Page 8 of His Eternal Temptation

All four vampires stared at him. Rowan’s eyes flickered, an orange glow overtaking his dynamic brown irises, and Lane’s blood ran cold.

“Your heart came close to stopping when you left the room?” Hunter asked into the deadly silence. Rowan nodded in confirmation without taking his eyes off Lane. “Shit… Lane’s heart nearly stopped, too.”

Then what saved him? What the actual fuck was happening?

Rowan seemed to find more clarity than Lane, his attention sharpening in Hunter’s direction. “The same thing happened to both of us?”

“How?” A frantic feeling clawed at Lane’s insides. “I’m the one who’s cursed.”

Rowan strode forward, towering over Lane. “You spread the curse to me.”

“No.” Lane pushed to his feet, coming chest to chest with the vampire. He was shorter, but not by much. “I didn’t do anything. You’re the one who drank my blood. If anything, you spread the curse.”

Rowan’s nostrils flared, his glowing eyes flashing. “You knew this would happen. That’s why you came. Your warning was a bullshit excuse to get to me!”

“No it wasn’t!” Outrage flooded Lane, his voice raising to match Rowan’s. “I’m telling the truth. I didn’t do anything wrong! I came here for your help. To try and help you.”

“I’d like to know why Lane’s heart attack stopped,” Hunter interrupted, a steady presence amid the storm.

Rowan turned a furious gaze on him. “This isn’t the time for professional curiosity, Doctor.”

Hunter remained unaffected by Rowan’s fury. He looked way too young to be an actual doctor, but then again, vampire, so…

“The attack stopping matters,” Hunter said with firm authority. “The curse was killing Lane until you sucked it out. We thought it was removed. Seems it wasn’t, but I did nothing to halt its effects this time. The blood you gave Lane clearly wasn’t enough to prevent a new attack, even if it healed previous damage. So why did this episode start and then stop?”

“Well, Lane? Explain it to us,” Rowan growled at him.

“I don’t know. I didn’t cast the curse. I didn’t ask you to suck it out, either, by the way.”

“You asked for help, putting me in an impossible position where I could do nothing else.”

Hunter’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully, like he wasn’t even listening. “Rowan left the room and returned. That must be it.”

“What?” Lane and Rowan said at once, then glared at each other.

“I bet if Rowan walked away again, the same thing would happen.”

Lane’s heart skipped. “No, please.” Rowan could survive a heart attack. He couldn’t.

Don’t hurt me.

Rowan’s thunderous expression smoothed out. For a brief, absurd moment, Lane expected him to say something reassuring. Instead, he turned to the bouncer lingering by the door. “How long until Nicole arrives?”

“Should be here any minute. I’ll wait downstairs and bring her up.” He rushed from the room.

“Who’s Nicole?” Lane asked.

The other vampires seemed to wait for Rowan to answer. He ignored everyone and settled heavily in one of the surrounding chairs.

Hunter looked Lane up and down. “I’d like to check you over. Take a seat.”

For lack of anything else to do, Lane returned to the exam chair, and Hunter took his blood pressure.

Rowan watched in stony silence, and Lane’s gut twisted into knots. How could he convince the damned stubborn man he wasn’t lying?

Hunter asked to draw blood, and Lane grunted his consent without much care. If Rowan deemed him a threat, he might be killed. Rowan had banished the Blackburns rather than execute them because their betrayal hadn’t been violent, but if Rowan took this fucking mess as an attack, an attempt on his immortal life, all bets were off.

“Try to relax,” Hunter murmured.