Alpha Blood

  “Principle, that was close,” Jasper whispered.

  She flicked her eyes to Jeb's and added, “I think you hurt me worse on the return.”

  “Your grateful attitude blows me away.”

  “I hate Earth vernacular.”

  “Tough, get used to it.”

  Jeb sat beside her, his mind on that hot Reflective he'd had to leave behind instead of giving her what she clearly needed.

  Basically, he hadn't gotten his rocks off because he'd had to chase Jasper down like a skipper. Jeb understood he wasn't being entirely fair. If Jasper hadn't leapt, she would’ve been killed. Still, his fun had been curtailed, and it made him exceedingly grumpy.

  He plowed his fingers through his tousled hair and expelled a frustrated breath, leaning back in the chair near her bedside.

  “Please, I'm hungry,” Jasper said, her upturned lips telling Jeb that she was pleased by his temporary slave status.

  Jeb glared at her as he spooned another mouthful of the gelatin into her full lips, now marred only by a shallow cut and a yellowing bruise. Days of healing had taken only hours.

  Her back would be fully mended by the morrow.

  A glob of the green goo sat on one plump lip, and he scooped it off and stuffed it into her mouth.

  Not that it would keep that sharp tongue at bay.

  “What of Rachett?” Beth asked. She gnawed thoughtfully at her bottom lip in between bites, giving away her emotions.

  Jeb busied himself with stirring the green translucent grub. It jiggled obscenely as he loaded another spoonful.

  Jasper put her palm up to ward off another bite, and he noted how small—and strong—her hands were.

  Jeb dipped his eyes to the bowl then set it down. “He attends to Ryan.”

  Jasper put her face in her hands.

  Go ahead, cry, weak female, Jeb thought uncharitably, his old prejudices vying for position.

  But she simply swiped at her face, raw with healing wounds.

  “Attends to… or disciplines?” she asked, a defiant hook to her chin.

  He grinned despite himself.

  Beth Jasper obviously knew the tenor of their commander. “A little of both, I imagine.”

  Jasper did not smile; she appeared serious, and Jeb found his smile fading as he looked into her delicate face.

  Her eyes were as hard as his own.

  “Ryan will retaliate.”

  Jeb nodded. “If he was smart… he would not. It was a clear victory. But he will not be pleased to have been bested by a female.”

  “It is not that I am female,” Jasper commented.

  Her brown eyes laid hold on his gray ones, and he cocked an eyebrow, folding his arms over his chest.

  “Then what is it, for I know you die on the vine to tell me.”

  Jasper rolled her large eyes in her head. “It is that I am better.”

  Jeb inclined his head, conceding the obvious. “As a jumper.” He stood, throwing out his hands. “I have not seen the like.”

  Suddenly, Jeb whirled around. Overcome with curiosity, he gripped the ceramic bars on the hospital bed. His movement caused the thin snaking plastic tube that bit her flesh with a needle to sway like an undulating snake.

  Jasper smiled. “And only Rachett truly knew what I was capable of.” Her hands toyed with the many threads of the unraveling border of the wool blanket that covered her.

  “Why? It is a rare gift, to jump into something that small. Why would you not spread the proof of that talent far and wide?” Jeb asked, twirling in a neat circle in the middle of the room.

  Jasper met his eyes, and Jeb saw something there that caused him to stop moving.

  “Because,” Jasper whispered, “that was not small.”

  Jeb felt the air still in his lungs as he moved nearer to her bed. “Look at me, Jasper.”

  Her gaze rose, unwavering and dark, full of secrets.

  “The six-inch blade in motion… that is not small?”

  Jasper shook her head.

  Jeb pulled a chair across the floor, and it shrieked in protest as it scraped the floor. He twirled it around and sat in it backward. “Tell me.”

  The air left her lungs, and she whispered the truth for the first time since their Commander had discovered what she was capable of, since that day when she had leapt into the locator sphere.

  “Mist,” she answered.

  Jeb put a fist over his mouth to stifle a noise.

  They were in such trouble. Not he… but a partner that could jump through mist particles? His eyes couldn’t even track something so small because of their sheer diminutive size. It did not bode well.

  She leapt by intuition. Somehow, she knew it reflected and could jump into the body of the mist? Unheard of.

  And she was female besides.

  Who is Beth Jasper, and what is her purpose?

  She looked at him with guarded hope, and the look he returned was everything he felt—dislike.

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  Copyright

  ALPHA BLOOD

  A Blood Series Novel

  Book 9

  New York Times BESTSELLING AUTHOR

  TAMARA ROSE BLODGETT

  All Rights Reserved.

  Copyright © 2019 Tamara Rose Blodgett

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  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.

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  Acknowledgments

  I published both The Druid and Death Series in 2011 with the encouragement of my husband and continued because of you, my Reader. Your faithfulness through comments, suggestions, spreading the word, and ultimately purchasing my work with your hard-earned money gave me the incentive, means, and inspiration to continue.

  There are no words that are sufficiently adequate to express my thankfulness for your support.

  I truly feel connected to my readers. It is obvious to me, but I’ll say the words anyway for clarity: a written work is just words on pages if they are not read by my readers. As I write this, I get a lump in my throat; your enjoyment of my work affects me that deeply.

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  About the Author

  www.TamaraRoseBlodgett.com

  Tamara Rose Blodg
ett: happily married mother of four sons. Dark fiction writer. Reader. Dreamer. Home restoration slave. Tie-dye zealot. Coffee addict. Digs music.

  She is also the New York Times Bestselling author of A Terrible Love, written under the pen name Marata Eros, and over one hundred other titles, including the #1 international bestselling erotic Interracial/African-American TOKEN serial and her #1 bestselling Amazon Dark Fantasy novel, Death Whispers. Tamara writes a variety of dark fiction in the genres of erotica, fantasy, horror, romance, sci-fi, and suspense. She lives in the Midwest with her family and three disrespectful dogs.

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  CONTENTS

  VIP LIST

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THRITY-ONE

  Prologue

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  Books by the Author

  Copyright

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author