Fangs For You

She stepped inside. The place was dark and definitely deserted. A noise of something scurrying away from her scratched on the concrete floors. But she saw a light in a distant room.

She walked slowly in that direction.

"Hello?" she called as she reached the doorway. The room was small and appeared empty, but there were chairs set up in neat rows. Maybe she was early. She stepped into the room, looking around.

"Hello?" she yelled again.

This time her call was answered by the loud slam of a door behind her. She spun to find Daniel leaning on the doorframe through which she'd just entered the small room.

"Daniel," she breathed, her gaze moving warily to the closed door at his back. "Where is everyone?"

"Hmm," he said as if he was considering the question. "They couldn't make it."

Her fear immediately flared, although she tried hard to block it from him. "Are they going to meet another time?"

He nodded. "I'm sure they will. The Society does love their meetings, don't they?"

Daniel stepped away from the door, but rather than moving toward her, he walked a slow circle around the room. She glanced at the door, taking a small step toward it.

Daniel stopped, spinning to look at her with his eerie dark eyes. "Don't bother. I'm much faster than you."

She paused, trying to calm herself. Trying to pretend she didn't know what he meant. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you and I need to have a little chat."

"W-why?"

"Because you have made things difficult for me."

"H-how?" She forced herself to meet his eyes, even though something there terrified her. Something so familiar, even though she didn't know what it was.

"Surely what I'm doing with Sebastian Young should have no effect on you," she managed to say.

"No, not really," he agreed. He began walking again, his hands clasped behind his back, his eyes focused on the floor just in front of his precise footsteps. "But you have ruined a good thing for me."

"What? How?"

He stopped again. "You really don't remember me, do you? I was so certain you did."

She frowned, staring at him. His profile, then his back as he continued his circle.

"Daniel, I have no idea what you are talking about."

He turned back to her, a smile splitting his face, as creepy as his eyes. Again she did feel she should know him, but she couldn't quite place from where.

"No, you don't, do you?" He smiled smugly.

Suddenly, whether it was something in that smile, or it was the fact that she could now sense him in a way she hadn't been able to before-not until Sebastian had helped her focus her vampire senses-she knew why this vampire made her so uneasy. So scared. Yet, what she was realizing couldn't be possible.

His smile slowly faded as he became aware of the change in Mina. She tried to block her emotions, her thoughts, using the techniques Sebastian had showed her. Focusing outside of herself. On Sebastian.

"But it will be great fun getting reacquainted," he said and began walking again, his back to her once more.

She took another backward step toward the closed door. And another, but she stopped as he spoke again.

"Let me refresh your memory, cara mia."

Daniel turned back toward her, but this time it wasn't that cadaverlike face that greeted her. It was a wide, charming smile. Dimples. Dark eyes and curly hair.

Mina stumbled back, fear seizing her, strangling her.

"Oh my God," she cried, scrambling backward not even aware of where the door was, where she was. She just needed to get away.

He slowly walked toward her.

"Now is that any way to greet your first love?"

"Earlier I discovered Mina with one of the members of the Society," Sebastian admitted to his brothers. "She was telling him that the sabotage was working. She had me under control, and it was only a matter of time before she convinced me to close this place."

Both Rhys and Christian looked surprised by his words. Not nearly as surprised as Sebastian had been to hear them.

"Mina said that?" Rhys said.

Sebastian nodded. "She told this guy that she was doing whatever she had to do to control me."

Again Sebastian thought of her offer to let him bite her. An offer that he'd seen as the moment when they'd truly be committed to each other. Sure, he'd bitten many women, but this was going to be the first time he'd bitten, not solely for sustenance, not solely for pleasure, but to make them one. He'd believed that was what she was offering.

What a fool.

"Did you confront her?" Christian asked.

"Yes."

"What did she say?" Rhys asked.

"She denied it all. She claimed that she'd said those things to protect me."

Both brothers stared at him for a moment.

"And why didn't you believe that?" Rhys finally asked.

"I don't need protecting from those idiots."

"But maybe Mina didn't believe that. Maybe she thinks they are a bigger threat than you do. And she should know. She was a member, after all," Rhys said reasonably.

"Apparently she's still a member," Sebastian said bitterly. "A very active member."

"Sebastian, why is it so impossible that she was honestly just trying to protect you?" Rhys asked.

"I don't need her protection," he said again. "I'm very capable of protecting myself. She should have defended me. She should have told that guy that she knew I wasn't a threat to anyone. And that Carfax Abbey wasn't a threat. And that she was in love with me. Period."

Understanding lit both his brothers' eyes, and Sebastian wished he'd just remained silent.

"Sebastian, you are a friggin' bonehead, you know that," Christian said with a shake of his head. "That's exactly what she was saying by trying to protect you."

Sebastian opened his mouth to argue, but he saw his brothers' expressions. They believed Mina. And his brothers were not quick to believe in anyone. Lilah, the evil vampiress who'd crossed them over, had seen to that. Yet, they trusted Mina.

Suddenly, Sebastian knew they were right. Mina had been trying to protect him. But he'd refused to listen. He'd been too worried that she was going to hurt him. That he'd finally fallen in love, and she'd just been pretending. But that wasn't Mina. And he should have known that. He should have trusted her, as she'd trusted him.

Rhys clapped Sebastian on the back. "Don't worry about it. The Young Brothers are notoriously slow on the uptake when it comes to love. Just go find her and apologize."

Sebastian nodded, praying that his mistrust and, he cringed, his threatening behavior hadn't ruined his chance with her, with the woman he did want to spend eternity with.

He waited for that idea to scare him senseless, but now he was far more scared that she wouldn't want him back.

He started to slide from the booth, when he suddenly heard Mina in his head. Her voice clear-and terrified. He fell back against the seat, overwhelmed by the intensity of the echo in his head.

"Sebastian?"

He could hear Rhys, although it sounded as if Rhys was far, far away. Sebastian blinked, trying to clear his mind, to calm her voice in his head.

He turned to his brothers, trying to tell them what was happening, but before he could speak, he heard her again. Scared, desperate. And this time he could see an image. A room. A face. A face he didn't know, but that had been described to him.

"It's Mina," he managed to tell them. "She's in danger."

He was barely aware of Rhys and Christian helping him from the booth and leading him to the club's exit. All he could do was center on Mina, calling to him.

"D-Donatello," Mina heard herself say as if her voice was very far away from her.

"In the flesh." He smiled, strolling toward her.

She backed away, bumping into one of the lined-up chairs, stumbling.