Bound by Blood (The Garner Witch Series)

by P. A. Lupton

  I broke apart from our kiss and noticed that Nathan looked disappointed. “I need to feel you inside me.” I whispered, almost desperately. My words sparked the heat to flare in his gaze and replace the uncertainty my previous withdraw had caused.

  The turbulence and chaos that we’d recently experienced made us frantic to touch each other. Our emotions had been raging like an out of control hurricane these past few days—anger, love, fear, worry—the contrasts all collided and intensified our desperate need to love each other, to feel connected.

  Nathan suddenly moved with inhuman speed, and before I knew what happened he had us naked on the bed. I cried out at the sudden invasion of his hard flesh within my body. His eyes fixed on mine, his gaze never faltering. In that moment, nothing else in the world existed but the two of us, the connection irrevocable between us now, the bond so ingrained, so palpable it stirred something deep inside me. Tears burned my eyes and flowed down my cheeks. My hands roamed appreciatively along his flexing muscles, first his back, then his stomach, until they finally settled on his biceps.

  My mind opened unconsciously to receive that invisible part of him, his aura or life force perhaps. Instantly, my body recognized that part of him and swallowed it greedily into myself. It mingled with my own and then I gave it back to him. Once again, we were intimately connected to each other. Not just with our bodies, but our minds and souls as well. I felt his pleasure, and he felt mine. It was as if we were truly one. The sharing of pleasure that inevitably occurred every time we made love now, enhanced the experience for both of us, and ultimately brought us crying out with our mutual release. He lifted his head and stared at me with passion and... love. “I promise I will return before tomorrow evening. I will not leave you unprotected. I could not bear to lose you.”

  “Don’t worry about me. Morrison and I will be working tomorrow during the day, and we’ll return to the apartment well before dark. I promise.”

  Chapter 21

  Nathan left the house minutes before sunrise, I woke up to see him off. I loved watching the sunrise. I appreciated the breathtaking combination of colors, scents, and feelings, but today I was aware of a new love for the splendor. For most people, it signified life, and the awakening of a new day. How apropos that a monster that tears those things from people’s lives can never enjoy the beauty of the dawn. That fact alone made me grateful for its magnificence all the more.

  The rest of the morning was spent locating a list of people who had access to the bone marrow registry, Morrison and I worked relentlessly. I wanted to end this. The problem was, there were more people who could’ve retrieved the names on the list than we expected, and it would be impossible to interview them all before he killed again. Despite the dwindling odds of tracking him down, I tried to remain positive. My mind constantly strayed, preoccupied wondering if Nathan had located Hayley. Would he be able to convince her that she was in danger and get her to a protected location?

  My cell phone rang as I sat at my desk perusing the list. “Hello?”

  “Hello, may I speak to agent Reece please?” a polite male voice asked.

  “This is her.”

  “Hi agent Reece this is Brad Jennings from Donovan Security, I’ve just signed for a packaged addressed to you or agent Todd Morrison. I just wanted to call and let you know it was here in case it was important.”

  “Thank you Brad, we’ll be right there. I appreciate the call.” I barely remembered to say good-bye before I hung up, I was so eager.

  “Good news Morrison, I think our surveillance video footage is in from the hospital in New Mexico.” I threw over my shoulder as I stood to leave.

  “Great, let’s go. I want to see if we can identify the woman talking to Susan.”

  It was lunchtime when we arrived at the apartment. Morrison fixed us some sandwiches while we scanned through the videos. The security guard had pulled video for the entire week we requested, and in more than just one area. We had to filter through hours of surveillance footage. We observed Susan in quite a few of the videos receiving her treatments, but most of her contact was with nurses.

  “Look, here’s the day that Susan had the mysterious visitor.” We watched patiently until our mystery woman approached Susan. They shook hands, it seemed like they were just meeting for the first time. The problem was we still couldn’t see her face from the angle of the camera.

  “Shit” I said while running my hand through my hair in frustration. “We still can’t see her face.”

  “There are a lot of other videos here, let’s go through them and see if there is an alternate angle of this meeting.” Morrison encouraged.

  As I inserted the next video we heard the buzzer for the elevator, someone wanted to come up. Morrison sauntered over to the screen to see who it is. “It’s Lisa.” he said a little over eager as he buzzed her up.

  Great, just what I need. I thought silently. “What do you think she wants?” I asked, barely concealing the annoyance in my tone.

  “Maybe she wants to see me.” He suggested, arrogantly. “It wouldn’t hurt you to be nice. Behave yourself.”

  I ignored her arrival, busying myself sifting through video footage. I heard her giggling at something Morrison said and I rolled my eyes. I couldn’t actually make out their words, and truth be told, I didn’t care to listen, even if I could. I felt them move up behind me. “We’re just looking through surveillance video from the New Mexico Cancer Center. Susan met with a woman we’re trying to identify, but unfortunately we haven’t been able to see her face, yet.” He explained.

  Feeling her presence behind me, my skin prickled. What was it about this woman? I wasn’t shielding as thoroughly as I should’ve been, because I felt the loathing that seemed to permeate from her whenever I was around. I firmed up my defenses—this is the last thing I wanted to feel right now. Even though my back was facing them, I could practically see the flirting going on behind my back. Morrison’s focus had been completely redirected.

  “So Lisa, what brings you by?” I asked with as much friendliness as I could muster.

  “Oh, I just wanted to check on you two make sure you were all right,” she said sweetly.

  “That was thoughtful.” I replied, barely concealing the sarcasm.

  “Also, I wanted to let you know your bodyguard will be here about an hour before sunset.”

  “I think I’ve got something Morrison.” I broke in. “Look at the time frame on the video, it’s the same day and time as the other and it’s at the opposite angle. We should be able to see her face in this frame.” I pointed at the screen and I felt Morrison lean over me to get a better view.

  The two of us focused intently as the woman approached Susan, and it took me a moment to register what I was seeing. “Oh, it’s just Lisa.” He muttered with disappointment.

  At first I was disappointed as well. The video must have been taken when she went to meet Susan after she contacted Nathan. “Wait—Morrison, look at the date. This is a month before Susan called Nathan to protect her. He didn’t know about her yet.”

  I almost heard the pieces click together in my mind. The bartender I interviewed described a woman with Leslie Harper the night she was killed. Lisa met with Susan before Sherri was killed, and Sherri was the first victim. Nathan hadn’t even known about any of the murders, yet. He had no idea about the current danger, so he hadn’t asked Lisa to find them yet. It was suddenly so clear I felt stupid. Lisa was working with the killer.

  Not even a minute passed from the moment I realized it was Lisa on the video, to the time I heard an awful gasp behind me. A warm trickle of liquid ran down my back and I swirled around, only to come face to face with the horrified, wide-eyed expression of Morrison’s blue eyes boring into mine, pleading with mine, and imploring me with his desperate gaze to help him. His hand clutched at his neck and there was blood everywhere.

  Panic overwhelmed me. I couldn’t think clearly through it. “Morrison!” I screamed while I tried to pry his fingers away from
his throat to see how bad it was. “Morrison let me look.” I begged.

  I peeled back his hands and could see that his throat was slit deep. It was a grizzly, and I knew without a doubt, mortal wound. Despite knowing it was futile, I desperately tried to staunch the bleeding. Ignoring the fact that Lisa was still in the room, I reached for my cell to call 911 instead of my gun. If I had been following procedure, I would have left Morrison and subdued Lisa before calling for help. Fuck procedure. I couldn’t think of procedure. Morrison was dying right in front of me.

  He’d grown on me these last six weeks. He was like a brother to me now, and I wasn’t thinking rationally. I had lost too many people I cared about, and I refused to let him die, too. Before I could make the call though, I felt an impact on my shoulder followed by a stinging burn. I looked up to find Lisa aiming a gun at me, her lips curled in the most maniacal, evil smirk I had ever seen. I looked, confused, to my shoulder. I knew she’d shot me, but I’d always imagined a gunshot wound would hurt a hell of a lot more than this.

  “What the—?”

  A dart protruded from the wound. My survival instincts finally kicked in at the sight of the dart, though a little belated for my liking. Instinctively, I used my ability to fling a deadly blow of pain toward her. I wasn’t merely attempting to immobilize her. I wanted to burn her where she stood for what she’d done to Morrison.

  She shrieked, the highest pitch, most agonizing scream I had ever heard, and yet I refused to relent. Inexorably, I continued to press my power into her. Maintaining focus took a herculean effort, especially when I heard a gurgling, choking sound from Morrison. Still, I managed to keep up the attack.

  “Hold on Morrison.” I panted from the effort I was exerting, but I was determined to kill her and save him. He was still conscious but bleeding badly, he needed help—soon. I had to finish this so I could call for help, or he was going to die.

  No matter how much effort I used, my concentration slipped more and more. It was becoming increasingly difficult to focus. My body was lethargic, my arms and legs felt as though they had weights attached to them. I shook my head, trying to regain clarity when I recognized the reason behind my sudden sluggishness. The dart she shot me with. I was drugged. I had to fight it. I had to get Morrison help. Unconsciousness crept up on me, but still I pushed my power and fought to maintain my attack on Lisa. It was us or her, I couldn’t let her win.

  Lisa’s screaming suddenly stopped. She rose slowly to her feet and padded over to me. I forced every last bit of willpower I could summon into aiming another attack at her. I knew I was going to lose consciousness, but I wanted her to go first. The only thing I could do was hope I came to before her. My power hit her and she stumbled for a minute, glared at me in bewilderment, and then continued until she loomed over to me.

  “Well aren’t you full of surprises.” Her words were snide. Then she raised her gun, only this time she slammed it into my face. The pain exploded around the side of my head right before I finally succumbed to the darkness. As unconsciousness finally swallowed me, I glanced at Morrison. His haunted gaze met mine, both of us understanding this was the last time we were going to see each other.

  ***

  The agonizing thump in my head was the first thing that brought me back to consciousness, the painful throbbing pushing at the darkness. Dazed, I wasn’t sure what was happening. Attempting to move, my arms refused to budge. I was trapped. I heard a rattling of metal as I struggled and slowly pried my eyes open to take in my surroundings. My vision was blurry at first, but I could see that it was still daylight, though judging by the pale purple glow coming from outside it was nearing dusk. I pulled at my arms again and looked up to see what I was caught on. That’s when confusion edged over to full out terror. Chains wrapped around my arms and legs, cutting painfully into my skin. By the looks of the bruises on my wrists and the burning in my arms, I had been hanging here for a while.

  I was in a dilapidated barn, the chains secured at the other end with a thick metal loop screwed into some wooden beams. Frantically, I struggled to free myself of the chains but they were fixed firmly. Whoever had shackled me fastened them to keep me immobile, but still standing.

  I tried to relieve some of the pressure in my arms by putting more weight on my legs, but I didn’t have the strength, my limbs felt as though they were made out of jelly. I tried to remember what happened, but my mind was jumbled and it was difficult to grasp onto a coherent memory. The last thing I could recall was Nathan going to get Hayley. Wait, I remember reviewing the security videos with Morrison.

  “Oh god, Morrison!” I gasped.

  Now I remembered in horrific clarity what I’d been forgetting. Morrison had lain, bleeding on the ground the last time I saw him, his throat cut by Lisa Benet. It happened late morning. Glancing at the purpling sky through the slit of the barn door, I saw that it was already evening. I choked down a sob as I realized he was long dead. It would’ve been impossible for him to survive a wound like that, even if he’d had help. But he didn’t get help. I lost consciousness before I could dial 911. Tears trailed down my cheeks and my heart clenched with grief as guilt filled me for letting Morrison down.

  I knew something was off with Lisa, the level of animosity and hatred she aimed at me was beyond normal. I should’ve never let my guard down. I knew she was jealous of Nathan and me together, but I never dreamed in my worst nightmare she’d go this far to hurt me. I became aware of an almost imperceptible rustling behind me, and at the same time I felt a prick in my neck. Lisa circled around me eying my bound arms and legs with a terrifying sneer of pure evil pleasure

  “Don’t worry Brianna. It’s just a cocktail of psychiatric drugs to prevent you from being able to concentrate. You’ll still be awake and aware, I want you to feel everything, but I don’t want you using your powers again.” God, she was sick. Her voice was chilling and she was grinning.

  “What the hell are you doing Lisa?” I spit out at her. I could still sense her emotions, though I couldn’t transfer anything into her. It took a tremendous amount of concentration to use my psychic abilities as an offensive weapon, but I just couldn’t focus my thoughts enough with whatever she shot into my blood and was now pumping through my veins.

  “What does it look like I’m doing you silly girl. I’m chaining you up and then I’m going to watch you suffer.” She answered, smugly.

  “You know, even if you kill me he’ll never love you.”

  “What nonsense are mumbling about?” she barked impatiently.

  “Nathan, he will never love you.”

  She startled me by laughing, not a slight chuckle, but a full out, deep, rumbling laugh. “Is that what you think this is about? You think I want your boyfriend?” her voice was edged with amusement.

  “Well...yes.” I answered tentatively. Her reaction was not what I expected and I was beginning to doubt my earlier assumption. “You hate me. And that hatred is based on jealously I can feel it,” no point in hiding the fact that I was empathic now, the cat was definitely out of the bag on that one. “And since we’ve never met before, I assumed it was because you were in love with Nathan.”

  “I don’t want your boyfriend you idiot! I have absolutely no interest in that man.”

  “Then what the hell is this all about, and why do you hate me so much? What have I ever done to you?” It was difficult to appear indifferent and calm while chained to a wall, but I was trying.

  “You were born, that’s what you did?” she was seething now.

  “Huh?”

  “How about this for a reason—you stole our father from me.” She spat ferociously.

  “Our father?” Now I was really confused. “What do you mean our father?”

  “What do you think I mean? James Burke, our father. Although I knew him as James Benet before he changed his name and went into hiding to protect you. Never mind the fact that he had another daughter. Never mind that he chose one daughter over another and just forgot he had another child.
I’ve hated you since the day you were born.”

  Oh. My. God. “You’re my…sister?”

  “Yes. I’m your sister.”

  “He never told me I had a sister. Why?” Emotions swirled riotously inside me.

  “We have different mothers. Our father was married to my mother before he met yours, they separated, but he was always a part of my life. He was a wonderful father. Then right about the time my mother and father were going to get back together, he met your slutty, witch of a mother and she cast a love spell on him to steal him away.”

  I snorted in disbelief, “You think my mother cast a spell on him? They fell in love. Besides, you already said your parents were divorced.”

  “Well they would’ve gotten back together if he hadn’t met her. Then he had you and I stood back and watched him praise over his new daughter forgetting all about me. I suppose I should just be thankful right, at least I had him for thirteen years.” She said sarcastically.

  “You couldn’t have been thirteen, you’re my age.” I countered.

  “Tsk...tsk...tsk...Brianna, for someone who spent the last few months hunting a vampire you sure don’t know much about them. For instance, did you know if you ingest vampire blood, your body repairs all signs of aging and returns you to your peak physical age? I’m forty one years old.” She revealed.

  “Where did you get vampire blood?” I already knew the answer, but I needed to hear her say it.

  “You haven’t figured it out yet? Haven’t you wondered how he found your cousins?” She let the unanswered question dangle in the air between us.

  “Why? They were innocent, and we’re sisters.” I muttered through clenched teeth.

  “Innocent? Riiight.” She drawled snidely. “Your mother was not innocent. She knew exactly what she was doing when she stole my dad away from my mom. Then you took him away from me when he left to protect you. As for the rest of the witches in your family, they’re all the same, selfish, every last one of them. They would’ve wrecked other families given the chance, so I stopped them before they could.”