The Blood Bundle, Books 1-2: Blood Singers and Blood Song (New Adult Paranormal Vampire/Shifter Romance) (62 page)

Scott didn't even like his real mom. She'd
basically been bred to Marcus to produce a potential Combatant.

“That really works for me Jacqueline,” Julia
said and watched her carefully made up face contort in an
expression of surprise. Julia knew that people with evil intent
assumed the same mindset as their own with others. It was comical:
Jacqueline thought that Julia must want the position of power as
much as she. Of course, Jacqueline was dead wrong. “I don't want to
be queen of anything. I don't want to be in some genetic-induced
spell of 'love',” Julia said, dropping her fingers from airquotes
before adding, “There's just one problem.”

Jacqueline's brows rose in her imperious face.
“And what might that be?” As if Julia could not have an independent
or creative thought unless it came from Jacqueline.

Surprise, surprise
, Julia thought with
her usual sarcasm.

“How are you going to be the queen if your own
son is a Combatant?” Julia was thinking that incest angle was out.
Right? Sort of a no-brainer,
Julia
reasoned.

Jacqueline gave her a glare that spoke to how
stupid she presumed Julia to be, “Don't be silly. The blood is
sovereign. Any of the Combatant that are not blood-related would be
a contender for me as King.”

“Then there should be no deliberation. Why do I
have to be Queen if you're so hot for the job?”

Jacqueline smiled. “Because it is not about
choice my dear.”

“What is it then?” Julia asked, exasperated by
her beating around the bush.

“Death,” Jacqueline said, capturing Julia's
gaze, their eyes meeting in a tangle of misunderstanding,
objectives and purpose.

Time stilled, suspended.

Then Julia asked, knowing she shouldn't,
“Whose?”

“Yours,” Jacqueline said, throwing her hand out
of the pocket gracefully, her fingers splaying in a perfect card
toss.

Julia gasped and felt the powder enter her lungs
like frozen ice and slipped into a paralysis, falling like a
statute, the agony of not being able to brace her fall as the
ground gave her body the hardest kiss of her life, knocking the
wind out of her.

Jacqueline bent down next to her ear, the lips
of her mouth a kiss of heat against Julia's skin. “No one can
protect you from this. You will awaken too late... my Queen,” she
said, the title uttered as a mockery.

Julia lay there on the ground, her eyes the only
part of her body that could move, the numbing paralysis of whatever
Jacqueline had thrown at her slowly hardening every part of her
body.

However, Julia had been taught the tools of
survival through hard life experience and she used that now,
shrieking in her mind to any that could hear her mental alert.

The one thought that she had was that however
much she hadn't wanted to fulfill her role as leader, the demented
Jacqueline could not be allowed as a replacement.

Then, as Julia's breathing slowed inside the
confines of her body Jacqueline whispered something that would damn
Julia forever, the memories of what had transpired so long ago,
forever changed.

“Soon you will meet your parents. Where you
should have gone from the beginning. You know what they say about
the best laid plans...” she cackled and with a tender finger she
stroked Julia's cheek, giving it a painful pinch before she walked
away with a pleased sway to her stride.

Abandoning Julia on the forest floor. Vulnerable
to all that would seek her.

They did.

As she lay there, the Northwestern Pack and
Southeastern Kiss closed in on her position.

*

Jen

Jen crammed her hands against her head when she
heard the mental directive.

The time has come, Singer,
William
thought at her.

Jen walked out of the door, dropping what she'd
been working on. Her consciousness fought his command robotically,
even as she used her minor telepathic skills to locate Julia. She
was not powerful like a true Locator would be but she knew Julia's
signature and found her easily enough.

Jen was greeted by the still and snow white form
of Julia. Her lips a pale red, her skin like polished ivory where
golden hair laid around her like spilled honey. As Jen approached
she saw glittering tears falling out of eyes that swam with golden
fire.

With resolve.

Julia was dying.

Jen felt something inside her give, tearing
inside her brain and the thrall was released in an explosive rip
that brought her to her knees. She didn't even bother to get closer
to Julia.

She ran for safety: Julia's.

Jen sprinted for the Combatant.

*

darkness falls

William burst the trap of the earth as twilight
gave way to darkness and the internal grip he had on the Singer
broke from the hysteria she succumbed to upon discovering
Julia.

Even now the song of her blood grew weak and
William raced toward her location.

He did not feel the pain as he Changed in the
middle of his bid to get to her. The call of her blood drove his
actions in an automatic response he was incapable of ignoring or
resisting.

He came to her.

Wait for me,
he intoned, hoping she would
be cognitive enough to catch it.

*

Julia

Oxygen flowed into Julia, the heavy hand of
weight that'd been on her chest like an hippo had landed was
momentarily lifted and she gulped in life-saving air just as in her
periphery, like a dream become real, Cyn appeared.

Julia blinked.

Surely her addled brain played tricks on her?
The substance spun like a deadly web for Julia to breathe her last,
muddling her thoughts.

Her vision.

Julia's purpose was growing dim.

The Were burst out from their position as Jen
ran for the Combatant and Jason let Cyn down from the cage-like
hold he'd had her in to get them to Julia.

Not a damn moment too early,
Jason
saw.

Marcus came from the other direction and they
circled Julia, the Combatant on one side and the Were on the
other.

When a huge raven, concealed by cover of night
flew overhead no one looked up.

No one ever does.

However, Julia saw the wings above her as she
lay on her back and her breathing improved as he neared.

It was William.

She was suffocating a moment before and now she
breathed as Cyn screamed her name.

It was the dream, yet not.

*

Cyn

Cynthia saw the dearest friend she'd ever known
laying in front of her- found. She ran from Jason and the Were that
had taken her, dismissing the group of people who stood on the
opposite side of where Julia lay and slid as she got close to
Julia, wrecking her pants forever, Jules' fugly boots giving her
added traction as they clung and released the unevenness of the
forest bed.

“Jules,” Cynthia said, eyeing the pale face and
bright gold eyes, so like a cat's and she cried tears of relief,
lifting a cold and limp hand in hers.

What the fuck was wrong with her?
Cynthia
squeaked. Had she found Jules only to lose her?

There was no way in hell,
Cynthia decided easily.

Cynthia looked away from Jules and searched the
crowd of weirdos, her gaze finally locking on Jason.

“Well what are you dipshits waiting for? The
second coming? Get over here and Fix. My. Friend!” Cynthia yelled
at them, her eyes shooting daggers.

“I like her,” Michael said and Scott took a
swing at him. “You stupid asshole,” Scott seethed as he strode out
of the line of Combatants, “It's because of you that she's like
this.”

Michael looked up from where he'd landed on his
ass and shook his head. “Nah, you guys needed to sing in your own
shit. Besides, I think it was Mommie Dearest that rode this thing
home. Right, Victor?”

Victor gave a look of contained terror as the
eyes of the nine other Combatant landed on his.

“Where is Jacqueline?” Marcus asked quietly,
keeping the small but lethal group of Were in his sights.

“I am here,” Jacqueline said in a ringing voice,
filled with her own self-importance.

Julia gave a low moan and Cynthia heard it. They
stared at each other for a moment and Cynthia frowned, a low hum
starting near her sternum. As if under a compulsion she did not
understand Cynthia got closer to Jules and took both her hands.

Heat poured out of her as soon as she made
contact with more than just a handshake, both her hands gripped
around Julia's.

William landed near the women, giving a single
caw that could be felt in the chests of all that stood.

Calling the other vampire like a dinner
bell.

Jason felt his skin slip and his wolf burst free
when the raven landed a few feet from Cyn and Jules.

He ripped forward, his claws digging into the
earth and spitting dirt as he ran for the women, a bird the size of
a small pony edging closer.

When its crimson eyes glanced at Jason, he
knew.

This was the vampire.

He ran faster.

The raven reached Julia and laid a wing against
her head as the wolf pulled her limp body against his.

The three pressed the Queen against their
bodies. The goal of the trio identical, called by blood, by
friendship.

By love.

Jacqueline was the first to realize what it
meant and that her plan had backfired miserably.

That destiny could not be denied. That it would
reassert itself despite the efforts of the vigilant. The
greedy.

With a last effort at subterfuge she screamed,
aiming ruthlessly at the Combatant, “They're killing her!”

As Scott reached forward to wrest the raven
away, the wings melted into arms and he got a handful of air.

Cynthia Awakened instantly, forcefully; the
Queen's blood igniting hers in a panicked wildfire like tumbleweeds
used as kindling.

Cynthia gasped and didn't question the unspoken
request of her body. She knew what she was.

Cynthia knew what she must do.

She squeezed Jules' hands tighter.

healer

Cynthia felt everyone melt away as tingling heat
filled her body and poured out in a perfect channel of electric
fire that surged from her hands to Jules'.

Jules was siphoning her energy as fast as
Cynthia could make it and she watched it bow her back, Julia's long
golden hair illuminated from an internal light that shone as the
two women were locked together in a harmony of healing.

Marcus approached, then with a look behind him
at the Combatant two stepped forward and captured Jacqueline's
spindly arms. “Let me go!” she screeched.

“No,” one of the warriors growled next to her
ear, his massive hand encircling the entirety of her upper arm.

Marcus gave a low grunt of satisfaction and the
next words on his lips were, “By blood they shall save the Queen.
By will they shall free her. One of blooded fang and wing, claw,
and the hands of Healing: so shall she be freed.”

William glanced sharply at the Singer Elder and
then looked down at Julia. Finally, his eyes met those of the
wolf's, the green orbs held emotion they should not have possessed.
Deliberation not found in nature but in humanity.

Julia's husband by human laws cradled her head
and making the hardest decision of his life he lowered his snout to
her shoulder as William's fangs elongated in readiness.

They struck simultaneously: the Were and vampire
taking what had been given in error, the Healer neutralizing the
damage as it was laid.

When the Combatant whose blood was called
strongest laid his hands on the Queen of Singers, light burst from
the huddle of supernaturals, casting a brightness like the sun that
none could look upon.

Every being save one threw an arm over their
eyes against the glare.

Julia's Awakening culminated in that moment:
healed, freed from her blood-binding as she became fully Singer and
Queen in a rushing torrent of magic and power, bringing every
nearby living creature to their knees.

Jacqueline had easily escaped with the
distraction of the three and was well out of range by that time and
sought cover. She was unaffected by the supernatural phenomena that
was foretold hundreds of years earlier in the sacred book of the
Singer, just out of range. She had tried to circumvent prophesy and
failed.

*

Queen

The Circle of the Combatant closed in an
ear-shattering pop of power and light, the Singer warriors
immediately coming to stand near Julia.

Jason, William and Cynthia fell away and a huge
hand opened next to Julia. She looked at it and smiled, sliding her
small hand into his large one and stood. Her Awakening had brought
Julia full circle, her role clear.

And with whom she would share it.

The fissure that had started in Jason's heart
opened wider, a chasm causing it to break as Julia stepped into the
circle of another man's arms.

William stood as Julia's true mate took
possession of her, dwarfing her by his size, his manner staking a
claim that no words could have done.

He gnashed his fangs as they retracted and the
sounds of Jason's howl reverberated in the ears of the
gathered.

Cynthia wiped the chilling sweat off her brow
and gazed at the couple in the moonlight, perfectly compelling in
their rightness together, one dark, one golden and a tear slid down
her cheek as she watched Jules slip away into parts unknown.

Had she come all this distance only to lose the
best friend she'd ever had?

Scott held Julia's jaw like a fragile egg and
saw the acceptance he'd been wishing for there in her eyes.