Danger Calls. Caridad Pineiro
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the shock of it, she realized every Danvers before her had answered the call. Honor demanded she do no less. Since Ryder had always been there for her, for her family, she had felt compelled to repay him for being her champion.
In the time since then, she’d slowly learned just what her duty to Ryder entailed and how difficult it was. Handling things that couldn’t wait until the sun was weak enough for Ryder to emerge. Obtaining the blood necessary for his feedings. Giving him medical assistance when the sun, garlic or a lack of blood taxed his system.
In the last few months, it had been an even more exacting burden. After his injuries, he’d been too sick to tolerate even the weakest of sunlight, which had made him a virtual prisoner in their apartment. He’d required extra blood and medicine in an effort to help his recovery. His lover, Diana Reyes, had assisted Melissa on many an occasion, but she lacked the medical skills to deal with Ryder’s more complex needs. That was solely up to Melissa and it kept her almost constantly on edge. Both mental and physical exhaustion had become part of her daily routine.
For a brief moment, the burdens of her life had been eased by a chance encounter with Diana’s younger brother Sebastian. In just one night, he’d provided her a glimpse into the kind of life she had come to think wasn’t possible—one where she wasn’t alone. But one night was all it had been. With daylight, Melissa had been troubled by the idea of sharing the secret of Ryder’s existence and the commitment to keep him safe. And by the idea of sharing herself.
Ryder, she thought and looked at him again. He had closed his eyes and seemed to be resting. Although he was normally pale by human standards, his skin seemed almost bloodless today. She worried again that he had pushed himself too hard. As if sensing her prolonged perusal, Ryder opened his eyes and met her gaze.
“I’m okay,” he said, and Melissa wondered if mind reading was one of his vampiric abilities. Or did he just know her that well?
“You don’t look okay.”
“I’m doing fine—”
She cut him off with an angry slash of her hand. “You’re not fine. It’s been over two months, and you’re still weak. I’m worried.”
“You shouldn’t be. I’m healing slowly, but I am getting better,” Ryder insisted.
Melissa couldn’t argue that he appeared stronger and was doing more every day. But he still wasn’t healthy enough for her taste. “Your strength and energy levels—”
“I’ve never been hurt this badly before, except for…” His voice trailed off, broadcasting his reservations.
With a wave of her hand, she urged Ryder to clarify.
He dragged his fingers through his dark hair, his frustration obvious. “Except for when I was first turned. Your great-great-grandfather, William, tended to me until I seemed to get better.”
“Seemed to? It’s like being pregnant, Ryder. Either you are or—”
“I got toothy,” he said harshly and locked his gaze with hers. “I got hungry and I got wild and the fangs emerged. You don’t want to know what I was like then.”
His hands were clenched tightly by his side. Melissa reached out and grasped one fist. “I know what you were like then, from reading the first journals. But now…” She hesitated, unsure of how to continue without treading on very treacherous ground.
The journals her ancestors had kept could be an amazing source of information regarding Ryder’s vampirism. She’d managed to go through about a dozen before one of them had been stolen from her office.
“One of the journals is missing and you’re uncomfortable that I’ve asked you to approach Sebastian for help?” Ryder questioned.
“Am I that easy to read?” she wondered aloud.
Ryder chuckled and said, “A big hint, Danvers. Poker is not your game.”
Melissa shook her head in amusement, then brought up the argument they’d had often since someone had broken into her office a few days ago and stolen one of the Danvers’s memoirs. “We can keep the journals safe by ourselves. We don’t need to ask anyone else for help.”
Ryder shook his head. “No, we can’t. At a minimum, we should ask Diana for her advice. As for Sebastian, his skills would be invaluable.”
Though she was uneasy about bringing Sebastian back into her life, she knew Ryder was right. Those journals were too important to risk. They needed copies—encrypted, impossible-to-steal copies. Because Melissa was convinced there was information in her ancestor’s notes that could help her heal Ryder faster.
Her father had concocted a mix to counteract the effects of too much sun and other poisons on Ryder’s system. What was left of the mixture had saved Ryder’s life two months ago. And with today’s medical advances, she hoped she could make a difference. Perhaps even find a cure.
Then Ryder might not need her as his constant companion. She could have a life with…Sebastian again came to mind, as he did too often lately.
“I stopped hoping for a cure a long time ago,” Ryder said quietly, again reading her thoughts. “I don’t want you to have your hopes dashed, as well.”
But they’ve already been destroyed. She suddenly wanted to lash out at him. Ever since she’d discovered her duty, as next in the Danvers line, her hopes and dreams had virtually disappeared. Somehow she’d persevered, creating the illusion of normalcy in much the same way Ryder adopted the semblance of humanity. The sham had worked for a little while. But now there were recent happenings in both their lives that suddenly made her wonder What if?
For starters, Ryder was in love with a human and, from what she could see, the feeling was very mutual. Of course his relationship with Diana hadn’t progressed to the living-together stage. The marriage thing seemed out of the question. But what if Diana was here to stay? Would that free Melissa of her duty?
And if it didn’t, and Melissa somehow suspected that it didn’t, what about her life? What about the possibility of love?
Only, she reminded herself, no one had mentioned love that night, only sex. Which, with Sebastian, had been…She wouldn’t call it a mistake, but it had certainly been unplanned. Spontaneous. Well, at least the first time. The second and third…Being a modern, mature, Sex and the City kind of girl, she knew that one night with a man did not a romance make. But in the very few and very infrequent free moments since then, she’d wondered whether a second or third or fourth date with Sebastian might change things.
After the craziness of such thoughts, logic would return and she would acknowledge that what had happened that night had been simple transference. Or at least that’s what one of her psychiatrist friends would call it. She’d taken the caring shown by Sebastian toward his sister and toward Ryder and transferred it to herself. With her parents’ recent deaths and Ryder seriously injured, she’d been vulnerable, starved for affection. It had resulted in a very pleasant interlude.
But that was all it had been or ever could be. In addition to the constraints of being both a doctor and Ryder’s companion, she wasn’t ready to trust her heart to anyone. She might not ever be ready.
It’s not as if she’d learned how to trust—how to love—from her parents. They had been emotionally distant, at best. Her mother had been a physically frail creature, needing most of her husband’s attention and having little patience for the inquisitive and energetic child Melissa had been. Her father’s time had been taken up by his medical practice. And, of course, as she had learned at his death, by Ryder and his demands.
Later, medical school and her residency had curbed what was left of her personal life. Her few encounters during that time had intentionally lacked emotional investment. Since becoming Ryder’s companion, her social life had become nonexistent.
Except, of course, for Sebastian.
But if she was ever to have any life at all, Melissa had to take control