“Look at you, Stefan. She’s making you weak.” Her heavily accented voice was filled with disdain. She stepped closer and ran her fingers across my shoulders.
Gripping her hand, I rose to my feet and twisted her arm behind her back and pulled her against my chest. My fangs dropped as I angrily yanked her arm, threatening to dislocate her shoulder. She struggled weakly against me as she tried to free herself from my grasp. Leaning to whisper in her ear, my voice came out like a snarl. “You do not get to touch me anymore. I would rather be seen as weak than to ever fuck you again, Sofia.”
I pushed her away and watched her stumble to her knees. She turned to face me, her fangs bared as she looked up at me.
“I’ll tell your precious Josie that we fucked. How do you think she’ll react to that, Stefan?”
Blurring to her side, I had her by her throat before she could react. She clawed against me as I raised her off the ground with one arm, my hand tightening around her neck. “You will do no such thing, Sofia. One more word from you and I will end you. Are we clear?”
She managed a weak nod. I continued to increase my grip, enjoying her escalating fear. It would only take one more squeeze to snap her neck. My hand constricted and I felt the tendons in her neck strain under the increasing pressure.
“Stefan!”
Josephine’s whimper made me forget my anger and desire to punish Sofia. Dropping her, my focus was on Josephine. The rest of the world could wait.
She needed me.
Chapter 1 – Say Hello to Daddy
Blackness. It kept me unaware of my surroundings, a buffer from the real world.
Awareness came back to me gradually, like slowly pulling a curtain away from the haze that had draped over my mind. Flashes of memories and impressions flashed like a slide show: startling red hair and green eyes like my own, laughter, blond hair and overwhelming anxiety.
The last thing I could recall seeing was his desperate blue eyes boring into my own. Now they taunt me as I remain locked in the darkness that holds me as its unwilling prisoner.
I could sense his presence in the back of my psyche, a constant hum that reassured me that all wasn’t lost. My desire to know he was real and not a figment of my imagination forced me to fight to follow him out of the safety of my mind, back into the reality of the unknown. His lilting voice and cool touch the only thing that seemed tangible. He’d been an illusion in my dreams before, but he was real.
He had to be real. Everything hadn’t been a dream. I had to find him to reassure myself that he did exist.
Breaking free from the shadows, I rubbed my hand across my eyes. Staring at the ceiling, I took a few deep breaths and reality fell over me like a bucket of ice water, making everything fall into place. It was all real. The fear, the confusion, my vampire father and Stefan.
Stefan!
Managing to pull myself up into a sitting position, my eyes darted around the room in search of him. I choked back a startled breath when I saw him. He had his long arm extended, holding Sofia by the throat, his normally handsome face twisted in rage as his large hand tightened around the female vampire's neck. Her feet dangled off the floor helplessly and her long fingernails scratched feebly at his hand as she struggled against him.
"You will do no such thing, Sofia. One more word from you and I will end you. Are we clear?" Stefan hissed, his voice filled with venom.
Sofia managed to nod as fear flickered across her beautiful features.
What had I missed after I blacked out?
"Stefan," I whimpered, my voice sounding hoarse and weak as I called out for him. I watched as Stefan's head turned slightly to focus on me, relief relaxing the harsh expression on his face. He immediately released his hold on Sofia's neck, causing her to fall in a heap on the wood floor.
He blurred to my side, crushing me to his chest in a tight embrace. I managed to wrap my arms around his neck, burying my nose against his chest. I inhaled the familiar smell of him: sandalwood and home. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I was with him. Home. Safe. Real.
"Josephine," he murmured, his breath cool against my hair. He pulled away slightly and his blue eyes swept over my face. The hands that had gripped Sofia's throat in anger moments ago were gentle as they traveled down the side of my face. He lowered his lips to press them tenderly against mine in a soft kiss. The familiar need for him ignited like a flame inside of me, my body recognizing the feel of his muscular, hard body against my own and wanting to reclaim it as mine.
"How long was I out? And why were you choking Sofia? Did I miss some kind of vampire throw down?"
I felt his mouth curl into a smile against my lips, and he leaned back to brush my hair away from my face. His mental voice was sharp as it entered my thoughts. "It is vampire bullshit. Sofia overstepped her boundaries. It is nothing you need to worry about."