Vamps in the City Read Online Free PDF Page A

her quietly.
    “Stop touching me,” Paige tried to order him but it came out as a whine.
    “I can’t. Not with you in pain.”
    She didn’t try to move away but she knew she had to voice some kind of protest. None would come.
    “You shouldn’t be sick,” he murmured to her. “I want to make you feel better.”
    Just being with him was already helping. Not that she would tell him that.
     
    Grant placed his hand over Paige’s forehead, shocked to feel she was burning up. Vampires couldn’t get sick.
    He pulled her into his lap before yanking his cell phone out of his back pocket and dialling. Paige shivered his in arms.
    “Answer, damn it!” he yelled into the phone.
    “’Lo.”
    “Sam, I need you to grab Marissa and come to Paige’s room. Something is wrong,” Grant told his friend, close to hysterical.
    He was relieved when Sam quickly agreed. “On our way.”
    Grant closed the phone and ran his lips over Paige’s check. “It’ll be all right baby. Stay with me,” he murmured to her.
    She didn’t respond and that scared him to death.
    The door opened and Marissa rushed in with Sam right behind her.
    “What happened?” Marissa asked as she knelt next to the bed.
    “I don’t know. After I came back from my rounds I found her like this,” Grant confessed. “She’s burning up and won’t stop shaking.”
    “Let me see,” Marissa ordered gently and lifted Paige’s head.
    “Open your eyes, baby,” Grant whispered to Paige. “Please, open your eyes.”
    Paige’s eyes fluttered open for a few seconds before they closed again.
    “Okay,” Marissa sighed and placed Paige’s head gently back down.
    “What’s wrong?” he asked.
    Marissa stood but kept her gaze on Paige. When she finally looked at him her eyes were full of emotion.
    “You bonded with her,” she said simply.
    “I, what? How?”
    He got a look, somewhat like a mother gives a child when they are being naïve, and Grant frowned back.
    “I know how to bond, but I didn’t,” he said. It was not like you can bond by accident. Ancient words are spoken, the exchange of blood, and only the deepest connection would even be granted a bond. Usually it was only between a newly turned vampire and their Master.
    “Well, obviously you did. Sometimes when it’s meant to be, it just happens,” Marissa informed him with a shrug.
    “That…that is your answer?” he practically yelled at her.
    She lifted and eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest.
    Grant dropped his head. “Sorry,” he told her. It wasn’t Marissa’s fault and she was just telling him what she knew.
    “Is it really so bad?” Sam asked from his spot against the wall.
    Grant didn’t even lift his head. Of course it wasn’t bad but it did come as a shock. “No,” he admitted.
    Paige shifted in his arms and he no longer felt her body’s heat like he had.
    “She needs your blood. The more she drinks, the faster the bonding effect will wear off,” Marissa told him.
    Grant nodded. It was no hardship for him to let Paige drink from him. Still, he needed answers because he had no doubt when Paige was feeling better she would have tons of questions. “Why wasn’t I affected?”
    “You are much stronger than her. Remember that while you were made at once, the girls were slowly turned so they would be weaker.”
    Grant felt even guiltier. He’d never wanted to hurt Paige.
    “The first twenty-four hours are the hardest. You shouldn’t be away from each other once you bond.”
    Grant didn’t ever want to be away from her again.
    “With no Master, she will feel the connection to you, and you alone.”
    Grant couldn’t help the small part of him that was relieved by that.
     
    * * * *
     
    Paige woke up every couple of hours and each time she did, Grant was holding her. Each time she told him not to, but she wasn’t sure if she ever actually said it out loud.
    This time when Paige awoke, she was alone in the bed. Slowly opening her eyes, she blinked several