New Blood (The Blood Saga Book 2) (4 page)

“You called them? I don’t remember
that.” Biting down on my bottom lip, I looked over to him, strangely nervous.

Even though the clothes were simple
enough, there were still a bit more extravagant than I was used to. He didn’t
answer my actual question. “You look good enough to eat,” Damien spoke with a
slow wicked grin twisting his lips into a smirk.

“You already did that,” I shot back
with a twisted smile.

“Once is never enough.” Holding his
hand out for mine, we walked casually out of the room and down the stairs hand
in hand.

As we walked, I felt a strange
tingling at the back of my neck. My grip on Damien’s hand became tight. His
muscles flexed defensively in response from my nervousness as he looked to
follow my eyes. He whispered only low enough for me to hear. I hoped. “No
worries. That’s Hendrick. And to his left is Phoenix. They’re my brothers, Anna,
and now they’re yours as well.”

Hendrick stood over seven feet
tall, maybe closer to eight actually. His shoulders were similar to that of a
bull. All eyes were on me. He gave me a soft nod. For the moment, he stayed
quiet as he notably read the anxiety in my electric eyes.

Hendrick was burly with a hard square
jaw. Skin the richest shade of mocha. Deep-set dark chocolate eyes made his
features much warmer. Thick lips were the same shade as his eyes. His head was
completely shaved. Hendrick tried to look kindly at me, almost apologetic. Maybe
he could read minds, too.
Great just what I needed, another mind reader.
Sorry Damien.

Damien held back the laughter but
his shoulders gave him away with a slight shake as his lips tugged into a
smirk. “He’s not like me. Just incredibly observant. Never underestimate
Hendrick. Believe me, he tends to surprise us all.” My eyes forced to pull away
from Hendrick, scanning to Phoenix.

Dangerous. He looked like a friend
of Death’s. Phoenix’s muscles were absolutely ripped. The shirt was tight
enough to tell. Not to mention he was thin and very tall. He must have been a
couple of inches over Damien. I knew this even though he was sitting.

All of the men seemed to have that
same chiseled build, though Phoenix looked just a little wirier than the others
under the tight long sleeve shirt.

Longer hair cropped recklessly
above his ears, shaggy but spiky, too, and so jet black it could have been
midnight blue. He was paler in color than me, which was saying something at
that moment.

His eyes were larger but slightly
squared rather than almond shaped like Damien’s and the most brilliant
Caribbean blue I had ever seen. Phoenix’s features were harsher than the others,
intensely contrasted. Not pleasant and kind or even showing an attempt at such.
Not loathing either.

Sitting hunched forward on the edge
of a chair as if he was ready to run with his hands interlocked in front of
him, elbows on his knees. As Phoenix looked at me, I could almost feel his
calculating mind brushing against everything. This situation. The atmosphere.
Me. A practiced casual smile placed onto my lips. Riads did teach me that at
least. I could play these games.

My fingers slid from Damien’s as I
stopped on the bottom step, letting him continue solo. He understood. I needed
a minute.

Damien reached a hand out to
Hendrick who responded by wrapping his massive hand around Damien’s. They
appeared to shake hard enough that I wondered if either of them had any
fractures. Phoenix stood as Damien neared him. They, too, shook hands as
Phoenix laid a hand onto Damien’s shoulder. “Welcome back, Damien. I see you
made it home in one piece.” His lips twisted into a half grin. “This time.”

“Phoenix,” he greeted with no more
elaboration, but a smirk exchanged. Both men turned to look at me simultaneously.
Probably not a good sign.

“Or maybe just two pieces,” Phoenix
clearly spoke to Damien alone, though neither looked away from me.

Step three in the
How To Be a
Vampire
handbook. Meeting the family.

It was hard not to wonder just how
much his family already knew. More than me, for certain.
What could Damien
hear from the others that I could not?

Curled into one another Jazabell
and Lara sat together on the love seat. Jezabell pulled from Lara, holding her
hand out to me, beckoning me to join them. Slowly walking to the couch, I sat
on the edge with Phoenix positioned directly across from me. Better to see him
clearly.

“Lianna, darling, I am sure Damien
told you this is Hendrick.” Her hand waved to the monstrous man. “And Phoenix.”
Her hand followed to him adoringly. “Gentlemen, meet our newest arrival, Lianna
Loraine Von.”

Lara reached a hand over to me,
taking mine into hers. Her skin was cool, even to me. Her hands small and
delicate even compared to my own. “Hello, Hendrick, Phoenix.”

“It’s a pleasure at last to meet
you, Lianna,” Hendrick’s voice was just as burly as he was but very warm. The
words didn’t match him, like he was trying too hard. His voice had a texture
that I could feel ripple through the air. It was as if I could physically feel
sounds now. Everything was suddenly so much more definite. It was almost too
distracting.

“Yes, so nice to finally meet the
infamous femme fatale,” Phoenix’s voice dripped in sarcasm, though I couldn’t
fathom why.
Phoenix’s eyes searched mine as if he was looking for
something, but what I couldn’t be sure of. My gaze narrowed cautiously. The
warning tingle deep in my mind was pinging like mad.

“That’s funny, I’ve never heard of
you.” It was not to allude to whatever mysterious perception he wanted to
portray. I was being an asshole. The slightest twitch of his mouth torqued at
the side. “Anna is fine please.” My smile vanished. Suddenly I didn’t feel like
faking that this was all hunky dory,
let’s meet up for tea
meet and
greet.

Damien groaned. His hand suddenly
smacked hard into the back of Phoenix’s head. Phoenix grunted. I couldn’t help
but flinch. Sucking on my bottom lip, my eyes passed over everyone in the room
carefully. Soon I settled on Damien expectantly.

Lara glared at Phoenix, though
Jezabell spoke before anyone else could. “This is hard enough on her right now,”
her voice held a sharp edge that made Phoenix grumble and look to the floor,
grunting what I think was an apology. Suddenly the air felt strange. Thicker
and colder.

Phoenix’s eyes were on me still
though his head was tilted to the floor. I had enough respect, and blatant
self-preservation, to keep from giving him away. Once more, my eyes shot up
looking over everyone. The tension grew even thicker.

“Damien, what’s going on?” I pulled
away from Lara and Jezabell slowly. I felt as tense as a runner poised at the
starting line of the Olympics.

Busted. Damien’s head hung for a
moment of silence before he looked up to me. “Which part do you want to know?” He
was still standing next to Phoenix who had long since settled back to his previous
position on the couch.

“Well, let’s start with everything,
and we’ll go from there.”

Sighing deeply, he looked away from
me for a long moment before turning to face me head on. “There’s some concern
that you’re not dead. You shouldn’t have survived. You didn’t survive it. It’s
not simple being turned from a human into what you are now. Dragon venom is
extremely toxic as it is. It sustains a human body momentarily, as I explained
before. They prefer to feed live. We believe that’s the reason you managed to
change despite everything, but we don’t know for certain. Also, Dragon venom
can have side effects, even on supes.”

That meant Demetrius was going to
eat me alive, lovely. “I sucked Demetrius’ venom out, but you had lost so much
blood already. You were dead for a while before I could bring you over. It
happens, obviously. Though rarely. The outcome is not always-” his voice
drifted.

Lara picked up where he left off, “It
can be a dangerous effect. The Vampire isn’t always normal if they’re entirely
dead beforehand.”

Phoenix coughed, clearing his
throat and looked at me questioningly. “How long?” My back was erect as a steel
bar.

“The main reason we were worried is
we don’t believe you were entirely human to begin with, Lianna,” Jezabell
continued, “The length of time it took to bring you back- Well to be honest it’s
never been heard of before. When you first started your process of turning, and
you were unconscious, Damien called us. He explained everything that had
happened. Including what you did to Demetrius.”

“How long was I dead?” My gaze
remained hard on Damien in wait. The tension continued to build in me like a
volcano ready to blow.

Damien’s gaze left mine. “Two days.
The most we’ve ever heard of was a few hours.”

Considering this, my brows rose. It
hadn’t felt like days. I remembered everything about my death so clearly, too.
Or so I thought. I wondered how it could even be possible. But there is no time
in the thereafter. Even if your soul does stick around in order to come back. “What
is so special about what I did to Demetrius?”

“You shoved a normal piece of glass
from a window through the bottom of his jaw up into the roof of his mouth.
Dragon scales are nearly impenetrable. It saved your life, but no human could
have managed. It wasn’t what you used. Or even the fact that you managed to
distract him. I believe it was your blood. That it had weakened him,” Damien
stared at the fireplace as he spoke now. He wasn’t feeling guilty, he was
remembering it.

“Yes, the
bloodstone
made
him weaker. That’s why I wanted them all to feed from me. I was trying to help
you.” My brows lift as if that should explain everything. In truth, I was very
surprised he hadn’t already figured that out. “Why do you think I pushed them
all to feed from me? For fun? Do you think I enjoyed Liahm ripping into my
chest like that?”

Damien flinched as if my words had hurt
him physically. “It’s not that simple. For them to touch a bloodstone would
burn them instantly. You saw that with me. But it was in your blood. It would
take minutes for the effect to take them over. It’s not instant. Quickly sure,
but not in seconds. And bloodstone or no, you shouldn’t have been able to cut
through his
flesh
. Not the skin of a Dragon, not even a Crossbreed
Dragon.”

Phoenix couldn’t take his eyes off
of me. I couldn’t read his expression. Lara and Jezabell seemed to be watching
a movie for their lack of affliction. Hendrick seemed vastly uncomfortable.

“Damien, you drank my blood before
that night though.” Like in the light of dawn, everything became suddenly quite
clear. “It was
me
, not just the bloodstone and the venom.” It was easy
to pull up the memories. Us lying in his bed in Vermont. Suddenly he had to
leave. He didn’t feel well. My teeth grit together, the skin of my lower lip
caught in the vice.

Standing a statue he stared back at
me. He didn’t speak until he looked away, shaking his head. “We don’t know
that.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Blood
coated my lips turning them dark crimson. My tongue flicked over them wiping it
away quickly enough I hoped futilely no one had noticed. But of course the ever
watching Phoenix had.

“They’re concerned. People that are
not human that turn into Vampires, as well as people that die just before they
are turned, all tend to have complications in this life. That’s all.” My
thirst. He’d said that my appetite was stronger than he’d expected. Damien
looked down at me indirectly. His brows rose before his gaze moved back to the
floor.

My lips curled into a mocking
sneer. “I’m a freak. How little things change.” Hope they forgave the steely
bitterness.

Before anyone else could speak
Phoenix interrupted, “Freak is putting it mildly.” I snapped. Anger tore my
soul in half at the flick of a switch.

Just as quickly as I stood up to
make him take back his stupid words I was across the room in the fireplace on
my back. My face pained and bloody.

Calmly he stood back a few feet,
hands down at his sides. Blood stained his left. Death’s friend after all.

Despite the pain, I bolted up right
again only to smack into the two hard bodies of Hendrick and Damien both. My
hands were shaking. The two held me quite immobile as I quickly evaluated what
had just happened. From the second Phoenix had spoken, until this very moment,
everything was confusing. It was like flashes of the memory were missing. I
couldn’t understand why I was so angry.

Catching my reflection from across
the room in a large mirror, my eyes were glowing electric blue. My head spun
with confusion, my throat burned with hunger. I could feel the fire spreading
through my body as the shadow inside me fought for control.

Eyes blurring over, I could no
longer see straight. Hendrick and Damien’s grip on me got stronger as my lips
curled into a snarl and my knees trembled. Not fear. Anticipation.