The Blood Bundle, Books 1-2: Blood Singers and Blood Song (New Adult Paranormal Vampire/Shifter Romance) (16 page)

When the vampire that licked at her met her eyes
Julia let all her bottled up rage and emotions, out. Focusing them
like a spear. The hell with finesse.

Choke,
she thought with a mental
shove.

She launched a counter strike at vamp number
one. When he staggered back, blood spewing out of his mouth, she
turned her attention to number two. Feeling an elemental push which
echoed the other, Julia used that seething momentum and blasted the
neck-biter when he would have sunk fangs into her erratically
beating pulse.

She saved herself by seconds, his head having
reared back, twin spiked fangs that shone like creamy pearls,
prepared for the strike.

The female latched onto her shoulder harder.
Julia's arm went numb to the wrist and she couldn't suppress a
whimper as the female gave Julia a smile around the fangs that were
buried in the flesh of her shoulder.

There was a commotion outside and the door
slammed open.

William’s frantic eyes met hers and in a moment
of profound weakness, blood covering her upper body, the loss of it
more than she could adequately fight, Julia whispered, “Help
me.”

*

William

William looked around for Julia. Ah... there she
went, stalking off to mope in the restroom. He sighed. He told
himself for the hundredth time that she was but an infant. Still,
her behavior took some getting used to. She did not see William as
the protector he was.
If she would but allow it
, he thought,
clenching his jaw.

He looked a moment longer to make sure that
Clarence was a discreet distance from the restroom and went back to
his conversation with Gabriel.

“Give her time, William,” the coven leader
said.

“I have watched her this past year. I fear she
cares not for her own life. She still mourns the husband who is no
longer.” Just saying those words made William angry. He determined
to speak his mind to Gabriel, “I think she uses his death as a
crutch. He has been gone for one year past. She has been told the
facts of his death. The Were delivered the death blow. Not vampire.
She would not have been allowed the union in any event. Two Blood
Singers together!” His expression mirrored Gabriel's.

Ridiculous.

Gabriel nodded in agreement. There could not be
inbreeding amongst Singers, because of the negative impact on the
blood quantum. And more importantly, to waste a Rare One in that
way? Squander. Not during his reign.

He clapped William on the back. “She will
understand more as time goes on. Julia will come to understand that
she is too rare a jewel to wander about, taking her chances in the
outside world. It is here that is her destiny. Here is her safety.
Also,” he looked into William's eyes, “now that her adolescence is
upon her, every Were and vampire from here to the ends of the earth
would smell it on her. Her childhood afforded her some protection.
No longer.” Gabriel made a severe cutting gesture with his hand at
the exact moment that William felt pain pierce the highest area of
his shoulder.

He stood so quickly the chair that he had sat
upon turned over and fell, the wood hitting the cobblestone floor
with a resounding crack, echoing in the space.

William met the eyes of his fellow vampire,
their faces without expression. He whipped his head in the
direction of the restroom.

A lone foot could be seen sticking out of the
dark corridor.

Clarence’s.

Julia was no longer under guard.

William sprinted in a burst of speed that made
its own breeze, lifting the tablecloth that held the crystal and
blood.

He burst through the door, the wooden frame
bending under the force of the swing.

He was greeted by Julia's whiskey-colored eyes,
strained and wide in her paling face. William was struck by the
tears that streamed down her cheeks.

Julia was unaware she was crying, her fear
outweighing enlightenment.

William's eyes fell first on Edna, a viperous
female. Then found the two that would have vied for the position of
mate to Julia.

Two less contenders
, William thought,
before he picked the head off the interloper who had his fangs
bared before Julia’s exposed throat, venom for the change dripping
off them as he prepared to strike.

The moment seemed to pause, Julia looking into
his eyes with what he had longed for, had been beyond hoping
for.

Fear filled their depth... and longing. She
wanted him. In that moment, she gave in to the blood bond between
them and her terror made her raw to it.

He answered with a look that took mere seconds
to convey.

It was her voice though, her voice that struck
his soul like a bell which chimed.

“Help me,” she gasped out, her eyes deep pools
of drowning amber.

He did not hesitate.

William punched his right hand into the back of
Edna, talons extended. In gasping from the entry wounds, she
inadvertently released her fangs from Julia's shoulder. Julia slid
to the floor, using the pathway of the female vampire like a
helpmate, her hands grasping along the female's gown.

Julia rolled over on her back, the blood from
the wound running backward, pooling in the hollow of her collarbone
and dripping to the floor where her burnished red hair lay like a
fan atop the stone.

William hesitated, hating to kill a female of
the vampire, but she had proved to be without scruples. He tore his
talons from her back and she fell to his feet, gasping, all five
having punctured her lungs in a most grievous manner.

William let Edna lay on the stone floor like a
gasping fish. Turning his attention to the vampire that had hands
around his throat in the universal choking gesture.

What was this?

He was choking on the blood he had consumed.

He swung his gaze to Julia, the fragrant smell
of her blood filling the space, making William almost light-headed
with blood lust, his throat tightening painfully.

And
he
was a quarter Singer.

The others would never be able to abstain from
her as she lay vulnerable and bleeding.

There would be a blood riot.

The evidence of such lay at his feet. The
vampire he had beheaded, laying as a pile of ash and blood was the
eighth slayed.

Never having been exposed to a Rare One they
were virtually helpless before the song for her blood.

William turned at the noise at the door,
simultaneously moving toward where Julia lay.

The vampire moved as a unit, talons extended,
fangs sprung free of their houses of flesh.

They came to where the delectable smell of fresh
blood was released. A quality without compare. It was as if a
thousand year old bottle of wine lay breathing.

On a cold stone floor mere paces away from
consumption.

William leaped in front of the Julia just as the
first vampire would have been upon her.

*

Julia

Julia looked up and saw a monster, fangs the
size of her pinky fingers, dripping a clear fluid tinged with red,
talons as long as her forearms standing at deadly attention.

And then like small swords they began to slice
whoever drew near.

Their motion in a blur of darkness, too fast for
her to follow, Julia became aware of moisture falling on her bare
skin like rain.

She opened her eyes and a head fell beside her
shoulder with a meaty thump. The dead eyes, once gray, turned into
a collapsing wall of flesh and bone. As she looked on in horror, it
began to disintegrate into a mass of ash.

It was the eyes she'd never forget.

Or the creature William had become, fighting the
vampires that would have killed her.

They came, one after another, as blood drenched
her gown and she lay helplessly at his feet.

William slashed and stabbed as injuries were
rained down on him and then five overcame him. Julia whimpered,
having never envisioned herself dying this way.

At that moment, Julia realized she wanted to
live.

Had always wanted to live.

Her eyes met Williams, pleading.

She knew she didn't deserve his help.

But she was sorry. In that moment she didn't
want this life, this existence.

Nevertheless, he was dying to defend her.

William was overcome. He had dispatched fifteen,
losing all hope of the guards helping him through the crowd of
rabid vampire overrun with blood lust.

The higher functioning of their cerebral cortex
was gone.

When the five overcame him, he saw Julia torn
from beneath his feet by two fanged brethren, one held her as the
other prepared to strike, losing his grip twice, her body slick
with the blood of the massacred.

She was weak as a kitten, any fool could see,
her wound not closing up. The blood clotting properties of the
vampire saliva was not working.

Of course, Edna would have not used hers
willingly. Julia was bleeding out.

William struggled against the vampire, beyond
reason and rationale when he heard her soft whimper like a
plea.

Bereft.

Hopeless.

Her eyes met his again, the blood bond
reverberating in his body, pressing him to take action beyond his
capabilities.

William did, smashing two of the vampires' heads
together hard enough for their brains to splatter against the
inside of their skulls and leak out their ears. He threw himself on
his feet and launched to Julia's side in a fluid gymnastic
movement, his fist punching out as he did.

The vampire who had fangs a millimeter away from
her throat, lost them from the impact of William’s fist even as his
talons swung to take the head of the one that restrained her.

*

Julia

Julia saw William come. A shaky exhale escaped
as she lay in the arms of one vampire while the other prepared to
chew her throat out.

The one that held her dumped her head on the
floor so hard she saw lights twinkle above her.

And then William was there.

Their heads fell on either side of her body and
heat suffused her. Julia knew she would pass out and had but
moments to express herself.

William crouched above her protectively and she
raised her arm, weakly. She clutched onto his clothing.

He glanced at her then away, prepared for the
next onslaught.

She tugged again.

“Julia, lay still. You have lost much
blood.”

“Thank you,” she whispered on her final breath.
Her vision dimmed to a pinpoint.

The last coherent image was William.

A face she didn't hate anymore.

His mouth moved but she couldn't hear him, an
enveloping softness encased her as she floated away.

Like dandelion seed on the wind.

Julia slept in a pool of her own blood.

And that of others.

Many others.

The Den of the Were

one month later

“Do you see her?” Joseph asked impatiently.

“Yes,” Tony responded, dropping the night vision
binoculars.

“It is easy to make her out, Joseph. She is so
much smaller than the blood drinkers.”

Right. Joseph knew that. But his anxiety was
full-tilt. It had been a month since their orders from Lawrence to
execute reconnaissance on the vampire kiss. They had.

It had been troubling to smell injuries on the
Rare One.

When they had first begun their covert stake
out, they could smell fresh wounds. They were concentrated on the
female, but also one other.

The vampire that could turn into a raven. He had
been injured as well.

It was only speculation but Joseph felt
something terrible had happened within the coven. Something which
allowed a freedom that was almost brazen in its regard to her
safety.

Although, they flanked her five deep on either
side.

Joseph was still sticking with the number
fifteen.

Fifteen of his entire soldier contingent should
be enough to bring her home.

The Rare One would assimilate into his den. She
would not automatically be his. But he would butcher any Alpha who
took challenge.

Joseph would be victor.

He must.

The whelp of the Were must evolve or the race
would be lost.

He squeezed his hands into fists, mourning the
moon's shape.

It was waxing. Two weeks yet until they could
bring the change.

Joseph and Tony watched the small female figure
bounce as she ran, the huge blood drinkers watching to the four
corners of the earth.

Joseph growled low in his throat, the vampires
unaware. Tony heard and answered.

It would have been a howl had the moon been
full.

*

Julia

Julia's lungs burned. But in a good way. What
had started out as nightly walks when the city slept had turned
into jogging.

Now she ran. Her vitality returned incrementally
night by night.

She shuddered, thinking about how her life had
almost ended that fateful night on a floor of ancient cobblestone.
Built for humans, infiltrated by vampires.

Claire had to provide blood to save her life.
William could not give it.

The third blood share would have mated her to
William. Whether she wanted it or not.

Forever was a long time to hold a grudge
,
Julia thought.

Because that's what it was. She was immortal
only if she had blood quantum. Too much blood loss and her life
would be gone.

Julia wasn't sure she believed them. There was
no such thing as immortality? Right?

Then her mind burdened her with the facts of the
past year.

Like the existence of werewolves and vampire.
Check. Like that wasn't crazy-as-hell?