Born in Twilight: Twilight Vows by MAGGIE SHAYNE Read Free Book Online Page A

“What’s going on?” he said slowly, eyeing each of them, one by one.
    Rhiannon sat in a chair on his left. She closed her elegant hand around one of his much larger ones. “Some renegade bastard drained you to the point of death, Jameson. We had no choice.”
    He shook his head, but even as he did, the truth was making itself a home in his mind. He couldn’t deny it. Even without their worried, slightly guilty expressions he’d have known. He was feeling things. Every wrinkle in the sheet. His skin was alive, tingling, and he could hear the way the breeze outside fluttered over the single dead leaf that still clung to that flowering maple. How many stories below was that skinny tree, planted in a perfect circular opening in the concrete? Twenty-four?
    Again, he looked at the bandages. “I don’t understand,” he said.
    â€œYou were unconscious,” Tamara whispered. “Too weak to drink.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œYou were dying, Jamey—Jameson,” she went on. “I thought…”
    Eric turned toward the windows, gazing out at the night, not looking Jameson in the eye. “I had to rig up some tubing,” he said. “For the transfusions.”
    â€œTrans…fusions?” He looked at Eric’s back, staring until the man turned. “Eric?” Then he swung his gaze to Roland, who stood silently in a corner of the room, saying nothing, just watching, listening. “Roland? Jesus, are you saying that I’m…”
    Roland nodded, just once. “Yes. Your mortal life ended last night, Jameson. There was nothing we could do to save it. The one thing—the only thing we could do for you, was give you another life to replace the one that bastard stole from you. A life of…unending night.”
    Jameson closed his eyes and swore. He heard Tamara’s soft crying, felt Rhiannon’s hand tighten on his.
    â€œI can’t believe it,” he muttered. “God, I can’t believe it.” Then he searched their faces. “Which of you did this? Whose blood is running in my veins now? Yours, Roland?”
    Tamara sniffed. “All of us,” she told him, drawing his gaze to her tearstained face. “We all gave to you, Jameson.”
    He closed his eyes, shook his head, expelled his breath in a rush. “Dammit,” he said. “I didn’t want this. Not yet. Maybe not ever. Dammit—”
    â€œEnough!”
    His mouth snapped closed at Rhiannon’s harsh command. She rose from her chair, leaning over him, eyes narrowed to slits, reminding him sharply of the way Pandora looked just before she pounced on an unsuspecting rabbit.
    â€œWe gave you life, Jameson. The alternative was death. You should be thanking us.” She bent even closer, so her long, glistening black hair trailed over his face. “Unless, of course, you’d have preferred the second option. And if that’s the case, it’s not too late.”
    â€œRhiannon!” Tamara shouted, jumping to her feet. “How dare you—”
    Rhiannon straightened, tossing her hair behind her shoulders. “I dare, Tamara darling. I dare anything. You know that. And frankly, I’m a bit weary of this one’s constant lack of gratitude.” As she said it, she nodded toward Jameson.
    He couldn’t believe Rhiannon was this angry with him, but she was. Her eyes blazed with it, and when Roland came forward to slide his hands over her shoulders, she shrugged him off and walked away. She paced back and forth at the foot of his bed. “We took care of you when you were a child, Jameson,” she said, her voice deep and smooth as black satin. “Saved your life for you on more than one occasion, risked our necks for you more often than not. Found your father for you. And yet all you’ve done is complain. We treat you like a child! We call you by the wrong name! You don’t have enough space! ”
    Jameson