Drawing Bloodlines (The Princeton Allegiant Series Book 1)

by Deborah Garland

  “Guys!” I yell. “This is my home. Take this pissing contest outside.”

  “I’ll meet you in the backyard,” Loren teases and is gone, punched through time.

  Julianna sighs. She breathes. “I’m not fast like them either,” she says and saunters out of my back door at her own leisurely pace.

  I like this woman even if she scares the hell out of me.

  “Wait, not my yard,” I yell and run after her.

  Outside, they leapt over the fence and are in the woods behind my house. Using muscles I haven’t tested in years, I too climb over and the metal is so cold it stings my hands. When I find them, they are sizing each other up like caged tigers.

  Julianna removes a coat that sings with expensive perfume and shoves it at me. I roll my eyes but take it. This should be interesting.

  Loren steps from side to side and wrings his hands as he gazes at the woman he’s been dying to see for decades. “With each year that goes by, she develops further and further. Anything new, Jules?”

  She smiles, and the ground separates. A flume of water rises like a tower. Holy shit. The spray of ocean water is a hundred feet in the air even though we’re seventy-five miles from the shore. Like the imaginary water-wall Loren created in the bar, I can see Julianna on the other side, as she watches him. They gaze at each other through the blurry divider.

  When it disappears Loren steps over the hole toward Julianna with a fireball he forms in his hand. “Power over the elements takes practice.”

  “And you had one thousand years.” She steps back.

  “I made you three hundred years ago. You could have stayed with me. I would have taught you everything.” Loren twists the fire in his hands. They quickly turn black and start to smoke.

  “Loren!” I cry out.

  Julianna tilts her head toward me. “Aww, your little friend is worried about you.” She blows the fire out and Loren’s hand ice over.

  “Thank you.” He lowers his head to kiss her, but he gets swooped up again. This time he grabs Julianna and they land on a tree branch, tangled up together. They yell at each other in a language I don’t understand. It changes with each sentence.

  Loren throws Julianna from the tree, but flies off and catches her. They fall slowly to the ground together and she lands softly on her back. Loren could probably join New York and help rule over all the US vampires, but he prefers his freedom and says he keeps out of politics whenever he can. Now that I met Julianna and see how they are together, it makes perfect sense.

  I wait for Loren to be sprung up and away, but Julianna wraps her legs around his waist and when he lowers himself on top of her, his hips circle against the inside of her thighs.

  She touches his face and kisses him while her hands dig into his hair to pull him closer. The familiar sound of his groan is low, but I recognize it—he released that pleasure growl with me.

  Oh boy. I turn around, because I can’t watch. A huge wave of passion releases into the air from them. Even I feel it and I have to get away. I turn and walk to the fence, quickly.

  Loren lands in front of me, forcing me to slam into his body so hard I feel his arousal.

  “I’m sorry about that.” He drapes his arms around me and holds me in place.

  His eyes catch the light from the moon, and they are no longer black, but warm sable. They changed slightly when he kissed me. After kissing Julianna, though, his eyes shine brightly with this new color.

  “Seriously, don’t apologize.” I squirm away and watch Julianna walk toward me. “You two have some catching up to do.”

  “But I don’t want to leave you alone,” Loren says.

  “I’ll be fine. I have your blood to protect me. And my daughter is currently locked on a military base safe and sound.”

  “Let’s go back in the house.” Loren holds my hand in a way, I know I won’t be able to break free.

  I’m not entirely sure I want to this time.

  Inside, Julianna picks up all the shattered plates and fruit Loren knocked off my dining table, and politely apologizes.

  I hand her the trash bag and say, “Don’t worry about that. It’s seriously the least of my concerns right now.”

  I pour Loren a glass of wine and while I want to get sloshed, I make a pot of tea for me and Julianna.

  She takes a sip and gazes at Loren with a smoldering and sensuous smirk. I should be jealous, but they live in another world. I want to be in the land of the living with Alex.

  “Wow. Her thoughts are powerful.” Julianna knocks her head in my direction and then sips her tea.

  Christ, her too?

  “I had to practice. And also, I had to work at blocking my thoughts.” Julianna turns to Loren. “Try to read my mind.”

  I was glad she didn’t ask for one of the other destructive mind gifts Alex told me he has.

  Loren smiles and narrows his eyes at her. After a moment, he blinks and then touches what can only be described as a vampire’s blushing cheek. “Wow. Okay,” he says and grips the corner of my table.

  “You weren’t able to block your thoughts from him?” I ask Julianna.

  “Ooops,” she coos.

  “She tricked me.” He gladly walked into that trap, I suspect because he wants her so much.

  “So you read me?” She’s just as smitten with him. How could she not be? Look at the man.

  “Loud and clear.” Loren stands up.

  Whatever Julianna thought about fully aroused him. I need to get these two out of my house immediately. Loren reads my mind, smiles and walks toward my sink to deposit his empty wineglass. But it slips from his hand and his body collapses.

  I jump to my feet. “Loren, what’s wrong?”

  He lets out a wail like he’s in pain and squirms on the floor.

  Julianna leaps over the table smashing our tea cups. “Loren, what is it?”

  “Alexander,” he chokes out. “Something, something happened to Alexander.”

  I grab his shirt collar. “What happened to Alex?”

  Loren’s eyes are wide, seeing beyond me, beyond this room. “His essence. His life. I don’t feel him anymore.” He goes limp and stares up at me in anguish.

  “Did Christiana do something to him?” I shake the world’s deadliest vampire, like he’s a rag doll. “Or Zander?”

  Julianna slips to the floor and holds his head. “Loren, concentrate. What happened?”

  I let Julianna comfort him while I pace back and forth. “Oh God. He snapped at her. I know it.”

  Loren gets to his feet and pulls out his phone to make a call. After a moment, he squeezes it. “Gone to voicemail.”

  “Let’s go to his house,” Julianna says and grabs her coat.

  My legs go weak and I fall into a chair. “No,” I whisper, feeling the effects of what happened to me there.

  Loren crouches in front of me, holding my coat. “You’re coming with us.”

  “No.” I shove the coat aside and get to my feet. “I said goodbye. How many more times do I have to lose him?”

  “Elizabeth, I’m sure whatever happened, he did what he did to be with you.” Loren clenches his jaw as he speaks to me, controlling a rage even I feel.

  Before I can argue, I’m steered to Loren’s Lexus. He drives and Julianna sits in the passenger seat. He drops a shaking hand in her lap as we make our way through the winding roads that lead to Alex’s cottage. I must have been traumatized a few days ago because I have no recollection of leaving here with him.

  “Oh my God!” Loren screeches to a stop.

  I had my head down but now I see the smoke. The base of Alex’s driveway is blocked with yellow tape, but we edge the Lexus to the side of the road and jump out. I’m the one who runs now, frantic and afraid.

 
It’s gone. Burned. I fall into the wet snow. “Alex!” I scream, and Loren holds me.

  “Wait a minute.” Julianna approaches the charred mess and presses her hands into the wood door frame. “This fire happened days ago.”

  Loren nods. “She’s right. Whatever I felt happened recently. I still feel it. I didn’t get a sense of burning.”

  “So where is he?” My voice squeaks, afraid something happened to him in Philadelphia.

  That’s the last place I want to go, but I have a feeling that’s our next stop. I turn and a glint of shine catches my eye. Alex’s car.

  “Loren?” My shrieking puts him at my side instantly.

  “That’s not a good a sign.” Loren slogs toward the vehicle and places his hand on the hood. The entire car is covered in ashes.

  Without any powers, I know it’s cold from all the way over here. “Is it possible this is part of his disappearance?” I’m astonished that I’m the first to come up with a plausible explanation.

  Loren and Julianna exchange glances. They had to do this. Vanish without a trace. The redhead is the first to shrug, acknowledging that it’s a possibility.

  “What’s that noise?” she asks and spins around.

  Odd, because as far as I’m concerned when no one speaks it’s hauntingly quiet except for the sizzle of embers that still blaze deep within the structure. A vibration against my leg, however, stirs me and I grab my phone.

  “That’s me.” I pull it out of my pocket.

  Alexander.

  Chapter 32

  “Alex! Alex, my darling, where are you?” I cry into my phone as my heart slams against my chest. “Are you hurt?”

  “Hello?” a female voice responds.

  “Christiana, you bitch. What have you done to Alex? I have Loren with me right now and my God we will come to Philadelphia to kick your ass!”

  “Whoa. Hey. Ho. This isn’t Christiana,” the voice says, shaken from my verbal assault. “My name is Taylor. I assume this is Elizabeth?”

  My throat tightens. Is this some coroner somewhere who found Alex’s phone because he’s dead? Really dead? My legs go rubbery and Julianna steadies me. “Yes. I’m sorry. Please, please what happened to Alexander?”

  “You should probably come see for yourself. We’re at the research facility in—”

  Loren rips the phone out of my hand so hard I stumble back into Julianna’s arms. “What the hell have you done with Alexander? Listen, lady, I don’t want to sound sexist, but put whoever the fuck is in charge on the phone right now. Why can’t he come to the phone?” Loren stops to listen, releases a few uh-huh’s then puts his hand on his head. “Okay, we’re on our way.”

  His grim expression turns my stomach and I lean forward to wretch. There isn’t much in my stomach anyway and it’s mostly violent contractions. Julianna holds my hair but when Loren puts his hand on my head, the heaving stops immediately.

  If only he can fix the grief that pulls my heart tight as I fight to breathe. It’s heavy like a stone, not numb, but sharp like a finely cut rock that scrapes along my lungs whenever I dare to take a breath.

  Julianna brings me into the car and sits in the back with me this time. The fact that she hasn’t asked Loren what happened tells me she knows because she read his mind and the news isn’t good. But why was Alex at a research facility? Who— I sit up with a start. Armand!

  Alex mentioned something about experiments to become human.

  Even without a science degree, I know turning a dead person back alive is crazy. A horrible Frankenstein’s monster-like vision flashes before me. Regenerating dead tissue isn’t a new concept. Even if it was fiction.

  I have no idea how Mary Shelley actually ended her story. What happened to the monster? I guess I’m about to find out what happened to mine.

  Loren’s response earlier leaves me with little hope. Perhaps Alex gave his phone to Armand to call me if it went horribly wrong. Just so I would know something. He probably didn’t count on me bringing a deadly vampire, though. One who wasn’t going to take the news lightly.

  Loren made Alex. This is as much his loss as it is mine.

  At the research facility’s front gate, Loren hands over a business card. His studious accent, mature appearance, not to mention a drop-dead beautiful smiling redhead in the back makes the uniformed man quite compliant.

  After he makes a call, the gate lifts and we proceed. The closer we get the more I begin to shake.

  A woman in a white lab coat with a metal nameplate that reads Dr. Taylor Meyers greets us at the door to the lab. “Who is Christiana, and why do you want to kick her ass?”

  “It’s a long story.” I’m too weary to go into details.

  “Follow me.” She adjusts her glasses and steps aside to let us in. She’s obviously human because vampires have excellent eye sight. At the second door, she slides a key card and the steel barrier opens with a whooshing sound. “The lab is sterile, so you have to pass through the air vents for decontamination.”

  Inside, the handsome Swedish vampire scientist is in front of several monitors with his head in his hands. I don’t see Alex, though. When Armand spots Loren, he backs away and a wash of fright pours over his features.

  “Armand, this is—” I begin.

  “I know who the fuck that is,” he says with a trembling voice. “Alex asked me to do this. I, we told him we didn’t have enough data.”

  “I’m not here to hurt anyone,” Loren speaks smoothly. “I’ve known Alexander longer than any of you. If he wanted this, there was nothing anyone could have done to stop him. We just—” His gaze drifts to a glass enclosed room in the back-left corner.

  A body lies on a surgical table. A white sheet is brought up to the subject’s waist.

  I lose my balance, but I’m also the first to move. Armand stops me by holding my arm. Loren, who now assumes the primary role of my protector hisses at him for touching me.

  “It’s okay,” I say. “Both of you.”

  “Elizabeth, just prepare yourself,” Armand begs me.

  Julianna takes my hand. “She’s fine.”

  With the half-turned vampire at my side, I step closer to the glass room. Loren is behind us. At the sliding double doors however, he puts his hand on my shoulder and steps in ahead of me.

  I approach Alexander lying on a makeshift operating table and hold back tears. I glance at the monitors which are alive with activity before I dare glimpse at my vampire’s face. When I do my breath hitches. All of his hair is gone. A fresh incision starts at his forehead, stretches all the way down behind his ear and is closed with thick black staples. Similar sutures march in lines and zigzag across his pale body, including a long Y-shaped scar over his collarbone and down the center of his chest.

  I reach out but my hand can only hover. “Armand, is he alive?”

  “Yes,” he answers. “And no.”

  “There’s no heartbeat,” Loren huffs.

  “There’s brain activity, though,” Taylor points out.

  “How is that possible?” Julianna asks.

  “Vampires don’t have a heartbeat,” Loren reminds her.

  “So, he’s still a vampire?” I ask.

  “We don’t know what he is now,” Armand answers and clicks a few more keys to show different views. “If nothing else, this is groundbreaking.”

  Julianna touches Alex’s skin gently with her fingers. She closes her eyes and Loren stares at her as if she has yet another power he’s not aware of. Her hair spills over Alex’s chest as she leans in to listen to his heart. She flattens her lips when she stands up and gives Loren a grave scowl.

  I touch his body with a burning need to feel his skin. How will I live without him being on this earth? I have to sit. I take his hand in mine and press it against my cheek, even
though it’s wet with tears. He loved that I was human, my warmth and the way my body responded to him. He asked me to keep my mind open to him so I could hear his thoughts and he could listen to mine. I can use my voice now and the sounds will drift into his ears. With him in this altered state, though perhaps he can only understand if I do this:

  Alexander Manning, I love you. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you this sooner. Why did you do this? Just as you wanted me to stay human, I wanted you to stay vampire. Everything you loved about me, I loved about you. All of who and what you are too. Come back to me. Even if you have to live with another woman. I just need to know you’re alive. And maybe one day there will be a knock on my door and it will be you. I’ll wait for that day. Give me a reason to wait, Alexander.

  The monitors don’t flinch and I don’t expect them to. I stand and put my face close enough to press my wet cheek against his. With the last bit of dampness from my fingers, I run it across his lips, waiting for one last chance at a response. Nothing.

  I stagger just outside the room where Armand and Loren are arguing. Something about a lesion and how it came out, but then something formed around Alex’s brain. I don’t have the ability to focus or try to make sense of what they talk about. Regardless of who wins that debate, the love of my life is on a table about to die!

  I lean against the glass. Its hard, cold surface reminds me of Alex and my tears come on even harder.

  “Alex made one request.” Armand’s voice is weary, as he must balance loyalty to my vampire and the one who can kill him, easily.

  Loren flinches away. His broad shoulders stretch back and a low growl radiates from his chest. He’s read Armand’s mind. Julianna stiffens to brace herself.

  I’m around vampires enough now to know when venom rises in their blood. When I step toward Loren, Julianna grasps my arm and hisses.

  “No.” I shake my head. “I trust him. He won’t hurt me.” I put my hand on Loren’s chest knowing he can easily tear me to pieces.