The Blood Bundle, Books 1-2: Blood Singers and Blood Song (New Adult Paranormal Vampire/Shifter Romance) (67 page)

“
Come... Were,” Jacqueline began to walk away, her body
showing that that path of conversation was clearly over.

Tony gave a great exhale then
followed.

“
I suppose you have some plan, Singer?” Tony asked in a low
voice, the growl of his kind threaded through it as they moved
through the forest, the smell of the woods overwhelming to his
sensitive nose.

Jacqueline didn't feel warned; he
could do nothing. Only a certain type of Were was a danger and this
Were of the black posed no threat. Less than a threat, if the truth
were known. But Jacqueline was all about the tools at her disposal.
And that is what Tony was to her.

A tool. Jacqueline buried a snicker,
though she was quite sure he could scent some of the emotion behind
it. However, with her Tracker abilities, she could scent as well.
The advantage was hers. After all, he knew not what she possessed
and his skill set was an open book.

Perfection. “I
do
have a plan as a
point-of-fact,” Jacqueline replied.

Tony stilled, grabbing her thin arm.
She quirked a brow, looking at his hand on her like it was
something filthy.

“
Bite me,” he said with a smirk.

Jacqueline flushed with anger and
opened her mouth to deliver a scathing quip when he put a finger to
his lips. “They come from the east.”

Jacqueline could sense nothing, smell
nothing. “Who comes?” she asked instead of the retort she had
planned.

Tony growled low in his throat. “The
Packmaster of the Northwestern den... and one that my nose doesn't
recognize.”

They stood for a few moments in a
wood gone still. The small animals hid as the unnatural predators
closed in around them. Jacqueline wondered why she couldn't sense
them while Tony wondered what could be done. Their thought
processes were not known to each other but were eerily the
same.

“
Ah!” Jacqueline hissed.

“
Yeah,” Tony agreed.

Jacqueline swiveled to him, her
skirts swirling and getting caught in the debris of the forest, her
eyes flashing like black fire. “Tell me you can do
something.”

“
I can't...” he reluctantly admitted. “What about you? You're
this tight-ass Singer...”

His airway began to close and his
palm flew up in supplication, the bitch stole his breath... and not
in a good way. “I didn't mean it as a dis....”

It opened with a gasping
release.

“
Jacqueline,” she said in way of off-handed
introduction.

Tony nodded as he made his hand stay
by his sides instead of going to his throat. He wouldn't give the
bitch the satisfaction.

“
I simply meant maybe you could
sense
something.”

“
No,” she said curtly.

Well, damn- chop my nuts
off,
Tony thought.

Jacqueline paced, a ripple of
disquiet building as the scent of the pack grew
stronger.

Suddenly, Jacqueline knew what to
do.

“
I'll cover our tracks while you squire us away.”

“
How?” he scoffed.

“
Is the
how
of it really important?” she asked, crossing her arms in
impatience.

Tony could smell the other Were.
They'd take them and for some reason, the Singer bitch's skills
were down for the count. Too bad she was all up his ass. Why
couldn't she have a blank spot with him?

His fucking luck.

Jacqueline didn't ask his permission
and he remained silent. Of course he wanted to know what kind of
Singer mojo she had going on. But it was obvious she had the upper
hand.

For now.

He watched Jacqueline's symmetrical
features distort in concentration. When Tony's sense of smell left
him, he felt blind. He was so used to the million different scents
that had always been a part of his existence.

“
What have you done?” he whispered.

“
I have the ability to Negate others’... talents.”

“
I can't fucking smell my own ass. I'm nose-blind,” Tony
growled, his fists bunching by his sides.

She smiled. “Good. As I don't want to
be party to you partaking in an orifice fest.”

He scowled at her. “Good?
Hell
no
, we're
goddamned blind...”

Jacqueline folded her arms again
underneath her breasts and Tony's eyes dipped down to take in the
sight. She stared at him for a pregnant moment. “You're a crude
beast...,” she stated as fact.

Because it was.

“
Tony,” he said in a delayed introduction.

“
Well, Anthony...” Jacqueline said slowly as she circled him.
“I do not have a highly refined mastery as Negator so... the best I
could do was blanket a five mile radius. If it were my primary
skill, I could have left you in a 'scent bubble' that encapsulated
you and left everyone else senseless. Alas, I cannot.” She looked
into his eyes and he glowered back at her.

Tough broad,
he thought with the beginnings of grudging
admiration.

“
Fine,” he said. “Get on.”

He burst his skin and it slid off
like a snake's. The gunk, blood and sloughed marrow pooled into the
absorbent forest floor, dampening it with his
transition.

Jacqueline tensed at the harsh speed
of the change, then went to him. She grimaced as her clothing
became ruined with the residue of the change, her hem six inches
deep in his human cast-offs.

“
Where?” he asked in a voice filled with gravel, pained by
the rapid change he'd forced on himself.

She bent and whispered into his ear.
Tony's smile was worn strangely by the face of his wolf.

His admiration for Jacqueline grew.
She was diabolically clever.

Tony might spare her after all... if
she could be bent to his agenda.

*

Cyn and Adi stopped running, their
hands on their knees, chests heaving. Cyn had a killer stitch in
her side, putting both hands on her side, bending over at the waist
as she did. This sucked.

Adi stood first. “That blew
goats.”

Cyn laughed. “Yeah...
totally.”

“
Who is that bitch?” Adi asked, her nose involuntarily moving
toward where they'd just come and finding her usually deft senses
dulled. She gave a frown, her dark blonde hair falling forward and
hiding half her face.

Cyn shrugged. “She's the one who hurt
Jules.”

Adi frowned. “How do ya know?” Her
root beer brown eyes earnest.

Cyn squirmed from the question. She
was gonna sound like a tard. “Well... here's the thing. I just
became... something. That Singer thing you were talking about?
Yeah, that.” Cyn stood, her breathing still irregular. “And now...
well when I healed Julia there was a...” Cyn stopped, her pale
green eyeballs rolling upward, thinking. “A... taste to the
poison.”

“
Poison?” Adi asked, her frown deepening to a
scowl.

Cyn nodded. “Oh yeah, it was poison
and somehow, the bearer of the shit leaves their mark.”

“
Like a signature?” Adi asked.

“
Yeah. Good call, mutt.”

“
Huh,” Adi said, head bent, her face speculative. It wasn't a
good look.

“
Hey, I didn't mean anything by it,” Cyn said,
backtracking.

Adi met her eyes, ignoring the dig.
“I screwed up, big time. I should've...”

“
What? That whack job... she mowed you over with her head,”
Cyn said, tapping her temple. “There's nothing you could have done,
Adi,” she said, looking down at the much shorter girl.

“
Yeah,” Adi agreed like she didn't believe it, still looking
at her feet.
For all her bravado, she sure
takes a lot of the responsibility on her shoulders,
Cyn thought.

The girls stood quietly for a time
then Adi said, “It's time to make our way back.”

Cyn shook her head. “No, they'll be
expecting that. It's not safe.”

“
It's safe,” a voice said from out of the forest.

“
Holy shit!” Cyn yelped, stumbling backward and Adi grinned
with relief.

“
What's so damn funny?” Cyn asked, insulted. “I think a drop
of pee came out!”

“
They're Were... and I know them.” Adi's confidence returning
in one fell swoop.

“
Friendly?” Cyn asked, putting a tree trunk in front of her
like a shield. Not that it'd do a damn bit of good. She'd seen a
Were throw another halfway through a tree, felling it as smoothly
as an ax. Yup, things were so
not
okay if they weren't friends.

Then several things happened at
once.

Two large males moved into the open
patch of forest between stands of trees.

They were in half-wolf form, which
was creepy as hell, but Cyn was getting used to it. Which was its
own slice of weirdness. She recognized the first one instantly and
was relieved. The second one Cyn recognized seconds
later.

They were kinda naked so strong eye
contact was advised. The answer to the age old question was: no,
fur doesn't cover everything. Still, it was like when you knew you
weren't supposed to scratch, it made ya itch with wanting to. Cyn
realized it was pervy but when a bunch of half-werewolf men were
walking around with their macho commando action...
well...

Then after several heartbeats of
scrutiny she began to realize that the third was Karl Truman from
Homer. Cyn blinked slowly.

Truman stepped forward as she took a
step back.

“
Cynthia Adams,” he growled and Adi cocked a pale brown
eyebrow at Cyn in surprise.

“
Nice to meet you,” Cyn said, adding, “again.” It just
couldn't get any stranger.

He dipped his chin in a parody of a
greeting and it was too much for Cyn, she simply sat down on her
ass where she stood. They could figure out what to do with her but
there were too many freak-outs presently.

Her restaurant manager was a
Were.

Fucktastic.

The cop from Homer who had been hot
on her trail was now a Were.

They were naked
half-werewolves.

Weirdness squared.

Truman was the same as Jason, his
body covered by a shadow of scarlet fur, his eyes were orbs of
green in his head... spinning, always spinning.

What did it all mean?

For her.

For them?

For Julia.

#

Watch for
book four,
BLOOD
REIGN
, coming May of
2014!

Read on for the exciting first chapters of
my three other series!

*THE TOKEN

new adult dark romantic suspense

DEATH WHISPERS

new adult dystopian dark fantasy

THE PEARL SAVAGE

new adult post-apocalyptic dark sci-fi

*(writing under my pen name, Marata
Eros)

Volume One

by Marata Eros

The Token

Volume One

Copyright 2013 Marata
Eros

Smashwords Edition

(sample)

http://marataeroseroticaauthor.blogspot.com/

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
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Dedication:

Autumn Tackett- Davis

Thank you so much~

“
Love sears the heart
immortal

The embers of love burnt down to the token
which remains ....”

“
You're dying,” Dr. Matthews
says.