Drawing Bloodlines (The Princeton Allegiant Series Book 1)

by Deborah Garland

  He scoffs at me, stunned. “You’d give me up that easily?”

  “For Annie? You betcha.”

  He knocks me to the ground with the force of air he takes with him when he bursts out of my bedroom. As my front door screeches open, the wood cracks and the hinges whine.

  Catching my breath and stifling tears, I whisper to myself, “I’m doing the right thing. I’m doing the right thing.”

  Chapter 19

  I need to rip something apart.

  A vampire with too much venom in the system is dangerous. I go home and slip into the woods behind my house where I let out a roar I haven’t released in decades.

  I tried to be peaceful, but there’s no peace inside me tonight. Instead of gingerly ducking out of the way of heavy low-lying branches, I rip them from their trees and discard them. Some go flying for meters.

  My battle cry is returned with a beastly snarl. After consuming nothing but human blood, the scientist in me is oddly curious how my system will react to the vile, gamey, sticky gore from a filthy animal who lives in the woods. Could I live that way if I were to give everything up and go rogue?

  The smell wafts by me. Blood. Not so gamey. It’s a little sweet, even. Tender. I break out in a run—at my top speed. When I stop, my bare feet skid across rocks sharp enough to tear flesh away from humans. The scent is concentrated in a curved opening beneath a wall of rock. A den. Of baby bear cubs.

  Oh shit!

  The cubs’ scent threw me off and left me unable to smell the mother. I spin around and a massive hairy body with sharp yellow nails digs into my skin. White pain shoots through me, disorienting me. So much so that she easily slams me to the ground and my back cracks.

  Marshalling all my strength, I take the pain and jump to my feet.

  Mamma is seriously pissed off. I got too close to her cubs and she has no tolerance for that. She lunges at me again and pins me to the ground, roaring rotten breath into my face with blood stained teeth. She was hunting. With a free hand, I block the huge bite she tries to take out of my face.

  Still, her teeth sink into my flesh, bones snap, tendons shred. I’m going to lose this arm if I don’t get her off me. There’s no fixing that. Another one won’t just grow in its place. When she moves to secure the hold, all of her weight settles on my chest and a clawed foot now rests on my groin.

  This may not have been a good idea. The pain is overwhelming and screws with my ability to come up with a strategy out of this. So much venom clouds my mind. I’m unable to think straight. I could easily toss her off me, slam her into a tree, but I don’t want to hurt her.

  Mamma just may take my life tonight. Rip me to pieces. That thought soothes me momentarily since it will mean peace for Elizabeth. I’d rather be dead than mate with Christiana.

  I don’t need to breathe, but many of my ribs cracked, their splintering bones break the skin of my chest. I release one final howl and Mamma responds by raising a claw with my flesh dangling from it like wet toilet paper as she prepares to strike.

  This is it. I’m ready.

  Mamma gets pulled off of me and tossed into the air. I raise my head with what strength I have left and watch her smashed into one tree and then another. She howls in agony and I smell the fear from the adrenalin in her body because the foe is invisible.

  Momentarily I’m frightened too. Anything that can do this to her will certainly finish me off next. Until the scent of her tormentor wafts past me.

  Loren!

  I stumble to my feet. “No! Don’t kill her!” I yell, but the blood in my lungs makes me roll over and choke. “She has a litter of cubs nearby. I got too close. She was protecting them.”

  A set of cold hands, icier than mine lifts me up and carries me toward the center of the dense woods. The bears’ scent is almost a mile away as we enter a clearing where the moon casts a bright pool of light.

  I can’t see, but I know it’s Loren. I know his scent anywhere. He’s so ancient and deadly, all vampires are trained to recognize it.

  He bites into his wrist and lowers it to my mouth. “Drink, Alexander.”

  I wrap my lips around his skin and drink his powerful elixir.

  Loren’s velvety smooth blood rushes through my body, tingling my cells back to life, closing the wounds on my skin. His powerful fingers push my splintered ribs back in my chest while I hear and feel them snap together. Loren’s is the only blood known in the vampire world to be able to heal other vampires.

  He can probably smell the life come back into my body. “Are you going to tell me why you were out in the middle of the night, teasing bear cubs?”

  I choke and release his wrist. “I didn’t place the smell until it was too late.”

  A whisper of cool smoke leaves his lips as he closes his own wound. “Your mind is very scattered at the moment, Alexander. I can’t even properly decipher what troubles you.”

  I wipe my mouth, but I still can’t stand. “Extreme stress and confusion, is a start.”

  He nods. “So why are you in these woods?”

  “I have the same question for you.” I lay back and let the full effects of Loren’s blood take hold of me.

  “In the woods?”

  “In New Jersey.” I manage to sit up. “I’ve wanted to speak to you. All of the last contact information I have for you isn’t working.”

  “It was time for me to move on.” He holds his other hand out to me. “I’m in finance now. Louis Rainer. Nice to meet you.”

  “That is utterly boring.”

  “That’s the point. You always liked your given name, Alexander Manning.”

  “I feel most at peace when I use it.” I’m momentarily halted with another thought. “Loren, have you changed the subject about why you’re here?” I’m unsure if I should ask about Julianna. “Did you get any kind of message from Francisco?”

  “I picked up on some cryptic tampering on my phone. I traced them to this area. I thought it was you.”

  “It was Elijah.”

  “He’s that good?”

  “Yes.”

  By the time we get to the gate that leads to my backyard I walk on my own.

  Loren slows and lets me step through ahead of him, but his guard is up. “You still live here?”

  “Yes.” I clutch on to Loren, as he levitates us off the ground and onto my back deck. He never liked climbing.

  I reach for the spare key above my doorframe. Sliding it into the door knob, I say, “Loren, I have a lot to tell you.”

  Sitting at my dining room table, he listens to what I face while nodding pensively. Vampire politics in various allegiants aren’t unfamiliar to him. He is able to avoid getting involved because of what he is. What he can do.

  We never discussed the lord vampires in New York, how they control the US, who they are, or even where exactly in Manhattan they are located. When I bring up the idea of going there to ask, beg to be released from this responsibility, Loren shakes his head.

  “Is it madness?” I lean toward him.

  “I just don’t know them to ever consider someone else’s needs above their own.”

  Despite that explanation, I ask, “So do you think they will listen to me?”

  “Oh, they won’t give you an audience.” He callously crushes my hope.

  “Why do they need me, in Philadelphia?”

  “You said in Francisco’s opinion they want a male at Christiana’s side. I can see them wanting that.” Loren inspects his hands. “But you also said the choice was hers. Your illicit liaison with her was so long ago, I assume if she missed you, you would have heard from her sooner.”

  Loren’s wit reminds me of Elizabeth. “Her personal guard looks like he’s keeping her occupied.”

  A pause settles between us. For a brief momen
t, I try to slip into his mind, but his eyes shoot to me and I stop. Instead, I let my thoughts fall out of my mouth. “Do you think it’s so she can—”

  “Align with me?” Loren read my mind.

  Serves me right since I opened it to sneak into his.

  “Align, trap.” I don’t care to be used as bait.

  “I don’t blame you, Alexander.” He parked himself inside my brain, it appears.

  “What if I refuse to go?” I cross my arms. “Will her guards come for me and drag me there in chains?”

  “I don’t know her or her people.” His fingers close around an imaginary cup of wine. I feel terrible that I don’t have anything for him. “New York will not be happy. You don’t want to anger them.”

  I peer into his eyes and hope I don’t have to verbalize my request that he help me out of this. When he turns away, I have my answer. It must be an unwinnable battle. I don’t even know if there’s a bigger war to be victorious over. Vampires will never win against humans. But one vampire could and would be destroyed by those in power. To ask Loren to risk his favor with New York on my behalf is selfish, anyway. It will also make me a target and broadcast I’m not strong enough to protect myself.

  Shouldn’t I do all that I can to be with a woman I’m in love with, though?

  Elizabeth.

  Loren’s head pops up from his phone as she comes into my thoughts.

  “I’ve been involved with someone for the past couple of months. A human.” As if I need to clarify.

  “It’s about time you said something.” He puts his phone in his pocket. “This whole place reeks of her.”

  The obvious scent Elizabeth left behind startles me. What if Christiana shows up? I have Elijah watching for her cars to cross into New Jersey, but I would never be able to remove this scent. The legs which sustain me if I were to lift a bus or get me miles within a matter of seconds suddenly can’t manage my own two-hundred-pound frame.

  My weariness alarms Loren who shoots to his feet. “Alexander?”

  “I put her in terrible danger, didn’t I?”

  “Any human we reveal ourselves to is a risk as well as a target.” Loren gently pulls a curtain panel back and points. “Especially living this close to New York.”

  “New York can’t be so naïve to think we don’t associate with humans intimately.”

  Francisco’s comment about his presumption that Loren wipes away the memories of those he beds comes to mind.

  Should I consider asking him to wipe Elizabeth’s mind? Annie too? Is it even safe to do that to a child?

  “I try my best to stay out of their business.” Loren turns to me. “New York does what they want. There is something to take comfort in, though.”

  “What could that possibly be?”

  “If you were in trouble, they will have an entire army marching down the Turnpike to help you.”

  That same army would also come to kill me. Or Elizabeth. Something tells me they don’t play by their own rules.

  “Loren, if you can’t help me, I demand, as your loyal progeny, that you protect Elizabeth and her daughter.”

  My sire is quiet and says nothing for a few moments. He lived a solitary life for so many years and as far as I know the only woman he ever cared about is Julianna. He never stays in one place for any length of time and hasn’t grown attached to anyone or anything.

  Finally, he speaks. “To what length do you wish me to protect her?”

  His question is simple. We don’t live in the middle ages anymore with sword fights on decorated white horses. But I’m asking him to kill another vampire who would wish to hurt her, or take her. Either way I’m asking him to go against New York.

  For what? A human who he’s not bed, like Julianna. I always suspected Loren wants to mate with her. Even if he never said so. She’s the only woman to ever resist him. He’d do anything to bed her.

  Uh-oh. My fingers curl around my dining room chair and splinter the back panel.

  Loren should draw some concern over a human who can easily make me lose control. Instead, he raises his eyebrows and keeps the conversation laser focused. “I see you came to the supposition on your own. And quickly.” He folds his hands.

  “Is that really the only way?”

  “When a male vampire takes a human woman into his bed, one he has gotten to know and become fond of, protecting her becomes instinctual. Would you trust her life to me based on anything less?”

  We make circular arguments until the sun comes up. We are stuck at the same conclusion. For Loren to protect Elizabeth properly, the way I need him to, I must let him sleep with her.

  Chapter 20

  Something cool gently caresses the soft skin under my eyes and wakes me up.

  I bolt upright and bury my face into the cashmere fabric of Alex’s coat. “I’m sorry.”

  “Me too,” he says and pries my face up to kiss me.

  I cried myself to sleep thinking I may never see him again because he’ll mate with Christiana soon. My alarm clock blessedly flashes that it’s just before six a.m.

  “Annie?” I wanted to hold her last night for comfort.

  I was so empty and lost like I was a shell of a person. I just didn’t want her to see me like that.

  “She’s sound asleep,” he replies, kissing my neck.

  I don’t want to ask where he went or if he spoke to Francisco again. Not now. I only want one thing at the moment: Alex. Inside me.

  I’m not alone in that desire either. I sit up and begin to undress him. I want him to feel like a man with me. “Tell me she’ll never give you this type of pleasure.”

  “Never,” he grumbles, his face buried in my hair.

  Then he goes still as a statue and stops. In a flash he’s off my bed and stands as far away from me as he could, it seems.

  “Alex?”

  He flicks his chin to the hallway. “I think Annie is awake.”

  Before I protest that she never gets up this early, she lets out a squeaky cry which oddly sounds like she’s in pain. I jump up to find my robe, concerned. Since Alex can sense her emotions, it must not be pain because I know this vampire. He’d be in her room before me.

  Even if I had a rocket.

  ~ ~ ~

  I’m horrible.

  I slipped into Annie’s mind hoping the sharp sensation would wake her up and divert Elizabeth’s attention away from me. Somewhere lost in her kisses, I forgot how my scent on her will affect the outcome of our current situation.

  “Meet me downstairs in a few minutes?” she asks, tying the belt on her robe.

  “Yes. Elizabeth, we do need to talk about something when I get home from work later today.”

  Her fingers brought all her hair into a bun on top of her head a moment ago, but after my words, she drops it all to her shoulders. Her heart races, but she swallows and with a brave face says, “Sure.”

  I take a cautious step toward her. “Something happened after I left you.”

  She lifts her thick mane of golden blonde hair back into a bun and turns to me. “Something good?”

  “Something necessary.”

  It’s as if I have not seen her smile in weeks. That adorable wrinkle above her nose, scrunches then smooths out.

  “Okay.” She pats my chest and heads out of the room. From down the hall, her voice echoes. “Annie, honey are you okay?”

  The child’s sleepy voice responds and their conversation melts into white noise, and temporarily jolts me to when I was human and had a family of my own. My young sons would often talk over each other, vying for my attention. They loved their mother and the only affection I ever held for that woman was that she loved them back and saw to their every need. Just as Elizabeth tends to Annie. The child may not be mine, but they both
belong to me now. All I can do however, is make sure they’re protected.

  Later that evening, I return to Elizabeth’s house well after they had dinner.

  She sent me a text earlier that said she explained to Annie, I had an emergency at the hospital and was unable to join them. I appreciate the heads-up so our stories align, but I grow more and more uncomfortable lying to the little girl.

  “Hey, kiddo.” I peek my head in Annie’s room and hide my smirk at the stuffed bunny on her nightstand.

  She’s in bed, her hair wet from a shower, and she smells like strawberries. “Did someone die, Alex?”

  Elizabeth does not coddle this child in the least. She was honest with her daughter about her divorce and even painfully admitted that her father killed terrorists in the Middle East.

  I don’t have to be the delivery service of more bad news, though. “No. Just someone needed stitches.”

  “And there was no one else who could do that?” She pouts so adorably.

  I’m not surprised how smart she is, considering Elizabeth is her mother. “I’m somewhat of an expert. I have a super steady hand.” I won’t tell her it’s because I don’t breathe. Instead, I offer her a warm smile and step toward the door. “Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight, Alex.”

  My approach toward Elizabeth’s bedroom is slow, despite my fierce need of her at the moment. A need which will not be met.

  Her languid moves through her home and how she is with her child tear through my unbreakable skin. Regardless of what she is doing, she never forgets I am there too.

  Right now, she’s on her bed, smoothing lotion on her skin that smells of limes and coconuts, the only artificial scent I tolerate.

  I close the door and step toward her. “I’m not going to make love to you tonight.”

  Her eyelashes flutter like a hummingbird’s wings. “I see.” She stands and drops her robe to the ground. “So raw carnal fucking then?”