Blood Kin

“I owe you life debt, Keira Kelly.”

The formality of Daffyd’s words chilled me.

“And if I refuse?” The words spilled out before I could censor them.

“I cannot accept your refusal,” he said so quietly that I wasn’t sure even Tucker heard. “You hold my debt and I must serve you.”

“Daffyd, I can’t—” I shut my eyes and crossed my arms across my chest, ignoring his outstretched hands. I knew what I was supposed to do. I’d seen it countless times in my mother’s cousin’s court: A debt acknowledgment required I take Daffyd’s hands and accept his offering.

I tried to make sure the words came out right. “Cousin, I acknowledge the debt and grant you freedom. You may return to your home, to Wales.”

Daffyd got a very distinctly amused look on his face. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought he was smirking at me.

“My liege,” he said and sank to one knee. “I thank you for my freedom and I choose to stay.” He bowed his head, his long silver hair parting to bare the nape of his neck, the locks on either side of his face brushing the tile floor.

He’d bared his neck. I didn’t know if this was a Sidhe thing, but it was definitely a wolf thing and a Clan thing. When pledging service to one’s liege, the bared neck signified submission and acknowledgment of the other’s dominance.

“Damn it, Daffyd.” I pulled on his hands and he stood, a smile still dancing around his mouth and eyes. “You played me.”

Blood Kin
is also available as an eBook

Turn the page for rave reviews of Maria Lima …

Praise for Maria Lima’s Blood Lines series

Blood BargaIn

“Maria Lima captures the essence of urban fantasy, mystery, and romantic elements in
Blood Bargain
.”

—SF Site

“Part of what makes this series so interesting is that Lima uses well-known tropes of the fantasy genre, yet gives them enough of a spin to make them recognizable to readers but keep them wondering if things will play out as expected.”

—SFRevu

“Urban fantasy fans are going to love this—especially the Kelly clan, an extended family of supernaturals living within human society…. A strong tale that fans of Kelly Armstrong and Kim Harrison will want to read.”

—Worlds of Wonders

“I couldn’t put it down. Maria Lima’s second Blood Lines novel is even better than the first, a fun and sometimes poignant paranormal treat.”

—Fantasy Literature

“Grabs you from the start and keeps you turning pages until you solve the mystery…. I certainly will be watching for more books by Maria Lima.”

—Fresh Fiction

“Ms. Lima spins a suspenseful tale and packs it with paranormal elements that will hold the reader’s attention to the end … fast-moving.”

—Darque Reviews

Matters of the Blood

“An absolutely spectacular addition to the paranormal landscape…. A classy, teasing tale riddled with intrigue and paranormal bliss.”

—BookFetish

“Dark, seductive, and bitingly humorous….”

—Heartstring

“A complex plot with the requisite twists and turns of a mystery, the passion of a paranormal romance, and the unearthly elements of urban fantasy.”

—SF Site

“A great page-turner…. ”

—The Bookshelf Reviews

“An excellent book, readable and gripping with varied characters….”

—Curled Up With a Good Book (5 stars)

“A brilliant tale of supernatural power, revenge, and the excitement of newfound love.”

—Darque Reviews

“Refreshing … I loved the story’s vividly drawn rural-Texas setting.”

—Fantasy Literature (4 stars)

“Another kick-ass heroine enters the paranormal arena in Lima’s bloodthirsty whodunit. Feisty Keira narrates with a biting sense of humor….”

—
Romantic Times
(4 stars)

“A superb paranormal whodunit with a touch of romance and with plenty of interwoven subplots … but the center holding this superb tale together is the likable Keira, who makes the abnormal seem so normal.”

—Alternative Worlds

Don’t miss the first two exciting adventures in the Blood Lines series by Maria Lima!

Matters of the Blood
Blood Bargain

Maria liMa

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Manufactured in the United States of America

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ISBN 978-1-4391-5676-6
ISBN 978-1-4391-6673-4 (ebook)

Third time’s a charm and this time, this book is for
my patient and supportive parents,
Yolanda and Sandy Bodine, neither of whom bear
any resemblance to the parental or other authority
units in this story.

The village continues to grow as the wonderful people around me continue to help.

Merci bien a tous mes amis et mes aides. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

As always and with much love, Carla Coupe, the best beta ever. Without your input, I’m absolutely less.

To my sister, Laura, who lives up to her librarian training and eagle eyes. Thanks for your fabulous support.

To Tanya Kennedy-Luminati, for her insights and suggestions.

Thanks to Pam Thomson and Sylvia Tremblay for all their Canadian input.

Any mistakes about Canada or Vancouver are strictly my bad … please forgive.

To all my family for indulging me on the Vancouver trip and letting me squeeze in research while we were there.

A special thanks to Lillian Butler, who first wrote the line about Texas weather in her blog, and to Amber of Amberkatze’s blog for pointing me in the right direction for Welsh language help.

Kudos to the lovely people of Canada and especially the city of Vancouver and the province of British Columbia. You all could not have been kinder, more helpful, or more amazing. I will state categorically that I fell in love with the city, the province, and the country.

Blood Kin

The Beginning

S
OUNDS OF BELLS
and laughter ride on the wind, punctuating feeling, lifting senses, accenting actions with melody.

I shouldn’t be able to hear it, underground as I am in a place blasted out of limestone, a refuge from all the events of yesterday, from the sun that most assuredly blazes outside.

Whispers of love intertwine with the music, kisses on skin, the touch of hand, lips, a lock of hair sliding across my breast, everything magnified, the intensity so much, so
more.

My own hair cascades down my back. I feel everything: touch, scent, sound, taste, sight merge into one feeling, one being, one—

The music of the air surrounds us, envelops us, makes us part of its completion.

I gasp as we all reach our crescendo—me, my lover and the melody—all together as if choreographed.

It is gone.

I want to weep for the joy of it. I want to weep for the loss of it.

I
SUMMONED A DEMON ONCE
. At least at the time, that’s what I’d thought it was. I could probably chalk up both the summoning and my hesitation about its result to the fact that I’d been drinking and smoking a wee bit—okay, a lot—of something not quite so legal. One thing for sure: the damned beast had smelled rotten, like it’d been rolling in a thousand dead skunks or a few not-so-fresh corpses.

In my world, demons were nothing more than tangible evil.

And right now, evil was about to raise its stinking, uglyass head again—in the form of my former lover, Gideon.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not talking metaphorical he-done-me-wrongness or a badass boy who turned his back on my loving redemption. Gideon was neither the heartbreaking villain of a country-and-western song nor the hero of a romance novel gone amok. No, Gideon was evil. He had chosen the darkside. His power lay in darkness. He could speak to the shadows, call the shades.

I’d been in love with him and trusting and he’d convinced me to drop all my barriers, to open my naive self to him completely so we could truly be “one.” I fell for it like an egg from a tall hen.

When I touched his soul, what I saw and felt inside him scared me so badly I ran from London all the way back to Texas.

But Gideon was also family. Not closely related, but
all Clan were cousins, aunts, uncles, all connected. Clan blood begat Clan blood. He was blood kin.

So when Aunt Isabel showed up declaring she needed my help because Gideon was dying, that I had to leave immediately for the family compound in British Columbia—I knew I had to go.

Of course Gideon wasn’t the only reason I had to skedaddle to Vancouver. I’d also Changed yesterday, and not solely the capital-C Clan Change we all undergo when we come into our true Talent. I had to be special. I’d become the Kelly heir—yeah,
that
one, the one who only came along every so many blah-blah generations, etc. The one who didn’t have only a single Talent, but got the whole supernatural shebang, all the Talents from astromancy to weather witching. Not something I’d ever imagined, nor wanted. Leave it to me, Keira Kelly, to be genetically unique … or maybe a genetic freak.

The previous couple of days had been insane in other ways, too—missing people, the one person I’d found that I could truly be myself with in a coma, my best and oldest human friend nearly raped and murdered …