Blood Line

by Heather MacKinnon

  “Put her in a cab,” he suggested.

  “The last time she took a fucking car service, they almost drained her and left her for dead on the side of the goddamn road. That’s not happening.”

  “Then leave her in your office. No one knows she’s even there.”

  “Webber saw her,” I ground out.

  “I sent Michael on a job. He’ll be gone for hours.”

  “That’s not good enough.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said slowly, and I actually believed him. “You have your options. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

  He hung up, and I sat there listening to the dead call as my mind raced.

  “What’s going on?” Charlotte asked.

  I turned to her, searching her face for the answer I was looking for. For some assurance that I could find a way out of this for both of us.

  “I’m due in court in ten minutes.”

  Her eyes widened. “For what?”

  I didn’t want her to know about the repercussions of my actions back in that hotel room, but I’d also promised I’d tell her the whole truth from now on.

  “I need to answer for ripping that vampire’s head off that night in the hotel.”

  Her eyes widened further, her pink lips parting slightly. “Oh, no,” she whispered. “You’re getting in trouble for that?”

  I laughed, but nothing was really funny. “Parliament frowns on attempted murder.”

  “So, he didn’t die?”

  I shrugged. “Guess not.”

  “But you’re still in trouble because of it.”

  “Yes.”

  Her shoulders drooped. “Because of me.”

  I hurried over to kneel at her feet. “No, Charlotte. Not because of you. This isn’t your fault.”

  “But you were protecting me,” she said to her lap, her eyes downcast.

  I grasped her chin and tilted her head until I could meet her gaze. “No. I made that decision. There were a hundred other ways I could have dealt with him. Now I have to answer for the choice I made.”

  Her lips were still turned down in a frown, and I knew a few words from me wouldn’t get the worry out of her blue eyes. I leaned forward and kissed her forehead, my heart filling when I heard her sigh.

  “I don’t care about the trial and I don’t care what repercussions there are. My only concern is your safety. I need to go, but I can’t leave you here. I don’t know what to do,” I admitted.

  She cupped my jaw with her soft hand, and I turned my face to her palm. “I’ll be okay here. You need to go to this trial.”

  I shook my head. “No. I’m not leaving you.” I sighed and stood up, already missing the feel of her warm hand on my skin. “They’ll just have to find me guilty. I don’t care anymore.”

  She jumped to her feet, blue eyes wide. “What happens if you’re found guilty?”

  I shrugged and looked away. “I’ll probably go to jail.”

  Her heart stuttered in her chest before racing ahead. “For how long?” she asked quietly.

  I shrugged again. “I don’t know. But vampires view time differently than humans. A short sentence for them could be years.”

  She gasped, and I turned to watch the horror flood her face. “You can’t go to jail for years! That’s ridiculous! You were saving my life.”

  “That’s not the way they see it,” I said between gritted teeth. “You’re just another human who was bit by a vampire. There’s no proof that he would have drained you if I hadn’t interrupted. For all they know, he could have just taken a few sips and glamoured you into forgetting he’d ever been there. It happens every day.”

  She swallowed loudly and sat back down in her chair with a plop. “That’s not fair.”

  No. It wasn’t. But that’s how it was. How it had always been. Humans were beneath us. They had very few rights in our world.

  “You have to go,” she said, her voice monotone.

  I turned to see her staring straight ahead.

  “I can’t leave you here.”

  She turned to me, her eyes wide. “But you can’t be found guilty. You can’t go to jail because of me. I won’t let that happen.”

  “You don’t have a choice, Charlotte.”

  She stood up and planted her hands on her hips. “No, Alexander, you don’t have a choice. You need to march your ass over to that courtroom and explain to them the situation. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

  I almost rolled my eyes, but I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. “Parliament understands very little.”

  She took a step closer to me, her eyes burning brighter. “Then make them understand. Tell them I was partially claimed by an ancient vampire. Tell them that was the second time I’d been attacked in two days. Tell them the last vampire almost killed me.”

  Maybe she was right.

  Maybe I did have a shot at escaping jail time for this.

  But what the fuck was I supposed to do with her?

  I shook my head. “None of that matters because I’m not going. I can’t leave you here unprotected, and I don’t trust you with anyone else. I’ll just have to take whatever sentence they give me.”

  She took a deep breath and let it out slowly before finally speaking again. “The way I see it, you have two choices.”

  Not another fucking two choices.

  “You either leave me here where I’ll probably be safe because no one knows I’m here and go to the trial, or you stay, get convicted, and have to go to vampire jail for who the hell knows how long. Isn’t it pretty clear which option is the right one?”

  I fucking hated when she made sense like that. Especially when every single part of me was terrified if I left her here in this room, something would happen, and she’d be taken from me.

  I pinched the bridge of my nose as I thought hard. There had to be a way. There had to be something I could do. My mind spun and spun, but there was no solution I hadn’t already thought of.

  The dread came slowly.

  It started in my gut but slowly spread throughout my entire body until it was tingling in my fingertips. It saturated my skin and left a thin layer of sweat on my forehead.

  I pulled out my cell and shot Nicholas a quick message.

  Me: Are you sure about Webber? How long will he be gone for?

  Thankfully, he responded right away.

  Nicholas: I sent him to Long Island. He’ll be gone for hours.

  I squeezed my eyes closed as I clenched my fingers around my phone.

  This felt wrong. I knew it wasn’t a good idea. There was no way this was going to turn out okay.

  But I was out of options.

  I sighed and turned toward her. “Listen to me,” I said as I grasped her arms and dragged her closer. “You do not make a sound in this room. I don’t want to even hear your eyelashes fluttering.”

  She pursed her lips and gave me an unimpressed look, but I ignored her.

  “And you don’t open that door for anyone but me. No one. I don’t care if your dead great grandma knocks, you tell her to come back later. Do you understand?”

  “Alexander, I’ll be fine. And I’m not an idiot. I won’t let anyone in.”

  I knew she wasn’t stupid. But I also knew a lock would do very little to deter a determined vampire. Or even a fucking mildly curious one.

  I ran a rough hand over my face and tried to even my breathing. I looked down at her and saw the trust shining in her sky-blue eyes. Trust I didn’t deserve.

  Trust I was going to do everything in my goddamn power to earn.

  I pulled her against my chest and breathed in her peach scent. Pulled it deep into my lungs, letting the sweet smell soothe my frayed nerves and strengthen my resolve.

  I didn’t have a choice.

  I could leave her for an hour, or I would have to leave her for years. That was the rock and the hard place I was stuck between.

  I pulled away and looked down at her again. “Please, whatever you do, do not fucking die while I’m gone.” />
  She narrowed her eyes and pushed me away. “Just go before you piss me off.”

  I laughed once and pulled her back, pressing my lips against hers before she could complain. I kissed her for a long time until I almost forgot about what was about to happen. Until I almost lost myself in her completely.

  With a groan, I wrenched my lips from hers and took a step back, drawing deep breaths into my straining lungs. “I’m serious, Charlotte. I will be fucking pissed if something happens to you.”

  She rolled her eyes and pushed me away again. “Wouldn’t want to poke the bear,” she muttered. “Just go,” she said louder. “The sooner you leave, the sooner you can come back.”

  I took those last words and repeated them over and over in my mind as I left her behind and raced through the halls of Parliament.

  Chapter 5

  Charlotte

  I do not have to pee.

  I do not have to pee.

  I do not have to pee.

  I mouthed the words over and over again, not even daring to whisper them into the quiet room. Alexander had warned me to be silent, and I hadn’t made a peep since he left.

  Which had been over two hours ago.

  I hadn’t really known what to expect, but I figured since he was given such short notice, the trial would be a quick thing. That was apparently not the case.

  And my bladder was adamantly protesting.

  I crossed my legs and wiggled in my chair, but nothing helped. The Red Bull I drank before Alexander woke for the night had finally made it through my system and now wanted out.

  I checked my phone for the time and saw it had only been three minutes since I’d looked last. My finger hovered over the message icon as I thought about reaching out to Alexander. Even having an estimate for when he’d be back would have been helpful. If I just knew how much longer I had to hold it in, that would somehow make it easier.

  I shook my head and flipped the phone face-down on the desk.

  Alexander was in the middle of a trial. One that would determine his freedom. I was not going to text him that I needed to use the little girls’ room. He had something so much more important to deal with than my annoying human functions.

  So, I’d just sit and pretend like I didn’t feel like I was going to burst at any moment.

  A soft knock on the door rang through the quiet room like a gunshot, and I froze in my seat.

  “Hello?” a man called.

  It sounded a little like the man Alexander got into a fight with when we first arrived. He had the same lilt to his words. But there was no way for me to know on this side of the door and I wasn’t opening it for anything.

  And truthfully, it didn’t matter who it was. It was clearly a vampire, and he obviously knew I was here. There was no way to tell what his intentions were, but I was on guard anyway. The way my luck went, he probably came to kill me.

  I reached for my phone, my hands shaking so bad I almost couldn’t pick it up. I needed to get in touch with Alexander. He needed to know someone knew I was here. He needed to get back as soon as possible.

  But what if the trial wasn’t over yet?

  The last thing I wanted to do was interrupt. Especially if it made Alexander look bad. He needed all the points in his favor he could get, and I wasn’t going to make things harder for him.

  And what if I was making a big deal about nothing?

  Not all vampires were out to get me. Alexander’s boss Nicholas had been pleasant, and even though Adrienne bit me, she hadn’t meant to. What if this vampire didn’t mean me any harm either?

  I hadn’t made a sound, but despite that there was no doubt he knew I was in there.

  Trapped.

  With no way to defend myself and with Alexander somewhere else in the massive building.

  This was not good.

  “Alexander sent me,” he said.

  I froze again as I looked at the door and then back at my phone, debating what I should do.

  Would Alexander really send someone to check on me? He’d said over and over that he didn’t trust anyone with my safety except for himself. Had he made an exception?

  Did that mean the trial wasn’t going well?

  “He sent me down to check on you. He said the hearing is taking longer than he expected and he thought you might be hungry.”

  As if it had ears, my stomach growled loudly. I slapped my hands over my abdomen like I could muffle the sound, but it was too late.

  The man outside the door chuckled. “Guess he was right.”

  It’s true that Alexander was surprisingly concerned with my eating habits. It was almost as if he set a timer. Every few hours he’d ask if I was hungry, and even if I wasn’t, he’d talk me into ordering something anyway. Eventually, he’d learned enough about what I liked to just order my meals himself.

  So, if this trial was taking too long, it was possible he’d sent someone else to feed me.

  The steady fear radiating from my gut kept me from answering, though. Maybe if I didn’t respond to him, he’d just go away. It would be rude if Alexander really had sent him, but I’d rather be impolite than dead.

  My mind raced through my options, and they were limited.

  There were no windows in this office, so there was no other exit for me. It was clear whoever was on the other side of the door knew I was in here, despite my silence. The only option I had was to reach out to Alexander and hope he texted me back right away.

  I opened my messages and tapped out a quick text.

  Me: Did you send someone to check on me?

  I watched the message send and waited for his reply, my eyes darting from the screen to the door over and over. The phone said the message was delivered but hadn’t been read yet. I watched the little words, waiting for them to change. Willing them to change, but nothing happened.

  “If you tell me what you want, I can bring you something,” the man said.

  Still no reply from Alexander. And now my palms were so sweaty I was having trouble holding the phone.

  “You probably need to use the bathroom too if you’ve been in there all night. I can show you where the closest one is.”

  My bladder begged me to say yes, but I remained silent.

  Come on, Alexander! Text me back!

  “I know you’re in there,” he called in a sing-song voice, and a chill ran down my spine.

  I looked back at my screen to see Alexander read my message. My heart leapt into my throat as I watched the three little dots bounce, indicating he was typing.

  To my horror, his message came through, causing my phone to vibrate loudly in my hand. So loud, the sound ricocheted off the walls, almost seeming to echo in the empty room.

  I glanced at the message.

  Alexander: No.

  My heart leapt to the back of my throat as my eyes darted to the office door. A second later, there was a deafening crash as it burst open and slammed against the wall.

  The man Alexander fought with earlier stood in the doorway, his dark eyes bright and every one of his teeth showing as he smiled at me.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you.”

  ***

  Alexander

  “Mr. Hausle, we’re ready to read our verdict.”

  I wasn’t listening.

  I wasn’t even still sitting there.

  The second I’d read Charlotte’s message, I’d jumped from my seat and took off running faster than I ever had in my life.

  I cursed loudly as I ran, absolutely furious with myself.

  When I felt my phone vibrate, I’d initially ignored it. I figured it was any number of people who’d been unsuccessfully trying to get in touch with me for weeks. It hadn’t even dawned on me that Charlotte might reach out to me that way. She’d had my number for a while, but never had cause to use it because I never left her side.

  When it struck me that it might have been her and I finally checked my phone, I didn’t even pause to respond. I typed one single word to her as I sprinted
through the courtroom.

  No.

  No, I hadn’t sent someone to check on her.

  No one was supposed to know she was there.

  No one was supposed to find her while I was gone.

  No way was she facing down another vampire with me ten flights away.

  I raced past the elevator to the old rickety steps we’d taken when we arrived earlier.

  The first mistake I’d made.

  “Fuck!” I yelled to no one as I took the stairs three at a time, propelling myself so fast everything was just a blur around me.

  The second mistake I’d made was leaving her. I’d known it wasn’t a good idea. Deep in the marrow of my bones, I knew something would happen to her.

  But I’d left anyway.

  With a roar, I ripped open the stairwell door, tossing it behind me as I ran. I was only seconds away, but that might as well have been hours.

  There was no telling how much damage a vampire could do in that amount of time.

  Hell, he could have walked right in and snapped her neck before she even knew he was in the room.

  I could feel the blood drain from my face and pool in the pit of my stomach. It cooled there, but still it frothed and bubbled. Like liquid ice. So cold it burned.

  She couldn’t be dead.

  I just wouldn’t accept that.

  I made it to my suite door and ran right through it before I came to a stop at my office. That door looked like it had been blown up. Wood shards littered the thin carpet beneath my feet. But it was what I saw inside my office that stopped me in my tracks.

  Charlotte was sitting on the desk facing me. Her shirt was gaping open, her white lace bra peeking through, and her tight skirt was bunched around her hips, revealing her toned legs.

  Between her thighs, with his mouth on her smooth neck, was Michael Webber. The motherfucker who was supposed to still be on Long Island.

  I didn’t think.

  Not a single thought crossed my mind before I raced toward them and pulled him off her. I flung him behind me, his body blasting through the drywall and rolling to a stop in the other room.

  I raced after him, my vision red and my hands shaking with the need to maim.

  To kill.

  To destroy.

  I kicked him in the gut, feeling his bones break under my boot. He gasped, but I didn’t even pause. I threw myself on top of him and began pummeling his face. Punch after punch, until my knuckles were covered in blood and his face was unrecognizable.