The Blood Bundle, Books 1-2: Blood Singers and Blood Song (New Adult Paranormal Vampire/Shifter Romance) (64 page)

“
It hurts,” Julia whimpered,
her eyes trying to find Jason.

Jason saw what he'd accidentally done to
Julia and was beyond pissed at himself.

It was the sadness he felt when he saw her
fear of him that killed his spirit. He stopped struggling as the
man that should have been him healed her as she writhed in his
grasp, the pain Jason had caused gradually lessening, a healing
sleep overtaking her as he watched.

Jason breathed easier when he saw color
return to her pale cheeks, her eyelashes fluttered closed as she
began to breathe easier, a slow deep rhythm began. He couldn't
contain the growl as the huge male scooped her up, cradling her
against his chest tenderly. Jason watched as he tucked her
uninjured arm inside his own so it wouldn't dangle and walked off.
As he passed Jason he paused, pegging him with a gaze that measured
him and found him wanting.

“
Don't even try it. Julia is
mine now. The sooner you get that, the better off you'll be. 'Cuz
there's only one other result, wolf.”

“
Yeah? Because in my book
she's still married to me,” Jason said in a voice filled with
certainty, ownership.

Scott bristled and the Combatant responded
to their new King's emotional signature, stiffening in
preparation.

For whatever may occur.

Scott got nose to nose with Jason, their
precious cargo the only barrier between them and Jason got a
lungful of Julia's fragrance and his soul cried out as his anger
flared to life more strongly than ever. The male in front of him
was the ignition to the fire of his emotions as a match was to
timber.

“
Not anymore, pal. Man-up.
You're in the supernatural world now. We don't play human. Get.
Over. It.”

Their eyes locked for a moment more then
Scott moved away, the cascade of Julia's golden hair swinging back
and forth like a pendulum out of rhythm.

Jason smiled. Supernaturals, huh? Well, the
Singer had played that all wrong. It was the first rule of male
anything. Don't drop your eyes from your opponent.

First.

Jason had not. And in his new world, that
meant he was first.

First in battle.

First in rights.

Julia would be his. Soulmate or not.

Jason could play supernatural. Hell yeah he
could.

William

William felt the eyes of his liege on him
and smiled. All hope was not lost. Even as he thought it he felt
more of the Were approach to add numbers to those that were in
attendance at present.

His eyes easily found Julia as
she was carried off by the male Singer and he gave a telepathic
order that was simple:
Follow them.

And with that, the ten vampire who had
belonged to Merlin, slid through the seams of the night, following
the one who would change their lives. Bringing sunlight to
darkness. A living sun to vampire.

Liberty for the Were.

Peace for Blood Singers.

Julia lay sleeping in the arms of the man
that was meant for her as enemies closed in from all sides and
dreamed about her future with the one male that truly protected
her.

Yet, she did not know it.

Julia slept in her soulmate's arms and
dreamed.

Her dreams were not of peace but of war.

Cyn & Adi

Cynthia groaned and rolled over, her stomach
coming up through her throat in a acidic firehose of whatever she
ate last. She emptied the entire thing on the dampened moss that
had been her pillow moments before. When her vision cleared she
took the time to open her eyes and look around. She went to move
and her arms were tethered behind her back, shoulders numb to the
wrist.

That was an alarm clock that the puking hadn't
been.

Gawd,
Cynthia thought, that freak wolf,
the pig of a guy, had cold cocked her and here she was.

No Jules, no escape, just his dumb ass as
company.

Cynthia should have been terrified. Yet, she
wasn't, she was done. The long battle to escape, buy freedom and
safety and eventually find Jules had been for nothing.

Instead, she found herself trussed up like a
turkey for Thanksgiving.

When her eyes landed on Adrianna a spark of hope
ignited. That was beyond awesome, maybe between their smart asses
they could figure a way out.

Adi had a similar reaction but kept her lunch
down with a swallowing effort that was as effective as it was
gross. Her dirty blond hair hung in lank strips, her clothes
covered with dirt.

Cynthia glared when she saw the smaller girl's
lips had been cut by Tony's hand.

Tony came through the trees and saw the girls
rousing from the hurt he'd put on them.

There was more where that came from,
he
thought.

Cynthia saw Tony slide through the trees, so
comfortable with the surroundings her stomach fell. He was a huge
guy, six-three at least, his muscles
constituting
their own
damn zip code.

Cynthia didn't have the problems of denial that
Jules had. She instinctively used the gift that Jules had given her
in return when they'd come together just hours ago.

She healed herself.

Then before Tony could get to Adi, Cynthia
reached out and grasped Adi's ankle with one of her long ass lanky
arms.

Cynthia had never been so glad about her stature
as she reversed the damage that had been vested against Adi.

Tony was incensed when the blonde Singer bitch
tried to help out a female Were that needed a goddamned attitude
adjustment.

In fact, he was just the Were to do it. He was
no stranger to giving females what they needed to keep them in
line. His thoughts touched on that sweet piece of ass he'd had when
he was barely out of whelphood.

What had her name been?
Tony wondered,
remembering as he rushed toward the bound women.

Oh yeah,
Lacey.

Tony smiled at the
memory,
she'd been a fighter, that one.

Adi's eyes widened as Tony's fist crashed
into her temple and Cynthia, who still held fast to her ankle,
puked out blood as the wound disappeared from Adi's head.

Cynthia was absorbing the injury as he
caused it.

Tony couldn't have that.

“
Heal this, bitch!” Tony said,
giving her a brutal punch in the gut as he tore the clothes from
Adi's body.

She couldn't help it, she Changed, her wolf
in a panic to get away from another Were with intent to harm her.
It was immediate, instinctual.

Desperate.

Adi tore the bindings from the tree, shaking
the leaves from the branches as they landed like green rain on Tony
as he tried to subdue Adi with the age-old trick.

Violence.

Cynthia could not stand by while this insane
dickhead raped Adi. She swung her leg up and in a lucky strike that
should have never found purchase, she did. The heel of her sneaker
struck him in the temple as he fumbled with his own clothing, not
in the least deterred by the half-formed wolf Adi had become.

Her talons, small and deadly, sprung from
her fingertips and she stabbed him high and deep in his ribs.

“
Let me go!” Adi said, the
sound of her voice like pebbles of stone rubbing
together.

Cynthia did, the healing touch unable to
transfer to Tony. Adi heaved him off and tore Cynthia's
bindings.

Cynthia took a step back, looking up at a
girl that was now standing at just over six foot of light gray
muscle and teeth.

“
Shake it off, Cyn! Let's
go... can ya run?” Adi asked her and Cyn stood there in semi-shock.
Adi's face scrunched up, her delicate snout rippling with the
movement and Cyn burst out laughing as Tony flipped over on his
back, groaning.

Healing.

Adrianna turned, landing a rib-shattering
kick on top of the stabbing wound.

Tony howled and Adi grabbed Cynthia. “We've
go to go, this turd will wake up... and then we're in deep
shit!”

Adi got down on her hands and knees like a
small horse and yelled at Cynthia, “Get on! Hang on to my
fur...”

This is weird as hell
,
Cynthia thought, leaping unsteadily onto the back of
Adi.

The weregirl.

Cyn gave a giggle and realized that hysteria
was the next step and clamped her damn mouth shut. She had to
survive this effing mess. She pressed her face against her friend's
neck and Adi leaped, running. Fueled by fear, propelled by the
healing energy that Cynthia had fed her.

They ran into the deepest part of the
woods.

As Tony woke he staggered to his feet,
whipping his face around.

Dammit!
He screamed
silently, his side a throbbing nightmare. He would need to hunt.
Unlike that bitch Singer, he couldn't heal shit without
meat.

And blood.

He would hunt.

Then Tony would find those female dogs and
cut them down. Using methods unique to him.

He smiled as he scented the wind for what
would give him energy.

*

Jacqueline

Jacqueline smiled, she'd found a wonderful
old homestead, falling apart but with an adequate roof and plopped
down onto a dusty mattress that was not to her liking but would do
until she was able to procure more suitable accommodations.

With a flick of her graceful fingers she
began a fire from nothing in the deep masonry fireplace that was
centrally located in the cabin, enjoying the heat made by her
abilities.

Which were many.

The Region One Singers had been foolish to
dismiss her so readily. After all, she had enough royal blood to be
something to reckon with on her very own.

If things had gone her way just to the
smallest degree, Julia Caldwell would have been unable to Awaken
before the killing dust could be laid. She would have expired, as
planned, and the Combatant and all of the Regions would have been
under her power. Now, Julia was in a cocoon of security laid by
blood magic that even Jacqueline, with all her scheming could not
undo.

However, there might be one little loophole
that she could yank that would upset that delicate balance before
it was fully realized.

If she could but stop the mating of her
biological son and Julia, if she could halt the inevitable, then
the mating of their souls would not occur, but remain
unfinished.

They needed to meld
body
and
soul.

Jacqueline knew that the consummation of
their union had not yet taken place, the soul almost always melded
first, then the body followed.

There was the slimmest margin of opportunity
for usurpation remaining.

What to do in the ninth hour when her most
trusted advisor was now in the protective grips as a Combatant?
Jacqueline tapped her fingers against the dusty metal-like cage
that held the mattress.

When the crashing of bodies moved through
the forest Jacqueline commanded the door of the old cabin to open,
the hinges squeaking in violent protest to the slamming of the wood
against them.

Jacqueline saw the new Singer upon the back
of the Were, her pale blond hair a horizontal flag behind her, the
color standing out like a beacon against the earthen tones of the
forest.

She rolled a fallen long in the path of the
graceful she-wolf, nothing more than a streak of silver and at the
last moment it glanced at Jacqueline, giving her eyes that were
somehow like the Queen's, gold fire.

Then Adi rolled into a broken heap of pewter
fur, landing with a hard thump against a trunk of a old growth fir,
its sentinel gaze having seen centuries of creatures, this one no
different.

Cynthia was held in the protective arms of
Adi even as she hit the tree and was flung to the side.

She sobbed, crawling over to the wounded
Were who had become her friend, her lungs crushed, ribs broken.

Cynthia reached out and gave her what she
had.

And found her energy had dried up. Cynthia
snapped her head up, looking around and found dark eyes on her
face, a hand straight out and pointed at herself.

What bitch was this?
Cynthia thought.

Jacqueline smiled as she smoothly Deflected
the Healer's ability with the she-wolf.

It was not only the gift of her beauty that
she had given Scott, but his Deflector ability as well.

She used the secondary ability now, trying
to contain the Healer's raw skill. New and untrained, wild like a
river running without a course.

Cynthia turned when she heard what
approached from behind their position.

Tony bounded through the low brush,
circumnavigating the fallen trees with ease.

Jacqueline saw him come and stopped him with
a flick of her hand, her primary ability more powerful than almost
all Singers.

She used that telekinetic discharge with
precision and expertise, arresting his forward motion easily.

“
Well, well...” Jacqueline
said, shifting her gaze from the blonde Singer struggling to heal
the grievous injuries Jacqueline had caused to the Were before
finally appraising the huge male Were.

This was most excellent,
Jacqueline thought in excitement. Look at how the pawns on
her chessboard had arrived.

She was ready to play.

The time was now.

*

Slash

Slash broke the spell cast by the Rare One,
shaking it off with difficulty. He had a job to do and just because
she had Awoken, found her blood... whatever, didn't affect his
mission.

He was to guard Cynthia Adams. It had been a
directive from the First of his Packmaster.