Essence (Nectar 3)

“Sam! Sasha? Is Sasha okay? She’s in trouble. And Kyle! Where’s Kyle? Brandy…”

“She’s okay, love. She got into it with Brandy, who tried to detain her, but Sasha tore her apart and got hidden in the safe room in another house down the way until we arrived. Your brother’s blood made her strong enough; Brandy didn’t stand a chance.”

“Thank God. Kyle is here, in another room with some of this guy’s goons.”

“No, we got him. He’s okay. Goons: not okay.”

“Phew. Where is he?”

“He’s in the truck with Jonathan.”

“Phew.”

“Let’s roll,” Tristan said, coming out of the bathroom, drying his hands.

“Let me and Sergey take care of clean-up. You two head back. We’ll find our way.”

Tristan nodded and grabbed Kyla’s hand and walked her into the bathroom and then hefted her up by the waist onto the vanity.

She looked at his face. His angry face.

He hadn’t looked her in the eye yet.

He lifted a washcloth from the towel rack, ran water and liquid soap over it and started wiping her throat.

She winced.

He shook his head, “It’s blistered where he had his teeth on you. Hang on.” He soaped it, rinsed the soap off, and then he put his mouth on the sore spot and it brought instant soothing.

“Tristan?”

“What?”

Her lip trembled.

“Why won’t you look at me?”

His eyes met hers. They were still black.

“I’m trying to get my head together, Kyla. I’m a little bit fucked up right now.”

“Fucked up?”

“I’m about to rip everything in sight apart. I’m about to tear my own heart out.”

“What?”

His eyes met hers again, returning to blue, and he was absolutely wrecked, ravaged.

She sobbed and put her arms around him and pulled him close, “Don’t do that.”

He nodded and let out a long breath.

“You’re supposed to comfort me after rescuing me, not refuse to look at me and then threaten to take yourself away from me.”

“I’m sorry, princess. I can’t even… I can’t take this shit anymore. I wanna take you and go live in a fucking mountain cave and keep everyone the fuck away from you. I would never ever have sent you to that island if I thought... fuck. Brandt made an excuse to avoid coming for the meeting we had today. I didn’t know it was because he was planning to go to the island. Didn’t know Brandy was his twin. How did I miss that? Fuck.”

“Oh Tristan,” she kissed his forehead, “It’s not your fault.”

“I keep failing, princess. Why?”

“You’re here. I’m safe. You didn’t fail.”

He wrapped her up tight in his arms and carried her out of the hotel room. Sergey and Sam were bent over Brandt, rolling him in plastic.

He put her onto her feet when they got outside and then Kyla and Tristan kept going, hand-in-hand, down the parking lot to the end, where there was a big dark SUV with the engine running.

The passenger door opened and a tall, dark, and beautiful man stepped out. He looked like he could be Tristan’s brother.

“Kyla, Jonathan Walker. Your future father-in-law.”

It was dim but Kyla was astonished at the resemblance. No wonder Tristan was so beautiful. Between Taryn and this man, holy moly.

“Hi,” Kyla said to Jonathan, and then glanced at Tristan and said, “That better not have been my proposal, either.”

Jonathan smiled with dimples.

Holy shit.

Her heart skipped a beat.

“Nice to meet the princess, finally.” He winked and got into the back seat. Tristan put her in the front passenger seat.

Kyle was sitting in the back seat, looking glazed over but otherwise fine.

Tristan got into the driver’s seat and backed out.

His hand went to her thigh. Her hand rested on top of his.~~~

Two Hours LaterThey were back at the house next door to Sasha’s. Jonathan and Kyle were at Sasha’s house. She expected that all was well and that Sergey and Sam would soon follow.

She and Tristan were in bed.

They’d just gotten there and she knew he was still ‘off’.

“Guess you have a lot to tell me,” she said.

He nodded, “Later. Right now, there’s nothing but us. Is that okay?”

“It so is. Now, please feed me my prince, I’m starving!”-Epilogue-One Month LaterSasha had found a way to synthesize Kyle’s blood. Working with some other vampire doctors and combining their research gave Sasha the ability to offer a supplement for vampire females as well as herself, in order to regulate their hormones. This could make a lot of vampresses a whole lot less bitchy. It wasn’t going to be rolled out immediately to the general vampire public; there were a few test cases to try it out on first.

Tristan nominated his mother.

And of course, Sasha was also taking it. She said she’d no longer feed from Kyle.

Taryn had now been taking it for a week and although he’d kept her away from Kyla, he said it seemed like it was actually working. Taryn and Jonathan were trying to continue their relationship from where it left off. Kyla didn’t know how it was going, really, but Tristan was feeling cautiously positive about all of it. Tristan and his father were getting to know one another. And that was going very well.