Diamond (Rare Gems #2)(16)
“She’s your mate. And weres bond for life. But if you don’t take her, then did…did they tell you what would happen now that she’s taken a part of you in her? I’m assuming that’s what happened. Diamond somehow has taken your blood?”
“I was hurt in that car accident and she healed me.” Thad stood up to pace as he tried to think. “She licked it and I healed. Blair said she took my blood and we have a bond.”
“She’s hurt. Badly, I would say, by the way you fell over.” He stopped packing to wait for her to explain. “You have a connection, and I’m not one hundred percent sure why you felt her pain without mating, but you did. She’s hurt.”
“And what happens if I don’t take her as my mate? You started to tell me, what is it?” Her phone started to ring, but neither of them moved to answer it. He waited, knowing that whatever it was, it was going to be bad.
“She’ll turn rogue and will need to be put down if it gets bad enough. All of us have the potential to turn at some point in our lives. Boredom mostly. But only because we have no one to share our lives with, to help us, and be there for us or, sadly, the loss of our mates. If we can’t find a way to overcome it, we…we start to turn bad, kill for fun and pleasure. Most vampires meet the sun when their mates die, others like me try to cope.”
“You lost your mate?” Jane nodded again. “Was he human? Did you have a human as your mate?”
“Yes, and she was the light of my life, and all I wanted to live for. But before she died, she told me that I was to live on for her, do things that she was no longer able to do.” Jane shrugged. “So I have to the best of my ability. For the past four hundred years I’ve been alone, and every day I wake to wonder if it wouldn’t be easier to just simply let myself go. But as a half-vamp, I don’t have a lot of options to end my life without trusting someone to do it for me, and quickly.”
He sat on the conference table because it was the closest thing to him without falling to the floor. Jane stood there and watched him for several seconds before she turned and left his office, closing the door softly behind her. Thad was still sitting there when she returned a few minutes later.
“Diamond has been shot. And worse yet, with a silver bullet. Someone named Ruby removed it, but she won’t shift.” He waited for her to continue. “If she doesn’t shift to remove the poison from her system, she’ll die. Not quickly, either, with the silver removed. I’m surprised her alpha hasn’t pulled her wolf.”
“Blair. He told me he was alpha and that he ruled…how would he pull her wolf?” She handed him a thick book, and he looked at the cover. It was old and leather bound. It had a circle of wolves chasing one another, and in the center of the circle was a single word. Lupine.
“That was given to me by someone a very long time ago. When I first smelled the wolves after you came back, I had thought that you’d found a woman and had no idea what you’d…never mind. I brought it to work in the event you had known what you smelled like. Then I met the Hensons and knew. Again, I thought you’d ask for more information on them, but you didn’t.” She took the book back and searched through the pages until she found what she was looking for. Thad took it back from her and read the title. “Human and Wolf Mating Rituals”
“I would read that first since you’re well beyond anything previous in the book.” She handed him his coat as she continued. “Your car is downstairs, and the plane is ready to go. If you have any questions, just call me. I don’t sleep.”
Thad was in the limo when he realized that he had nothing to wear once he got there, and started to ask the driver when his phone signaled he had a message. Opening the file, he laughed at the message from Jane.
“Clothes are easy to buy, so get something less stiff and something more befitting a man, not a billionaire. I have made arrangements with Blair’s office to set up an appointment, but since he is working from home for now, you’ll have to see him there. Don’t f*ck this up. If you do, I’ll drain you. Have a good day.”
“Christ,” he thought out loud. He was headed to Ohio to see to a woman who may or may not eat him for dinner, to talk to a man who would most assuredly kill him if he didn’t have answers, and literally into a den of wolves who had been hurt by him. Yeah, this was going to go well.
Chapter 6
Blair was sitting at his desk when the door opened. He’d been trying to concentrate on business, but his heart just wasn’t in it. He looked up at Annabelle when she came fully into the room.
“You have a visitor. Thad Galloway is here. I put him in the living room.” Blair started to tell her to get him the hell out, but she raised her hand up to continue. “He looks like you do.”
“And what is that?” Blair knew what he looked like. Sapphire had told him this morning that she was glad he wasn’t at his office. He would scare most of his staff and probably have them all quit if he barked at them like he was her.
“Like you’ve lost something very dear to you.” She stood up and moved to the door but turned to speak again. “He asked me about Diamond. I told him that she was…coping. I wanted to tell him that she’s dying, but I can’t say that to anyone.”
Blair had never hated anyone as much as he did Thad. The man had sent a f*cking gun there to keep him in line, and now he was sitting in the house as if nothing had happened. Blair didn’t want to see him, not now, not ever, but he knew that if he threw him out of the house he’d just find Diamond other ways. Blair looked up at the ceiling, thinking of the woman who was up there and how much he loved her.