More Than Blood

by Amanda Vyne

  Arcane Crossbreeds 1:

  More Than Blood

  Amanda Vyne

  AMC Publishing

  Copyright © 2009 Amanda Vyne

  Arcane Crossbreds 1

  More Than Blood

  Gabrial Ferrar is a House Marshal, an enforcer of the laws of his people. But when his investigation into missing young girls lead him to a dark alley his path crosses with an incredible crossbreed whose blood promises him a lifetime of pleasure he’s willing to sacrifice everything to gain. Yet her past may be the key to stopping a deranged killer from taking the life of another little girl - but only if he can gain her trust before time runs out.

  Kel Sheridan works for a private agency called Incog, a vigilante organization that deals with the dark underbelly of the Arcane. While investigating a local blood ring she finds herself uncontrollably drawn to a stranger and in the time it takes to press her lips to his, he's made her his blood mate. Kel is furious, especially when she discovers he is a son of the House that turned her out on the streets as a child for not being of pure blood. When another little girl disappears she finds herself needing the strength of the unwanted blood bond between them to face the truth of her past to catch their killer.

  Arcane Crossbreeds 1: More Than Blood

  Copyright © 2009 by Amanda Vyne

  ISBN: 978-1-60737-444-2

  Published by AMC Publishing

  Cover Art Designer: Jeann Mills

  eBook Formatting Services: http://design.lkcampbell.com/

  All right reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this eBook only. No part of this eBook may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without prior written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Publisher’s Note: This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, business establishments, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Author Note: This is an author’s cut of More Than Blood, first published by Loose Id. Copyright @2009 by Amanda Vyne

  Warning: This book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language and may be considered offensive to same readers. This book is for sale to adults only, as defined by the laws of the country in which you made your purchase.

  Dedication

  I have been incredibly blessed to have spent all of my life surrounded by people who encouraged me to read and write…from family and friends to teachers and other authors. You make me grateful. Thank you.

  Chapter One

  The man stood at the mouth of the darkened alley just out of the jaundiced light cast by the streetlamp on the corner, his broad shoulders hunched forward. His hulking figure flickered in and out, like the picture on an old TV set with a bad connection and it wasn’t until he shook his head in agitation and stumbled back a step that the light touched his gaunt features—glinted yellow off his fangs.

  Across the street, cloaked in the shadows cast by a rusted fire escape, Sanguen House Marshal Gabrial Ferrar watched the man. Gabe had been silently stalking him since sunset and now he was certain he wasn’t the only one. Instinct, a prickling awareness crawling across his shoulders, warned him that another predator stalked his prey. A movement drew his burning gaze to the darkness that blanketed the sky, draping over the buildings surrounding him. Far above them, a shadow shifted on the edge of the adjacent roof.

  There you are.

  Gabe narrowed his eyes. He had no intention of giving up his prey no matter who was watching from that rooftop. The life of the man across the street belonged to him. Gabe curled his lip in disgust, absently reaching down to caress the handles of the special short swords strapped to his thighs. The swords had belonged to his father and his father before him, given to every son of his line on the eve that he took the oath to protect the laws of his House.

  Karl Pryor had taken such an oath, sworn on his blood and the blood of his people to protect their laws. And now he’d betrayed the trust he’d been given by their kind. More than that, he’d betrayed Gabe. His gut clenched in fury and perhaps a little disappointment. He had harbored just a little hope that he was wrong.

  Fuck.

  His people had lived and breathed the night for thousands of years, but now many lived in the mainstream and had forgotten the old ways, broke the codes that had been established for their own safety and for the safety of the humans they lived among.

  It was his responsibility to police the Sanguen that claimed the protection of the Ferrar House. To protect them. And sometimes to protect others from them. Tonight it was the latter.

  Gabe was pretty sure Pryor, once his partner, was using blood. Though blood was necessary for Sanguen survival, the wrong kind could be like a drug. Human blood was usually the drug of choice, and it was bad news, especially for those like him. Gabe came from a leading Sanguen bloodline, which made him incredibly strong and aggressive – two qualities that necessitated a serious amount of control to balance. Human blood would shoot that control all to hell in a single beat of his heart. Even in the others of his species it caused severe hallucinations and sometimes uncontrollable bloodlust.

  Fuck! Why had Karl gotten involved with that shit?

  That made that stupid fuck very dangerous. And since the bastard was from his House and he was the House marshal, it also made him Gabe’s problem.

  The elders were not going to like this at all. Especially since neither he nor Karl had been granted permission to leave the House territory. Gabe had even been expressly forbidden from pursuing Pryor.

  Gabe took his job as marshal very serious. Serious enough that he’d come to this foul-smelling alley in San Francisco from his House territory in Southern California against the recommendation of his elders – a grave offense. Yet his instincts screamed at him that Pryor was guilty of more than using tainted blood. Gabe felt certain he was somehow involved in the disappearance of four young girls near his House territory too.

  Eight months ago, a young girl had been collected from her home in a neighboring independent community. The community fell under his House’s jurisdiction, and he had gone to investigate. Two months later another girl disappeared from the compound. A month after that, the Rainier House marshal had contacted him with information of two disappearances over a three months’ time in the Rainier House territory, which bordered on theirs. None of the girls had been found.

  Gabe was meticulous and thorough—and he’d been groomed from birth to take the vows of the House marshal. He’d investigated the disappearances himself. The parents of all the missing girls said the girls had been collected under the authority of the Ferrar House elders by a man matching the description of his partner and he’d taken his suspicions to his elders. They questioned Pryor and determined he was not involved. Gabe was expected to just accept their decision without question.

  Yet he couldn’t rid himself of the gnawing certainty that his partner was involved. Somehow. Karl Pryor was his great-aunt’s son, and Gabe believed the elders were biased in their refusal to consider him a possible suspect. The Ferrar House was an ancient and highly honored House among the Sanguen but very purist in its traditions. It would be a debilitating blow to their House if one of their own was implicated in such a crime. But the elders hadn’t had to look the parents of those missing girls in the eyes and see the unending despair there.

  Now, as Gabe silently watched his partner nervously pace in the dark recesses of the alley, he was certain his instincts weren’t off. Pryor was definitely suspect in some aspect of these disappearances. But how?

>   This afternoon Pryor filed for leave to visit a friend in a House in the Lake Tahoe region. Why then was he in San Francisco? It was miles from Lake Tahoe and even further away from their assigned territory. The fact he’d taken great effort to throw Gabe off his path was incriminating but Gabe couldn’t take that before the elders. Without solid evidence this time, he would find himself reprimanded. The evidence was out there. And if he had to live in Pryor’s shadow until he found it, he would. This time the elders were wrong, but he intended to make it right.

  At any cost.

  Men like Pryor were a threat to their entire species, risking exposure with their repulsive weaknesses. Pryor had been nothing but a liability to both Gabe and his House since he’d been assigned to partner him last year. But what had that stupid fuck gotten himself into this time? Was he in trouble with a dealer? Blood dealers were a vicious lot.

  Is that who was watching them from the rooftops? Did Pryor owe them money? Even if that was the issue, it was too fucking bad. No matter how much he’d like to see Pryor suffer at the hands of blood dealers, he had no intention of letting him escape House justice. Which meant he was going to have to rescue the bastard first.

  Gabe settled further back into the shadows. It took an inordinate amount of concentration and strength to maintain suspended materialization. It made him all but invisible. If it were humans watching. Unfortunately, he suspected it was something more than human, more like him. His eyes tracked thoughtfully over the tops of the buildings across the street. There were other pure blood species with superhuman abilities but like most purebreds, they were territorial and usually remained within their own defined regions. The cities were a completely different situation. The cities were rife with crossbreeds. Crossbreeds possessed all the strengths of pure bloods but none of the discipline and loyalty. Little was sacred to most crossbreeds, not even children.

  A disturbing thought occurred to him and he studied the slight disruption in the natural lines of the building where he was certain the watcher hid. Bleeding little girls could have a depraved appeal. It was all he could do to bite down on the snarl that rumbled in his chest. The watcher had melded back into the shadowy sky and Gabe turned his attention back to Karl. Was Karl mixed up in some kind of child blood ring? Bleeding children? Or worse yet, selling them so someone else could? Was that the reason they were being stalked? If Karl was involved in such an operation, Gabe would pass judgment according to his people’s laws with or without the consent of the elders. Karl Pryor would die by his hand, and his blood would soak the garbage that littered the cracked concrete of this dirty street, regardless of how sacred the act of bloodletting was to his people.

  Pryor paced, edging the jaundiced halo cast by the street light. He stopped to glance down the street. That sense of…something edged across Gabe’s skin again. He darted another glance to the rooftop across the street. Just then the darkness shifted and moved. As he watched, a shadow sailed over the alley to the roof of a neighboring building.

  Moving forward, he could just make out the silhouette of a small body on the rooftop. Although he had exceptional night vision, his eyes were only just better than a humans’. Yet he could see well enough to know someone had leaped from one rooftop to another. Gabe narrowed his eyes dangerously. The jumper had been slight. No child could make that jump. And he seriously doubted a human would ever try. A female?

  A small tingle of awareness tightened his scalp. He could almost feel the weight of her eyes through the darkness although he knew she couldn’t possibly see him.

  Movement across the street drew his attention back to Pryor. His prey stepped forward to meet another man. Gabe shimmered from behind the lowered fire escape and reappeared just within the shadows that protected him from sight at the mouth of the alley. He was careful to not completely materialize.

  There was a watcher on the roof obviously angling for a better view of the street just as this new man approached. He didn’t believe in coincidences. Gabe’s gaze darted to the roof, eyes tracing over the woman’s silhouette before returning to the two men. The new man was slim and of average height with thinning brown hair combed slickly back. He was dressed sharply in a suit and his shoes sported a shine that could reflect even the sorry excuse for light from the nearby streetlamps. His entire demeanor shouted greasy ruthlessness.

  Gabe curled a lip in revulsion as his gaze followed the smooth drape of the man’s suit jacket, noting with little surprise the slight bulge in the material where it concealed a gun. When he pulled a vial from his pocket, Gabe didn’t even blink. The man was obviously the blood dealer. Then who was the woman watching them?

  He couldn’t hear most of what they were saying, but the conversation became heated and Pryor got even more agitated. Suddenly there was a flurry of movement. The dealer swore violently, the fear in his voice carrying across the distance of the street. The yellowed light of the streetlamp glinted clearly off a silver cuff on the dealer’s arm.

  Gabe carried similar cuffs. They were used to prevent Sanguen from disappearing; Sanguen couldn’t shimmer through silver, which meant the dealer was obviously a Sanguen.

  With practiced ease, the dealer pulled out his gun. The discharge of the weapon echoed off the stained brick buildings.

  Fuck!

  Movement drew Gabe’s eye upward again, and his body tensed as he watched the unknown watcher step off her perch on the roof. There were no flailing arms or screams as she silently descended. Her small face was calm and focused as she reached the ground and knocked the gun from the dealer’s hand. She rolled to crouch a short distance away.

  Gabe snarled in loathing. Only one being could pull off a stunt like that. The woman had to be a Guardian.

  Guardians, one of the four nonhuman species that made up the Arcane, were a feral species that appeared human but were often more animal than man. They had unbelievable strength and speed, claws that burst straight from their fingertips, a second set of lethal teeth, and could heal almost instantaneously from most injuries. They were every other member of the Arcane’s worst nightmare.

  Guardians were usually employed by the Triumvirate as exterminators for any who opposed the Triumvirate or threatened the anonymity of the Arcane as a whole. The Triumvirate – a group of three ancient and exceedingly powerful Elemental witches that governed all of the species of the Arcane – was indiscriminate and ruthless in how they handled problems. There were no trials or questions; problems were simply removed.

  Was this small female a Triumvirate Guardian? Why would she be here? The Triumvirate usually didn’t concern themselves with the Arcane unless they didn’t or couldn’t control their own species. And even then they had to be called in, and it usually had to mean the offender’s behavior risked their exposure to the humans. What could Pryor be involved with that would attract the attention of the Triumvirate?

  Anger surged through him at the thought.

  If Pryor had brought the interference of the Triumvirate into their House, Gabe would kill him whether it was within the House code or not.

  But it couldn’t be that. The Triumvirate Guardians came in destructive hordes. This time there was only one single female involved. His eyes scanned the darkness for more to be certain, but he could only see one – only sense one. What would one Guardian be doing there?

  Perhaps she was a rogue? A rogue Guardian didn’t live by any rules and often killed for pleasure alone. And they were a bitch to kill. He seriously didn’t need that added complication. He could let the feral bitch kill Pryor and that would be the end of it, but he still suspected Pryor had information about the missing girls. That meant he would have to save his bastard partner from the Guardian.

  His hands reached down to grasp the two short swords he kept strapped to his thighs but paused as he watched the female disappear and reappear to evade Pryor as he lunged for her, clearly blood crazed. Had she shimmered? Guardians could undeniably move at incredible speeds but could they move faster than what his eyes could
detect? He didn’t think so. That left one explanation.

  A crossbreed.

  Gabe knew the Triumvirate itself was vicious in its policy on crossbreeds. They usually enacted their fallback policy for problems: kill it. That further verified his assumption that the Triumvirate was not involved. So then what was a crossbreed doing here? Was she working with the dealer as a bodyguard? It seemed odd that any Sanguen would use a female in such a capacity, even a crossbreed female. Females were protected and sheltered in his culture. They were needed for his entire race to survive.

  The female Guardian was quick. And strong. She flipped Pryor’s bulk over her shoulder, then spun away to put some distance between them. Gabe sprinted across the street, keeping his eye on the sparring pair. As he neared he could see that the front of Pryor’s body was soaked in blood and the larger man was desperate to get his hands on the smaller female. He was losing blood, and with the added effect of the human blood Gabe suspected Pryor was on, he would be ravenous. If he got his hands on the female, he would drain her.

  Gabe cursed the limitations of shimmering as he dodged the hood of a screeching car, his gaze fixed on the struggling couple. He couldn’t shimmer to a location he’d never been in before, and he’d followed Pryor to this rotting community. As he breached the entrance to the alley the woman jerked to a stop, her head swiveling toward him. He could see the slight flare of her small pert nose. A small diamond stud glittered rebelliously in one delicate nostril. Short, glossy black hair stuck out from her head at various angles. Dark brown leather pants clung to every delicate curve of her small, clearly defined muscles. Her tank was a long way from reaching the top of her low hung waistband and his eyes were drawn to the flash of bare skin revealed as she moved. She was compact, her features almost impish with her heart-shaped face and wide, dark eyes.