Love Bite (Love Bite Series #1)

Chapter 1 - Kidnapped by a Familiar Stranger

I haven't seen him in over ten years and now I have to go live with him?

What gives him the right to come back into my life and change it all?

He doesn't care about me!

If he did, he would have come for me a lot sooner!

Just because my aunt Sofiya was attacked a few days ago, it doesn't mean I can't look after her. I'm 15, I'm technically an adult,

"The doctor said she'll be out in a few days and I can look after her" I protested as my father quickly collected the last of my suitcases and threw them into the back of the car.

His wild eyes looked around and opened the back door,

"Lucia, will you please just get in" he panted, sweeping the auburn fringe from his clammy brow,

"Can we stop by the hospital before we leave, so I can say goodbye properly? I feel like I am abandoning her" I begged but my father was not so understanding.

He bundled me into the back seat and sped off down the driveway, spraying the loose gravel onto the car's white paintwork on his hasty exit.

I couldn't believe the sudden determination of this man.

He knew nothing about me but he was happy to come back into my life and wreak it, just as I was beginning to find my feet.

I have never had any communication with him and had no urge, or fantasies, to find him because if he could abandon me when I needed him the most, he was not worth my time.

Plus, my aunt was amazing and taught me how to be independent and self-sufficient, so the thought of going to live with him did not fill me with joy.

I slumped down in the back seat and grabbed my quilted safety blanket, from one of the bags, hoping it would help provide me with some comfort from my looming depression over this sudden move but all it gave me was a deep sense of regret and loss as funny memories of my aunt reminiscing about how my mother made it came flooding back.

The blanket brushes against my face as I snuggled down into the leather upholstery and covered my shoulders with my mother's patchwork bedspread, trying to get warm in my father's sterile police car.

We drove for an hour in silence as flashbacks of my aunt invaded my thoughts,

"Nearly there now Lucia. You're going to love the house" my father nervously tried.

I ignored his enticing descriptions of my new home as I watched the modern apartments of London drift away, only to be replaced by bumpy country roads and the odd cottage within a large field of livestock,

"Why couldn't I just stay with Aunt Sofiya?" I demanded.

My father's shoulders stiffened as he turned into a slip road and narrowly missed a wooden pole with the distracting questions,

"Welcome to Umbra. Population 1,250" it read and I shuddered as images of horror movies depicting small town invasions and pod people sprang to mind.

We sped down the tarmac road as the sun beamed over the quaint town ahead,

"This is the city centre. Not as grand as Oxford Circus but I'm sure you'll like it, Lucia" my father explained in his tour guide voice.

I peered over my blanket at the white washed buildings and perfectly groomed residences with disdain. I couldn't take anymore useless facts about the pristine town, so I plugged in my headphones and turned the volume up to the maximum level.