Blood Bond (New Breed Book 2)

by Melody Raven

  “If I wanted you to be an informant, I wouldn’t be asking you right in front of one of them. Think of it more like a liaison. Dante likes you more than me anyway.”

  “I would enjoy going to work more if you were there,” said Dante, fully leaning into this new “boyfriend” role.

  She couldn’t talk about job offers anymore. A change of subject was in order. “It’s twelve o’clock. Where’s your guy?”

  In almost any other case, Alyssa could understand if someone was late, but these were soldiers. They lived and died by the clock, literally. If Joshua set the meeting for noon, they should be there.

  “Hold up. Someone just pulled up. I have two guys getting out to intercept. The van has stopped. The door is opening.”

  Alyssa reached over and clutched Dante’s hand tightly. She didn’t know who was more nervous, her or him.

  “There is movement. Someone is getting out of the van, covered in a blanket. Alpha is bringing the package to our unit and beta is keeping an eye on the van. The package is in the unit. It’s your girl. We have Cora.”

  Alyssa sucked in a deep breath, but she wasn’t going to be overwhelmed with relief just yet.

  “Where is she? I want to hear her voice,” demanded Dante.

  “Honey, we’ve got your dad on the phone. He’s really worried. Can you come say hi?”

  A few seconds later, her high-pitched voice came over the line. “Dante?” she said softly.

  Finally, Alyssa let out a deep sigh of relief. Holy shit, they really had her.

  “I’m going to come for you,” said Dante swiftly. “I’m going to find the man who took you and—”

  Alyssa tapped on his leg, urging him to stop. She didn’t think Cora needed revenge promises. She needed her father. “Hey baby,” she said into the phone. “Your dad and I have been so worried about you. It’s so good to hear your voice. Are you okay? Are you safe? That man with you, his name is Joshua. He’s a really good friend of mine and if he’s not nice to you, you tell him I’m going to be very, very mean to him.”

  “Alyssa?”

  She winced. She should’ve said her name. It wasn’t as if Cora would know her voice immediately. “It’s me, honey.”

  “They didn’t hurt me. It was dark and I slept a lot. I’m really hungry, though.”

  “Don’t you worry about that. Joshua is gonna get you some food.”

  “You know, I don’t keep A-positive stocked in the fridge,” said Joshua in a surly tone.

  “I don’t fricking care how you get it, Joshua. This girl has just been kidnapped and she’s hungry. Get her some food.”

  “I didn’t say no. And how about a ‘thank-you’? Do you have any idea how many strings I had to pull to get all this to work?”

  Alyssa had to concede that he had a point there. “Okay, Joshua. Thank you very much for bringing Cora back safe. Now, how can we get to you?” Please don’t renege on this deal.

  “I can send you our coordinates, but I figured you have to wait until dusk to make it out here.”

  “We’ve got a UV-ray protected car. We can be in it and moving within ten minutes. Just send me location.”

  “All right. I’m sending it as soon as I hang up. See you soon.” Joshua hung up before Alyssa or Dante could say good-bye, which was fine because they were going to be in a hurry.

  “All right.” Dante stood quickly. “It’s time to get my daughter back.”

  “About damn time.” It took Alyssa less than a minute to grab all of her belongings in the room. Maybe her ten-minute estimate had been too generous. It wasn’t as if she were going to take the time to check out. For one, it wasn’t her credit card this room was on and she was sure they could just call them and tell them they were done. Priority wise, Cora topped normal hotel courtesy.

  Then, right as she stepped in the hallway, her phone beeped. She immediately checked it, worried Joshua was messaging to say something had gone wrong with Cora. But it wasn’t him. It was Domino.

  “We found Wesley,” she said.

  “Good,” said Dante. “As soon as we get Cora somewhere safe, we’ll send his location to Park so he can be arrested.”

  Alyssa stopped in her tracks. “Dante, they’re not going to arrest him.”

  “What are you talking about? He kidnapped my daughter. He needs to be punished.”

  “I agree. But it’s not like he can have a judge-and-jury trial. You’re an alien. Not just in the sense that you’re in this country illegally. You’re an honest-to-goodness alien from another world. We don’t have any systems in place to deal with you.”

  “There are systems. There were vampires here for ages. Send his location to them.”

  She could only imagine what the vampire version of justice was. But she didn’t think Wesley should get off scot-free. She didn’t think they should just pretend this never happened. And she had a feeling Wesley sure as hell wouldn’t be forgetting about vampires anytime soon.

  She tried to open the attachment that Domino had sent, but it kept giving her an error message. “I can’t do this on my phone. I need my laptop.”

  “Then deal with it later. We need to leave now.”

  “Do you trust Joshua?”

  “What does this have to do with anything?”

  “If we have a location on Wesley, we need to follow up. He’s not going to be far away. And now that he got rid of Cora, he’ll probably be jumping on a plane and getting the hell out of Dodge. You go and find Joshua. Get Cora back and I’ll find Wesley and make sure Talon gets the location.”

  “You’re not coming with me?”

  “I want to make sure this doesn’t happen again. You know all that shit about being bonded mates and how much you would die to protect me? Well, this is my way of protecting you. So please go and make sure Cora is safe.”

  “You should come with me. You worked for this. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have gotten Cora back at all.”

  “I’m still working for this. I’m on your side. I just need a really steady Wi-Fi connection to get through all of Domino’s hacker bullshit. My phone’s hotspot isn’t going to cut it in a moving car.”

  A pained expression crossed his face. “If I leave you, you’ll run.”

  Her mouth dropped. “That’s what the problem is? You’re afraid I’ll run?”

  “If you run, I can chase you and I will catch you. And when I catch you, I plan on fucking you until you forget about running.” He started to say something else and seemed to change his mind before adding, “If I’m not here, there’s no one to stop you.”

  “I’ll stop me.” Alyssa gave him the only reassurance she could. She closed the distance between them and pressed a quick, deep kiss against his lips. Thorough, passionate, and promising all the things she would do to him once he came back. “Before you go, I need one more thing, though.”

  Dante’s eyes had gone black as he stared down at her. “Anything.”

  “I need you to finally give me your damn phone number.”

  Dante didn’t like driving off without Alyssa. He didn’t like doing anything without Alyssa. Without her instructions, he had to look at the phone while he was driving. Without her presence, the car felt colder.

  At least separation wasn’t unbearable now that they’d completed their bond. He felt as though he could breathe. Like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

  He never thought he’d have this feeling again. The bond with Amira had been so different. He’d still had that feeling of relief from finding a mate. As though every cell in his body somehow knew he’d accomplished one of life’s main purposes. But it always felt... forced.

  He hadn’t realized it at the time, of course. But now, comparing what he had before to what he had now, the cracks and fissures in the relationship were so much more evident.

  Amira had been like a piece of property to show off and brag about. Alyssa was actually an achievement. Something he was worthy enough to have—to be prouder about it.

  Bu
t just because it didn’t hurt to be away from her didn’t mean he enjoyed it. He was finally getting Cora back and now he was separated from Alyssa. He’d known the transition to Earth would be difficult, but he craved a sense of normalcy. Even in Seattle, he’d never been able to relax. Mikel could just sit back and assume everything would be taken care of because he was never the one who had to take care of anything. Dante was the one to coordinate with soldiers, including the former slaves, and the humans to get everything in order.

  If he and Alyssa could take these jobs the government was offering, maybe he’d get a sense of normalcy back. He could be a father to Cora. And not just in a formal sense. In the human sense. He could be involved in her life. Be there for her. And maybe if things were normal, Alyssa wouldn’t be as skeptical about being bonded with him. He would make life good for her. He’d make sure no human could ever come close to what he provided.

  Besides, Alyssa wanted to be safe, but she didn’t want to be boring. That was basically his specialty. She would never be safer than she was with him, and she sure as hell would never be bored.

  He followed the directions until he reached a nondescript office building. He double-checked the instructions that Alyssa had forwarded to him from Joshua. He was supposed to go around the back and go to the door marked 1016. He parked the vehicle as close as possible and grabbed a blanket to shield him from the sun. Once he was sufficiently covered, he got out of the car and to the door in less than a second, pounding on it to let them know he was there. A second later, he heard a click and the door swung open.

  The blanket protected him from the sun, but he was still much too vulnerable for his tastes. Also, he fucking hated the subtle scent of singed hair. He tore the blanket off his head and was greeted by four soldiers, each holding a weapon pointed directly at him. Fuck. He braced himself for the fight that was going to come. “Where’s my daughter?” he demanded.

  But instead of fighting him, the soldiers slowly lowered their weapons, one by one, and Park appeared in the hallway behind the soldiers. “We’ve been expecting you. And we have one little lady who’s very excited to see you.”

  I should be with Dante. Alyssa couldn’t stop thinking that as she started the process of opening up Domino’s many files. Each one had a different password, and a separate document gave her riddles that she had to answer to decipher the password. The whole thing was annoying as hell, but she couldn’t fault his paranoia. Then, to make the whole situation worse, the content she found when she finally got to the meat of the contents was a simple phone number.

  For fuck’s sake. She could’ve called him from the car. Of course, this wasn’t the number she had for Domino so it must be a more protected line than he usually used, if that was possible.

  She dialed the number quickly on her phone, and Domino, who at least wasn’t slacking, answered immediately.

  “You got to my message,” he said happily, sounding like someone who wasn’t getting enough sleep and was ingesting too much caffeine.

  “Of course I got through,” she snapped. “Why couldn’t you just call me to tell me what you had to say?”

  “Scary times out here, babe. People are who aren’t who they say they are. Cameras lie, eyes lie, ears lie. If you knew the shit I know about mind control conspiracies and the undead, you wouldn’t be surprised.”

  Undead? Was he talking about vampires? She shook her head. “I don’t have time for this. Did you find the guy or not?”

  “I found him. I’ve got a lock on his current locale. I was tracking him with different traffic cams and some high-flying drones that I borrowed from Uncle Sam. Not an easy guy to pin down.”

  “That’s perfect. Do you know where he is right now?”

  “He just arrived in a hotel. The name is... Gardenside Inn. In Portland. Sound familiar?”

  Alyssa’s blood went cold. That couldn’t be a coincidence. There was a knock at the door, and she whipped around. “He’s here. He found me. Fuck.”

  “Damn. I’m assuming that’s a bad thing?”

  Bad was one thing. This was just... confusing.

  “You need to take this number down, Domino. 555-1475. I need you to—”

  And that’s when the door blew open.

  Cora spoke rapidly in their native language, so fast that even Dante couldn’t understand everything she was saying.

  “English,” he said quickly. Partly because the more she spoke in their native tongue, the more the government might be able to translate it, and because she seemed to be talking so fast she was about to, as the humans called it, hyperventilate.

  She took a deep breath. “They grabbed me when I was sleeping. I knew they were going to kill me. I knew it. But they pulled me outside and the sun was really bright and so hot and the last time I was in the sun— You shouldn’t hear that. But they took me to this room and he locked me there with no food and no water and no light and I was there for just forever. I heard them. They were right outside but they never checked on me. I was happy about it but I was really, really bored. Then they got me and I was sure I was gonna die and they brought me here. Instead, I came here and I still thought I was going to die but they didn’t put me in a dark room or anything, but they really were still scary. They told me you were coming to get me but I didn’t believe them. But then you came! I never thought you would.”

  Dante pulled Cora in for a tight hug. He was so grateful to have her back, so grateful she wasn’t hurt worse. He knew nothing about this could be considered lucky, but he felt lucky. He’d lost Cora twice and got her back each time.

  “I have someone who will be very excited to see you.”

  Cora’s face fell. “Not Mikel. I thought I wouldn’t have to see him again.”

  Guilt shot through him. He knew he’d done the right thing. He knew that back on Vora, she would’ve needed the protection and stability that being married to a royal would offer. But here, with human context, he just felt like an asshole.

  “Not Mikel. You’ll never have to see him again. Alyssa.”

  Cora’s eyes widened. “Is she here?”

  “She’s not here now. But she had Joshua here arrange your rescue. She never stopped fighting for you. Thanks to her and Joshua, you’re here with me and safe.”

  Dante glanced over to Joshua Park and gave him a tight smile. The man had delivered what he promised. Dante was truly grateful. Not a feeling he was used to. Before he could muster up the words to say thank you, a soldier came into the room, a hint of panic on his face.

  “Sir, there’s been a development. Something is here.”

  Park stood up straighter. “Something or someone?”

  The guy shifted his weight, his nerves palpable. “You should probably take a look at this.”

  Dante picked Cora up in his arms and followed Park out. He wasn’t about to leave Cora alone again, but he wasn’t going to sit back and let the humans handle this alone. He was done being reactionary; he wanted to be on the offensive.

  As soon as he reached the entrance, he could tell why the soldier had been so confused. There was a small flying robot hovering in the entrance.

  “It’s a class C-600 drone,” said one of the soldiers. “No weapons as far as we can tell. It doesn’t appear to be modified. It just showed up a few minutes ago.”

  Dante held Cora tighter and shifted his body around to keep himself between her and the supposedly harmless drone. Just then, his phone started to ring.

  Usually he’d ignore it, but there were precious few people who had his phone number. Holding Cora with one arm, he reached in his back pocket with the other. “Who is this?” he growled when the phone was at his ear.

  “Hey man,” said an unfamiliar voice. “Do you know a chick named Alyssa? I got some bad news.”

  Alyssa needed to learn how to shoot. She had to learn how to shoot and then she needed to get a gun. Then she needed to carry that gun with her at all times. The amount of times her life had been in danger in the past few days was officia
lly becoming unacceptable.

  Not that she’d be able to do much against Sergeant Patrick, his two new friends, and General Wesley. They currently surrounded her in the hotel room, each with their AR-whatevers drawn and pointed right at her. Which really seemed stupid, considering they were surrounding her and if they all opened fire at the same time, they’d inevitably shoot each other too.

  Wesley was the exception. He wasn’t aiming anything at her. Instead, he leaned against the dresser casually and stared at her as though she’d grown a second head. “I just don’t get it,” he said finally.

  “It’s not easy,” she admitted. “First, like, bleaching the hair is a big commitment. If you don’t do it right, you’ll end up with dry, broken strands for years. But when I went full blue, I used a super moisturizing dye, which really helps mitigate the damage.”

  Wesley’s mouth curled up, but she could tell he wasn’t amused. “You’re funny,” he said in a very insincere way. “Tell me, funny girl, is this all a game to you? Do you have any idea what the death toll in Seattle is? And who knows how many died before that. The ones who have been erased from our minds.”

  She scoffed. “They can’t control your mind.”

  “Oh, maybe the new ones can’t. At least they haven’t learned how yet. But the ones who’ve been here longer? They can make you do whatever they want. They don’t need a date rape drug. If they want you to take your panties off, you’ll magically be wet. If they want you to hand over your little brother for a meal, you’ll be reaching for the duct tape. It’s only a matter of time before the new ones learn that trick too. So I guess your boyfriend didn’t tell you everything about his kind, did he?”

  She tried to keep a straight face as she assessed his words. Mind control? She’d assumed that had been one more myth about vampires that wasn’t true. But Wesley seemed so sure....

  “So what the hell is so special about you?” he asked abruptly.

  Alyssa wrapped her arms around herself and nervously shifted her weight. “My winning smile?”