The Blood Bundle, Books 1-2: Blood Singers and Blood Song (New Adult Paranormal Vampire/Shifter Romance) (24 page)

He released the pressure so she could utter the
final lie, “I passed out from the shock. I never saw what
happened,” Cynthia said mechanically.

It smiled a grin filled with teeth meant to
maim, tear and kill. It suddenly released her throat and her hand
went to it automatically. The tears fell in rivulets, dampening her
pillow.

Cynthia had seen everything that happened. All
of it.

She didn't like slasher flicks anymore.

She knew horror was real.

Cynthia watched the Were leave through the
window like before.

She made a promise to herself in that moment.
She'd move to where they couldn't find her. Somewhere different,
anonymous... big.

Like Seattle.

Perfect.

She'd forget what had happened with a fresh
environment, Cynthia told herself.

Her eyes fixed on her meager belongings in her
studio apartment. She rose from her bed and began to pack at three
o'clock in the morning.

Long past the witching hour.

*

Julia

Adi and Julia ran.

No privacy of course, but they ran anyway. It
felt so like the exercise she'd taken with William and the other
runners. But the Were could keep up in their human form.

Julia hated Tony at her back. Because she knew,
deep down, that he really didn't
have
her back. William had
been open about his intentions, about the history. The vampire Book
of Blood.

The Were had been covert, not that it helped.
Adi told Julia everything she wanted to know and things she didn't.
She was a treasure. If Julia had met her in other circumstances
they could have been friends.

But even now, Julia planned her escape.

She ran on a dirt path, made wide by use, the
dappled shade from the trees making the ground look like a puzzle
of light. Julia felt the heat of the sun even through the trees and
felt how different it was from Alaska. There was a distance in that
part of the world. As if the sun held its rays back, stingy in its
warmth. Here in Washington, the kiss of its heat was all around
them and she reveled in it.

She'd miss it.

Julia didn't care if she was important. She
wanted freedom, liberty. She had stayed awake these past few nights
thinking about that one, one hundredth percent of Rare Ones that
breathed the air on this earth. Why couldn't she belong to
them?

Why couldn't she belong to herself?

Be free to choose her own path, her own destiny.
There was no one to give her any council. They all wanted a piece
of her.

Of her blood. A song that rivaled all others. A
genetic match of perfection to balance their needs.

What about hers?

They drove up the last hill, their legs pumping
furiously, Adi barely breathing as she whispered to Julia, “Ya know
that swine Tony?”

Julia huffed out, her legs grinding up the
incline, “Yeah?”

“He put me in the dog house and now I'm off
babysitting your precious ass,” she said, sprinting ahead.

Oh shit.

Julia poured on the speed and caught up, running
alongside her. “What do you mean? He scares me,” Julia said
quietly, mindful of the ears pricked behind them.

“He's made me give a squirt of pee on occasion,”
Adi said dryly. “But not without payback if you feel me.” She gave
a smug smile and Julia nodded. She felt her. It'd only been a
couple of weeks here in the den but already she wondered why Adi
wasn't in charge. She sure thought she was.

Adi hadn't gotten the memo.

But in reality Julia had grudging respect for
Joseph. He was stern, gentle and supervised the pack with great
fairness. The Packmaster... he was a different story. Julia hadn't
liked him much better than Tony. Julia remembered their brief
meeting.

*

Lawrence circled the Rare One and was surprised
at her. Hardly more than a girl, she looked no different than any
other female.

But for her smell she could have been any
college-aged student, roaming around.

She certainly was not. Her smell was like the
most rare perfume, small in quantity and potently lethal.

Agitating. Julia Caldwell drove under his skin
and stayed there. The moon as his witness he would be most glad
when the Ritual of Luna and the mating was finished. He would lose
one of his wolves and gain a legend. Freedom was within their
grasp. Having a Rare One would solidify their leadership in the
Pacific Northwest Region.

Forever.

A self-satisfied smile curled his lips as he met
Julia.

He saw that she regarded him with distrust. No
matter, hers had been an easy life.

Julia watched him assume everything about her in
a glance and knew that he may be Packmaster here, but to her, he
was presumptuous. And just plain wrong. She had a trick or two up
her sleeve. They thought her awakening powers were not fully
formed. That when she'd heaved Tony against the fridge that she was
too much of a novice to do anything to defend herself.

They were wrong. Julia was executing the
equivalent of push-ups when she was alone in her room. Levitating
herself and all that was in her space.

She'd become quite good at it, developing
finesse, pushing herself for control in the short time she'd been
there.

Claire would have been proud, gulping against
the lump that formed in her throat.

Julia glanced at Adi and she nodded back. Time
to turn back. They turned where a great log had fallen, its form
caved in with a secondary seedling growing out of the
decomposition. Julia looked beyond it, into the deeper woods.

It was there that her escape lay.

As they ran the werewolves fell in beside them
and Julia could feel the emotions around her. There was no way to
block it out. She could not gain one ability without others showing
up. She had never wished for something more in her whole life.
Another one like her.

A Blood Singer.

*

four days

He heard them as they came back from
exercise and pressed his snout against the acrylic partition, a
vile material that smelled like rotting plastic to his most
sensitive organ. He smelled the female of his kind that fed him and
the other.

He would know her fragrance anywhere. But it
had changed. Something about that familiar scent was altered.

It didn't matter. Soon enough, when the moon
was ripe and full, he would escape this place. He mourned what
would be done to see it through.

But in the end, it would be worth it.

*

one day

Adriana slipped into the kennel where the feral
was kept and instantly felt the guilt grip her.

She hated seeing him.

He was the most beautiful of the Were she'd ever
seen. A coat so deep a red it was like wine, eyes so green they
shimmered like emeralds. In fact, Adi didn't think there were
jewels that looked as good as his eyes. But she'd been there the
day he'd knocked off the head of her whelpmate.

He was dangerous.

And crazier than a June bug, as her grandpa
would say.

She had extra feral duty. Because she'd walloped
that shitwad Tony in the head with the pan. No thanks that she'd
saved the precious Rare One from a mauling. Oh-no. It was,
“Adriana, Tony is superior, you need to show deference...” Blah,
effing blah. Deference her ass. Tony was a pain-in-all-their-butts.
She figured she did everyone a favor. He had a very small brain and
when she'd thwacked his head, maybe the swelling would enlarge it
enough so he'd think.

Nah, that'd been a fat damn chance. He was back
to asshat status as soon as he woke up.

The dick. Why he was even in line for the Ritual
was beyond her. None of the men could see his cruelty? He wasn't
good with the whelplings. He had to remind them constantly that he
was dominant. Yeah? So what. They knew that. They didn't need their
asses handed to them day in and day out to catch a clue.

Adi fumed inside the kennel, which was really a
huge outbuilding. Her eyes went at once to the feral. He was in
human form and she thought that unusual. He could partially change
at will and didn't need the moon. However, he was invincible when
it was full. Nobody entered then, unless there were three or
more.

They'd learned that the hard way.

Adi felt guilty that he didn't get food or water
one day a month. Actually, she didn't agree with keeping him like a
zoo animal. Just because he was turned didn't mean that he was less
than them.

Lesser.

He watched her approach him warily, very
small for a female of his kind but wily, yes... very clever.

She looked at him in his human form, six
foot two, athletic build, sandy blonde hair. But the eyes were not
green. She didn't know why they were not gold during the Change
like her pack. The Packmaster didn't know why he was a red. There
were so few.

Adi had a speculation about it. The Alphas
weren't keen on listening. Her brother would though. She would tell
him tonight.

Adi looked behind her for a moment, thinking
of Julia... what if? No, it was too weird for words. It was
impossible.

Sacrilegious.

She went forward with the food, it squirmed
and whimpered in her clasp, its fate etched in its eyes.

He began to salivate before she pushed it
through the slot, her wrist and part of her forearm vulnerable to
injury.

The man sprung forward, scooping the prey
out of her grasp and lightly scratched her with his talon as she
withdrew.

Their eyes met for a moment as she snatched
her arm back through the narrow distribution slot. She cradled the
arm against her chest, the blood from the scratch soaking her
T-shirt beneath.

Adi had never been more glad for the two
foot thick partition. She knew who would be the victor between the
two of them if he escaped...

For the first time in her life, Adriana was
scared. Scared of another wolf.

He was more Alpha than any she'd ever
known.

And she didn't scare easy.

William did not have the kiss at his back.
Gabriel wanted Julia back, but not at any cost. It was a
conditional desire.

William's was not. She would be his. Not the
dogs', not some other hapless runner with Singer ancestry. His.

He waited in the woods, the night but a
promise, his brazenness in the darkest part of of the forest a
testimony to his desire to retrieve her from the clutches of the
mongrels. For tonight was their ritual. When the moon wept her
fullness on the Were, they would change. They would feed and they
would consummate their hold on the Rare One.

For as long as William took breath, they
would not.

*

Brendan

The Singer looked both directions and turned to
his sister. “I smell a vamp in these here parts!”

Jen rolled her eyes, not everything was a joke!
“Shut up, they'll hear you...” she folded her arms across her chest
and gave him a look like,
are you kidding me?

Brendan chuckled, grabbing Jen in a bear hug
that left her without enough oxygen. “Knock it off!” she hissed.
“This is serious!”

Brendan nodded soberly, then went off in a
hysterical fit of laughing.

Jen stalked off.

Brothers. She oughta know, she had three.
All Singers, all with plenty of air between their ears. She was the
only sane one in the family.

Brendan stood behind her. “Don't be mad...
it's just,” he shrugged then continued, “the intel says we've got a
'big deal' Singer wrapped up with the Were but they've been wrong
before.” Brendan made a bunch of noise kicking a stone that lay in
a nest of leaves.

William turned his head, hearing a small
sound not of nature, half a mile east from his position. He stood,
trapped in the shadows, the sun a dangerous heat, high and bright
above the safety of the forest's canopy.

Had it been night, he would have discovered
who made the racket.

As it were, he must remain where he was,
steeped in frustration and anxious for the next step. His nemesis,
the sun, rode above him.

All thoughts lead to one:

Julia.

“
Would you stop being so loud?
If you know there's a vamp around why would you provoke
him?”

Brendan grinned, she took all the fun out of
his antagonizing. “He'll fry like a tiki torch, sis. I want a front
seat for that performance.” He smiled wistfully and Jen rolled her
eyes again. Her brothers had a death wish!

He saw Jen's face and laughed.
“Nah. He'll have to park his ass in the woods or some
skulk-position like that until twilight comes. There's no moving
until then. I'm just yanking his undead chain.” Brendan stretched
his long body and tight muscles corded and flexed with the
movement.

Jen wanted to punch him. It
was a two-part reason. One, he was just
that
sure of himself. Two, he could eat enough food
for five people and still look like a GQ model. She scowled at him
and he grinned wider, his teeth flashing white in the semi-gloom of
where they stood in the woods.

“
You remember I've never been
wrong before, right? Smart-ass!”

“
Ooh... language!” Brendan
warned, the smile still plastered on his arrogant mug.

Jen contained herself with effort. “Listen
here, buster. I'm part of that 'intel' you blithely discounted. I'm
precog...”

Brendan muttered under his breath... “A
helluva a lot more than that...”

“
Huh?” Jen said, narrowing her
eyes on his.

Brendan threw his hand against his chest,
fingers splayed. “What? I didn't say anything.”