The Blood Bundle, Books 1-2: Blood Singers and Blood Song (New Adult Paranormal Vampire/Shifter Romance) (63 page)

He lowered his head to hers, their lips brushing
softly in a kiss so chaste it was air and skin. When Scott lifted
his head, his gaze was met by the three groups and he knew what
must be done.

He spoke and Were, Vampire and Singer lent an
ear.

*

Were

Alan ran with the Northwestern Pack seamlessly,
a rare red moving amongst them.

He was familiar with Karl Truman.

Before his Change.

Alan Greene moved alongside the former policeman
like brethren, his half-human/wolf form lengthening in graceful
strides. The same lineage as the Feral who had been captured two
years prior in a botched Alaskan acquisition. It had been pivotal
in starting the whole miserable ball rolling that they now found
themselves steeped in.

Alan had known he'd make an excellent wolf.

Unfortunately, he was Alpha, as was the case
with many Reds. Alan kept his pleasure tightly veiled from Lawrence
and Ford, who had received disturbing communique of a possible
treaty of sorts with Region One of the Singers.

They would acquire Julia Caldwell before the
vamps did. Before the Singers put the whole Region in lockdown.
Lawrence had bemoaned the news.

A treaty was not the way of the Were.

War was.

The group tore toward the Singer Compound,
pouring on speed, the wind a taste of flavors on their tongues.

Alan's thoughts briefly touched on the Alpha
from the pack they had aligned themselves with and hoped that there
was a way to end him.

Lacey would always need Alan's protection until
such time that an Alpha male could capture her trust.
If that
could ever happen,
he thought,
his sister was
broken
.

Yes,
Alan determined, he would use cover
of the Singer uprising as a perfect camouflage for the demise of
the one that had thought to injure a female Were. That Anthony
Laurent had risen as high as Beta in the pack reflected poorly on
the Northwestern Den.

The fool.

Alan had simply been biding his time until
everything came together in a perfect position to play his
hand.

Like now.

*

Northwestern Kiss

Gabriel raised his head from the sentries who'd
whispered the disturbing news.

Dual and deadly.

William had been subjected to the most severe
torture that Merlin could dispatch, Gabriel's worse fear. He'd
meant to waylay him, delay the acquisition of the volatile Rare
One. Gabriel could not afford the losses she'd inadvertently
brought on his head. The top of his kiss to the bottom, flooded
with loss and death because of her presence. Julia Caldwell had not
strengthened the position of his kiss as he had hoped but left it
weakened.

What was even more disturbing was the news of
Merlin's death.

From the account of his spies, buried deeply
within Southeastern's ranks, his guts had been found in a twine
about his neck. He had slowly suffocated on his own entrails. His
blood level nonexistent.

Gabriel paced, his tall body stiffly moving
within the cavern-like confines of his gigantic meeting area that
was more than living quarters but much like a small house. Because
of his Rare One status, no form of sunlight bothered him and his
vampiric powers without the need for blood were always at his
disposal. That is why Gabriel stood bathed in natural light as the
one hundred year old skylights of muted violet glass cast circular
shadows on the cobblestone ground beneath his feet.

That is where Claire found him when she entered
without knocking.

She strode to him, arresting his stride as if
she called out to him and slapped his face with a ringing that
bounced against the walls and back at them in an echo.

“You heathen!” Claire yelled, a light layer of
spittle beaded on her parted lips, her passion unrestrained.

Gabriel grabbed her wrists and held them with a
brutal clamp that was instantly painful and she gasped.

Then he took her by the shoulders and gave her a
hard shake, yelling into her upturned face, “It was not my intent
for William to be injured! It was Merlin that broke the bounds of
our gentleman's promise, Claire!” His fair complexion instantly
gave way to ruddy color, his eyes searching hers intently for
understanding.

“Yet he suffers! And what of Julia?” she asked,
glaring as he released her shoulders and she rubbed her wrists
where he'd held them, trying to take away the pain he'd laid
there.

Gabriel gave her his back. “She is a liability.
Let another kiss deal with what she brings.”

“You disgust me. It is the vampire that needed
discipline in their actions against the Rare One. It was not for
William to take on as an individual crusade with not one vampire at
his back. Now he is amongst enemies yet again... faced with a Rare
One who may...”

“He is now the leader of the Southeastern
Kiss.”

A deep hush fell over the room that lasted
minutes.

“Oh no,” Claire said sadly.

“Yes,” Gabriel said in a low voice.

“William will seek retribution against this
kiss.”

“He will be within his rights to do so.”

“If he is in command of Julia, then we will
never... we will not have a chance.”

He turned, his face in profile and Claire
watched him, waiting with her breath held within a breastbone grown
frozen with anxiety and cold knowledge.

“You are quite right. We need to be ready, as a
kiss. For he will come.”

“Maybe he can forgive us. Forgive you?” Claire
asked hopefully.

“I would not,” Gabriel said with finality.

Claire hung her head.

It was worse than she feared.

*

Tony

Tony felt like the time was nearly perfect and
grabbed Cynthia as she stood despondently, watching her best friend
become united with another Singer.

Tony was nothing if not the most opportunistic
of his kind and recognized right away that the Rare One was out of
reach. Combining his natural inclination to stealth with his lack
of morality he gave a blow to the Singer, who had the handy ability
of Healer he'd noted. It caused her to slump bonelessly. His fellow
Were and the rest of the contingent were held as a captive audience
by the Rare One and the male Singer.

He caught her neatly and placed her limp form
behind a tree.

Tony smiled with satisfaction at the pussy Feral
who was all sissified over the bitch that had chosen another.

Tony knew how he'd handle that. Yesiree. Easy as
pie.

Death to challengers.

He figured Jason Caldwell was a slow learner. Or
maybe he simply was not wolf enough to do what needed doin'.

That was great for Tony, while Jason was
distracted, there was no one that was keeping an eye on his
activities.

Adi turned, that phantom instinct that someone
was behind her just a second too late as she'd slid to human form,
her wolf quiet inside her body.

Tony did not, keeping his half-formed shape for
just the advantage he laid against her in that moment.

She gave the softest growl as his elongated paw
struck her. Adi went down, the blow making her vision gray and her
last glance giving her the knowledge of her dismal future.

And that of Cynthia Adams.

Slaves of a Were of ruthless intent.

Adrianna watched as her vision diminished to a
pinhole and Tony scooped up an unconscious Cyn.

Then he came for her.

She could see Tony smile in the moonlight as he
did.

Then her consciousness turned like the
night.

Black.

*

Jason and William looked at each other, stepping
away from the glowing couple as Scott spoke.

His wolf clawed to take action, nearly tearing
out of his now-human form.

It screamed that his female was being marked by
another.

Yet he stood there.

Because his Julia was no longer his. As Jason
listened his anger did not melt, his vehement need to consummate
their barely-there marriage didn't diminish.

His clarity deepened.

“As many of you may be aware, what has
transpired here was foretold inside the Book of Blood...” Scott
began, Julia tucked underneath his arm, his heartbeat in sync with
her own.

When Marcus broke in Scott allowed it
gratefully, formality had never come easily to him. He wanted
nothing more than to take his new mate and get to know her.

Scott smiled at his thoughts.

Julia thought at him,
I hear that!

Oh crap,
Scott heard
himself think.

Yeah, that,
Julia
thought back.

Scott locked down his emotions, thoughts. He
knew how, he was classically trained for all that.

Julia wasn't and he got a tongue-lashing
while his father went on.

Scott realized he probably deserved it.

Marcus ignored the obvious internal
conversation between the newly soulmated couple and turned to the
crowd; usually and at all times enemies, frozen for a rare moment
in time. Perhaps with some well-chosen words, he could gain their
attention and the final prophesy of the Book of Blood would come to
fruition.

Unity between the species.

It had been foretold. Perhaps these three
groups would come together and a treaty of sorts could begin. One
that would be far-reaching, encompassing all the groups and
spreading to the four corners of the earth. Peace had always been
Marcus' hope.

He spread his palms away from his body in a
universal sign of non-aggression. “Julia and Scott have been united
in the Old Way. Through blood sacrifice and ritual healing, their
union has begun, their path laid. A royal pair will come together
upon the Awakening of the Queen and the Circle of the Combatant
shall close for the protection of the Queen.”

Jason's face closed down.
There'd never been a chance. It didn't even matter that he'd been
injured, become a werewolf. All that mattered for shit.
His wife.

His wife for shit's sake.

She stood in the arms of her supposed
centuries portended soulmate and he had to sit there and take
this?

Jason's wolf dismissed the words of the
Singer leader, his nose scenting the dim relation to the huge male
that held Julia.

Jason counted three heartbeats before he
Changed as he rushed them.

No male would steal his
female
, his wolf howled. Jason was buried in
there somewhere... but the wolf had taken over and it didn't
understand reason.

It only understood dominance.

The Combatant were too far away and only
Scott was close enough to protect his mate. Unconsummated but
his.

Given to him by fate.

Gifted by destiny.

As the husband of Julia came in a ripple of
scarlet muscle and fur Scott stepped in front of her. His body was
a living shield, while skin and flesh sloughed off during Jason's
charge like a snake shedding its skin.

Julia saw red water flow over Jason and his
humanity left and a raging blur of crimson came for them and she
screamed, Scott using that incredible strength and speed that all
Singer males possessed to protect her.

But Julia knew this time that Jason wasn't
after hurting her.

She had Awakened and did what being Queen
had given her.

Julia held her hand out and as if an
invisible wind could be harnessed, she deflected Jason's progress
seamlessly, veering him off course like a sail boat without a
rudder.

He rolled and crouched in readiness and
Julia said in a low voice, full of command, “Enough.” The moment
strangled her in the surreal. Reality slipped as she watched the
man she had loved in her life before become something different,
something alien.

Jason howled his frustration and leapt.

Julia was startled, having pulled back her
power when he'd fallen. She'd thought it was over, reason and logic
reasserting itself.

She was so wrong.

He wrapped his half-formed hand around her
small forearm and jerked, bringing Scott with him, his fist
connecting with Jason's snout.

Julia in the middle.

When her arm broke the scream of pain was
torn from her throat like a siren wail and the Combatant moved in.
The events that transpired had lasted only seconds.

Three held the great red wolf down and a
fourth got ready to deliver a blow that would have killed him when
Julia said, “Stop,” in a low moan of determination laced with
pain.

The fist held, raised like a boulder of
death above the wolf.

They faced each other and Julia gazed into
the face of the man who was technically her husband. “Stop hurting
me, Jason. Just leave me alone...” she said, the first tears of
many leaking out of her eyes.

Emmanuel came and took in the scene, keeping
enough distance to keep the alert of Singer warriors off him. He
knew theirs was a lost cause, the Feral having put the whole of
everything in jeopardy.

Jason opened his mouth and the fist raised
higher, he snapped his jaws back together with a teeth grinding
clink.

“
Get him out of here,” Scott
said, then added, “before I kill him myself.” He gathered Julia
into his arms, carefully taking her broken arm into both
hands.

Marcus jogged to the pair and looked into
his son's volatile eyes. “You can heal her now, Scott. She is your
blooded soulmate. It is but one benefit, use it now.”

Scott did, knowing instinctively how to
react. He had been raised with the Singer training his entire life
and used those lessons that he'd not ever embraced before. He used
them now.

Gathering Julia close he breathed onto the
wounded arm as Jason struggled against Emmanuel, the Combatant
releasing him to the Were while keeping a watchful eye on him.