The Blood Bundle, Books 1-2: Blood Singers and Blood Song (New Adult Paranormal Vampire/Shifter Romance) (35 page)

“I'm saying we have real life werewolves.”

Truman staggered back a step. “No,” he denied,
getting a physical reaction of heat climbing his body
uncomfortably. His mind had spun around the possibility of it,
eventually dismissing it as too unreal.

Alexander paced toward him, ticking off the
facts on his hand, “Canine genome, DNA match, size, aggression,
higher reasoning...” then after a pause, he let the final bomb
drop, “the saliva tells us the final piece.”

Real enough.

Truman leaned forward despite not wanting to,
his heart in his throat, the evidence warring with his disbelief
over anything that was not concrete, normal.

Sane.

“Human genome,” George Alexander said
quietly.

Truman stared at Alexander and he returned it,
the moment swelled with portentous knowledge, belief
solidifying.

Half human, half wolf.

Werewolf.

Alexander was reminded of one of the first
precepts he had learned in med school,
when you hear hoofbeats
behind you, don't expect to see a zebra.

In this case, that's all he heard.

Zebras.

Jason.

Maybe her eyes deceived her but Julia's
heart knew.

She had watched as the feral melted away and
a nearly naked Jason ran to her, staving off her killing blow.

She crashed into him, her arms snapping
around him. His body felt at once shocking familiar and foreign in
her embrace.

It was a moment before she knew something
was wrong as pandemonium broke loose all around her. The different
factions came together at once in a collision of claws, talons and
speed.

Julia was prone on her back before she could
move, breathe. Jason's now-human hands encircled her throat, her
feverish skin burning against his cooler flesh. She frantically
searched eyes that didn't know her, crazed and full of heat and
hate.

Who was he now
? Julia
shrieked inside her head.

Her head swam and she began to grow dizzy,
her stomach cramping as Jason... her husband from another life,
another time... began to choke her to death.

Scott saw the feral return to his human
state and launch himself at Julia. Scott bounded toward the feral
werewolf just as he began to strangle Julia. The feral's mind was
obviously broken.

William understood who it was the instant
the red Were changed into human form. He had seen photos of Julia's
former husband. But this was no longer the husband she knew, his
mind was gone, the wolf in control even while human. Few Singers
could overcome the transition to Were or vampire. It was never
attempted, the results at this moment a confirmation of the
dangerous consequence. The theory borne into fruition.

William charged Jason Caldwell at the
precise moment as Joseph and Tony.

The vampire and Were collided and the forest
grew still except for the sounds of flesh tearing and the battering
of one against the other. Scott landed on the back of the Singer,
aiming a blow to stun him, the vamps and Were fighting behind him,
his siblings making a protective wall around him.

Jason felt the blow on the base of his neck,
numbing in its accuracy and force, he began to slide away from the
woman who he'd been strangling.

He recognized her too late.

Jason fell beside her, meeting her eyes.

Puzzle pieces of memories coming from a
blizzard that twirled without pattern to a solid stream of
consciousness.

This was not any female.

This was his wife.

Julia.

What had he done? He moved to get up and one
of his kind leaped on his chest, knocking the wind out of him.

But not before her eyes had met his and
Jason saw the one that had hit him pick Julia up as the Were and
vampire beat each other into the forest floor, blood covering
everything under five feet in a spinning tornado of gore.

Black and red ran together like a poisonous
lake. He watched the blood of his kind and that of his enemy run
together, his consciousness slipping away, the blow's accuracy
successful in its intent.

Jason's last memory was Julia being taken
from him in the arms of a large man, others like him surrounded
them in a cocoon of protection, the vampire and Were dying and
worse all around him.

He turned his head and looked at the female
Were above him as his eyes closed, exhaustion from the Change and
the revelation of what he'd done and who he was dropping him like a
stone in a tumultuous sea of nothingness.

Jason fell away from her and Julia sucked in
a lungful of precious air, a hitching sob the next sound that
escaped, her abused throat on fire.

Jason had tried to kill her!
It was worse than his death. He lived but wasn't
him!

Two palms cradled her face and forced her to
focus on the one who had saved her from certain death. First by her
own hand, then the death that had been promised by a kiss of hands
that had once loved her.

The electric shock of Scott's hands against
Julia's skin instantly cooled the fever and stopped the internal
turmoil of her stomach's roil. She felt him lift her from the
ground, strong arms wrapped her against his body and he turned, a
silent command which felt like intent rose from him like a sigh and
the others gathered around him like soldiers.

Julia's head burrowed against his chest, her
eyes just clearing his strong arm where they met the stare of Tony,
dead vampire at his feet. William was nowhere to be seen.

Joseph was dead as well.

Tony was the new Alpha.

Fear rose in her instantly. Scott ran in the
opposite direction and the group they left behind became smaller in
her vision, Jason and Adi on the forest floor together. Jason
unconscious and unaware, his head held by Adi.

Adriana's eyes were all for Tony, the victor
over the vampire, his sights solely on Julia.

Tony threw his head back and howled into the
still air of the forest, his rage filling Julia's ears,
reverberating inside her soul like a discordant note of music.

Scott's arms pulsed around
Julia once, tightening with protection.

Scott picked up his pace. The mongrel would
never touch her again.

He'd stake his life on it.

THE END

Blood
Song

Book Two of The Blood Series

by Tamara Rose Blodgett

Blood Song

Book Two of The Blood Series

Copyright 2012 Tamara Rose Blodgett

http://tamararoseblodgett.blogspot.com/

Smashwords
Edition

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Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All rights reserved. Except as permitted
under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication
may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by
any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the
prior written permission of the publisher.

This book is a work of
fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products
of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are
not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or
dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely
coincidental.

All rights are reserved.

Edited by Stephanie T. Lott

Dedication:

Cameren,

Who pressed me to finish
,
Blood Singers,
back in 2007... when it was only a dream. Without his
encouragement, this work would not have come to
fruition~

William and Julia:

She listened to his blood as a melody.

Her blood to William was a symphony.

There really was no comparison....

~Blood Singers

The pain was beyond what she could easily deal
with, her guts twisting without mercy. Julia dry heaved into the
commode for the twelfth time as Jen held her hair away from her
face.

Jen stabbed a wet washcloth in front of her and
Julia grabbed it, swabbing the inside of her mouth.

“You're gonna need some food and water...” Jen
began to nag.

Julia held up her hand like a stop sign, “No
water,” she whispered, her hair falling forward again in limp
strands.

Jen rolled her eyes.
Can we have some GD
self-preservation already
? she wondered.

“Listen, Julia... we have regular tap water
here, ya know, you're not gonna get the shats,” Jen said,
straightening.

Julia groaned, gripping her stomach with her
hands. “Listen,” Jen's voice softened, “let our Healer have a
look.”

“I'll be okay,” Julia shuddered as someone began
to pound on the door.

“Yeah... ya look
so good
,” Jen agreed
sarcastically, noticing how pale Julia was, how her hands trembled
as she pushed her hair behind her ears. Shock, dehydration and lack
of food covered her like a well-worn coat.

“Hey!” Scott shouted from the other side of the
door. “What's going on in there!” The door shuddered under the
assault of his fist.

Julia rolled over on her back, the cool
hexagon-shaped tile pressing against her feverish cheek as she
threw her forearm over her eyes. “Tell him to take a hike!” Julia
hissed.

Jen grinned. If it weren't for the circumstances
this would be truly wonderful. She had never thought she'd live to
see the day when her asshat brother would get all flustered and
brought to heel with a soul-meld.

Bliss.

The door shuddered again from his pounding.
“Julia!” Jen heard the frantic note in his deep voice and walked to
the door.

“Quit it! She's okay,” Jen said through the
door, loving his discomfort in a way that was barely legal.

“Let me in, sister,” Scott delivered with quiet
menace.

Fine,
she thought,
sighing. Jen wrapped her hand around the glass knob and it rattled
as she turned it.

Jen swung the door open and Scott roared past
her into the bathroom where Julia lay on the floor.

Scott had sat on his hands all morning, worried
about Julia, hating it.
Hating her
.

She'd irrevocably changed his life and it didn't
matter that Julia was his, the whole thing had been thrust on him.
But Scott couldn't stop thinking about her. He could feel an echo
of her pain, her emotions.

It was kinda suffocating.

She was ill and his body moved to where she was
like a satellite come to orbit. Where Julia was Scott needed to be.
His emotions didn't really matter.

The loss of choice is what got on Scott's last
nerve.

Though that riot of emotion began to slip away
when he saw the Queen of the Blood Singers on the floor, looking
pale and fragile, her warm blond hair acting as a silken rug around
her. Julia was so weak she didn't even acknowledge his presence,
her face in profile, one cheek pressed against the bathroom
floor.

Scott could feel her indifference, as Julia
could feel his contrary emotions.

Soul-meld stuff.

But it was her plight that spurred Scott to move
to her side, his big frame folding beside her.

Julia looked up at Scott and fought the
soul-meld, even as their insides came together in a perfectly
synchronized mesh of relief. Their parting was not a natural
situation.

Their unity was.

She watched his hand move to brush a hair away
from her face and Julia said, “Don't,” in a low voice.

“Why?” Scott asked, frustration creeping into
his tone.

“Because I know you don't want to,” she replied,
still lying on her back.

“Julia... don't look at me like that.” His eyes
bore down on hers with care, concern and anger.

Julia hiked herself up, glaring at him when he
moved to help her, his hand falling away. When she was upright she
said, “I'll look at you any way I want. After all,” she cocked her
head and pegged him with her bourbon eyes, smoldering with heat,
hatred, “soulmates, right?” she spat with derision.

Jen sucked in the oxygen that remained in the
room.

It wasn't much.

“Actually, it's soul-meld,” Jen stated
unhelpfully.

Julia gave her a withering look.

“Feeling better, pet?” Jen asked with
sarcasm.

“No!” Julia said. Then glared at Scott harder.
Just having him close to her had regulated her body. The illness
from her creek episode was there but his nearness eased her
physically.

She effing hated it.

Scott's eyes narrowed on her, Julia's body
language clear and resolute. How could he be bound to her? He was
definitely not the committing type.

He didn't choose this path.

Julia read his expression. “Don't worry about it
Scott. You were the Big Ass Protector. You've done your Boy Scout
Duty, you can dump my ass now.”

“Julia,” Jen threw up her hands, feeling sorry
for her brother against her will.

No... nothing was stopping him
, Scott
thought, his eyes roving her angry features, those golden eyes
flashing at him inside her pale face. He could feel how sick she
was but more than sickness, Julia was stubborn.

His body ached to make hers right, Scott's hands
clenched at his sides in the effort not to touch her.

It wasn't about choice. Fate had chosen for
them. Through blood. Through destiny.