The Blood Bundle, Books 1-2: Blood Singers and Blood Song (New Adult Paranormal Vampire/Shifter Romance) (14 page)

*

Julia

Julia was goddamned done with the coven. She was
considered a flight risk.

Gee, ya think?

So, they had her guarded all the time. There
were humans called “intimates,” who were the day slaves of the
vampire underworld. They guarded her when the vampire slept. While
awake, they had the vampire guard. Day in and day out.

Julia was frustrated. She wanted to leave her
room. It didn't matter that it was beautiful and all her needs were
met. So what? She was little more than a bird in a gilded cage.

She and Claire had come to an uneasy truce. She
would teach Julia to harness her abilities, Julia would not use
them against Claire. Simple, right? Not really. Julia was already
planning on honing said skills and getting the hell out of the
coven. She wasn't stupid though. Julia knew that learning what
these abilities were, practicing them with someone that also had
them... well, it made sense. She decided to bide her time.
Not
that there was a plethora of options
, she thought
dejectedly.

Claire came to her the next day with the news
that she had been there a month and it was time to meet the leader
of the Seattle Coven, Gabriel.

He was Claire's brother, a Rare One.

If Julia had thought the odds of running into
one of her kind slim, a Rare One was even slimmer. Claire had
explained, out of the almost seven hundred thousand people who were
potential Singers, only one percent of those were the coveted Rare
Ones.

Wonderful. Julia didn't think that it had helped
her in the slightest. It had just gotten the people she cared about
dead. A tightening of her chest came on the heels of that marvelous
revelation.

The vampires were old school. Claire told her
there would be a ball of sorts. Like an old-fashioned “coming out.”
Julia would be the guest of honor. Their stolen prize.

The blue ribbon winner.

The prize Heifer.

They didn't need to milk her, just breed her.
But to whom?

She'd never let one of the blood suckers touch
her. It was only afterward that Claire told her William had “blood
shared.” Saving her indescribable agony from the wounds he
inflicted on her, allowing her to heal quickly.

Not her problem. If they'd not chased her, he
wouldn't have had to use everything he had to get her here. Julia
thought of the feeling of the talons piercing her flesh, her bone
the next layer beneath the biting claws and shuddered at the
memory.

It was his fault she was here.

His.

*

debutant

William studied his reflection, securing the
matching cufflinks at the cuffs of his custom made button-down. It
was burgundy silk, woven against the grain to produce a slight
sheen with movement. Claire said it brought out his eyes. The eyes
that met his reflection were the deepest shade of red, just shy of
black, his pupils inky dots in their center. But they were not
always so, depending on circumstance they could appear reflective,
silver. He lowered his sleeves after adjusting the links just
right. Sterling squares with a beveled and scalloped edge were
pierced with a star burst that held a brilliant blue sapphire chip
in its core. An heirloom from his father before him.

He sighed. Sometimes the pomp and circumstance
of these ceremonies weighed heavily on him.

William thought of what Claire had told him.
Julia was resistant, distrustful. In her youth she thought that she
could fool Claire into thinking she was compliant.

William had warned her this was not so. Julia
had a steely resolve, never forgetting a wrong vested upon her.

That is why those whiskey-colored eyes followed
him with indifference and sufferance.

Julia was not immune to the fire that burned in
their veins from the blood share. Her blood called to him. She had
tasted of his, so now she had a fraction of the feeling of the song
that he held within himself for her.

She listened to his blood as a melody.

Her blood to him was a symphony.

There really was no comparison.

William turned from his reflection, forbidding
his despair to take over. This was the Greeting Ceremony. Aside
from Gabriel there had not been one in his kiss for three
centuries.

Rare indeed.

He slipped quietly out of his chamber,
hesitating slightly outside her door, apprehension at her proximity
making his step falter. He drew himself together. He could not
abide a slip of a girl commanding a warrior of the vampire.

William strode off, never glancing back.

His desire behind him, his plan ahead.

*

Julia

Julia turned her head in mid-stroke of the
hairbrush when she felt the familiar tightening inside her
breastbone.

“What is it?” Claire asked, locking her gaze
with Julia's in the mirror's reflection. Julia unconsciously rubbed
her chest as she stared at the door, her breath held in her
throat.

“I don't know,” she whispered.

But she did. William stood outside the door. She
was deathly afraid he'd come in.

She was even more afraid because she wanted him
to.

Her body crawled with the need to be near him,
the chemical aspects of the blood in her body more than they had
been. Twice now he'd given her his blood. Each time, life saving.
It was the quantity that mattered. When it reached critical mass,
she would be left choiceless.

Claire had explained it was part of the mating
process. That he had given her blood twice drove them closer to
being mated. Whether he was right for her or not.d

Whether she wanted it or not.

“After the greeting ceremony is over then there
will be a courtship within the circle of eligible vampires.”

Julia couldn't believe how ridiculous it all
sounded. A little more than a year ago she'd been a high school
senior, secretly engaged.

Then married. Pretty unforgettable.

She'd been on a path of life so divergent from
this one she could never reconcile the two, however much she
thought about it.

Now, she would be handed over to the best mate
of the vampire contingent. The one with whom she could produce the
most likely offspring.

“The sooner you accept your placement here, the
better off you'll be,” Claire said, admiring Julia's gown. Trying
to hide her scowl at Claire's words, even Julia had to admit it was
the most beautiful thing she'd ever worn.

It was the palest champagne, almost a soft
tangerine. Her ginger colored hair shone above it. Claire had seen
to it that her hair had been expertly cut around her shoulders,
where it curled softly.

“We keep your hair down for the greeting. No
need to be provocative this first time. It will be hard enough for
them as it is.”

Right,
Julia thought,
the blood
lust
.

Murmured voices reached Julia's ears as she
swept in with Claire, the vampire guard and Clarence, trailing
behind them soundlessly.

The voices stopped instantaneously, an ominous
silence filling the cavernous space. Julia looked up, not being
able to help noticing a central strip of ambient light that was
perfectly spaced. Large grid-like skylights lined the ceiling of
where she stood. Rectangular in size, they housed many thick glass
circles. Dark spots would appear above them with regularity. It was
mesmerizing.

The vampires stared at her as she brought her
gaze down from the ceiling peppered by glass.

A man came forward and instantly Julia felt her
body respond. It was not sexual. It was synchronicity. This man was
kindred to her. She felt more related to him than she'd ever felt
to her flesh and blood aunt.

He smiled and it was sun breaking through
clouds. For the first time since her arrival she felt something
slide into place.

Something that felt like home.

He was tall and she had plenty of time to assess
him as he came toward her, his copper hair slicked back and tied in
a navy silk band at the nape of his neck. He had a slight accent
when he said, “You are Julia.” He formed it as a statement when it
was truly a question.

She nodded, the hair sliding around her bare
shoulders. Her nervousness felt like a caged animal yearning for
release.

“Welcome!” he said in a booming voice that
echoed against the stone walls. Julia fought not to jump as he
looked around and faced the crowd of vampires.

There were so many they lined the walls, some
lingering in the tall, bricked archways, two feet thick at the
threshold. Julia's eyes searched the crowd, many faces
expressionless, a few held contempt. Julia swallowed.

The faces lost their neutral expression as they
tracked the small movement of her throat like vultures circling a
dying meal.

In this case, it was she that they watched.

Gabriel continued, “Here is the one our warriors
have brought to us. The first Rare One in three centuries. Here
now. For the prophesied continuation of our race. It will be she
that allows daywalking. And so much more.”

He turned those golden eyes to hers, so much
like Claire's, so much like Julia's.

“Please welcome Julia Wade into our kiss,” he
stepped back with a flourish and Julia sat there pegged, a
butterfly’s wings pinned to a board. Examined. Scrutinized. It was
beyond awkward.

She wasn't anyone's savior. Julia was herself.
That's all she was.

She stepped forward. And, brave beyond measure,
or foolish, She didn't know which, Julia said, “It's Caldwell.
Julia Caldwell.”

At that moment, she met William’s eyes and there
was anger in his. Julia was sure that he wanted her to move on with
her life. The husband she loved had been dead for over a year. The
relationship never consummated.
Well... there was more to love
than having sex
, Julia thought. If that was all there were then
there'd be a ton of people married to more than one person.

In her heart, she was still married to Jason.
Dead or alive, he still held it in his hands.

Warm and beating.

Her guts clenched thinking about being here. She
swung her head to the leader, Gabriel.

He seemed to intuit where her emotional
barometer was at that moment and said, “Caldwell then. Please,” he
looked over the crowd, who had begun to whisper amongst themselves
at her correction, “make Julia feel welcome amongst us.”

She sighed, giving one more glance to William
and moved to Gabriel's side.

Resigned but not beaten.

Never that.

Everywhere Julia looked she saw blood.

It filled the elaborately cut crystal punchbowl
in the center of a table easily twenty feet long. Stemmed glasses
of every configuration stood around it like sentinels. The color
wash cleverly hid what the glasses would contain once filled.

Blood.

Human blood.

The goblets looked like they were on fire,
backlit from the sconces which lined the stone walls at a man's
head height. In this case vampires.

But there were not just male vampires, but
female as well. Not many, but they were there.

They were not happy with Julia's presence. She
could feel their discontent like a weight on the nape of her neck,
her skin crawling with it.

Well, neither was she. They could rein in their
attitude, 'cause she didn't want to be here any more than they
wanted her to be.

William came to Julia, taking her elbow and it
felt like a match had been touched to flame, the heat of his
contact with her bare arm igniting it neatly. It drove up her arm
in a fine line of warmth, reaching the middle of her chest where it
burst like a bubble. She gasped, catching her breath and watched
William’s jaw flutter as he clamped down on his reaction.

“Let go of me,” Julia hissed quietly, her eyes
flashing.

William turned to her, hissing back, “I will not
coddle you.” Her eyes narrowed on him and he continued, “I did what
I must, to protect you. I am
so
sorry you do not see what is
beneath your nose.” His crimson eyes searched hers with anger, he
wanted her to at least accept that he was doing his duty. The
acquisition of her was something he had been tasked to accomplish.
It was not personal.

Yet, on some level it was.

William did not kill her husband. That was the
Were's interference, as was typical of their kind. No planning,
just reactive brutality and passion. They could not have gotten a
job done with finesse if a gun barrel had been pressed to their
collective heads.

Julia ripped her elbow out of his grasp. It made
her madder when she realized he could have kept her wherever he
wanted. She thought of what happened with Claire. She immediately
wanted to do the same with William. To him. But through the stone
wall.

She smiled at her thoughts.

William looked at her and smiled back grimly. He
could almost feel her intent, the blood union singing between them.
Her thoughts were not known to him, but her emotional signature was
loud and clear.

He removed his hand as if scorched. “Fine,”
William said. He leaned into her face from inches away. “Know this,
Blood Singer, everything I do, I do for you. Not I. If it were for
me, it would be so different.” He ran a finger down her jawline and
Julia shivered involuntarily.

William turned on his heel and stalked off. He
left Julia just inside the threshold of one of the archways with
vampires everywhere. She did not know any of them and suddenly felt
like she'd been a little too dismissive of him. She glanced around
uneasily, noticing Clarence of the guard was within ten feet.

He was ghosting her movements. He'd follow her
into the bathroom if she'd let him. Maybe there was no letting him
after all.