The Blood Bundle, Books 1-2: Blood Singers and Blood Song (New Adult Paranormal Vampire/Shifter Romance) (30 page)

When he had the male in his grip, he would
ascertain what that enigmatic detail was.

*

Brendan

Brendan had watched Julia from a safe distance.
She wore her discontent readily, he thought. Brendan sighed, he
couldn't contain the Fam and knew not to even try. It was obvious
Julia felt off-kilter, unsettled. Who wouldn't be? First the vamps
took her, then the Were. He didn't know much about her past. They'd
find out more later. There may be extenuating circumstances. After
all, she was their Queen. Marcus had raised them on the legend, as
his father had before him. He'd demand to know more.

He gazed at her a moment. She didn't look very
queenly. She was slim, average height for a female. Her coloring
was different, he slowed his pace, studying her. Julia had a
unique, soft golden red hair color. But it was her eyes that took
his breath away, they matched her hair, depending on the light.
They were amber in indirect light but in the sun, they rivaled the
orb's brightness.

He walked toward her and she jumped as if he
startled her. He gave a short flick of his fingers, sort of an
unconscious waving the white flag. She waved back and he smiled,
walking the rest of the way toward her. He was puzzled by the
expression on her face.

She looked for a moment there like she was
assessing him. Taking his measure as a man.

Brendan's smile widened into a grin. Now that...
he kinda liked.

When he reached her and she didn't seem
resistant, he took Julia into his arms, giving her a brief hug then
releasing her. She smelled like a ripe piece of fruit and he
instantly wondered if it was the shampoo or her. Brendan stepped
back, reluctantly letting her go, his fingers trailing lightly down
her arms, causing goose flesh to rise where their contact had
been.

Then it hit him. A smell so unique he couldn't
name it. But it was familiar. Brendan swung his head in the
direction of the woods that bordered the opposite side of the
lake.

Julia leaned into the hug that Brendan had given
her and sighed. She allowed herself that moment's peace then
stepped away. Her chest tightened horribly. Her loneliness
constricted her heart. She was desperately alone. At least it felt
that way.

As a matter of fact, in only a few more days it
will have been two years since Jason died. Tears threatened at the
thought of it but were chased away by the sudden expression of
wariness that washed over Brendan's features.

Julia looked around, frightened. They said she
was safe! She whirled on Brendan just as he grabbed her.

“Let's get outta here!” he said, dragging her
after him.

“What is it?” she asked on a half-jog. But he
didn't answer until they had traveled the short distance to the
house. When they bounded up the wide, wooden steps and were nearly
at the front door he turned, taking her shoulders. “There's
something in the woods!” His eyes searched hers, the grip cupping
her shoulders almost painful.

“What?” she cried. Was it vampire? Were? What
the hell... trolls? Could there be more mythological creatures
springing to life to kidnap her away from the one group that she
actually belonged to?

Jen stepped out the front door, letting the
screen crack back against the wood frame. The noise of it
reverberated everywhere. She took in Brendan's expression. Her
eyebrows came together. “What's wrong?” Jen looked from Julia to
Brendan.

Julia looked at Jen, “How did you know there was
something wrong?”

Jen flicked her eyes at Julia, “It's a sib
thing.”

Julia waited. Finally Brendan said, “It's that
Were from the compound.”

Jen rolled her eyes. “Thanks for clearin' that
up, bro! What, there's like... a hundred or something?”

They looked at each other and Julia watched
their expressions. Jen spoke first, “You mean that giant red
one?”

He nodded, “Yeah, that's him.”

Julia remembered almost going to him, the
connection was so strong. What could it mean?

Jen looked at her and huffed. “This is some of
the awful crap that can happen...” she sighed and looked at
Brendan. His eyes turned away from hers, trained on the woods
beyond the lake.

At that moment Scott and Michael came walking
from the big barn that acted as Training Facility for Singers.
There wasn't a laugh or smile on their faces to be found. Not that
she'd expected one from Scott. But Michael had been downright
jovial in the two days since she'd been with them.

Julia looked at all of them. “Okay, I give up.
What's lurking around in the woods that has everyone's collective
underwear in a wad? You guys are scaring me!”

Finally, Brendan said, “We think...” Jen glared
at him and he shook his head, resigned. “I think,” he emphasized,
“that we have a Singer who's been turned.”

Julia stepped forward. “I don't get it... turned
how?”

Michael shook his head to the negative. “Not
how... what.”

Julia sat there and let the idea take shape,
blooming in her head like an ugly flower. Her eyes snapped to
Brendan's. “Wait a second!” Her eyes pierced theirs. “You're
telling me that we've got someone out there that was one of us...
and now some Were or vamp has... changed them?”

Scott nodded. “Yeah, that's about it,” folding
his muscular arms across a barrel chest.

Jen turned to Brendan. “You're sure, Bren?”

“Werewolf,” he said tersely. Julia watched her
shoulders droop. “They're the worst.”

“What's with all this? It can't be saved?” Julia
asked to the group.

Brendan shook his head. “He.”

It was a man. A Singer like herself, turned. Her
gaze swung back to Brendan's. “Did... he
want
to be a
werewolf?”

Scott answered, “Doubtful. The attacking Were
would've known he was a Singer. Don't know why they'd do a Singer.
After all, they need Singers to produce...” he lifted his fingers
in sarcastic air quotes, “a Rare One.” His eyes met hers, filled
with loathing and derision. Somebody wasn't happy with her status.
Like she could goddamned help it!

What the hell had she done to piss in his
Wheaties? The putz. Julia felt her eyes narrow as heat suffused her
face. In anger. He glared right back at her.

“What's your problem?” Julia asked.

Scott met the challenge in her words and stalked
toward her as Brendan put her behind his back. “What are you doing,
Scott?” Brendan ground out.

“It's her fault! He's after her!” His eyes found
all of theirs and then went back to Julia. Well, she wasn't going
to hide behind Brendan. She came from behind him and Brendan said
in a low voice full of threat, “Don't you hurt her.”

“Our queen?” he asked mockingly, putting his
hand to his chest and looking at Julia like she was a piece of
garbage on the bottom of his shoe. “Never! She is safe as a
sleeping babe in the cradle of her mother's bosom!” he snarled,
barely contained rage making his face more handsome, not less.

“Stop it, Scott!” Jen hissed.

“No!” he yelled back and she flinched.

Julia got right up in his personal space,
defying logic as he was six foot three at least and built like a
brick shit house, all brawn and anger. “I can't be that safe
because I don't
have
a mother,” she poked his solidly
muscled chest with her finger for emphasis and he didn't move a
centimeter. “I don't know what I did to get on the top of your shit
list, but I assure you, it wasn't on purpose!” Julia was shaking
with rage but continued, “I watched my husband die,” their eyes
widened while Scott's narrowed, “my best friend is gone forever, my
parents dead. I was with the vampires, then the Were and now I'm
with you. I have to be queen? of the Blood Singers? Maybe I don't
want the job!” And with that last comment she pushed him in the
chest, but it came out more like a slap, harder than she meant it
to be, kinda like hitting a tree. Her anger overrode even the
pretense of common sense.

He wrapped his huge hands around her small
wrists and jerked her into his body. The siblings were too late to
help, to stop it.

The moment he touched her the branding fire of
his flesh on hers was complete. Neither expected it.

Neither welcomed it.

Julia's soul bound to Scott's in one earth
shattering moment of clarity, as natural as the breath she took,
she felt their beings knitting together and she gasped, it was
almost painful.

He breathed out, “No.” Even as he staggered back
his hands went for her again, but Brendan was there. “What's wrong
with you, Scott?! What are you doing?”

Jen and Michael looked at each other then at
Julia. She was breathing shallowly, her body a throbbing mass of
unquenched desire, longing and absolution.

Her eyes never left his.

Julia didn't even like Scott.

Then Marcus was there, their leader. He looked
from one to the other of them, instant understanding riding his
face with certainty, their unity a thing that sizzled in the air
all around them.

“Soulmates!” he extolled.

Julia looked from the leader and obvious father
of the family who surrounded her as she leaned weakly against
Brendan's chest, her back pressed against his warmth and comfort,
her eyes fixed on Scott's.

His were filled with anger and hate.

Directed at her.

They couldn't be soul-anything. It was obvious
Julia wasn't someone he wanted, respected... liked.

She tore herself out of Brendan's arms and ran
inside the house. Taking the steps two at a time she rushed into
the bedroom they'd given her and slammed the door, using the
old-fashioned skeleton key to lock it. She backed away until her
thighs pressed against the bed. Julia sunk down into the mattress,
the firmness of it a temporary cradle to her sadness.

Could things get any more screwed up if she'd
wished for it? She put her face in her hands and cried while off in
the distance she heard a sound.

A howl.

*

Singers

“Tell me,” Marcus said, his eyes like slits on
his grown children. “And it better be good.”

Everyone began talking at once. Finally Michael
took the conversational reins, “Brendan came back with news of a
Singer turned Were...”

“What?!” Marcus roared, his eyes casting a wide
net at the surrounding area.

Brendan shook his head. “It's in the woods for
now. But... it will find its way here. Soon.”

“Male?” Marcus queried.

They nodded. Marcus looked at Scott. “I
understand your sentiments about the Queen. That you've never
adjusted to the idea of it.”

Jen rolled her eyes. “Adjusted, Dad? Try
anarchy! That'd be more like it.” She looked at her oldest brother.
So sure of himself, nothing ever bothered him. He fought with a
skill unmatched by any other Singer in their quadrant. He was the
number one Deflector of their band of Singers, but one female
Singer came to them, the queen and he'd lost his status of
independence. That's what a soul-meld would do. The irony wasn't
lost on Jen. She felt a little sorry for Scott. It would suck
hating his soulmate but being bonded to her anyway. And Julia
impressed Jen as independent. She felt a smile curl her lips.

“And now I'm bound to her!” Scott roared, his
lip curling with distaste.

Above them, Julia listened from the window that
was ajar. It was fine that Scott didn't want her. He was stubborn
and... mean and ugh! Julia didn't even like him! She'd do better on
her own. She felt confident enough with her telekinetic ability to
get by.

Julia didn't want to be queen. And she didn't
care if there was some “soul-meld” or whatever. She couldn't get
out of being a Blood Singer. Or a Rare One. But she didn't have to
be here. In this place, with someone that hated her.

She looked around her room. A profound
melancholy slipped through her, her being still tingling from the
encounter with Scott. Julia shoved away how painfully right it had
felt to be in his arms for that one moment.

He hated her anyway so it didn't matter.

Julia grabbed the only coat in the room and
slipped out quietly, heading down the staircase that exited the
back of the house. It had once been a little-used servant's
staircase. She used it now in circumspection.

She utterly missed the most important part of
the conversation.

If she had, she may have hesitated.

As it was, Julia was heading into the arms of
danger.

Marcus looked at his eldest son and sighed.
Scott had excelled at everything, his training, his ability, his...
conquests. But his stubbornness was his biggest flaw. He had fought
long and hard to let the legend of the Queen of the Blood Singers
die a natural death. She did not exist, he'd argued, it was only
legend. But Marcus remembered the reverent way that his father had
discussed her Coming. He knew that Julia was the queen.

If her scent was not sufficient confirmation,
she had the mark of the moon branded on her forehead, as foretold.
The pearly crescent shone at her temple, a testimony to her
position amongst them.

Scott could deny it until he was blue in the
face. But Brendan was one of their finest Trackers.

His nose never lied.

Then there was the soul-meld. His eye's met his
son's. Only Singers of royal blood could soul-meld. It was a double
confirmation.

“Hate her if you will. But remember this,” and
he spoke to all of them but directed his words at Scott, “she has
been through many traumas. We don't know what... or how many. What
did she tell you?”

Jen told him what Julia had said to Scott.

Marcus threw up his hands. “So what we have here
is a Singer who lost a husband...”

“Infant bride-much,” Michael muttered and
Marcus' brow cocked.