Drawing Bloodlines (The Princeton Allegiant Series Book 1)

by Deborah Garland

  He doesn’t. A vampire that potent doesn’t live this long without controlling his rage. “He wants me to be the one to take his life if he becomes something deadly, something he said he would never want to be.” Loren shakes his head and rolls up his sleeve. “Armand, I want my blood inside him. Now!” he roars.

  It’s Taylor who sets Loren up on the stool next to Alex, though. The way Armand hisses loudly as Taylor touches the dangerous, smoldering vampire tells me they must be lovers.

  She produces a device similar to what Alex used to extract his own blood when I was sick. She’s got it fashioned to a machine that wraps around his arm like a blood pressure device. Loren doesn’t even budge when the sharp end cuts into his vein. Dark-red blood winds through the tube and into Alex.

  We wait.

  “Look!” Julianna points to the monitor.

  “I’ll be damned.” Armand puts the stethoscope against Alex’s chest, but his eyebrows crinkle as he listens. “Uh-oh.”

  Alex’s body begins to thrash wildly on the table.

  “Remove the tube!” Armand yells at Taylor and shoves me and Julianna aside.

  “What’s happening?” I ask while Julianna holds me by my waist.

  Loren jumps up and rips the metal spout from his arm. His blood pumps out and soaks into his clothes. Armand prepares a syringe and slams it into the plug attached to Alex’s chest. It takes a second dose to make his body stop shaking and vibrating.

  Everyone is breathless waiting for Alex’s monitors to faintly beep again, and when that happens, I fall against Loren, who holds me. I can’t watch anymore.

  Either Alex dies completely or he wakes up and is something so unspeakable Loren has to kill him. I turn to leave the enclosed room.

  “Wait!” Julianna rolls up her sleeve. “Try my blood.”

  After Taylor connects her to Alex via a tube, Armand moves around my vampire listening, touching him and poking him with a syringe that removes fluid. He presses his lips flat in discouragement each time. “I think we’ll just have to wait.”

  Loren puts his hand on my shoulder. “Elizabeth, I’m so sorry.”

  “Me too. I know how much he means to you.” Unlike Loren, I need some air. “I’m going to step outside for a moment.”

  “I’ll go with her,” Julianna says and gives Loren’s arm a squeeze as she passes him.

  “Seriously, I can—” My words are cut short by an explosion.

  The lab doors bend and billowing smoke fills the room. So much for contamination.

  Christiana steps over the mangled steel. Her lips move, but I can’t hear anything over the ringing in my ears.

  Chapter 33

  Loren yanks me behind him.

  “Where is Alexander?” Christiana waves a dagger.

  Her long, shiny, beautiful ebony hair is gone. Chopped and charred ends swing around her face which appears to be healing from something.

  Oh God! The burnt cottage. Alex tried to kill her. The way her beady eyes lock on mine and her teeth snarl means I’m the next to be toasted.

  “Christiana, do I need to remind you this is not your state,” Loren argues while he holds me securely against his back.

  Instead of responding to his charges, she smiles. Gaston, who carries an assault rifle and Pollack, who clutches a long sword, slither up behind her. The three vamps from the other night follow, but there’s someone else with them, shadowed under a hood. I can tell from the height and bulk, it’s not Zander. Where is he?

  With Armand guarding Taylor, and Julianna off to the side, I fear we’re outnumbered. There are too many humans in this room for Loren to send a sweeping ball of fire to fend off Christiana’s death squad.

  She cautiously steps closer to Loren. “Alexander is my mate.”

  “No. He’s. Not!” I yell and grasp Loren’s jacket.

  “I have had enough of you.” Christiana lunges for me but she’s insane if she thinks she’s getting past Loren.

  He sweeps her off the ground and holds her in mid-air with the incredible power of his mind while her hands flail uselessly. “Traitor! Release me.”

  Loren stands ready to spring and attack as if the assault can come from anywhere. While she’s dangling, she snaps her fingers. The hooded vamp is pushed forward and his face is revealed.

  Loren flinches. “Elijah!”

  “They stormed my house, took over my computers, and reversed the hack I did on their network. They saw all of Alex’s calls, texts, emails, everything—” He twitches, pointing.

  Loren sweeps his hand up and pushes Elijah in the corner. He sneers at Christiana. “Good work. Did you know he can’t handle the smell of human blood?”

  When Elijah is a safe distance away, he finishes, “Anyway, we tracked Alex’s phone to this location.” He bows his head to Loren. “I’m sorry.”

  “Quite the information we were able to gleam,” Christiana crows. “Alexander wanted some heinous operation so he will no longer be vampire. At the hands of that butcher.” She points to Armand.

  At this utterance, Pollack rushes Armand and seizes the scientist by the arm. The guard is as frightening as he was the night they wanted to feed off me. Gaston, however just stands there petrified unable to take his eyes off Loren.

  “Taylor, now!” Armand’s voice sends her barreling toward the surgery room. He pulls free from Pollack to slam a button and an alarm sounds as the glass doors slide closed. “Elizabeth, run!”

  I let go of Loren and take off toward the back of the room. The thick glass tank is designed to keep a vicious unknown being in, in the event this experiment went terribly wrong. Now everything went wrong and I must run for my life to get in that room, away from these monsters.

  “Stop her!” Christiana yells.

  I don’t dare slow down to see if they’re right behind me. I put on a burst of speed but the glass doors close with a taunting hiss in my face. My fingernails scrape rubber and break off as I try to pry the seam apart.

  Julianna, who trailed me, yells to Armand, “Open this door!”

  “I can’t,” he screams back. “It’s programmed to not open for an hour.”

  “Oh yeah?” Gaston lifts his gun and points it at the operating room.

  With a spray of bullets coming toward us, Julianna shoves me to the ground and lifts her hand to deflect them away from us. Most hit the glass, and clink to the floor, still sizzling.

  “Gotta love military-grade glass,” Armand says with a sneer, but he’s pushed against the wall by Pollack, who after a signal from Christiana lifts his sword.

  Oh-no.

  Loren swings around, but his concentration on Christiana and Elijah delay his response. He’s too late. I wrench my head away, but Taylor’s screams and her fists pounding on the glass tells me what I feared. The poor woman’s lover is dead. Before I process what could possibly happen next, another explosion of Gaston’s bullets takes out Armand’s computers.

  When the smoke clears, I notice Elijah slipped away and one of the three unnamed guards rushed after him. I pray Elijah gets help. Although I can’t imagine who can help in this situation, except . . . Dear God. Someone from New York? No. This would end in a blood bath.

  Two of the three unnamed vampires take their position with weapons pointed at Loren while Gaston and Pollack approach me and Julianna.

  Loren’s eyes blaze like obsidian beads and his lips curl back as he barks, “Jules, watch out.”

  “I got it, Loren.” Julianna’s confidence is in her voice only. Her shaking body, pressing me against the glass, warns me of something else.

  I suddenly don’t know where to look or what to be more frightened of. Julianna pushes Gaston and Pollack away with her mind, but she apparently can’t hold two at the same time. Her hands move in circles to keep Pollack and
his blood-tipped sword several feet from us, while another wave of her energy jams Gaston’s gun. Her powers to stun and hold them in place are limited or too raw and untested.

  You could have stayed with me. I would have taught you everything.

  Loren was right.

  While Julianna waves her hands at Gaston and Pollack, her strained grunts and moans have me more and more worried.

  Loren, however, deals with the other two guards masterfully. The first has the same gun as Gaston.

  Christiana yells to that crazed gunman, “Shoot him. Take Loren out. Once and for all.”

  Loren smiles and waits for the hail of bullets. Unlike Julianna who simply stopped them, Loren’s power harnesses them together, sways them up and around so they maintain the same velocity. Perhaps he’s in another time continuum positioning them one by one. All I see are their fiery sparks. The swarm of bullets comes down and with a force that makes me think a bomb went off, they explode into the vampire. His body falls to the ground, wincing and shaking. He’s instantly blood soaked and I don’t think he’ll survive.

  Not waiting to find out, the next vamp steps up and a blast of fire releases from his weapon. The searing heat fills my lungs making it hard to breathe, but Loren turns the fire into a waterfall that quickly changes to ice encasing the vamp inside.

  He turns his attention to Julianna to help her by pulling Gaston up into the air. With his weapon firing indiscriminately, Loren deflects every bullet. I can’t believe I thought Julianna has the same powers he does. What a fucking understatement.

  Pollack rushes us with his sword drawn. Julianna shoves him aside with her mind, but it’s as if her powers are invisible laser streams. He ducks and darts out of the way and comes right at us in a speed that makes me lose comprehension.

  Julianna is tired, depleted and has only a fraction of her strength left. She presses against me, as if her body can protect me. She has warm human blood running through her. Surely she’ll be killed. We’ll be killed.

  “Jules!” Loren screams, turning his back on Gaston and raises his hand to stop Pollack, but the vampire keeps moving in our direction.

  Gaston lifts his gun and Christiana falls to the ground. Loren’s fear of losing Julianna renders him powerless.

  “Now,” the vampire bitch screams. “Get in here now!”

  God, she has more monsters lined up to kill us!

  I duck, close my eyes, and wait for Pollack’s sword to slice into my body. I thank God Annie is with her father. He’ll take care of her and hopefully she’ll never know how her mother died. Me. Dead. The only peace in that thought is that maybe I’ll see Alexander somewhere in the afterlife.

  “Pollack, wait!” Christiana screams. “My bargaining chip has arrived!”

  I lift my head. Standing next to Christiana is Zander. With my fucking daughter.

  “No!” I bolt from behind Julianna and she grabs at me to no avail.

  Loren turns to Christiana with a murderous expression. “Commander, that’s a child.”

  As I run across the room, Pollack takes a swipe at me but another explosion erupts sending me to the ground right at his feet. A firestorm of glass races by me, sparkling chips sear with heat and soar over my head. Not one shard touches me. The room quickly fills with the sounds of flesh being torn to pieces while Gaston and Pollack scream. Blood pours out of their eyes and mouths as they fall to the ground.

  A wall of broken glass fragments with razor sharp edges glisten and hover in front of Christiana and Zander. The commander and her personal guard quiver while their eyes float across the room to take in the devastation.

  “Annie!” I scream.

  Loren holds her motionless body in his arms. Oh God!

  I get to my feet and race toward him. My throat tightens when I see Annie is untouched by the glass. Loren places her in my arms. Her smile is so peaceful like she’s dreaming of chasing the bunnies in my father’s backyard.

  “She’s fine. I made her go to sleep. She won’t remember any of this,” Loren whispers, cradling her head. “Zander pushed her down and out of the way when the glass came at them.”

  Zander? Zander saved my daughter? How he got her away from Stephen makes me shudder, but she’s alive and that’s all that matters.

  Glass is everywhere. The surgery room must have exploded with Alex still inside! Oh, dear God. I hold Annie against my chest as dread paralyzes me.

  I catch Loren staring over my shoulder, his eyes wide and his mouth hung open. I turn around slowly to see what could make a lethal vampire so completely stunned. A gasp escapes me and Loren holds me up.

  Alexander stands in front of the surgery room. Shirtless, bruised, and stitched back together wearing only a pair of black satin boxers that hang low on his hips. He’s motionless for what feels like forever. Finally, his eyes connect to mine and I see their color: emerald green.

  His feral expression, more powerful than ever before, focuses on me. Somewhere inside is the man I know. The man who did this to be with me. He releases a snarl and springs in my direction.

  Loren flicks his wrist to stop Alex. Armand’s dire warning, we don’t know what he is, must weigh heavy in his sire’s thoughts.

  Not mine. “No!” I yell.

  Come to me, I project with my mind. I’m not afraid of you. Whatever you are, I love you.

  Alex rushes toward me and pulls me against him. Despite Annie being between us, his mouth lowers to mine. He tugs a fistful of my hair and devours me with lips that are soft and . . . warm. He kisses me with hunger and need but it’s mixed with a thick coat of pure love and devotion. It radiates from him with a gentle humming deep within his body. He did this for me. He risked everything for me. Because he loves me. If I get another chance with him, I will tell him I love him every day of my life.

  Julianna takes Annie from my arms and holds her protectively.

  With nothing between Alex and me, I touch all the parts of his body and lay gentle kisses in their wake. Every inch of him is tepid and his skin has a rosy glow like he’s been kissed by sunlight. He lowers to his knees and repeats what I did to him by pulling at my clothes and inhaling my scent.

  “You’re breathing!”

  “Yes,” he moans, and the strain in his voice makes him sound hard and gravelly. “Are you okay? Did anyone hurt you?”

  “No,” I whisper to match the volume of our voices.

  His eyes stray from mine and the way he smiles, I can tell he spotted Loren. Alex nods to the words passed silently between them. What is he now? He made the glass panels break into a million pieces that shot out toward the vampires who were ready to kill me and Julianna. Not one touched me or her. And who is suspending the wall of glass caging Christiana and Zander in place?

  “Alexander,” Loren whispers to me and regards his progeny with pride.

  Together, we step toward the shimmering wall to address the Philadelphia Commander and her guard as they shake behind the sparkling glass.

  Alex’s grip on me is tight while Christiana peers at him. His face is so lethal, even I’m a little afraid of him. He lifts his hands and I think the shards are going to tear them to shreds. I turn away, unable to watch.

  “Alexander, please, no,” Christiana begs, even though Zander blocks most of the glass and he’ll be sliced far worse than she will.

  Alex takes a moment while his chest heaves. He closes his eyes and the pieces of glass rise up and sprinkle down upon the two creatures. They flinch and moan as the sharp chips and shavings hit them. All they leave however, are insignificant flesh wounds that immediately begin to heal.

  “Where’s my child’s father?” I demand, while Alex squeezes my hand to control my fear.

  “He’s unharmed,” Zander grunts. “An associate of ours in DC has him in a secure location.”

  C
ecilia. How could she betray Stephen like this?

  Before I ask for any more assurances, Francisco rushes into the lab, carrying a shotgun. “I got here as soon as Elijah called me,” he says and stops short as he takes in the shit-show. “What the hell happened? Why is the Philadelphia Commander covered in blood and glass?”

  The man and a woman who followed Francisco stare in amazement. I assume they are vampires. The man is handsome as hell and carries two of the guns I saw in DC. The woman, my God, she’s even more stunning than Christiana. Her silvery blonde hair is pulled tight into a sleek ponytail that bounces against the sword slung across her back.

  With another commander present, not to mention witnesses, Christiana is sure to show some restraint. “I’ll tell you what happened.” She pushes Zander out of the way. Maybe not. Pointing to Armand’s lifeless body, she continues. “This madman changed Alexander into . . . I don’t know what.”

  “Her guards murdered him!” Taylor shouts and despite being inside a room that exploded, she’s relatively unharmed.

  “Is this true?” Francisco turns to Christiana. This is his state. He’s in charge. “Elijah showed me copies of what you intercepted. By the contents of his messages, it sounds like this was Alexander’s choice.”

  “It was my choice,” Alex declares and without looking back at me, he adds, “And I did this for no one but myself. To be free.”

  “Bullshit. You did it to be with her!” Christiana yells and points.

  Francisco shakes his head like it’s about to explode. “But, Christiana, first, you killed a vampire I promised to protect. Now I have to explain to Armand’s liege what the hell happened to him. Reese and Tomas, prepare Armand’s body to be returned to Sweden.” Francisco steps toward the desk and picks up pieces of plastic with wires dangling. “Was any of this backed up?” He cringes at the mess.