Toma (The Dark Shadows Book 2) (2 page)

T
hey were not lying
when they said that bruised ribs hurt like the dickens
, Anika thought as she gently turned over in her hospital bed. Tears pooled in her eyes as the memory of last night surfaced. She held in a broken sob because her throat hurt too much to even try to cry.

There was a knock at the door. She sat up a little just in time to see Nadira peek her head into the room. One look at Nadira and the floodgate of tears erupted. Nadira dashed into the room grabbing her in a fierce hug.

“Anika, I’m so sorry,” Nadira murmured, rubbing Anika’s hair as her sobs began to quiet down. “This is all my fault.”

A noise at the door drew Anika’s attention. Even with tears clouding her sight, she knew who it was.

Toma
.

Nadira’s older brother leaned against the doorway with his ever-present scowl in place. She would recognize his tall, perfectly sculpted frame anywhere. One look at the vampire and one word came to Anika’s mind.

Dangerous
.

Ok, maybe a few words came to mind. Sexy, dominant and one hell of a piece of male specimen, all came to her mind as her gaze locked on him. One intense glare from him and she was almost certain her panties would disintegrate into ash.

If she were wearing any right now, that is.

She silently laughed to herself, not understanding why hospitals left a person completely naked beneath the open back gowns they throw their patients in.

In all of the years that Anika and Nadira have been friends, Toma had made it very clear that he didn’t care to be around Anika. She knew that she would never be his type. An average height, curvy girl like herself would never gain his attention. She sighed, knowing that he would only continue to be the star of her dirty little fantasies.

“How are you feeling?” Nadira asked, pulling back, her blue eyes lined with worry.

“I’m a little sore,” she responded with her new raspy voice, her hand automatically coming up to touch her neck.

The doctors said that her throat would be raw for a few days due to the attacker choking her. She glanced back at Toma, as a cloud of fury rolled across his face as he stared at her neck. He quickly looked away, his hands balled into tight fists.

“My place is trashed, Snowball is dead and I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she whispered, her throat too raw to speak.

“You can come stay with us,” Nadira volunteered. Anika quickly shook her head. “I don’t want to hear it. You’re my best friend and it will be no problem. Plus, you’ll be in the most secured place in the city.”

“Have the police been by?” Toma’s deep voice caused her heart to flutter. She nodded her head, yes. “Do they have any clue as to who did this?”

“No,” she answered glancing in his direction. His ice blue eyes, identical to his sisters seemed to see straight through her. “It was a tall man, who was strong enough to pick
me
up with one hand. He wore a hood and that’s all I could see.” She held onto her throat as she tried to talk. “Everything happened so fast,” she said, her voice ended on a squeak.

“Here, don’t speak,” Nadira cut in realizing the struggle Anika was experiencing trying to speak. “Do you know when the physicians plan to release you?”

Anika shook her head no. According to the physicians, her injuries were not life threatening. Once they had finished with their poking and prodding, they concluded that she had a slight concussion from her head hitting the wall, sprained esophagus and voice box, bruised ribs and a few minor scrapes and bruising.

She was lucky that those were her only injuries, it could have been much worse.

She could be dead
.

“I’m going to run out to the nurse’s station and see if I can talk to the physicians.” Nadira got up pausing at the door. “Have you spoken to your parents yet?”

“No, they and my sister are out of town,” Anika said, pausing to rest her throat. “It’s hard to get ahold of them. I called my mother and left her a voicemail message. They went on that cruise in the Bahamas and should be back next week.” Nadira nodded before stepping out the room, leaving Anika alone with Toma.

“My sister is right,” he started, walking over to the window. “You’ll be much safer in our home.”

“I don’t want to be a bother,” she said, her voice cracking again. She silently cursed. Here she was, finally alone with Toma and she was in a hospital bed with a hospital gown on, no voice and there’s no telling what her hair looked like now.

“It wouldn’t be a bother, “ he frowned, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his massive chest. “There is plenty of room.”

“But still, I couldn’t,” she said shaking her head, unable to take her eyes off of his exposed biceps. “I can go stay at my parents house until they get home.”

“No, that wouldn’t be secure,” his voice was gruff. “You’ll stay with us where we can keep you safe.”

Her shoulders slumped as the fight left her. She knew if she continued to refuse to come stay with them, Nadira would just hound her until she changed her mind anyway. She might as well get it over with now.

“Fine, I’ll stay with your family.”

He jerked his head in a nod before striding towards the door, pausing with his hand on the knob.

“We’ll find him, Anika,” he said turning to look at her. A shiver slid down her spine as coldness settled in his eyes. “He’s a dead man for putting his hands on you.”

She was rendered speechless as he walked out of the room, quietly shutting the door behind him.

T
oma wanted to kill something
, preferably a versi or better yet, a necromancer. The sight that greeted his eyes when he stepped into Anika’s hospital room was like a kick to the chest. The thought that someone or something had caused her pain, was enough to make him want to leave the hospital and kill every versi he could get his hands on.

Anika appeared so pale and petite. Even with the bruising, she was still the most beautiful woman that Toma had ever seen. The emotions that rose to the surface when he was around her left him utterly confused. He shouldn’t feel this way about his little sister’s best friend or better yet a human. How can a human be his mate?

Nadira was lucky that her human mate, Cooper, was turned into a vampire. Cooper would have died had it not been for Nadira turning him. Toma would never want to complete the bond with Anika and would never want to risk turning her into a vampire. She was too delicate for their world of war and death. She deserved to live free among her family and friends, meet a human male, have plenty of babies and grow old with her human husband.

A growl escaped his throat at the thought of another male putting his hands on
his
mate, startling a nurse walking down the hallway.

Fuck!

He had to stop thinking of her as his mate. He leaned against the wall outside Anika’s hospital room, waiting, as Nadira helped Anika get dressed. He refused to even go there and think of what her soft caramel curvy body looked like naked. He loved a woman with curves. He didn’t know why any male would want a woman that resembled a stick. He was a big vampire and needed a woman curvy enough to handle him. A tightening in his jeans caused him to have to quickly change his line of thinking.

After Nadira assured the physicians that Anika was in good hands, they agreed to discharge her as long as someone would stay with her.

Two older human men eyeballed him as they passed; his cold glare had them scurrying on down the hall.
Humans
! He turned his head as the door opened with Nadira peeking her head out.

“It’s safe to come in now, she’s decent,” she said motioning Toma in the room. He followed her into the room, watching as she helped Anika gather the last of her belongings into a bag. Anika turned her big beautiful brown eyes to him and he swallowed hard.

How the hell was he going to be able to live in the same house as her?

“
A
re
you sure there is nothing else that you remember?” Nadira asked Anika as they sat in the back of the large SUV, while Toma drove them to the Olaru estate.

“Well, there was one thing that I remember that I didn’t want to tell the cops,” Anika said meeting Toma’s gaze in the rearview mirror. His grip tightened on the steering wheel. “Cooper was there with the other police officers, as they questioned me, but I wanted to wait until I could speak to you or Nicu,” Anika said turning back to Nadira.

He had to make a conscious effort to release his grip on the wheel before he tore it off. He knew that he hadn’t been the most pleasant person to be around, but still, she should feel comfortable telling him something of importance.

“What is it?” Nadira asked.

“Right before I passed out, the man asked, "
where is she?"
she said, quoting the air with her fingers.

Curses escaped his lips before he could stop them. The necromancers were looking for Nadira.
Fuck!
He put his foot on the gas, speeding the truck up above the speed limit. Any longer in the vehicle and they were going to need a new steering wheel.

“Oh no! It really is my fault,” Nadira exclaimed hugging Anika. “Don’t worry, you’ll be safe at the mansion. We have plenty of room, our property has been warded with the strongest spells and with my brothers there, no one can get to you.”

“You won’t have to worry Anika, we won’t let anything else happen to you,” Toma growled, his eyes meeting hers in the rearview mirror again. She nodded quickly with a worried expression lingering on her face.

“It’s not me I’m worried about, Nadira, I’m worried about you,” Anika said. “They are looking for you.”

“We’ll take care of it,” Toma assured them both, pulling into the long driveway of the Olaru home. “No one is going to get near either of you.”

This strong desire to protect Anika was going to drive him crazy. This was why he had always avoided her because he just couldn’t think straight around her. He started thinking of things he wanted to have with her that he shouldn’t. He was going to have to stop thinking with his dick and just help protect her like he would anyone else.

But Anika was not just anyone else.

He sighed feeling drained and every one of his four hundred and ten years, as he parked the truck in front of the house in the circular driveway.

Vampires were nothing like how human’s legend and myths portrayed them to be. Vampires in movies were even more far fetched. Who seriously thought of a sparkling vampire? The only legends that held some truth were the vampiric craving of blood myths. Vampires could tolerate liquids but were unable to digest human food. They did not have the correct enzymes to break down food. Blood provided all of the proteins and nourishment that a vampire needed.

The biggest myth that humans had wrong was sunlight and vampires. Vampires were nocturnal by nature, preferring to sleep during the day. But they could tolerate the sun; it just drained their power and energy. Once the sun set and light gave way to darkness, vampires were at their maximum strength.

Toma, in the nighttime was a beast. Anything that went bump in the night knew to avoid him. He was one of the deadliest vamps to hunt at night but right now, he needed blood and a few hours of rest before his shift tonight to patrol.

As a member of the Dark Shadows, he had an obligation to protect the vampire nation from rogue vampires and anything else that may threaten vampires. Lately, the necromancers have been coming out of hiding in droves bringing their dead puppets, the versi with them.

Teague and Adrian walked out of the front door of the massive old mansion as he opened Nadira’s door. He scowled as Teague assisted Anika out of the truck. He opened the trunk, grabbing the bags from Nadira’s shopping spree. Nadira had bought new clothes and some other items for Anika before they went to the hospital. His little sister must have bought every item in the store. Adrian came around the truck grabbing half the bags out the back of it, so they would only have to make one trip into the house.

“How’s it going, Anika?” Teague asked playfully, wrapping his arm around her as he helped guide her up the stairs with Nadira on the other side of Anika.

Toma’s eyes locked on Teague’s arm. Toma had never wanted to do bodily harm to his own brother before but right now, he was contemplating cutting his damn arm off.

“I’m okay, just a little weak,” she answered slightly, her voice still hoarse.

“It’s understandable. You’ve been through a lot,” Teague said, just as she stumbled. Teague swung Anika up into his arms, jogging the rest of the stairs and into the house. Toma cursed to himself. It should be him carrying her, holding her close, providing comfort, not his fucking little brother.

“I had the north west wing’s guest suite aired out for her,” Nadira said leading the way through the house as we all followed. “It’s at the top of the stairs and it’s in the same wing as Toma’s suite, so you won’t be totally alone in that hall.”

Fuck!

“Nadira, that is too much!” Anika exclaimed, looking over Teague’s shoulder, her wide eyes taking in the amount of bags that he and Adrian were carrying.

“Nonsense,” Nadira said waving her hands. “It’s not that much, I got you all the essentials you’ll need. Clothes, shoes, products, bras and panties…” Nadira droned on, informing Anika of all the purchases she made.

Toma almost bit straight through his tongue, holding in a groan at the thought of the types of bras and panties that Anika normally wears. He began to sweat a little, trying to calm down his libido and the thickening in his jeans.

“You alright, Toma?” Adrian asked in a low voice, walking up the staircase alongside him.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he bit out, not looking at his brother.

“You look a little under the weather. If you need—”

“I’m fine,” he cut Adrian off. He shot Adrian, a sharp glare, stopping him mid-sentence again as he was about to speak.

“I was just going to say, I’d call for one of the
slujitor sânge
for you,” Adrian said as he paused outside the guest suite that Nadira assigned Anika.
Slujitor sânge or blood servant.

“I’m fine. I’ll grab a bag from the fridge and crash. I’m just exhausted,” he lied.

There was no way that he would be fine. The woman that he had secretly lusted after in his dreams was going to be sleeping just down the hall from him. He was fucking screwed.

“
Y
ou sure
it’s going to be okay with me sleeping in this wing? I don’t want to intrude on Toma,” Anika asked Nadira, as she watched her best friend put away the massive amounts of clothing she bought her.

“Who, Toma? You won’t even notice that he’s here,” Nadira shouted from inside the walk in closet. Nadira refused to let Anika help put the clothes away, especially since the mishap on the stairs.

“He doesn’t seem to like me much,” she said, for once unsure of herself. Anika had always been the outgoing flirty one, while Nadira was the shy and quiet one. Opposites attract definitely rang true in their relationship.

“Really?” Nadira asked with her face scrunched up, grabbing a few boxes of shoes off the floor. “Well, if it makes you feel better, he doesn’t like many people,” Nadira said, using her vampiric speed to move around the room.

“You’re doing it again,” Anika groaned, lying back amongst the plush pillows. Her ribs hurt like hell and her throat still felt like it was on fire. “You’re moving so fast, you're causing me to have a headache.

“Sorry,” Nadira said smiling. “I’m just trying to finish this so I can get back to my patient,” she joked, putting the last items in the drawer.

“Why doesn’t he like anyone?” Anika tried to act nonchalant with her questioning. She had never told her best friend that she was infatuated with her older brother.

“I’m not sure,” Nadira answered, kicking off her shoes and climbing in the massive bed with her. “He’s my older brother, so he’s contractually obligated to like me.” Nadira’s blue eyes twinkled.

“Ha ha,” Anika laughed sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

“No but seriously,” she said lying back on her side of the bed. “He would probably kill me for telling anyone, but when I was growing up, I was deathly afraid of lightening and thunder storms. I would jump out of my bed and run to his room. He wouldn’t say a word, but hold the blanket open and allow me to crawl in the bed with him."

Anika’s heart swelled with this knowledge that Toma had a soft side. He had always projected the image of a cold hardened vampire warrior. She smiled softly at the image of a younger Nadira snuggling with her older brother as he protected her from the storm. She turned over in the bed to face Nadira, listening to her continue to tell stories of her youth, feeling her pain medication kick in as she slowly drifted into a rest filled slumber.