Drawing Bloodlines (The Princeton Allegiant Series Book 1)

by Deborah Garland

  “Alexander,” I call out to my vampire. “Anything interesting in those papers?”

  He comes in and kneels down, prepared to read to me. My scent hasn’t hit him. When it does, another version of Alex rises up. “What are you doing?” the vampire asks me in a hoarse, gravelly voice.

  “Tempting you.” I sit up and let the water sluice down my body as I touch my neck. “I want you to drink from me while we make love.”

  He stands and staggers back against the door. “No.”

  “We only have a few days left. If nothing else works, you’ll be living with a cold vampire the rest of your life.” I shiver when he growls. “You deserve one last chance to drink my blood straight from my veins and enjoy the sensations of lovemaking at the same time. Please?” I suspect Alex has never been begged before. “This is my only chance to experience something like this. After you, not only don’t I want another vampire, I don’t want another man period.”

  “I can’t.” He drops the papers and curls his hands into fists. “I may not be able to stop.”

  “I trust you.” I open my legs and caress my breasts again. “I . . . I trust you with my life.”

  His face contorts, like he’s disappointed I didn’t say, ‘I love you’. I know my vampire well enough that if I cross that line, if I let him know my heart is in play, he’ll completely lose it. I’d rather him leave me for another woman he can never love, than find out he’s been torn into a dozen pieces or torched, or lost his head because he refused to obey this bullshit order. For me.

  “Elizabeth, please get out of the water and put your clothes back on.”

  “No. You need my blood, Alex.” I need him fed so he can think straight through this dire situation.

  “The vampire does. Not me.”

  “You denied that part of you for too long. I want him right now. Not you.”

  “I killed a woman, like this.”

  Those words roll over me. He said he never killed anyone, but he used the word deliberately. I lay my eyes on him when something slams into my head. “You didn’t love her I suspect.”

  Alex stays silent, but his lips quirk up in the corners. He doesn’t have to answer, I’m right. I cracked that code.

  He stares at me with dark eyes, nostrils flaring. The potency of my blood, perhaps still lingers in his throat. I bet it left a taste in his mouth he can’t deny. The sight of this powerful man trying to resist me makes me feel like I can bring him to his knees. Only, I want him to feel desired, not weak.

  “Get out of the tub,” his strangled voice commands. “Now.”

  My hands grip the side and I stand. The water cascades down my exposed skin while his hungry eyes track its descent. He jerks open the door so hard the metal hinges shriek. He nearly ripped the door off the wall just gazing at me, smelling me, anticipating the taste of my blood. A shiver runs down my spine, but not out of fear.

  I walk slowly toward the bed with my vampire right behind me. The presence of his body, radiates through me. A sense of danger washes over me thrilling my nipples to aching hardened peaks.

  “Stop,” he orders me. “Turn around.”

  I expect he’s boiled over and wants to pounce on me, but instead he simmers with desire. I want to drive him over the edge. I want to make him lose control. To finally see him at his most feral. Just the idea of the true vampire who hides behind the man floods my body with white-hot arousal.

  “I can’t promise I won’t hurt you,” he warns, stroking his erection, swollen and rigid beneath his clothes.

  “Feed from me, Alex,” I beg. “Make me yours in a way she’ll never be.”

  As soon as the words leave my mouth, his demanding lips crash against mine. He’s fevered and frantic as he drags me to the floor. He takes me like he’s wanted this all along, but was afraid to ask for it. He rips his clothes from his body and expensive fabric tears away, loudly. When he’s as naked as I am, he thrusts into me.

  I never made love to this vampire before. Alex hid a beast from me. This wild animal rutting on top of me, moaning and thrusting. His eyes are closed as he grunts, but I suspect they are as green as a traffic signal. Go! The muscles in his shoulders quiver and his biceps pulse and throb.

  His lips peel back from his glistening white teeth in a snarl and he throws his head back to roar like a lion. The sound vibrates through me and I scream in fierce pleasure as one orgasm crashes over me. It’s soul-shattering bliss. As if he waited for this exact moment, he leans forward and sinks his teeth into my throat. I expect pain, but there’s only pleasure, more pleasure than I ever felt in my life. The feel of him feeding at my throat, plunges me into another orgasm.

  I want to scream his name, but I’m beyond rational thought and can’t form any words, there’s only this delicious sensation. His body is now one with mine as he drains my jugular. His lips are so warm against my neck as my blood eases down his throat. The more he drinks the better it feels and the harder it is to think. I want to be consumed by this man. Now and forever. At this moment, I’ll agree to anything to keep him.

  Another orgasm rocks my body as his erection hits every part of me. Through the haze of pleasure, I’m aware of his thumb against my wrist to check my pulse. The vampire fucks me like a savage while the doctor deep within checks my vitals.

  The room spins and the light above dances from side to side. What would it have been like if we spent these months indulging in this dangerous blood sport during sex? I could weep from all the nights, he made me go without this.

  The moment his climax hits him is so powerful, his body shakes violently. He is so deep inside me that as his cool essence fills me, I tingle and shiver.

  We both writhe in blinding ecstasy when his phone begins to beep with several successive texts.

  He growls but keeps drinking. Draining me, claiming me. As softly as his teeth glided into my flesh like the tiny needle he used to draw my blood earlier, they slide out. When his tongue bathes my skin, it tingles as he releases something to heal me.

  His face screams pure satisfaction, his mouth stained with bright red blood. My blood. We’re still joined and there is no flinching on his part to move away. His hair dangles in front of eyes, which are as murky black as I’ve seen them. He’s more vampire now than ever.

  I reach up to touch his face, but a voice I don’t recognize says, “Don’t. Not yet.” The vampire waits for Alex to return.

  “You won’t hurt me, Alexander, I trust you.”

  His grip on me tightens then I’m lifted up. He walks us to the bed, while he’s still inside me. On his knees, he eases out of me, then let’s me see his face.

  It’s sheer anger.

  Chapter 26

  I’m going to crush that fucking phone when I get it in my hands.

  Who the hell needs to reach me so badly? Loren hates texts and just calls. Or shows up. The only other person on this planet I care about enough to hear from is beneath me soaked with my venomous seed.

  When I lift my head to kiss Elizabeth, I’m startled by the mess I made of her, blood-stained and mascara smeared. I took this perfectly mild-mannered single mother and turned her into my personal blood and sex bank. No. She deserves better than this. This will not happen again.

  I touch her face and the pads of my fingers trace along her neck. The sprinkles of blood I left behind makes me cringe. The red smear transfers to my skin when I brush along her cheek and now I left a stain.

  “Are you okay?” I hold her wrist again.

  She nods and smiles. Her color is okay and she breathes normally. It’s been so long since I fed directly from a human while having sex that I have no idea how much I drained from this poor woman. I’m tempted to bring her to my hospital right now for a full examination. Just to be sure.

  As I prepare for the argument I know she’ll give me,
I stand to put fresh clothes on. “Elizabeth, I need to ask you a crucial favor.”

  Elizabeth’s firm breasts, nipples erect, bounce while she walks. “Considering what just happened, I’m dying to know what a crucial favor would be,” she quips, fisting her clothes off the floor, but a loud thwack from my front door freezes her in place.

  I pull up my pants. “Hang on,” I yell.

  From the floor, I grab my phone. With just a touch, the screen lights up and vibrates from a bunch of missed texts from Elijah.

  Red Alert Alex!

  Christiana is headed your way

  She just crossed the Franklin Bridge

  She’s not alone

  It’s all of them

  All five cars have crossed into New Jersey

  The banging gets louder. “Alexander, open this door. I command you!”

  Elizabeth’s eyes grow wide with fear. “Who is that?”

  “Christiana.” I shove my shirt into my pants. “Get dressed. Now!”

  ~ ~ ~

  Alex actually opens the door!

  I pull on my sweater dress but I have no time for a bra or panties. I creep into the hallway with my body against the wall. Alex tries to keep Christiana from entering by pushing his way out, but she’s not alone. One, two, three, four, five, six. Oh God, she brought six vampires with her. Despite their sleek, leather jackets, expensive jeans, and movie-star good looks—all of them, I shake uncontrollably.

  This is it. This is how I will die.

  While two of the vampires have Alex in a hold, the female stalks toward me.

  Good lord, she’s stunning too. I understand Alex’s aversion to vampire women, but that’s like a man turning down Giselle because he got robbed in Brazil.

  “This is the reason you’re making me wait?” Christiana gives me a once-over with the face of a wife who caught her husband cheating with the maid.

  Her nose twitches from the splotch of dried blood on my cheek. Next, I’m in a hold, bent over Alex’s desk and she’s on top of me grabbing my face. “And you started feeding off humans during sex again, have you? This one’s not quite dead, though.”

  How does Christiana know about Alex’s past? A stabbing sensation jolts through me. Do Alex and Christiana have some kind of history?

  “Get off of her. She’s human,” Alex commands, but winces when one of the guards crushes his arm.

  “Humans do not have unlimited immunity.” Christiana pulls me close and touches my neck with fingers so cold, they sting. “If they transgress against a vampire, there is a price to pay.”

  “She did not transgress against me,” Alex states firmly.

  “I’m not talking about you,” she roars. “It’s me who is injured here. You are my mate.”

  “Not yet,” he spits through his teeth.

  “Because of her!” Christiana holds me in front of him by the base of my skull.

  His face twists in agony as I writhe in the painful hold she has on me, but I won’t whimper or cry out. I can’t ignite the rage within him and cause him to snap.

  “Christiana, I was involved with her before the order came.”

  “Order?” She’s shocked by the obvious slight. “You mean privilege.”

  “I don’t see it that way. Go find someone who does. Someone who will worship you the way you want.”

  “You don’t get out much do you, man?” a vampire scoffs.

  “Quiet, Gaston.” Christiana sneers at the vampire who doesn’t take his eyes off me.

  “We shouldn’t stay here for very long,” another vampire says.

  He’s the scariest of them all. His thick head is more pronounced from his long dark hair tied back in a silk knot.

  “Zander is right,” a different vampire chimes in.

  “Shut up, Pollack,” Zander hisses.

  Zander appears strong and quite formidable, but I suspect Pollack is more dangerous because he looks insane. His hairless skull is so pale, the blue veins beneath the surface could have been drawn on with a Sharpie.

  Since the two holding Alex add nothing to the conversation, I infer that Zander, Gaston, and Pollack are Christiana’s personal guards.

  “Watch the front door,” Zander commands the last vampire.

  “We’re almost a mile off the road,” Alex says. “Let Elizabeth leave right now and I will go with you to Philadelphia. Tonight.”

  I go limp at his words and Christiana hisses at my reaction. I manage to get free of her hold and run toward the dining room window that overlooks a long drop down to a wooded field. I scramble up on the sill to bang on the glass. I’ll take my chances with the fall; remove myself from this equation. Except, I don’t even get one fist on the window.

  Zander yanks me back by my hair and growls. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “Do not hurt her!” Alex demands.

  “You might as well stop saying that,” Christiana says, like she’s already bored. “She’s going to be hurt, Alex. Bad.”

  Zander’s bulky arms wind around my ribcage and crush me until I can barely breathe. He walks me back to this Christiana and her hand flicks out to slap me across the face. The movement is restrained, dainty even, but the pain is blinding. With this cement wall of a vampire behind me there is no give while I absorb the full blow of her assault.

  Zander turns me around and crashes his mouth against mine. A wet slimy tongue laps the blood that drips against my lips like a water-deprived dog.

  Alex struggles against his captors while he screams and growls. He gets a hand free and swings at one of them. Gaston blocks him, however, holding his arm and crushing it to the point even I hear the bone break.

  “Stop!” I yell.

  Alex gets yanked around like he weighs as little as Annie!

  Oh God. I have a terrible feeling when her bus arrives later this afternoon I won’t be there.

  ~ ~ ~

  How am I supposed to defend an entire allegiant of vampires in a city like Philadelphia when I can’t even protect one human?

  “Christiana, I’m the one who betrayed you. Not Elizabeth. I beg you to let her go.”

  She turns toward me. “I agree. You have betrayed me. How else can I convince you not to cross me again? I can’t damage you professionally. We need your physician’s license to transfer to Pennsylvania. I want you on the faculty of either Penn State or Carnegie Mellon.”

  “What makes you so sure I won’t sabotage myself?”

  Christiana rolls her eyes. “It’s why I never wanted to mate with anyone.” She touches Zander’s shoulder and sighs. “Men can be a real pain in the ass.”

  “And I’m sure I’ll also be a terrible second-in-command,” I argue to draw her attention away from Elizabeth.

  “Alexander, I promise you once this whole nasty business is behind us, you will be very happy in Philadelphia.” Christiana removes her coat and tosses it to the floor.

  “I promise you, I will not.”

  “Zander, tie her to that table. And you two, hold him down. Tight.” She steps over to me and slides her cold finger under my chin. “Alexander, you were intimate with this human. Once she’s in pain and screaming for you, your defensive nature will take over and you’ll be tempted to do something very stupid. Something you shouldn’t do. Show a side of yourself that perhaps none of us has seen before.” Christiana grins at me.

  Gaston did reveal what he saw in the woods that night. He told her I have powers similar to Loren. But if she wants proof, it means she doesn’t believe him. Entirely. For one hundred years, I kept this to myself. I could be with Loren right now; the two of us walking the earth, taking control of any allegiant we find. I chose to live my life in peace. I saw what his gifts have done.

  I want no part of that.

&
nbsp; Do I show myself, though? Christiana is right, if I suspect Elizabeth is in any kind of real danger I may not have any control. Everyone in this room may be picked up and twisted around in a swirling tornado and smashed through my windows.

  She’s baiting me. Do I call her bluff?

  When I choose to remain silent, Christiana picks up the conversation. “You are outnumbered here, Alexander. A good warrior knows which hills to conquer and which ones to let burn.” She smiles and turns to Pollack and Gaston who shoved everything off my dining room table.

  “Stop!” I yell. “Everyone just stop. Okay, we get your message. All of this is not necessary.”

  Christiana flicks her wrist to Pollack, who cracks me across the head. When my face falls forward, Gaston kicks me in the jaw. Son of a bitch.

  “Stop it!” Elizabeth lunges to help me, but she’s held back by Zander. Her anxiety is so frenzied I could smell it.

  “Elizabeth, I’m fine,” I groan, but clearly, I’m not.

  “Okay, fine,” she says, pulling away from Zander and climbing up on the table. “Let’s get this bullshit over with.”

  A collection of growls echoes through the room as vampires peer hungrily at her bare legs. Christiana nods to Gaston and Pollack, who use Zip Ties to secure her hands. When they spread her legs and fasten her ankles, I worry. The snarls grow deeper and louder. The loudest is mine.

  Christiana comes around the table behind Elizabeth’s head and tugs on her hair. “So soft,” she says. Her fingers thread through the strands I enjoyed touching all these months. “The color is also magnificent.” She tips her head to the side. “Alex, I don’t suppose you have a pair of scissors lying around? Of course, I could always just rip it out by the roots or take her entire scalp.”

  “Please, Christiana,” I beg with my head down. “Don’t do this.” I need to communicate with Elizabeth. Climbing into her brain now will hurt like a mother-fucker, but I have no choice.