The Blood Bundle, Books 1-2: Blood Singers and Blood Song (New Adult Paranormal Vampire/Shifter Romance) (21 page)

“So now you've got a colossal headache and
you're so thirsty you could die, right?”

“Yes,” Julia nodded, her thirst roaring back to
life at the mention of it.

“You can borrow those as long as ya want and
I've got water.” From behind her back she brought a water bottle.
She gave it to Julia who uncapped it and started to chug it
down.

“Whoa, pony. No gulping. My brother'll have my
ass if you start doing the psychedelic yawn all over the
place.”

Julia gave her wide eyes. Brother, personality
squared on this girl.

Adriana chuckled, mimicking what must be her
brother, “I need you to be as disarming as possible, Adriana. Do
not do your normal...” she mimed choking herself and went on in his
presumed voice, “energetic behavior. The Rare One needs time to
transition...”

“Blah, effing blah.” She whipped her palm around
dismissively. “You'll be fine, right?”

Was there another option?

Adriana stared at Julia, taking in her attire,
the wild hair, God knows what else.

“Huh. Well... let's get you cleaned up, ya look
like ass.”

Definitely like Cyn.

Tell me how you really feel
, Julia
thought, following Adriana as she pushed open the adjacent bathroom
door.

*

Were

Lawrence, Tony and Joseph were in a heated
debate. As usual, Tony was the one questioning each decision.

“I took the Rare One down, she was escaping!”
Tony said, his teeth barred in his human form, the wolf peeking out
around the edges.

Well goddamn...
bring it
, Joseph thought
as the muscles of his neck and shoulders corded and bunched in
response to the subtle posturing.

“Enough!” Lawrence roared. The Packmaster's face
was etched with grim lines of fury.

He took in the Alpha and his first, seconds
passing. The moment swelled awkwardly, a palpable pressure
building, on the verge of bursting. He broke it, “Save it for the
ritual. That is the time to fight for the Rare One. Right now,” he
swung his direct look to Joseph, tense with the fighting instinct,
“your sister is with Julia Caldwell?”

Joseph gave a terse nod, thinking of all that
could mean. His sister was... willful.

Tony grunted.

They looked at him and he threw his muscular
arms up in the air. “She is not the best at being
welcoming
.
She is the most Alpha of all the females.” He had a look on his
face like,
clearly she is the least mild choice
.

“But, she is female. That is what the Singer
needs, reassurances. Another female will bring her a measure of
comfort,” Lawrence said.

Joseph winced. He wasn't sure if Maggie wouldn't
have been a better choice. Too late now. Adriana had roared in
there like a flaming inferno, singeing everything in her path. He
shook his head.

Lawrence shrugged, looking at the two men. “She
will not intimidate. That is what the goal is here.”

“She will still hold us responsible because of
the dead Singer,” Tony clarified.

Lawrence palmed his chin, thinking. “She may
hold us to blame, if our soldier had not attacked her mate.” He
nodded, continuing. “But much time has passed. Perhaps her love for
him fades.” He shrugged. “It does not matter. She is here now, she
has not been claimed by the vampire.”

Tony and Joseph exhaled sighs of relief. That
would have been an unbreakable bond, her relationship with a
vampire, negating her abilities to assist them. It had been a near
thing. The entire pack knew it.

Lawrence looked from one to the other of them.
“She has one month. Even now I smell her readiness. Her
becoming...”

They nodded. Her presence was at once exciting
and unbearable. He didn't know what it had been like for the blood
drinkers but she was a heady thing amongst the pack.

“Yes, Packmaster,” Joseph said and Tony chorused
the goodbye simultaneously.

They walked away together, their shoulders
touching. Soon, it would be fists in the ring. A fight between them
and others bringing the den closer to the reality of a moonless
tide.

A lone howl broke the stillness of the woods
where the den thrived. Joseph and Tony gave a wary look at each
other, looking in the direction of the call. They looked away,
neither commenting on the sound.

Its origin.

The call of the feral.

*

William

A handful of days gone and William felt himself
again, sparring with some of the other runners. The ones lost in
the battle with the Were a void in the ranks that would not be
easily replaced. Especially Pierce. He had been a true warrior,
responsible for the deaths of two during the siege that ripped
Julia from their hands.

He lunged forward, with both hands meeting in a
destructive vee toward the vampire runner who grappled with him. He
was met with impervious resistance as their arms collided like
flesh-encased steel, the smack of the hit resounding in the
acoustics of the underground. The brick and mortar of the cavernous
accommodations echoed hollowly in the space.

Vampires did not breathe but one breath to a
human's four. That was not the case when fighting. Both runner's
actions and speed a blur of muted color as they swung at each other
underneath the ambient glow of the skylights that acted as a
fractured ceiling of light. The humans that walked the surface
lived unaware of the predators that fought below.

“Again!” William shouted as the runner tried to
beg off another round. William lost his temper, grabbing his
comrade around the throat and jerking him against him, his fists
like clamps of unbreakable titanium, buried in the folds of the
shirt he wore, tearing it as he pulled.

Suddenly, Gabriel was there and William
straightened. He turned to the runner, “Go.”

He went.

Gabriel looked at William, chest heaving, his
fist clenched like battle ready hammers. “Enough, beating your
fellow runners into the ground will not return her to you.” His
eyes searched William’s and he began pacing, the shadowed feet of
the humans walking above them throwing speckles of darkness over
his face as he moved.

Gabriel stared at William, his expression half
in shadow. He glanced upward at the skylight where the humans
walked all day and sighed. He knew what the loss of Julia meant to
the kiss. He could not imagine what the loss meant when love was
twisted inside it.

“I understand the loss of Julia... may be
more...”

“You do not,” William said on a hiss, his hand
planted on his hips, his breathing finally settling into the normal
rhythms of his kind. “You cannot. I waited for her. I was patient,”
he seethed. “And now this!” William threw up his hand. “She is with
the dogs now. Being subjected to...” William’s expression was
thunder contained.

Gabriel strode to William until their chests
almost touched. “We
will
reclaim her.”

“When?” William asked, his brows falling like a
brick over his eyes.

“Before the moon comes full again.”

They both understood the significance of the
moon's cycle.

The dogs would try for her. The ritual coming
full circle. There would be no choice for Julia in their world. It
was the Alpha that would be her mate. Whatever one killed the
other. It was their way.

Uncivilized mongrels.

*

the Feral

The meat appeared again like clockwork, his
tortured mind dismissing its grief for the greater need of
sustenance. He leaped forward just as the arm retracted through the
hole. The only light and air in the place where they kept him.

He growled low in his throat. Talons leapt
free of his fingertips and he plunged them into the prey that
squirmed on the end of his talons, sharp as finely-honed razors. He
cut its throat with his dominant left hand and caught the lifeblood
as it sprayed from the death slice. When its life hung from a
string, he sliced the body open, neck to crotch, the steaming
entrails his next feast.

He fed.

Satisfied, he flung the corpse in the pile
in the corner of the metal room he was kept in.

The food settled and began to work its magic
on his body, his senses springing to life, his sense of smell the
most keen of all.

A dim memory was upon him and he felt
compelled to move. He did, dropping to the ground he reversed his
wolf into his human form again. His hands bit the ground and he
allowed his body to assume a plank-like position. He raised and
lowered himself until he lost count and the rivulets of sweat ran
off his face and pooled beneath him.

When the female returned to collect his dead
meals, their eyes met and she looked away. He was above her. Even
he understood that. She was behind a partition that was clear.

His mind knew somewhere from Before that it
was called acrylic. At two feet thick, even he could not overcome
its strength.

He was very strong now. He smelled the fear
on the female through the holes that were drilled like Swiss cheese
in the clear wall.

When he lifted his nose to scent her, he
smelled another scent, very faint.

It caused the wolf that rippled underneath
his human flesh to roar to the surface in a grinding purge that
blew his body apart, skin and tendons tearing in a sickeningly
painful mesh of wolf and human flesh.

His half form emerged, seven feet tall and
covered with a deep wine-colored coat of fur. In the light of day
it would have looked like the sun set on his back.

He howled, the scent of the female was one
he knew.

He despaired.

He rushed the partition, his talons scraping
the acrylic where deep grooves appeared like quartz scars on its
surface.

The female backed away, running outside the
door and closing the bolt that barred entry.

And escape.

The werewolf howled and bayed until his
voice box no longer cooperated.

The female covered her ears and ran away,
hot tears beating a burning trail down a face that held but one
expression.

Shame.

Julia undressed and stepped into the shower, the
hot spray hitting her body, the aches lessened but the headache
remained.

There was absolutely no peace as Adriana kept
talking while she bathed. Thank God for opaque glass.

“You're probably wonderin' why I can't be
somewhere else while you're de-scuzzing.”

Actually, Julia totally was.

“Gotta keep an eye on ya. The boys are all
frothing at the mouth about you escaping. Like that's even remotely
possible. Duh.” Julia could feel Adriana rolling her eyes.

Julia rinsed her hair and body off, eyeing the
razor. She'd love to do a full groom. Now wasn't the time though.
How could she even give a crap about shaving when a pack of
werewolves were sniffing around? Julia guessed that she was getting
used to her strange life as normal.

It made her want to cry again.

Just as she thought she might lose it, a skinny
arm stuck a towel through the shower curtain.

“For your hair,” Adriana said.

Huh.

Julia wrapped her head in the towel and stepped
out.

Naked.

Adriana tossed a second towel in her hand and
walked to the vanity, busying herself with getting the necessities
out: toothbrush, paste, floss, comb...

Julia patted dry and wrapped herself in a towel
that had been washed with the same detergent Aunt Lily used and
Julia bit the inside of her lip to keep from crying again, the
taste of copper filling her mouth.

She widened her eyes to keep the tears from
falling.

Adriana turned with a grin. It dropped like a
sack of stones when she saw Julia's expression. “You're not gonna
start bawling or something? Like, right now? 'Cuz, I'm not equipped
for female sniveling.”

That stopped Julia's tears and made a grin
appear despite herself.

“Good, you had me worried.”

Julia said, “You don't seem very...”

“Were-wolfy?” Adriana asked with a sarcastic
lilt to her voice.

Julia nodded. “Yeah, that.”

“Well, what didya expect anyway? All shaggy
mutts howling at the moon or some shit like that?” Her hand pegged
her hip, eyebrows to her hairline, ready to fight.

She was hell on wheels
Julia thought
helplessly. “I didn't know... I just woke up,” she shrugged. It was
impossible to explain.

Adriana smiled. “It's okay, you'll get used to
me. It's the boys you'll have to keep an eye on. You're like their
bitch in heat.”

So subtle too
, Julia thought. Hell.

Adriana saw her expression. “Nah, it's not that
bad. Can't you feel her?”

“Feel who?”

“The moon, silly. She's not full. You're safe
till then.” Her eyes became warm, the brown fading to a molten
chocolate and Julia saw the wolf she was underneath her human
flesh.

It was disconcerting as hell.

She knew she shouldn't ask.

Julia did anyway. “Ah... what happens then?”

“Nothing special. My brother and a bunch of
other wolves will fight to the death to mate with you.”

Julia's hand flung out and grabbed the vanity to
steady her sudden vertigo, the other hand clamped onto the knotted
towel at her breast.

“Are ya okay?”

No. She was definitely not okay
, she
thought, starting a slow stagger that led to her falling.

The wisp of a werewolf caught her and looked
down on her with a flicker of compassion. Just as Julia was sucked
under into unconsciousness she said, “We're gonna have to toughen
you up.”

Julia's eyes fluttered closed and she slept.

Dreamlessly and deep.

*

Were

They looked down at Julia as she slept. New
jammie bottoms replaced the others, now dirty.