He'd feel a shit ton better once he had Jules in his arms.
Jason walked faster.
*
Julia
The stars were the only light that lit their way but Scott knew the route to the lake so well he could have made it with his eyes closed. Julia had taken this lake trail herself, with many different people but it was the first time her heart had been light.
Hope stood at the center of it.
She released Scott's hand and sat on the familiar boulder. Autumn was coming so the stone's heat was no longer there and Julia gave a small shiver.
Scott stood beside her and she craned her neck to look at him, his face silvered in the starlight, so bright out here in the country, with only the mountains and forest, the sky was utterly absent of the artificial lights of human neighbors. “I'm sorry,” Julia said quietly.
Scott didn't say anything for a full minute and Julia's heart bled a little at his silence. It hurt. “Don't,” Scott said. “I can't be the big person here.”
Julia's face screwed up in a puzzled expression and he laughed. “I mean, I care, I'm your guardian. But I have lost something Julia.” He turned to face her and pulled Julia up by her hands. They stood like that for a long moment, each searching the other's face. “If there was no Jason, I would have grown to love you the old-fashioned way. You've got to know that. Believe it.”
Julia stared up at him, thinking about their time together and she finally nodded. “I can't say that's impossible.”
Scott sighed. “But we'll never know, the soul-meld is broken, you're already married to Caldwell so it's a done deal.”
Julia put her hand on his face, only able to reach his lower jaw, he was so tall, her eyes meeting his. “Hey...” she began softly, “you didn't even like me at first, remember?” He nodded but Julia thought it looked less like agreement and more like sadness.
“I'll get over you. It won't be easy but I'll step aside for your chance of happiness. And for what you'll be for our people. But one thing... just do one thing for me.” His fingers buried themselves along her temple, each holding the other's face.
How could she deny him? His last request before she and Jason finally made good on their union. “Yes,” she said.
Scott lowered his face until his mouth was a sliver of warmth above her lips. “Kiss me... one last time.”
Julia's lips parted and she rose on tiptoe. His other hand came around her, his large palm spreading and tightening at the small of her back as he dragged her against him. Julia molded her body to his, parting her lips and he took them in a heated touch of desperate finality.
One moment they were lost and the next Scott stiffened. Julia pulled away and his eyes were wide- surprised. His big body shuddered against her. “Run,” he whispered. His large hands clung to her and in the stark light of shadow and starlight she saw the needle sticking out of his shoulder.
He dropped his palms from her body and Julia turned to run, throwing her telekinetic power behind her blindly- wildly. A dart with a very long needle shivered past her, tearing through the canopy of hair that streamed behind her.
She crested the hill that rose from the lake, the ornate chimneys on the mansion like spikes of safety in the distance. Jason saw her running and went from a brisk walk to a full on sprint.
“No!” she yelled. “Go back!” she motioned with her arm even as she ran toward him.
It was enough.
Her small focus of telekinetic talent wavered from the distraction and the second dart struck home, sinking deep into her shoulder blade.
Julia ran, then slowed.
She plunged to her knees as Jason slid into the front of her, his strong arms wrapping her tightly against him.
“Jules!” he said in a hoarse shout, searching her body for harm.
But Julia didn't hear him, the unconsciousness of drugged sleep sucked her down.
*
“Julia!” Jason roared, seeing her scream in warning, then stagger, falling to her knees in the tall grass, becoming brittle from autumn's first bite.
He ran so fast the wind was behind him and his legs gave way five feet from her as he slid home, cradling her slight frame against his body. Jason's hand tore the offending dart from her body and threw it aside.
His nose flared as Julia's eyes fluttered closed into the sleep induced by whatever shit they'd pumped her with and he threw his head back, howling long and deep, raising the hackles of the Were that faced him over her shoulder.
They numbered only three.
Then a fourth came from behind them, a female. One he recognized and his stomach dropped.
Lily. The treacherous fey steward of Julia. The supposed Aunt that had been all about protecting Julia until she became. Until the Unseelie's preordained meeting would transpire. He'd never trusted her.
Jason stood, Julia's body in his arms as the others surrounded him.
“Harriet,” Truman whispered from behind him, the rest of the small group having caught up with Jason.
Tom Harriet shrugged. “Yeah,” he said, and shot Truman in the shoulder.
“Fuck!” Truman yelled, diving for Cynthia and grabbing her in a rolling fall as she yelled “What are you doing?”
“Giving you a chance,” he said in a low voice filled with drowsiness. When his teeth found her arm they bit down, the venom of his kind burrowing deep, the blood of the Singer a conduit to this new supernatural intrusion and she gave a full-throated scream that pierced the air around them.
When the dart found Cynthia, it could not undo what had been started.
“Dammit all!” Harriet bellowed, striding to where Truman lay beside Cynthia. Fucking Reds, he thought.
Slash moved forward, two darts in his mighty chest, Adi was slightly behind him when his talons hit Ford, bursting through his torso. Adi moved to flank him, her claws out as the wind of a needle's passage missed her exposed throat by inches.
“Bastards!” she yelled.
“Yes,” Lily agreed as Ford sent a casual slap Adi's way, catching her jaw and rolling her into a stunned heap.
Slash roared at her abuse, ripping his claws out of the Were. Ford grunted at the jerking agony and looked to Harriet.
Lily came over to stand above Adi and she breathed, “Change.”
Adrianna howled at the tearing pain and burst her skin as Harriet shot her with a dart during her most vulnerable time. It arrested the change, her body slumping into the drug-induced sleep.
“Thanks,” Harriet said.
Lily smiled and replied, “The fey do not require thanks.”
Tom ignored her and shot the next Were that showed up. Harriet's face jerked up toward the mansion in the distance, his ears pricking. Blooded warriors on the move. “Tai...” he looked at a bleeding Ford, his guts held in by his hand and sighed, taking notice of his partner. “Pull it together Ford. Get the Weres.” Damn. He turned to Simon like get moving.
Tai looked at the six unconscious people, three men and women. Then the man by the lake. “Who?”
Goddammit, did he have to spell the shit out? Apparently. “Drag them to the car,” Harriet instructed.
“Allow me,” Lily said and allowed her fey form to manifest, the glamor she used to keep the humans appeased dissipating to nothingness. They stared at her. “This is why I appear plain. My true form is distracting.”
Tom Harriet swallowed hard. “Fine, if you're going to help, go ahead.”
Lily of the Sidhe hauled the females by the collars of their shirts, two in her left hand and the Blooded Queen in her right. “Watch my back,” she said behind her shoulder as she dragged the women to the idling all-terrain vehicle. She grimaced as she fought her way inside the metal contraption; it weakened her. Lily hated the taste of steel, its existence. Magick-stealer, that.
Tai struggled with the scarred man and Ford held his intestines in while heaving himself inside the front seat.
Harriet carried Truman, setting him inside the roomy back of the oversi
zed vehicle.
The smell of the Combatant lay thick in the air. Tom hit the hood of the vehicle with the flat of his palm and it roared off.
He moved behind two trees where the SUV had been parked moments before and straddled his dirt bike.
Let them outrun this. His boot bit down on the throttle and the thing shot out of the woods and down the trail to the main road.
He didn't bother to glance more than a moment at the fallen female sentry as she lay sleeping at her post.
Angela opened one eye at the noise of his passage, fighting the sedative with the last of her willpower, committing his face to memory, his aura imprinted in her brain forever.
It was a most unusual color, was her last thought before sleep took her for the second time in a handful of days.
Moments later, Lucius found her sleeping the dreamless sleep of the drugged in the glade. He gathered her into his arms, his eyes unconsciously sought the empty trail of the one who had disarmed the Combatant and taken the Rare One.
The payment for taking the Blood Singers Queen would be steep and paid in only one way.
Their death.
THE END
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Read on for the exciting first chapter of book #4, BLOOD REIGN....
BLOOD REIGN
Book Four: The Blood Series
Copyright © 2014 Tamara Rose Blodgett
Kindle Version
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, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to a legitimate retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Edited by: Red Adept Publishing
Cover Design: Claudia McKinney
Photographs: DepositPhotos
Photography: Oleg Gekman
CHAPTER ONE
Motion woke Julia initially. Rhythmic. Unfamiliar.
Constant.
She allowed her eyes to open to slits. What little light existed crept inside to illuminate the four corners of where she lay. Julia said nothing, alerted no one. Silver chain, a fine gauge little better than woven lace, covered Jason, Truman, and Adi. Cyn was bound from behind, her hands in painful-looking knots behind her back.
Julia swallowed, acutely aware of the dryness of her mouth and throat. She lay on her side and rocked back and forth, accidentally throwing herself on her face. It pressed uncomfortably against the rough wood of the surface on which she lay. Julia moved her shoulder into the unforgiving wood and shoved hard, using her half-asleep legs to jerk up to her knees in a semi-kneeling position.
Her head swam with the remnants of the drugs.
Julia took several deep, steadying breaths. She blinked, meeting Cyn's.
Hers reflected in the dark.
“That cop bit me,” Cyn croaked. Julia imagined her throat was as parched as her own.
Julia hadn't witnessed Cyn's being bitten, and the reason behind it eluded her. She relaxed against her heels for the time being. “Why?” she asked.
Cyn grimaced as she shifted her weight, her eyes tightening with pain. “I don't know. I think he was thinking he'd be Mr. Helpful.” Her gaze roamed all over the inside of the stuffy space. She recognized they were in a truck as it jostled. She and Cyn groaned from the motion.
“You're looking a little wolfy, Cyn,” Jason said from his slumped corner.
Jason. Julia half-crawled, walking to his position with her knees, and he gave her a small smile. It looked more like pain than joy.
“What is it?” Julia asked.
The truck jerked to a halt, and Julia flew forward, no hands to ward her fall. The ground hit her face a second time, but this time with momentum. She yelped on contact, muffled as it was, rolling over as splinters and a bruise vied for position on her cheekbone.
She'd just kicked her own ass.
“Jules!” Jason yelled, moving to her in the same awkward shuffle she'd just managed.
Not fast, wrapped as he was with the silver chain.
His face appeared above her, tightening in pain.
“Jules,” he whispered.
Tears rolled out of the corners of her eyes and she moaned. “Yeah.”
“We're home boys... and girls. Home reek home,” Truman said in a sarcastic commentary from the back of the bus. Or truck.
Julia rolled over onto her back. She hadn't noticed the stench. Now that he’d brought it to her attention, exhaust was all she could smell.
“Not yet,” Jason said to Truman without looking at him, his hands bound tightly against his back like everyone else.
Truman snorted. “Canada, pal. Close enough.”
Jason grunted affirmation. “Yeah.”
“What now?” Cyn asked.
“Looks like they're taking us back to Alaska,” Jason said and Julia could hear the despondency in his tone. It wasn't going to be reunion time. There was an entirely different agenda going on.
The truck slowed, coming to a shuddering stop.
Lily's entrance shattered their small group’s quiet commiserating.
Vent holes and an opaque ceiling was the only air and light the five of them had. The sultry heat and dim interior vanished the instant the doors were slapped open and daylight streamed inside.
Julia took in the woman who had pretended to be her aunt, secure the doors against the sides of the truck.
“You're awake,” she said without waiting for a response. Gone was the demure, small-in-stature guardian with the perpetually sour disposition and perma-smirk.
In its place was a statuesque Sidhe warrior of the fey.
Julia flung about in her memory bank for anything to do with fey lore and could only come up with the colorful Faerie stories of childhood literature.
None of that was remotely applicable to the reality that stood before her. A six-foot tall, inky black figure with a shock of silver hair gave them her inscrutable, pale gray eyes. She was nearly naked. A band of material like a vintage tube top wrapped her breasts and a matching covering that decorum dictated hid the female bits and nothing else. She looked like a barbarian from another planet. Every movement brought striated musculature to the surface of her skin like the rippling of water after a stone's throw.
“Good,” she said in a soft purr. “I'm sure the human necessities are calling.”
Her voice didn't even sound the same. Lilting, biting... it ran along Julia's skin like small bugs looking for flesh to penetrate.
“I always thought you were a dumb bitch before. Now I don't have to speculate. Yeah,” Cyn commented dryly.
That was how Cyn coped. Julia just wished it hadn't been right now.
Lily's self-important smile wilted a little around the edges. “Your good or bad opinion of me is not relevant, Singer.”
“I think it's more like Were now, fairy,” Cyn bit back. Then, “I gotta pee, and unless you want to add winged janitor to the list of your bullshit, I suggest you get my drugged ass out of here.”
Adi groaned in the background. “God... what—silver.” She blanched, looking around until she caught sight of Lily. “Okay, kidnap us because you're asshats. I get it, but silver?”
Jason and Truman said nothing. Their glaring at Lily was all the evidence needed that they'd rather be anywhere but in the b
ack of a box van returning to Alaska.
Lily watched Cyn warily as she leapt up from the ground five feet into the rear of the van. Cyn grinned. It hung on her face wrong somehow.
Lily was on her in a second. She grabbed an ankle, jerking her like a willful dog on a chain.
Julia saw what would happen before it did, but Lily was a little slow on the uptake. Some things remained the same.
They had not thought to wrap the spiderwebbing of feather light silver chain around Cyn. They'd discounted her.
She had been a Singer before Truman's bite, and someone had dropped the Were ball. Having Singer blood meant many things. But if the host held a Singer’s blood, transference to cross-species genetics was a highway instead of a walk.
Cyn's fingertips burst with talons, her nose grew to a stub, downy pale fur taking the place of skin and her teeth becoming sharpened tips. She sat up, partially changed, her butt dragging along the rough wood floor, and took hold of the forearms pulling her out of the van.
Cyn easily broke her non-silver bonds.
Lily turned, her face filled with comical surprise. Julia understood from her expression that it was a rare event.
Cyn crushed the bones of Lily's forearms and Lily reared back, howling in anguish, trying to tear herself out of Cyn's grasp.
It was a horrible beauty to see her friend's face grin from a row of teeth more wolfen than human.
“No ya don't,” Cyn growled and jerked Lily close, rolling her over onto her back. She didn't pause for consideration.
Human rational had left, and the Were had taken over.
Lily kicked out, connecting with Cyn's midsection as she simultaneously latched onto her shoulder.
Cyn grunted but didn't dislodge.
Instead, she moved deeper into the hold, biting down on Lily's neck with crushing force.
A second figure jumped into the van as Julia pressed against the sides of the wall.
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