Julia nodded. Only one night? Crap, she'd have to figure it out day by day.
Shirley, apparently seeing how dejected she was continued, “We offer transitional services. We will help you find a job, another residence...” she spread her arms to each side.
Julia sighed. She was terrified of William and Pierce finding her. It wasn't rational. After all, once she got on the bus, her trail disappeared.
Or that's what she told herself.
But Julia had been with the vampires for almost a year and they made normal human senses something to which there was no comparison. Julia shuddered, remembering how easy everything was for them. William was a runner, chosen specifically for tracking.
He was engineered to find her.
Julia shuddered and Shirley gave her a look of sympathy, misinterpreting it completely. She took Julia's arm and they walked together to her room.
*
shelter
Julia was as settled in as she was going to be. She looked around the room. Actually, it was a shared room, hardly more than a closet. The bathroom served two rooms for four women. The girl she shared with was at her new job, poised to leave the next morning. Julia looked longingly at the bathroom. She was dying for a shower.
She went through the clothes that Shirley had provided. There was enough for a week's worth. A plain, black duffel had been provided, courtesy of a sponsor of the shelter.
The clothes were simple but comfortable and fit well. A miracle. She was heavier than she'd been when the vampires had thought they'd lose her from malnourishment. But as Julia caught sight of herself in the harsh reflection of the florescent lighting that rode the top of the vanity mirror she blanched. Even to her she looked hideous. Large bruise type circles held court underneath her large, golden eyes. Her hair was a startling black, the ends hacked unevenly about her shoulders. It was her ribs, each one countable, her collarbone standing at attention which let her know how desperate she still looked.
How had she looked before? Julia didn't want to know.
Turning away she cranked on the hot water for the shower, the needles slamming into her hands that were still cold from the outside. The tingling of the warmth waking her skin up as she pulled the stopper and the spray rained down, beating the porcelain tub below. Julia stepped in, parting her lips, letting the water fill her mouth and run down her chin. The warmth and privacy made her want to cry with relief.
She hadn't realized how obtrusive her lack of privacy had been when Susan had been her caretaker or how oppressive William and Pierce's presence was. She was so grateful she could hardly stand herself.
Julia almost shrieked when she glanced down while rinsing the shampoo out of her hair and saw the tub filled with black.
What-the-hell?
She quickly toweled off and ran to the mirror. She swiped her forearm across the middle and there she stood, her wet hair like dark gold, a black wash hanging on but mostly gone.
Shit. There went her great disguise. Julia sighed. Figures she would grab the wash-out-gradually dye. She turned away in disgust. Jerking the nightclothes on, which consisted of panties and an oversized shirt, she slammed her body into the bed in a huff. She was certain she would fall right to sleep.
But she didn't. Instead, thoughts of Jason filled her head like they always did before sleep took her.
*
then: fire & ice
They flew down on the small plane from the Anchorage Airport. Julia was stoked, they'd touch down in Homer soon. The only small glitch was Jason wanted to meet up with Kevin and Cyn one more time at their spot on the beach. Kevin was likely burning the hell out of the driftwood as they flew.
She wanted Jason all to herself.
He laughed as she cuddled closer, his finger tracing and alternatively swirling the wedding band she wore as he said, “It's a sendoff, Jules. Don't get your hot panties in a twist.”
Julia rolled her eyes. “They are super cute panties, buster. Not that you'd know!” she said, giving him a playful elbow. He retaliated, tickling her without mercy. She shrieked in the confines of the plane, some of the other passengers giving the pair stern looks.
They offloaded and ran to their car parked in the lot, the mountains a backdrop behind Jason's car, the stubborn snow clinging to some of the nooks and crannies at the top.
Julia sucked in a lungful of the freshest air in the world, happier than she'd ever been. Vegas had been an assault on all her senses. Filthy, noisy, dirty, everything that wasn't home.
Jason opened the door for her and she piled in, roaring off to the spit. Cyn and Kevin were waiting and she could see the fire from the beginning of the spit, the flames rushing up to kiss the darkening sky.
An omen.
Julia's mind protected her from touching the memory which lay next. The one she couldn't bear to think of.
The one that was stealing her breath, robbing her of life, making her heart pause in her throat.
Julia finally fell into a fitful sleep as the vampires closed in around her.
*
vampire
The four of them surrounded the human cattle, eyes glittering darkly at their prey. They could not afford to be circumspect, all four would need to be well-fed when they finally came upon Julia. William signaled to Pierce and they flanked the victim.
A pleasure to dispatch, William thought. Remembering how they'd come upon him, abusing the woman that Robert now eased into thrall as they moved toward the human scum. William licked the tips of his fangs as they tore through the tender flesh of his mouth.
Pierce's evicted his mouth as the smell of blood wafted to their nostrils.
“Listen scary dudes,” the man said, defensively, “that bitch wanted it. I was only givin' her what she was beggin' for... you get my meaning,” he said, grabbing his crotch in an obscene gesture of his self-perceived attractiveness.
“Yes,” Pierce mused, “the abuse of her face tells us of her joy.”
William hissed, moving toward him with sure footing, stalking closer, he jerked the foul human next to him until his rancid breath filled the intimate space. “The innocent do not defend their actions... ”
“Thou dost protest too much,” Pierce intoned, the ghost of a smile riding his lips as he moved toward their prey.
The other runner, Andrew, allowed his talons to tear through the tips of his fingers and used them like the small daggers they were, piercing the tender flesh of the man's back, his gurgled response matching the widening of his eyes. “What are you?” he whispered, his eyes bulging and distended as Andrew held him skewered like a shish kabob.
“Death,” William answered, his fangs lengthening. He reared, preparing to strike.
He struck true, as did Pierce, Andrew's talons evacuating the holes caused by them.
Robert left the female in thrall, dazed and uncomprehending. In a blur of speed, he was at the human's side where he dropped to his knees beside the male. Working to the inside of his thigh, he tapped the vein with a vicious push of his fangs, piercing even the thick denim the human wore. He rolled his eyes up and met those of his comrade, Andrew, who shared the foul meal. The blood delicious, its host lowly.
The vampires fed. Two miles from where Julia laid sleeping.
But not peacefully, never that.
CHAPTER 11
Julia never thought about the day Jason died. She did everything within her power not to.
That's probably why her subconscious took over.
She was too exhausted to fight it anymore. She was not in the vampires' clutches, she'd had a shower and even a little food. It made sense to sleep.
She needed to sleep.
Julia felt her body slide off into that strange midway point between true wakefulness and that of deep slumber. Her mind floated, circling the last things she had thought about. As she slipped into REM, her body jerked like it was falling, landing about where she'd left off in wakefulness.
Julia knew where she was going and began to struggle
toward consciousness again, as if at the bottom of a lake, swimming to the surface.
But sleep was victorious, sucking her back underneath the waters of her dreams.
*
then
She and Jason were almost to the spit when he got the text from Kevin.
Jason turned to Julia. “That's not their fire babe.”
She arched her brow, looking at the blaze far down on the terminus of the spit, a glowing beacon. “Who else would start that monster?”
He laughed. “They want to go to that spot by the woods. More private,” Jason waggled his brows, he couldn't wait to surprise Jules with their new place and all that came with it.
Right. Translation: let's make out. But now they were married, she was going to do more than that and without an audience thank you very much.
She sighed, some wedding night. She folded her arms across her chest, brooding.
“Listen, hun. It'll be fun, it won't get light until, when? One a.m.?”
The land of the midnight sun, Julia thought with more than a little hint of sarcasm. He wrapped his hand around her neck, massaging the stiffness of the travel away, catching little glances when he could, driving with one hand.
Julia guessed she'd forgive them. He was giving up his apartment, after all. Tonight was their last night before heading up to Anchorage. Just thinking about facing Aunt Lily tomorrow filled her with dread. Even knowing she would be relieved to see Julia go didn't make it better.
Jason looked at her with concern, then swung his attention to the road ahead of them. He took the turn for the small stretch of beach where they liked to hang. Only the four of them knew about it: how to traverse, how to find.
He squeezed the back of her neck and she felt the strength of his hands, having always been gentle with her. She thought of Terrell. They'd been the same hands he had used to murder their teacher.
To defend her.
“Jules, stop thinkin' about what Lily's gonna do. It'll be fine, you'll see.” He looked at her quickly then parked the car above the slope that led to the beach.
The beach lay below, a steep ravine above it, lined with spruce trees which camouflaged the fire. They didn't need anything special to get down there but it would be a bad fall if they didn't watch it. Jason took her carefully by the elbow as they used the rigid and deeply grooved soles of their boots to assure their footing as they descended to the rocky beach.
*
Vampire
Andrew and Robert paired, as did William and Pierce. Silently, having worked together as a quad before. They scented Julia easily. William never went anywhere without his quarry’s scent. In this case he possessed a scrap of an original piece of clothing, never laundered. He allowed his runners a deep whiff before they picked up the faintest scent coming from their current position.
“I say one point two-four kilometers,” William said, lowering his face from its position in the sky.
Pierce laughed. “So literal, William.”
William gave him a look and Pierce's amusement faded.
He looked at the faces that studied him in turn. “Follow me.”
They ran, staying to the border of the buildings' flanks. The shadows embracing them soundlessly, the peppering of blood splatter on their garments invisible in the dark.
*
before
The dusk lingered in Alaska forever it seemed like. Summer nights were one long siege of twilight. Julia didn't mind. The veil of false darkness provided the perfect backdrop for a sky the color of bruised violet, a sprinkling of the brightest stars flung about. Venus hanging like a shimmering anchor at the horizon.
She had planted her bony butt on a huge piece of driftwood Kev and Jason had hauled to a safe proximity next to the blazing inferno.
Cyn had been naughty and brought champagne. Julia would have loved to have argued but couldn't.
After all, they were celebrating her nuptials.
Hard as they tried it was inevitable that Lily would come up in conversation.
“I'm just sayin', you're not obligated to give a big defense, Jules,” Cyn said, her legs crossed at the ankles, her chair rest was Kevin. The wash of the firelight warred with the sun burning low in the horizon, making a fiery halo around them.
Julia shrugged. Cyn wouldn't understand. She felt like she owed Lily. Moving in her eight-year old niece had never been her goal. Actually, Julia wasn't sure what had been her goal. She'd made it abundantly clear it wasn't having her brother's daughter to raise.
As a surprise family.
Jason kissed the top of her head and she buried her toes that were encased in woolly socks into the sand now warmed by the fire. Her XtraTufs were thrown to the side.
“She's got a point, Jules,” Jason breathed against her temple.
“I know she does. But, she did take me in when my grandma couldn't. She's the only one that could. Beside a foster family.”
Cyn shuddered. “That's like goddamned Russian Roulette.”
Kev nodded, everyone knew you could get some shit family. “Yeah, Jules. I heard about some girl that was like Cinderella in her family. They made her label every scrap of food like she was gonna steal it or something. Big time lame. They just wanted the government money every month.”
“See?” Julia said, looking at Cynthia. “It could've been worse.”
Cyn shook her head, her huge hoops catching the light that swirled around them, a mix of burnt orange from the sky and fire, mingling together in an eerie wash. “If you say so. I still think she was a big time troll in her skirt to ya!”
She kinda was. But Julia still wanted to remember Lily in the best light she could and... “She's got all my stuff too.”
Cyn's face broke into a grin. “Now that's worth some suck-up, Jules.”
They laughed and then Cyn said, “I'm sorry your grandma isn't here anymore.”
Julia was too. Summers at her place had been the only break from the grind of Living with Lily. Grandma had taught her things she'd never forget.
“Didn't she have your name?” Kev asked.
Julia smiled. “Yes, actually, I had her name.”
Kev shrugged. “That's what I said.” The little details of things like elders passing on namesakes sailing right over his head.
They smiled and made plans for tomorrow. Julia and Jason would go by her house and see if they could charm their way in after a hasty elopement and zero communication.
So not going to happen.
Cyn broke a mood that had slid far away from celebratory by jerking the champagne glasses out of her backpack. Kevin got the champagne out of his beat up cooler, the ice rattling and clinking.
Cyn put a cube in each plastic cylinder. The glasses had been made to looked like cut glass and winked like they were on fire from the light of the blaze. Julia smiled, Cyn had thought everything through to the last detail.
“Nice glasses,” Julia said.
Cyn smirked. “I know, right? I couldn't let us be déclassé even at the beach!” Kevin filled hers to the brim and she plopped a full strawberry on the top, where it floated like a jewel inside the glass, the bubbles mesmerizing Julia as they floated in the golden liquid.
Everyone's glass fizzing with champagne, they lifted them as one, four glasses meeting in a clash of celebration. They took sips, eyeing each other above the rims.
Cyn did an obscene job of tonguing her strawberry in full view of Kevin, moving it back and forth in her mouth, twirling the stem like an provocative handle in her capable fingers.
“Come 'er,” he said in a growl, grabbing her around her slender waist and pressing her against him. He put his lips to the half of the berry that lay between her teeth, jerking the stem with his teeth and spitting it on the pebbled beach. He met his lips with hers, eating the berry as he sucked the kiss right out of her.
Cyn groaned and flung her arms around Kev's neck, the two of them staggering over to their log of driftwood, oblivious to Jason and Julia as their audience. Kevin
threw his arm behind him so they wouldn't topple, but as they sat down in a heap, he fell backward on the sand and we laughed at their lust ridden dance.
It would have been great if Kevin had not been on his back with his girlfriend when the werewolf appeared.
He was horribly vulnerable for what transpired next.
*
Vampire
Stealth was the order of the night, as it were. He eyed the building carefully, taking in the ironic title of the structure itself: Freedom Affirmed.
William's lips curled. They wouldn't understand real freedom if it introduced itself with a handshake.
He spoke in a voice that could not be heard by humanity. The decibel level was too high for humans.
In the distance a stray dog lifted its ears and whined softly, taking off in the opposite direction of the disturbing tones of the Unnatural. Canines were instinctual. This one recognized the threat for what it was and ran in a direction of safety.
The other runners whipped their heads in the dog's direction, responding in like kind. They made their way to the structure, converging at roughly all four corners. Their progress was deliberate and insidious. They would not make a spectacle of their presence.
William had the barest sense of unease. He hoped that Julia's abilities continued to lay dormant. If they awoke during her acquisition, that would change things dramatically.
It would be very bad for all. Blood Singers were unpredictable at best. At worst, they were dangerous.
He hoped that Pierce and the others would heed his warning:
Be vigilant. Be aware. They may already be in the area, having scented her hours before themselves.
Werewolves.
*
Julia's eyes rolled wildly beneath lids that were clenched in horror.
The Blood Bundle, Books 1-2: Blood Singers and Blood Song (New Adult Paranormal Vampire/Shifter Romance) Page 7