In Blood

by C M Thorne

  In Blood

  Book 1

  C.M. Thorne

  In Blood

  C.M. Thorne

  Copyright © 2019 by C.M. Thorne. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. No part of this eBook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the author.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copywright Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  CHAPTER 1

  Caleb, only son of Pastor Zechariah Bishop, sat in the car with his three older sisters and tried not to think about disappointing his father. The girls had convinced him that he couldn’t pass his twenty-first birthday without going to a club. And, according to them, all of the good clubs were on the island that separated the east and west banks of Twelve Bridges Haven. The idea made Caleb’s stomach churn, and he twisted his fingers together in an attempt to ease it.

  Twelve Bridges Haven was named as such because it boasted harmony, a safe place for everyone to go. The supernatural and the mundane, living together. Supes stayed on the east bank, and everyone else stayed on the west. The only place where they really came together was the island. Despite spending his twenty-one years of life in the city, Caleb lived in Old Town, the most religious of the west bank districts, and he had never so much as seen a supernatural creature in person.

  Caleb’s eardrums vibrated from the bass of the music Becca had chosen. Becca was the eldest, and had the loudest taste in music. He wanted to join in with his sisters’ car dancing, but his nerves kept him stiff and awkward. He looked to his sisters, moving in a carefree way that he utterly envied. Caleb tried to distract himself by looking out the window. The streets were dark as they rolled along, empty despite the early hour of night.

  He could hear his father’s voice in his head: The godly do not dwell in darkness.

  Becca glanced back at him and Caleb schooled his features. He was here to have a good time. The godly did not go clubbing with agents of the devil either. He smirked and let go of his hands with a soft breath, reminding himself not to let his father have an influence on him tonight. He had been looking forward to turning twenty-one, to going out with his sisters and getting a glimpse of life beyond his sheltered adulthood. He’d stayed close to home, gone to a private Christian college, done everything to appease his father, and it was never enough. He looked over his sisters, dancing along on their way to a supe district, and tried to quell thoughts of their father.

  The girls would sympathize if they knew where his mind had gone. The pastor had been hard on all of his children, but Caleb was the only boy, the youngest, and the one that had taken their mother from them.

  He shook his head and smoothed his hands over his pants, trying to bring himself back into some kind of party mindset. His sisters would not allow him to brood or be anything less than fun on his twenty-first. They were headed to Becca’s favorite club on the island. She was the eldest, the first to break free from their father’s oppression. Becca was also the one that her father refused to speak to or even acknowledge as his own flesh and blood. Caleb looked at her in the driver’s seat, belting out the thumping song a little offkey as she shimmied in her seat. Her recent engagement to Nicco, a Spanish warlock that lived on the island, had been the final nail in the coffin of her relationship with their father. She hardly seemed affected.

  Dinah, his immediate older sister, who was also sitting in the back, pulled his attention from his thoughts. “Stop fidgeting with your outfit!” She called over the loud music. “You look fabulous!” She grinned at him as she absently ran a hand over her dark hair, which was pulled back into a perfect, high ponytail.

  Caleb looked down at the maroon jeans she had bought him the day before and the sheer, white button-up embroidered with tiny golden bees that Becca had stolen from Nicco for him to wear. He had not realized that he had been pulling at the bottom of the borrowed shirt. He felt uncomfortable, but had not known how to change without having to fight all three of his sisters before making it out the door. He puffed out a halfhearted laugh, running his clammy hands down his thighs and wriggling his toes against the tight dark leather shoes Becca had crammed him into.

  “Are you sure I don’t look too,” he hesitated, “obvious?” He reached up and ran his hand through his thick, golden brown hair, a habit he tried to break, but one that all four of them seemed to do. He glanced at the dark reflection of himself in the window and sighed.

  “Gay, you mean,” Becca laughed from the front seat, turning down the music as she answered.

  “Don’t use that word!” Caleb whined. “I’m not even sure if it applies to me.”

  Dinah snorted and he shot her a sharp look. She held her hands up innocently.

  “Seriously,” he looked away back outside. “I haven’t done anything to confirm or deny that. I just,” he paused, shuddering a little, “hate that word. It’s not mine.”

  “Not yet maybe,” Dinah muttered with a smile.

  He whirled around on her, but Becca’s voice rose up. “Listen, honey, no one cares about your sexuality on the island. It means nothing to the other races,” she turned and smiled at him, “trust me.”

  “It means something back home,” Caleb grumbled, thinking of his father’s words as he looked out over the West River as the old car moved onto the bride from Old Town to the glittering island in the middle of the dark water.

  “Well, you aren’t really home right n-” Becca was cut off.

  “He’s right,” Lizzie, the middle of his elder sisters, interjected from the front passenger seat. Since Dinah had graduated and moved out to live with some friends the previous summer, Lizzie was now the only one of his sisters still had at home. The last remaining buffer between the pastor and the disappointment that Caleb was. “Father teaches us about how the supes do not excuse our ungodly behavior.”

  “We were having such a good time together!” Becca shook her head.

  “Careful Lizzie,” Dinah laughed, “you sound like you might agree with the pastor.” Her eyes narrowed at their sister despite her joking intonation.

  “I don’t,” LIzzie countered, turning around to look at Dinah seriously. “I am just saying that I can understand why Cal feels self-conscious. We aren’t like the two of you after all.”

  Caleb grimaced, hating that LIzzie lumped him in with her, as she often did. She was the most like their father and he was fairly certain she had no desire to move out of his house. Becca used to always call Lizzie the pastor’s right hand. He wasn’t sure why, but Lizzie felt some sense of duty to stay with their father, to help and appease him. LIke Caleb, Lizzie had inherited most of her appearance from their mother. They both had her bronze brown hair and grey eyes, a fact that added to the pastor’s resentment of Caleb, but increased Lizzie’s place as some sort of replacement for their dead mother, Caroline.

  “Oh, right, I forgot,” Dinah rolled her eyes. “Becca and I are wild.” She spat the last word, mimicking their father’s word for his eldest and youngest daughters. “We willfully lead a life of sin or whatever and that supposedly why our father is alright with treating us like we are dead. Will you treat us the same one day, dear Lizzie? What about when Cal moves out? Will you continue to support the precious pastor’s ide
als when he condemns him a-”

  “I don’t want to have this conversation,” Lizzie interrupted, speaking with a flat, disinterested tone as she turned forward. Lizzie was notorious for turning passive in the middle of a disagreement, a habit that only fueled Dinah. Cal noticed Dinah’s body tense in response as she shook her head.

  “You never could finish anything you started,” Dinah retorted with a disgusted face.

  “That’s enough girls,” Becca raised her voice, keeping her tone playful, but firm. It was a clear sign that she wouldn’t tolerate them ruining Caleb’s birthday festivities. She turned the music back up and the dancing slowly resumed.

  Dinah reached over and pat his knee, giving him a reassuring smile as she danced. Caleb smiled, shaking his head a little as he slowly danced with her. She broke out into a laugh as Becca turned the music up louder and he winced.

  They passed onto the island to the pulsing beat of some techno sounding song that Caleb had never heard. Another thing the pastor would not approve of. Caleb grit his teeth, getting more into the music as he car danced with his laughing sister, trying to push out any thought of his father. The lights of the island moved past in a blur as Becca sped on to the club. Before he knew it, they were pulling down a side street on the southside. A long line of people waited behind a crimson velvet roped off line, blocked from entering the dimly lit entrance by four bouncers. Above the door was a neon sign with blazing cursive pink lettering spelling out ‘a Sip of Life’ with a burning, tilted neon blue martini glass sloshing out a neon pink drink.

  Without turning down the music, Becca stopped her car next to the line as a short, slender man seemed to materialize from the darkness of the alley to open her door. Caleb let himself out as Lizzie and Dinah’s doors were opened by other valet workers. He scanned the people waiting in the roped off line as he pulled at his shirt and backed up against the car. No one of them seemed to be anything other than human. His sisters gathered next to him as one of the short men hopped into the driver’s seat and took the car away to be parked.

  “Alright,” Becca smiled as her eyes flicked over the line. She was wearing a short sequin dress, which smoldered from a deep bronze at her shoulders down through brighter hues until it turned a bright gold at the hem. Her long, wavy golden brown hair was braided into a loose crown around her head with some stray tresses falling out strategically. Her warm brown eyes sparkled as she grinned at Caleb, grabbing his arm and moving toward the bouncers at the front of the club, walking past the people waiting in the roped off line.

  Dinah came up on the other side of him, forcing Lizzie to fall behind them as they moved up to the bouncers. Caleb wanted to ask what they were doing, as the irritated people in the line turned their ire on them. Before he could say anything, one of the bouncers removed the rope blocking their path and nodded to his sister. “Nice to see you,” he spoke gruffly.

  Becca glanced at Caleb and smiled slyly as another bouncer opened the door to the club. A small square tiled entrance lay beyond with mirror walls and large, dimly lit chandelier hanging from the high ceiling. The opposite wall had a pair of elevators, both with their metal doors standing open and ready. His sister pulled them into the elevator decorated with red and gold walls with three ornate mirrors on the walls. She pressed the top button on the panel with her slender, perfectly manicured finger as the other two packed in next to them. The panel only had the button for the lobby and the button for the club, making Caleb wonder what else was in the building and how one would get to the other floors. The doors slid closed with a metallic rasp and the elevator lurched upward.

  “Were all those bouncers human?” Lizzie asked quietly, standing off in the corner of the elevator. Her arms crossed as she spoke and she looked down at the floor uncomfortably.

  Becca laughed lightly, “Only the one. The one that opened the door in a wolf and the other are vampires.” Lizzie’s face blanched as she looked up, causing Becca to laugh. “What? They do make the best bouncers.”

  Dinah smirked and batted at Caleb’s shoulder. “Are you excited now?”

  Caleb gulped and smiled weakly, “I will definitely need a drink or two if I am going to make it through tonight.”

  Becca chuckled, “We will be having more than two drinks, so don’t worry!”

  The elevator slowed to a stop and the doors slid open to loud, pulsating music. The place was dark with multi-colored strobing lights trailing around a large dance floor in the middle of the club. The entire place took up the entire top two floors of the skyscraper. The walls were entirely windowed, offering a nearly three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of the city, save for where the elevators obstructed the view. Several bars were set up around the club along the windowed walls, with various lounge areas tucked between them. On the far side of the club, a set of floating metal stairs led up to a balcony second level, which wrapped around the dance floor.

  Becca noticed him looking up at the balcony and answered his unspoken question, “That is the VIP area.” He looked back to her, almost ashamed of her seeing right through him. “Nico and I go up there sometimes,” she continued, “but I can’t get past the bouncers without him.” She motioned to the large men standing at the bottom of the stairs in front of another velvet rope. The pair towered over everyone on the dancefloor near to them and they looked nearly identical. “Vampires, as well,” Becca answered another unspoken question of his.

  Lizzie fiddled with one of the pieces of her long, dark blue dress, “Wonderful. Can we get a drink now?”

  Becca moved over to Lizzie and guided her to a bar near a set of doors leading out to a balcony, which seemed to wrap around the club. Dinah reached for Caleb and he twined his fingers through hers, letting himself be pulled along behind his sisters. The bartender finished shaking up his elder sisters’ drinks, pouring them into martini glasses and looking to Dinah and Cal. “What’ll it be?”

  Dinah leaned over the bar, left hand reaching back to make sure her tight, short faux-leather dress didn’t ride up. “I will have a vodka tonic, darling,” she practically purred. She flipped her dark hair over her shoulder and looked back to Caleb. “What about you, Cal? Know what you want?”

  He stepped up and looked around at the alcohol on the floating glass shelves. “Uh,” Cal’s voice came out soft. He couldn’t see how the shelves were secured to anything, distracting him at the fantastical thought of magic. He had never seen magic, other than the random street stuff that beginning magicians did on the west bank. He blinked and focused back at the bartender, who looked annoyed. He was a moderately attractive man wearing only jeans and scarlet suspenders over perfectly smooth muscles.

  “Sorry,” Caleb blushed and looked down. “I don’t know what to get,” he looked at Dinah.

  She rolled her eyes and smirked at the bartender flirtatiously, “Give him a vodka-cran.” She plopped down from the bar and shook her head at him. “Poor dear.” She reached to pat his head and he stepped back quickly, bumping into something behind him.

  He turned, blushing hard after seeing the handsome man looking at him with a shocked expression. He had startling icy blue eyes and a mess of silky brown curls. He was wearing a linen, pale green shirt, which was only buttoned up halfway over dark jeans and dark shoes. His skin was a glowing shade of ivory and Cal noticed that it was also completely unblemished. Several silver necklaces hung from his thin neck between the opening of his short. He was angelically striking, but something felt off. Something lurked in his blue eyes. Something dark that paralyzed Caleb as he stood there stunned, not knowing what to do or say.

  “Excuse me,” Caleb looked down, ears burning in embarrassment.

  “No, excuse me,” the man replied with a light French sounding accent. His bright eyes looked Caleb over slowly, hungrily. “Are you here with anyone tonight?”

  Becca stepped up next to Caleb, handing him his drink and threading an arm around his shoulders, “Please forgive my brother. It is his first night out.” She smiled at him, tho
ugh the smile did not reach her warm eyes. “Excuse us,” she added, pulling Caleb out the open doors to the balcony.

  The lingering warmth of the May evening felt refreshing and Caleb took a deep breath as his sister released his arm. He took a drink without remembering that it was alcohol and the tart juice made his lips pucker as the burn of the alcohol made him swallow quickly. He had only ever had a few drinks with some college friends. He was not used to alcohol, gritting his teeth against the burn left in his mouth and throat. He took another deep swig and looked out across the city on the island.

  “You need to be more careful when you talk to vampires, hun.” Becca spoke softly as their sisters joined them slowly. “Not at all have honorable intentions.” She laughed a little, but her eyes remained trained on him over her drink. He gulped a little at the thought of that man being a vampire.

  “None of them, you mean,” Lizzie hissed, rolling her eyes before polishing off her martini and removing the olive to eat.

  Dinah rolled her eyes and saddled up on a metal chair at a high-top table at the metal and glass railing around the balcony. “You shouldn’t say that,” she glared at Lizzie before side-eyeing Becca, “and he’ll be fine, Becs.”

  “I know, Di,” Becca scrunched up her face. “I just want to be extra sure he knows how to handle himself. This is his first time out.”

  “There are better places,” Lizzie leaned in next to him, speaking quietly.

  Dinah whirled around, voice raising shrilly, “Seriously, Lizzie?!”

  “Alright,” Becca raised her voice. She grabbed Lizzie firmly on the back of her arm, “Let’s go get everyone another round.” Caleb looked down at his half-full drink and swirled it around as his sisters slipped back inside. Dinah drained her drink and slammed it down on the table.

  “Sorry,” she looked at him and smirked. “We need to go out and dance,” she added suddenly.