Cooper's Passion: Scanguards Hybrids #5 (Scanguards Vampires Book 17), page 14
He suddenly tasted his own blood in his mouth. “Oh, fuck!” His next breath was labored. “You… you punctured…” His voice broke.
He was losing his strength and eased off Anita. She freed herself from beneath him, while he braced one hand on the ground, trying to keep his torso upright. He looked at Anita, and with his last ounce of strength he snatched her wrist.
“Don’t leave…”
“Cooper? Sweetheart?”
The female voice was accompanied by footfalls approaching fast. A moment later, Yvette Montgomery, his mother, came into view. She rushed toward him.
“Oh my God, my baby.” She crouched down and pressed her hands on his wounds. “You were shot?”
He nodded, then managed to turn his head toward Anita. “Don’t let her leave.”
Yvette shot Anita a quick, assessing look, before she turned her attention back to him.
“Blood,” he said.
Yvette’s eyes widened, and with a quick move of her head she made an indication in Anita’s direction.
“She knows.”
Immediately, Yvette pulled a small flat bottle from the inside of her leather jacket and unscrewed the top of it. She set it to his lips, and he drank greedily. It was only a quarter pint, much less than the amount of blood in one of Scanguards standard bottles, but it would be enough for right now so he could at least be moved to another location.
Yvette stroked her hand over his head. “I’ll take care of you now, sweetheart. I’ll take you home. And then we can get the bullets out. Can you stand?”
He nodded, his hand still around Anita’s wrist. He noticed that Anita had gone quiet and watched him and Yvette carefully. Was she planning to escape?
“And you’re coming with us,” he said with a look at Anita, taking a few steadying breaths. “You owe me that for having shot me. Twice.”
Yvette’s head whirled in Anita’s direction. Simultaneously, her fangs extended, and she growled at Anita. “You shot my son? I’m going to—”
“Mom, don’t hurt her. I love her.”
24
Anita’s heart thundered out of control. What had she gotten herself into? When she’d seen Cooper transforming into a vampire before her eyes, she’d reacted out of instinct, protecting herself in a way her mother hadn’t been able to so many years ago. Helen Diaz had fallen prey to a vampire, but Anita was determined not to follow in her mother’s footsteps. She’d seen only one way to stop Cooper from attacking her: to shoot him. When he hadn’t gone down after the first shot, she’d shot him a second time, but then he’d managed to wrestle the gun from her and overpowered her.
And just as she’d freed herself from him when he seemed to weaken due to his gunshot wounds, a beautiful woman in tight pants and a leather jacket had appeared. When she’d called him sweetheart and baby, Anita had assumed that she was Cooper’s girlfriend—which would have added another lie to the mountain of lies he’d already dished up. But it was even worse: the woman was his mother, though she looked barely a couple of years older than Cooper. And as if that wasn’t enough, she was a vampire too, and clearly a tigress bent on protecting her cub. Anita had never been as afraid as when the woman had glared at her, bloody murder in her eyes, her fangs extended as if she was ready to rip her throat out.
Yet Cooper had stopped her from inflicting bodily harm by announcing to his mother that he loved her. How could he love her? She’d just shot him twice. Besides, how could a creature who drank human blood love anybody? And she’d seen him drink blood. He’d asked his mother for it, and she’d given him a bottle. Was that what they did? Drain humans and fill their blood in bottles for them to consume whenever they needed it? It would certainly explain Janet’s exsanguinated body, and also those of the other women who’d been killed in the same way.
“Fine. We’ll talk about that later,” Cooper’s mother said with an annoyed look at her. “We’ve gotta go, before we draw attention to ourselves.”
She helped Cooper up, and Anita rose with him, his hand still wrapped around her wrist.
“You can let go of her arm,” Cooper’s mother said to Cooper. Then she lashed a glare at Anita. “You won’t run away, will you?”
The threat was clear. One move in the wrong direction, and the woman would take her down like a pack of coyotes took down a doe.
“No, I won’t run,” Anita assured her, and Cooper finally let go of her wrist.
Cooper motioned to the SUV, and moments later they were inside it, Cooper on the passenger seat, his mother driving. Anita was sitting in the back. She didn’t even try to escape, too intimidated by the black-haired beauty. It was clear from whom Cooper got his looks.
Nobody spoke during the car ride, but she could hear Cooper’s pained breathing, evidence that she’d punctured his lung with one of her bullets. How would they explain this to the hospital staff? In cases with gunshot wounds, they were obligated to call the police. And then the shit would hit the fan. Nobody would believe her that she’d acted in self-defense, because now that they were in the car, neither Cooper nor his mother showed any sign that they were vampires. They looked one hundred percent human.
When the car turned into a short driveway in front of a cottage near Coit Tower—which she could see on top of the hill—she was stunned, and for some reason, she had to make her concern known.
“He needs to go to a hospital.” Anita leaned forward in the gap between the two front seats. “They have to take out the bullets, or he’s gonna die.” Why did she even care? Cooper was a vampire, or vampire hybrid, like he’d claimed. She shouldn’t care what happened to him, but for some reason she did. How was that for hypocrisy?
Cooper turned his head to look at his mother. “See? She does care about me.” His voice was weak, but he smiled.
“Could’ve fooled me.” His mother’s dry remark fit her skeptical facial expression.
“Mom, you fell in love with a vampire hunter,” Cooper said. “And it all turned out okay in the end.”
“Hmm.”
It appeared that Cooper knew how to handle his mother. However, that didn’t diminish the fear Anita felt every time Cooper’s mother looked at her. Reluctantly, she got out of the car and followed the two to the pretty cottage that reminded her of a fairy tale. But she wasn’t living in a fairy tale. By all accounts, she was entering the lion’s den or, more aptly, the vampire’s lair. She braced herself, expecting the interior to be furnished like a gothic crypt. But the interior was more Town & Country and less Nosferatu.
Inside the house, a dog barked excitedly, and a moment later, an excited golden retriever jumped up at Cooper.
“Lestat!” Cooper’s mother admonished. “Down!”
Had she really called him Lestat like the vampire from Anne Rice’s books?
“Into the kitchen. Sit down there, sweetheart.”
With his mother’s help, Cooper sat down on a kitchen chair.
“Make yourself useful and help him take his jacket off. What’s your name?”
“A-Anita,” she stuttered.
“I’m Yvette,” she introduced herself as she turned to the kitchen counter and opened a drawer.
Meanwhile, Anita approached Cooper, hesitating when she saw that his face was distorted by pain. She’d done this to him. Hesitantly, she put her shaking hands on his windbreaker, when he turned his face fully to her and looked into her eyes.
“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna bite,” he said, his voice still breathy.
As gently as she could, Anita freed him of his jacket, then went for the buttons of his shirt, when Yvette stepped next to her.
“It’s ruined anyway,” Yvette said and ripped the shirt into pieces to take it off Cooper without him having to move his shoulder.
Anita gasped. With horror she stared at Yvette’s fingers that were now topped with sharp barbs. She realized that these deadly tools could kill her in an instant, and the thought that Cooper had the same claws if and when he transformed into a vampire made her shudder. She’d been in bed with him the last two nights, and had let him touch her and make love to her with those hands. She’d even allowed him to handcuff her, not knowing that he could have easily killed her with those sharp claws.
“Mom, you’re scaring her,” Cooper said.
“Well, she should be scared! She hurt you!” Yvette gave her a sideways look then motioned to something behind her. “Get me a bottle of blood from the fridge. He needs to heal.”
Anita followed the command instantly and opened the refrigerator. It was stocked with bottles and bottles of blood. They were all labeled with letters like A, AB and so on, and either a plus or a minus sign: blood type.
She looked over her shoulder. “Which blood type?”
“AB positive is his favorite.”
Anita took a bottle with the label AB+ bottled by Scanguards from the shelf. AB positive was also her blood type. Was that why Cooper had slept with her? Because he was drawn to her blood?
When she turned on her heel, she saw that Yvette was using a sharp knife to cut open Cooper’s chest wound, the one that had most likely pierced his lung. Cooper’s face was a mask of pain.
“Without anesthesia?” Anita rushed to him.
“Doesn’t work on vampires. Give him the blood,” Yvette ordered.
Anita twisted off the cap and handed Cooper the bottle, but noticed that his hand was shaking from the pain, so she held the bottle to his mouth and helped him drink it. As he drank, she saw his fangs elongate and peek past his lips. Fascinated, she watched him swallow, saw how the pain seemed to seep from his features, and how his breathing normalized.
When she swept her gaze up from his lips to his eyes, she realized that Cooper was looking at her. His brown eyes shimmered golden, and she couldn’t tear herself away from the sight. Whoever had coined the phrase that the eyes were the windows to the soul wasn’t wrong, because what she saw in Cooper’s eyes now was more than just his desire for her. She saw a part of Cooper now that he’d hidden from her.
When the bottle was empty, Anita set it down on the kitchen table. Then she suddenly felt Cooper take her hand and lead it to his lips. She held her breath. Would he bite her now that he’d regained his strength?
“This is gonna hurt.” The words came from Yvette and were directed at Cooper.
Anita shot her gaze to Yvette, who had widened the entry point of the gunshot wound and was now pushing pliers into the opening.
“Fuck!” Cooper hissed and dropped her hand.
“Hold still!” Yvette applied more force to the crude make-shift medical tool. “Anita, either hold him down, or distract him.”
It was easier said than done. She wasn’t strong enough to hold down a vampire. Had Cooper been human then she could have managed, but even in his weakened state Cooper was still stronger than a human male. It left her only one other choice: to distract him.
Against her better judgement, she cupped his face with both hands and sank her lips onto his. Cooper gasped and jolted for a brief second, before he swept his tongue into her mouth and kissed her. She felt an instant surge of pleasure charge through her body, heating her as if he was infusing her with hot lava. Her head was spinning again. She was clearly going crazy. Less than a half hour ago, she’d shot Cooper, and now she was making out with him as if they were two teenagers on the backseat of his parents’ car.
“I came as quickly as I could.”
The male voice made her sever the kiss. The man who’d entered looked like a more rugged version of Cooper and couldn’t be more than five or six years older than him.
“Haven, thank God!” Yvette said. “Help me with getting this bullet out.”
“Hey, Son, you okay?”
Cooper nodded.
Haven turned his gaze to her. “So first you shoot him, then you kiss him? Looks like you two have issues.”
Anita didn’t know how to reply. She looked at Cooper for help, but Cooper simply smirked. No help there. When Haven assisted Yvette in digging the bullet out of Cooper’s chest, Anita perused him more thoroughly. So this was Cooper’s father. She would have never believed it before tonight. No wonder his uncle and aunt and their spouses had all looked so young. That was the secret he and Wesley had whispered about: the secret that they were all vampires. But how did Haven already know that she’d been the one to shoot Cooper? Neither Cooper nor Yvette had made any phone calls on the way to the house.
Cooper suddenly let out a loud grunt.
“First one’s out,” Yvette reported and let out a long breath.
“Let me handle the second one, Baby,” Haven offered. Then he looked at his son. “Have you had enough blood?”
“Yes, I’m good, Dad. I can already feel my lung healing. It’s easier to breathe again.”
Anita had to agree with Cooper’s assertion. His voice was stronger again, and he breathed evenly. Was that how quickly vampires healed?
This time, Yvette held Cooper down, while Haven cut into the gunshot wound below his clavicle and proceeded to dig the bullet out. Anita had to look away, feeling queasy, though blood had never before bothered her. But seeing somebody she cared about being operated on without anesthesia was a little too much even for her strong stomach.
She didn’t understand why she wasn’t more disgusted by the fact that Cooper was a vampire. She still had feelings for him, and it was hard to admit that to herself. But right now, when she looked at how vulnerable he was, she regretted that she’d shot him.
“Bullet’s out, Coop,” Haven said.
“Thank God.” Yvette sighed and proceeded to wipe the blood off his chest with a wet towel. “You should rest until you’re fully healed. Sleep for a couple of hours.”
“Mom, I’m fine,” Cooper protested.
Anita caught his gaze on her, before he looked back at his parents. “I think I owe Anita an explanation.”
Anita swallowed hard, anxious about the things she would learn about him now. What if she didn’t like the truth? What if the truth was too difficult to swallow?
25
Cooper caught Anita’s apprehensive facial expression. She’d surprised him tonight. And not just because she’d shot him. She’d also surprised him when she’d expressed her concern about his health, wanting him to be brought to a hospital. And she hadn’t tried to flee. Yvette was undoubtedly the reason for that. She’d probably scared Anita sufficiently so she didn’t even try to run. But the biggest surprise had been when she’d kissed him while his mother had dug out the bullet from his chest. At that moment, he’d assumed he’d passed out and was merely imagining Anita’s lips on his.
After drinking the bottle of blood, he felt better, and he could feel his body starting to heal with the help of the bottled human blood. While he wasn’t ready to physically exert himself, he had enough energy to talk. It was time to tell Anita everything she needed to know so she could—hopefully—accept him for what he was. But he also wanted some privacy.
“Mom, Dad, why don’t you give us a little time alone, so I can talk to Anita?”
Yvette shook her head. “Not gonna happen! She shot you. Twice! What if she hurts you again?”
Haven put his arm around her. “Baby, she doesn’t look like she’s gonna hurt him again. Didn’t you see them kiss?”
“Hmm! She wouldn’t be the first woman to kiss a man, while stabbing him in the back.”
Haven shrugged and grimaced apologetically. “Sorry, Son, I tried. But you know your mother. She’s not gonna leave your side until she knows you’re safe.”
“I guess I already knew that.” Cooper motioned to the door. “Can we at least go to the living room, so I can sit on something a little more comfortable while I recover?”
Hearing no objections, Cooper got up. He nodded to Anita. “Come, let’s talk.” Looking over his shoulder at his parents, he added, “With two chaperones.”
In the comfortably appointed living room, Cooper sat down on the sofa. Lestat, the golden retriever his parents had gotten after their second dog had died, jumped onto the couch and put his head in his lap.
Automatically, Cooper petted him. “Hey, Lestat, miss me?”
The dog looked at him with adoring eyes. Cooper watched as Anita sat down in one of the armchairs, and his parents took their seats. For a moment, there was silence.
“Anita,” he started, “this wasn’t exactly how I wanted you to find out that I’m not human.”
Anita swallowed visibly. “That makes two of us.”
“Well, let me start with the most important thing: you’re safe with me and my family. We don’t hurt people.”
She glanced at Yvette and Haven. “What about the blood? Is that what you all do? Drain humans and then fill up bottles with their blood? I mean I saw the puncture wounds on Janet’s body. They fit your fangs—”
“Not mine per se,” Cooper interrupted quickly so the conversation didn’t go down the wrong path. “But it was a vampire who killed Janet. As for my parents and myself, and our friends at Scanguards, we don’t drain humans. And we certainly don’t kill them.”
“Then how do you explain all those bottles of blood in the fridge?” She pointed in the direction of the kitchen. “That’s several gallons.”
“It comes from a blood bank.” He looked at his parents. “Dad? Wanna jump in here?”
Haven nodded. “How much do you want her to know?”
“Everything.”
“All right. Anita, it’s true. The blood is procured through a medical shell company owned by Scanguards, the company we all work for. It’s distributed to us free of charge to discourage us from feeding directly from humans and risk exposure.”
Cooper noticed the perplexed look on Anita’s face. “Are you saying that everybody at Scanguards is a vampire?”
“Many of them are,” Cooper replied, making her look back at him. “You’ve met two: Benjamin and Vanessa are both vampire hybrids.”
