By Blood Sworn

by Jones, Janice

  “Conner’s making the formal announcement at the Dark Ball in December,” his voice trailed off.

  Alex stood and pulled him to his feet. At the door, he wrapped his arms around her and held on tight. She could feel his heartbeat through her back. The heat of her body mixed with his until she kissed the arm closest to her mouth and he released her.

  “I wasn’t expecting to feel this way about you,” he whispered as he stopped at the door and faced her. “I wish things were different.”

  “Things are different,” she replied.

  The anger reached him before the door flew open. If he’d been stronger, he might have been able to defend himself, but his strength wouldn’t have been a match for Tristan anyway.

  “Who is it?” Tristan snarled as he plucked Ben from the cot then flung him into the concrete wall across the cell.

  His lungs spit out air on impact. Ben had just enough time to take in a little more before Tristan’s hand clamped around his neck. He felt his feet leave the dusty floor as Tristan forced him against the wall and held him there.

  “Something wrong?” Ben croaked and forced a smile. He squeezed his eyes shut when Tristan’s fangs dropped to razor sharp points. Ben prayed his death would be quick.

  Instead of the pain of teeth ripping through his neck, he felt hot breath against his ear.

  “They made me kill one of my children, Benjamin,” his voice slithered down and tapped on his eardrum. “She betrayed me without even knowing. You will tell me who the Dagger is!”

  Ben’s feet hit the floor, but Tristan’s hand pressed against his chest. The pressure made it hard to breathe. He didn’t struggle; what would be the point? He was as close to an ordinary man as he’d been before he joined the program. Even if he wanted, he couldn’t come up with enough power to break free.

  “I told you, the Dagger doesn’t exist anymore,” he exhaled.

  The pressure weakened slightly, then Tristan removed his hand, stepped back, and straightened his posture and his demeanor.

  Ben moved cautiously toward the bed. Once he was seated, Tristan pulled the stray chair close and sat down as well.

  “I only want to speak with him,” Tristan stated sweetly. “We have much in common.”

  Ben chose his next words carefully. One wrong turn of phrase and it would all be over.

  “Well, the Dagger is gone, so I guess you’re gonna have to figure something else out.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “Prove it.”

  An eerie feeling moved over Ben’s skin. Tristan’s power was limited, but he did have some tricks up his sleeve. He reached into his inside jacket pocket. The smartphone he tossed over landed next to Ben’s hand on the bed.

  The screen popped to life and a video started playing. Alex, dressed in black gear, entered a large meeting hall. She looked like that kid he remembered from the past—in charge of the situation and ready to defend Jason with her life.

  “I couldn’t figure it out at first,” he heard Tristan say. “Why everyone is so determined to protect her when she seems very capable of protecting herself.”

  Ben pushed up from the bed. “She is.”

  The device slid across the rumpled blanket back into Ben’s line of sight. This time a still photo appeared. A group picture of the team outside a very official looking building. The sign read “Palace of Parliament” in Romanian and English. One after another, single shots of the young Tracker team appeared on screen. Then Jason, Adam, and Nikki.

  “Then I realized that one of them is the Dagger,” Tristan announced as he stood. When his shadow covered Ben, he wanted to stake him, but didn’t have the strength or a weapon. “Something no one believed could exist, not in 600 years.”

  He barely felt the sharp blade slide between his two ribs. The point stopped at the wall of his pounding heart as Tristan’s steady hand held it there. Pain crawled out in all directions from the point of origin. In the next few seconds, he would bleed out or Tristan would push the blade into his heart and end him quick.

  “She told them a hybrid exists,” Erin’s giggly face announced from the device as Tristan held it up to him. “She’s either crazy or I should have asked for more money.”

  Tristan slipped the phone back in his pocket, still holding onto the blade.

  “She should have asked for more money,” Tristan hummed as he released the blade. It hung in Ben’s chest as he stared at Tristan.

  “Me too,” Ben moaned. “Maybe I woulda died a millionaire,” he tried to laugh, but it hurt like hell.

  When his time came, Ben always thought it would be in a hail of gunfire. Not that this wasn’t poetic, being staked by a vampire. But he had hoped for something more dramatic. His knees buckled slowly, or maybe it just felt that way to him. Slumped against the wall, he grabbed the hilt of the knife as he smiled up at Tristan.

  Tristan knelt and stared at Ben as he died. He didn’t seem happy, or sad for that matter.

  “You’ll die with honor,” Tristan whispered. “You were loyal to the very end. I’ll make sure she knows that.”

  Ben coughed up blood as he laughed. “That’s not really a consolation, Tristan, but thanks for trying, I guess.”

  Tristan twisted the blade away from his heart. Ben stifled a scream. He wasn’t going out like that. He’d bleed out, slowly, but he wouldn’t beg for his life. Whether he would end up in heaven or hell was anyone’s guess. He would leave this earth with one clear thought in his head. Once it was all said and done, Alex would make sure Tristan Ambrose died screaming.

  Chapter 22

  “Hey,” a voice seemed to bark from miles away. “Alex! Hey!”

  Darkness, black and complete, was everywhere she looked. And that voice still miles from where she felt her body suspended in the dark. It was so black she couldn’t even see her own hand in front of her face. Wait. Is my hand in front of my face? she thought.

  A stinging sensation spread over her senses. All at once she felt like she was being propelled forward at an unimaginable speed. So fast, in fact, that she felt like whatever she was headed for would kill her on impact. Then she felt the sting again.

  Her eyes popped open and she reached out just as Sebastian’s hand headed toward her cheek again. The grip she had on his wrist would have snapped it if he’d been human.

  “Wow,” he said as he sat next to her on the bed she was laid out on. “We were about to call the morgue, man. You were gone.”

  Alex blinked to bring him and the entire room filled with people into focus. Jason sat on the other side of her with her hand in his. He looked pale and worried, as did everyone else.

  “What happened?” she moaned as Jason helped her sit up. The room spun like a top.

  “You passed out,” Jason replied. Erin tossed him a wet cloth. He pressed it to her forehead and the motion of the room stopped. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  Alex reached out for that last memory; she was talking with Jason. Then a searing pain stabbed at her temple. After the heat came an icy feeling—as if she had just touched death.

  “You were leaving,” she groaned. “Then everything went black.”

  As she looked around the room, everyone glanced at each other. Their fear felt like a solid wall around her. It pushed at her. It swallowed up the oxygen around her. To everyone’s surprise, Alex sprang from the bed and pushed open the French doors then landed on her knees on the snow covered balcony.

  “Alex,” she heard Jason behind her. “Breathe.”

  That’s when she noticed she wasn’t breathing; not at all. She took in a lung full of icy northern air and held it in her body until it forced its way out through her mouth in a trail of white smoke. Then she did it two more times before she climbed to her feet again.

  Her hands were wet and cold, but she could feel her blood as it rushed through her body and th
at was a good thing. Amy handed her a bottle of water and Xavier held the chair for her as she sat down. The smartphone on the nightstand pinged and vibrated like a slot that just hit the jackpot. Then, one after another, everyone’s phones did the same.

  “It’s 51,” Sebastian announced. He looked grim and pale as everyone waited for his next sentence. “They found Ben.”

  Each one of her team members fished out their devices, and each one looked like Sebastian as they read the message. Amy was the first to cry. Big tears spilled from her eyes as Sebastian took her in his arms. Xavier made the call to confirm. The twins, Erin between them, wore silent but deadly stares on their faces. But Erin’s deadly stare looked more like boredom than sadness.

  “Alex,” Jason’s tone was smooth and even. “Everyone. I’m so sorry.”

  “They just found him in an abandoned warehouse,” Xavier said in a heavy tone. “Along with the crushed receiver Adam planted in that girl. She was dust.” He shoved his phone in his back pocket.

  Alex licked her dry lips, swallowed what was left of the water, then threw the empty bottle at the trash bin by the door. She missed. Her device vibrated and pinged again. Kai tossed it to her.

  “The doctor would like a word,” she hummed. “Go get your tablets and meet me downstairs in the conference room. I’ll get the manager to open it.”

  They filed out in silence. Doors opened and closed down the narrow hallway. Jason was already on the old desk phone with the manager. At her door, he told the team that the room would be opened and ready as they filed out into the hallway. She could hear the elevator bell as the doors opened.

  As she reached into her pack to pull out her own tablet, Jason waited for her. One of his personal bodyguards stood outside her room with a grim expression.

  “Don’t let anyone on this floor until we return,” Alex ordered. “And no one comes down. Am I making myself clear?”

  “Understood,” he answered as he escorted her to the elevator where her team waited inside. “Shall I send someone down with you?”

  “No,” she shook her head and stepped inside. When she turned, Jason was at his own door with Nikki in his arms.

  “We should get started on the guest list,” he heard Nikki say as she poured herself a cup of coffee. He declined when she asked if he would like one as well. “Maybe we could work on it on the way home.”

  Alex and the Tracker team had been downstairs for over an hour. The sun was about to rise over the mountains and the morning session would begin in three hours. Nikki continued as he sat at his desk, towel tied securely around his waist, wondering what was going on downstairs.

  “I wonder if Conner will let us use the Chamber Ballroom,” she gushed as her polished nails tapped the screen of her personal laptop. “It’s a beautiful venue.”

  “Shut up,” Jason groaned.

  “What?” Nikki barely noticed the growl in his tone. She was so wrapped up in her own world, Jason could have been on fire and she wouldn’t have noticed.

  “I said shut up, Nikki! Someone is dead,” he grunted at her as he crossed the room to take down a suit for the morning’s meeting. Dark gray wool, the suit was tailored to his physique by the best designer in Vegas. He’d had it made specifically for this meeting. Just the feel of it on his skin gave his ego a boost. “That stupid guest list can wait!”

  “Whatever,” she sniffed and rolled her eyes. “Why are you so bent out of shape? It’s not like you knew him.”

  “Because I happen to care when someone I know loses a friend,” he sniffed back. “Have some sympathy!”

  Nikki unfolded her Lenovo Yoga so that it resembled a standard laptop again. After she placed it on the table, she stepped up to Jason and began to caress his damp chest with her cold hands.

  “Jason,” she said calmly, “God made them weak, mortal. They lost a friend, and that is sad, but it’s really not our problem, is it?”

  Jason pushed her hands away with the sudden urge to toss her from the balcony. An outraged expression covered her freshly scrubbed face.

  “You can skip this session. I’m just finalizing the agreement with the Warren Coven—nothing I can’t handle by myself.”

  “Why? Because I’m not weeping buckets over someone I didn’t even know? That’s so childish, Jason,” she snapped.

  “Just do as I say, Nikki,” he grunted.

  The feel of her hand in his made his stomach turn. The sweetness of her voice was like nails on a chalkboard for some reason. She kissed his palm then slid his index finger in her warm wet mouth.

  “Don’t think this is going to win you any points with her,” she said as she made him draw his wet finger down the exposed skin between her full breasts. Jason pulled free and put some space between them so he wouldn’t choke her with his bare hands. “Now that we’re official, I won’t tolerate the things I did before. I’m going to be your wife, so you may as well get used to that.”

  “I still have time to change my mind,” he purred as he crossed over to the room service table. He poured a hot cup of coffee then poured a vial of blood in it.

  “You won’t,” she said from the bed.

  She was naked under her silk robe. It lay open to her flat stomach. When she shook her blonde hair loose, it sat on top of her pale shoulders like spun gold.

  Jason didn’t move, so she did. With a seductive grin on her face, Nikki stepped up to him and pressed her nakedness against his bare chest. Her coldness pushed through the towel still wrapped around his waist.

  Nikki snaked her slender hand under the towel and began to stroke the solid flesh she found there. Jason grew even angrier at the involuntary response to her external stimulus.

  “We’re better together,” she purred again. “You can’t deny that, Jason.”

  Her cold lips touched his and he shivered. Warm, with a hint of blood, her breath tickled. Then her tongue slid over his mouth until he parted his lips and touched his tongue to hers.

  “I’m not denying it,” he whispered, “but don’t pretend we’re the couple of the year, Nikki. That bullshit is for the public.” At his groin, a powerful desire pushed blood through him. He kissed her deeply as she jerked the towel free.

  “Why are you always trying to pick a fight with me?” she panted on his lips, tossing the damp towel to the floor behind her, then dropping the robe on top of it. “You know how much that makes me want to fuck you senseless.”

  Jason swept her up in his arms effortlessly. Once they were on the bed, he was inside her in the blink of an eye. A euphoric cry pierced his brain as Nikki pleaded for him to go deeper. She clawed at the tangled sheets beneath her and he obeyed.

  At the last forceful plunge, Nikki screamed, and he felt her body buck underneath him as she released. Her satisfied purr vibrated off his lips as he kissed her forehead and pushed away.

  “I need another shower,” he announced as he headed for the bathroom. “Go get dressed, please.”

  It didn’t take long before he heard the door open and slam shut. As he stepped under the hot water, the anger returned.

  Forensics only had a blurred picture of what had happened. The team stared at their screens as the doctor’s dull, uninterested tone narrated the crime scene as it unfolded shot by shot. Dirty, damaged walls and dank dim corridors set a stage Alex didn’t care to see.

  “They had been feeding on him over some time,” Dr. Carlisle droned. “If he hadn’t died, he would have transformed pretty soon anyway.”

  “Transformed? You mean turned, right?” Amy sniffed, wiping at her red nose.

  “No, transformed is the correct term,” Dr. Carlisle answered. “He wouldn’t have turned into a vampire, Amy. There was no infected blood in his system. They meant to make him something less than vampire—more like an animated corpse.”

  “Like a zombie,” she whined. More tears sat in her already puffy, red eyes.r />
  “A true zombie, as we know, doesn’t exist,” he answered. “His memories would have remained, but he wouldn’t have connected them to a life he lived. He wouldn’t have been Benjamin Palmer anymore. A shell, if you will, of his former self.”

  “A bite junkie,” Sebastian groaned at his screen then cut a glance at Alex. “As long as he got his fix, he’d do whatever for the next one.”

  “Who did this?” Xavier grunted.

  Dr. Carlisle’s face appeared on screen. He looked somber and tired.

  “We’re not sure yet,” he said. “The only DNA found was the dead girl’s and Ben’s.”

  “Bullshit,” Alex said under her breath.

  They all looked at her and Dr. Carlisle frowned from the screen.

  “We combed the entire scene, Alex. There was nothing.”

  Alex sat straight and planted her hands on either side of the tablet. “Tristan is behind this and you know it! Pick up Brice Campbell and sweat him. Jesus!”

  “We can’t do that, Alex,” Dr. Carlisle sniffed.

  “Why not?” she exclaimed. The drinking glasses and empty pitcher rattled against each other when she slammed her hand down on the table.

  “Need to know,” he replied. An obvious smirk spread over his lips.

  “Need to know? Doc, are you freaking kidding?” Kai squealed. “He was one of us. He was her friend. We deserve to know why Brice Campbell is untouchable.”

  Dr. Carlisle stood and someone else took his place in front of his computer. At first she didn’t recognize him. He’d gotten older, as everyone does, over the years. She remembered him with a full head of dark, curly hair and a confident smile. Even though his expression was somber, his eyes still seemed bright. His head, however, was now as bare as a baby’s bottom.

  Major General Walter Diaz, late fifties and about to retire, looked fit and alert. Chances were they had just finished lunch because it was late afternoon in DC. In his fatigues, General Diaz made a striking figure of a modern soldier. As she remembered they used to call him “Dragon” Diaz. The guys under his command used to say he’d breathe fire down on you if you screwed up.