More Than Blood

by Amanda Vyne

  “Doc, I think I can –”

  “We need to transfuse you right now.” The doctor talked right over her as though she hadn’t said anything. “Two units and your body’s natural reaction will take over from there.”

  “No.”

  Both women swiveled to glance at Gabe. He’d taken the words right out of Kel’s mouth, but she would have said them with a little less “or I’ll kill you” in her tone. It was only one word, one brief sound, but it brought every defensive instinct to the fore in readiness against the threat his voice promised.

  Tension quivered through his muscled frame and his green eyes fixed on the doctor, the red writhing dangerously in the centers, seeming to flicker around his pupil. “No blood,” he bit out around the elongated fangs that pressed against the fullness of his bottom lip.

  That quickly he became a danger to the doctor. Every line of his body screamed predator, and Dr. Mahoney stood between him and Kel. The doctor slowly sidestepped to maneuver her body from between them while speaking softly. “She needs blood or she will never heal.”

  “My blood only.” He hissed as his eyes carefully watched the doctor. He reached out and jerked Kel to his side. Kel wanted to kick him but his grip on her was unbelievably strong. What the hell was going on here? What was up with Gabe’s sudden caveman routine?

  “No,” Kel insisted stubbornly. “No. I just want to be transfused.” She didn’t want any more of his blood in her system. Right now, she still had hope they weren’t completely bonded. Using his blood would remove all questions. It would invariably make her his according to Arcane law.

  “We do not have time for this,” Dr. Mahoney explained coolly as she retreated another step to give the Sanguen space. “She needs –”

  “My blood only.” Gabe growled and his arm tightened around Kel.

  Wincing at the pain in her injured side, she felt another surge of blood soak the bandage. “Well, she doesn’t want your blood,” Kel snapped, trying to jerk herself from his grasp, but she couldn’t break his hold and the effort sent a rush of cold coursing over her body. Her head spun and her legs felt so weak. She hated to admit it but she thought Gabe might be holding her up now.

  Dr. Mahoney jerked in alarm, her eyes flashing strangely. “She will die.”

  The harsh bite of the doctor’s voice struck Kel as odd. She didn’t think she had ever heard that particular tone. Dr. Mahoney sounded downright lethal. Who would have thought?

  Stepping forward, the doctor reached for her wrist. Kel waved the woman away as she tried to pull away from Gabe. If the two got any more antagonistic toward one another, he would never let the doctor test him. Somebody had to take charge here. Shaking her head, she tried to dispel the ringing in her ears and make her world still a bit. Blood loss was a bitch.

  “Let me treat her. She needs blood and she will resist yours,” Dr. Mahoney snapped icily as she reached toward Kel again.

  “She is mine.” He growled and sent Dr. Mahoney up off her feet and sailing across the room with a flick of his wrist.

  Suddenly the sliding steel doors jerked back, and Tag was standing between the buckled sheets of metal. His eyes fell on Dr. Mahoney, who was gasping on the floor, her glasses hanging from one ear and teetering on the tip of her nose. His eyes snapped back to them, flashing like a mirror catching the sun. Kel felt a shiver course down her spine.

  Tag was their tech geek, although geek wasn’t a very accurate description of him. He was a massive, dark-haired man with a less than sunny disposition. And right now he looked absolutely primordial.

  Terrific. This was just what they needed.

  Gabe’s large hand wrapped around her wrist, and he spun her behind him to hold her there, his free hand going to the blade at his waist. Both men faced off, the animosity seething with a life of its own between them.

  Tag inhaled, leaning forward, and from where Kel was anchored behind Gabe, she could see just enough to know with a sinking feeling that Tag was going to roar. Tag was Drachon. Their roars were soundless but they were so high frequency that they caused severe illness and sometimes death. Especially in their longtime enemies, the Sanguen.

  This day was really starting to suck.

  Pushing her glasses back on her face, Dr. Mahoney scrambled to her feet and ran in front of Tag, pressed both hands against his chest. “No, Taggart, stop. She’s suffered severe blood loss; you could put her into cardiac arrest.”

  “Taggart?” Kel mumbled aloud.

  Gripping Gabe’s belt with both hands she pulled herself up to peer around him again, her head spinning with the movement. The prim doctor called Tag “Taggart”? Interesting.

  “Sorry, kid. How bad is it?”

  “I’ve felt better,” Kel mumbled to the big, menacing Drachon, dropping her head against the burning heat of Gabe’s back. Tag still looked fierce, but the voice in her head had been concerned. Tag, like Raife, had worked for Incog for fifteen years. He’d been around when Kye Forestor had pulled her in off the streets, a nearly sixteen-year-old crossbreed with a major chip on her shoulder.

  Gabe’s hand tightened on her arm. “Stay out of my woman’s mind, Drachon.”

  Tag raised a brow and looked down at the doctor. “You got in between a Sanguen and his bloodmate, woman?”

  “He bled her when she already had a serious wound. She is my patient,” Dr. Mahoney snapped.

  Kel was still stuck on the familiarity between Tag and Dr. Mahoney. She distantly observed the exchange between the Drachon and the doctor, the ringing in her ears getting louder. Was there something going on there? The party evidently started in this place after everyone went home. Who would have thought?

  The Drachon turned his eyes on Gabe, his lip curling in disgust. “Have you no appreciation for your mate? Does she mean so little? If you will not act in her best interest I certainly will.”

  “You will not come near my mate,” Gabe warned, revealing his extended canines in an ill-concealed threat. Kel could feel him gathering himself.

  “Oh shit,” she mumbled in resignation an instant before he disappeared. Without him supporting her she stumbled and caught herself against the wall with one hand, trying to breathe through the long moment when her consciousness narrowed to a small point of light. Only with sheer determination she managed to not pass out. But she was cold, and her heart stumbled, the beat sluggish. She was really going to need that blood now, after all.

  Tag and Gabe slammed into each other and rolled into a cart, sending trays crashing to the ground.

  But first someone needed to break up the two gorillas crashing up Dr. Mahoney’s lab. The doctor had already disappeared into the adjoining room that held all the medical supplies, most likely to retrieve what she would need for the transfusion. Dr. Mahoney really was single-minded. That left Kel to stop the men from pounding each other into the glossy floors. Men truly were morons.

  Stumbling forward, she put out her hand, and her eyes fluttered shut as her head spun with the movement.

  “Gabe.” Damn, was that her voice? It sounded so far away, all soft and gauzy. The crashing immediately stopped, and suddenly Gabe was in front of her, the intense heat of his body radiating warmth. His large, hot hand gripped hers, reeling her into his arms. He was so solid and real when everything around her felt so unsubstantial, like it was made from sand and was crumbling beneath her feet.

  Forcing herself to open her eyes, she looked up into his face, seeking out the striking green of his eyes. He was starting to get a shiner, and there was a cut splitting the flesh of his lower lip. That red ring flickered with life around his pupils, his face drawn with fury and possession. Reaching up she cupped his cheek, touching her thumb to the split in his lip that was seeping blood.

  “You’re acting like an ass,” she whispered weakly, feeling herself being pulled down and fighting the fall with everything in her.

  “Damn, man.” Tag growled. “You can connect with her if you’ve taken her blood. Look into her. She’s fading.”


  GABE WAS STRUGGLING against the bright haze that surrounded him. The fury was an impenetrable fog clouding all rationality. The thought that she would have the blood of another man within her, leaving his essence behind in the lovely little body that belonged to him drove him to the brink of insanity. It whipped up the beast in him until it was lathered and snarling. She belonged to him and if she needed blood it would be his. Every last drop if she needed it, but it would be his.

  His breath moved deep in his chest, hissing out with the effort it was taking to control himself. Listening to the Drachon went against every instinct he had, but he allowed himself to push inside her through their bond. There was no resistance, not even her natural barriers. She was so far away that she didn’t even acknowledge his presence in her mind, his “burglarizing her brain,” as she put it. He could barely detect her heartbeat, it was so faint. When it stuttered, his own heart slammed hard against his ribs.

  “Stop,” she said breathlessly. “Stop being a blockhead and…and let’s just get this” – she paused for a shallow breath – “over with.”

  Fuck! What kind of mate was he? He was killing her with this insane possessiveness that he couldn’t seem to manage with any rationality. He needed to get it under control.

  Sweeping her up in his arms, he shimmered with her to where Dr. Mahoney was setting up the IV pole with the bag of crimson liquid. He laid her down and swept one hand through his hair in agitation. Even though he knew she needed the blood or she would die, something ugly bucked his control as he watched the doctor slide the needle in her arm.

  Kel’s eyes flickered open in response to his silent roar of protest echoing in her mind through their connection. He knew his turmoil was disturbing her, but he couldn’t make himself withdraw. He needed the connection to keep his sanity.

  Kel rolled her eyes to where Dr. Mahoney was leaning over her with a stethoscope, listening intently to her heart. “Tell him,” she whispered.

  Dr. Mahoney pulled the stethoscope from her ears and let it hang around her neck as she turned to appraise him. Her face was unreadable as she stared at him for a long moment. “The blood belongs to this really hunky Sanguen from down in the training room.”

  A soft snort came from the cot where Kel lay with her eyes closed. He jerked his head down to spear her with a narrowed look. She was so pale that he could see the thin blue spider webbing of veins in her jaw. There was a soft smile on her lips. He frowned.

  The redheaded doctor jerked her head around to look impassively back at the Drachon who looked like he wanted to throttle her.

  “Fine, fine,” she told the telepathic giant before turning back to Gabe, assessing his eyes with clinical interest. He could feel the predator in him clawing at the surface, and he knew the blood aurora, the red ring, had probably reappeared in his eyes.

  “The blood is hers,” Dr. Mahoney finally explained. “Because she is a crossbreed she has a completely unique blood type. I have yet to find a type that is compatible so we have to be careful to keep a supply of her own blood for emergencies, such as when a careless Sanguen bleeds her when she’s already bleeding from a knife wound.”

  Gabe bared his fangs at the doctor in warning, but she only perused him with little interest and then turned to frown at the Drachon again. “What? I’m not baiting him. He made a foolish mistake and needs to understand the ramifications of his loss of control.” She rolled her pale blue eyes and turned back to Kel, peeled away the bandage with a small sound of approval. “Don’t you have some inane computer program to dawdle with, Taggart?”

  The Drachon growled but silently left the lab.

  Gabe watched the retreating figure of the Drachon and then turned back to the doctor. She once again had her stethoscope in her ears and was checking Kel’s blood pressure.

  “Much better,” she murmured before turning those eerie, assessing eyes on him. There was something about the petite redheaded doctor that made him feel like a moth pinned to a middle school science project. “It does indeed look as though you are experiencing some side effects from the infusion of Kel’s blood.”

  At Gabe’s confused frown she smiled sharply and lifted up a gleaming metal pan so he could see his reflection. “You’ve completely healed from your altercation with that interfering Neanderthal.”

  Gabe gazed at himself, his brows lowered severely over his eyes as he assessed the changes. Though blood clearly smudged his chin, there were no bruises or cuts.

  What the hell was going on?

  Chapter Nine

  “What do you mean you didn’t get the job done? It was a simple task. Kill the fucking marshal. Where are the others I hired to help you?” Jimmy sneered coolly, his dull brown eyes pinning the larger Sanguen with a hard look.

  The Sanguen had two angry purple rings around his eyes and a white strip across the bridge of his nose. “Probably in fucking Incog’s meat locker. That marshal is one mean son of a bitch. He sliced up the others. Never seen nothing like it before.” He shook his head and threw back the small shot glass of blood, lightly laced with human blood. He felt the burn spread slowly through his body, welcoming the slight buzz in his head. It would block out the sight of that blood spraying all over the parked cars as that fucking marshal hacked up his friends.

  “The marshal killed them all?” Jimmy’s face was turning a dark red. “How can one fucking person kill five people?”

  The Sanguen raised one shoulder. “Damn crossbreed bitch wouldn’t go down.”

  Jimmy paced through the thick carpeting in his office. “You shot her up with the drug I gave you?”

  “Hell yeah. She slowed down but it didn’t fucking stop her like you said it would. She fucking hamstrung Riordan. He bled out later. Bitch.”

  Jimmy cursed vividly. His buyer wanted the marshal dead. Too much was on the line to fail in this. The marshal had to die. Why his buyer requested the young girls to bleed was beyond his understanding. Adult females would have a much stronger effect. Perhaps he just needed a sample of something better than the weak blood of a sniveling brat.

  He peered at his image in the mirror behind his desk as an idea began to form. One finger traced down the scar on his cheek thoughtfully. He owed that damn crossbreed bitch. Since she’d nearly busted him two years ago she’d been a constant thorn in his side, seeming to be everywhere. He’d lost much of his business with the good House boys that lived in the city. They didn’t want to get caught by the bitch and sent back to their House doyens for punishment. There was nothing he’d like better than to put her out of his misery. For good.

  He’d initially thought to kill the marshal and sit back and let the crossbreed bitch wither and die but perhaps he could do himself one better.

  A small smile curved his thin lips.

  “Since your friends are gone I guess that means you get all of the cash if you finish the job.”

  The Sanguen turned, his eyes slightly glazed from the small amount of human blood he’d given him. Just a small amount. Too much would make the bastard useless to him.

  “Interested?”

  “Hell yeah, I owe that bitch.”

  You and me both. Jimmy smiled at his reflection in the mirror.

  “There’s another grand in it for you.”

  The Sanguen’s unnaturally burning eyes were intent on him. The sorry bastard would agree to anything he wanted.

  “Whad I gotta do?” he slurred.

  After walking over to the wall, Jimmy slid a panel back and reached inside to retrieve a vial. He fingered the crimson-filled tube for a moment before sliding the panel shut and turning back.

  “First go home and take a bath. Use vinegar.” His finger slid slowly over the scar again, his dull brown eyes glittered with malice. “And then do exactly as I tell you.”

  KEL OPENED HER eyes to Gabe’s face looming over her with a dark, angry expression. She sighed and closed her eyes again. Maybe if she just pretended she was still unconscious he’d give up and go away. But his heat just
continued to simmer above her, that spicy scent of his tickling her nose. It awakened parts of her that just needed to stay asleep right now because she just didn’t have the energy to fight them. Finally, she decided she’d rather just get the lecture over with instead of being tortured by that tantalizing scent of him.

  Either way fate must think she obviously hadn’t suffered enough tonight.

  “You were dying. Why didn’t you say something?”

  With a groan she opened her eyes and attempted to sit up. She was so not having this conversation from the flat of her back. As she raised herself on her elbows she waited for the spinning. It didn’t come. She was feeling much steadier. One glance told her she was nearly through the bag of blood. There were no windows so she wasn’t quite sure what time it was. Was this her first or second bag? How long had she been out?

  “You make it sound all melodramatic.” Kel croaked and cleared her throat. The cotton balls were back. And the scent of him was driving her to distraction. “It wasn’t like that. I know my own limitations.”

  A snort sounded from across the lab, and Kel narrowed her eyes on Dr. Mahoney, who was hunched over a microscope with her back to them. Okay, maybe the doc had patched her up a few times and there was a fairly good reason they kept several units of her blood stocked. The doc could damn well keep that info to herself.

  Gabe’s fierce green eyes never wavered. He focused intently on her and she forced herself to meet his stare again. Those green eyes bore into her, the golden center seething with his anger. It did something to her body that she was reluctant to accept. If she fell into what was there, accepted this bond he claimed was forged between them, what would happen to her?

  Gabe was a damn marshal for the Ferrar House. She could lay several of the worst moments of her life at their door. She’d accepted what happened to her. It couldn’t be changed. She was content with who she’d become because of it. She was fine without him.