Blood at Stake (Warriors of the Krieger Book 2) (11 page)

The first one was older, probably in his
fifties, bald and a little pudgy. He grinned slowly and said, “Hey,
Jerry! We got us a vampire! Bring me the vial.” He reached for me,
and even in my weakened state, I hissed in warning, the predator in
me poised ready to fight.

The one named Jerry ran up looking downright
pissed off. “Dammit, Dad! You gotta get ‘em in the heart.” Jerry
was about twenty years younger than his father and resembled him
perfectly. Except, Jerry still had his own hair and his was brown.
Both of them had eyes the color of dark chocolate. Each one was
dressed in black cargo pants and black cotton shirts.

“
We need her blood,” the father yelled at
his son. “They said they needed her vampire blood.”

I screamed, “B...bastard.” It was hard to
breathe. The jackass turned and staked me again, but this time in
the shoulder. The burning from the wood impaled in my body caused
me to stumble, and I fell to the ground, hoping they’d get within a
few inches of my teeth.

They stood over me for several minutes,
judging my ability to attack them. Or, shall I say, my
in
ability!

Lights suddenly turned the corner, and a
vehicle I recognized screeched to a halt. Meadow – our waitress who
was just learning her talents into seeing the future – jumped out
of her car and ran straight for me. “Run!” I screamed, but it came
out more garbled than a demand.

Both Jerry and his father scrambled to
gather their things, making fast time getting into their old, brown
pickup truck. As I tried to right myself, my weakened body
collapsed in a heap on the ground. My beautiful dress was ruined.
The bastards laughed loudly as they drove out of sight.

“Son of a bitch,” I snarled, fisting my
hands tight. What I saw was through her eyes and as if I were Lydia
during that point in time. It was strange being in her mind during
a past event. Her talent was powerful and thankfully effective in
helping find these men.

“It’s okay,” Lydia said, stroking my jaw
with her tiny hands. “It’s over, Ashby.”

“I’ll kill them,” I promised, my sight
turning red.

Lydia started to stand, but stumbled. I
scooped her up into my arms and carried her out of the office. I
knew she was exhausted, because she didn’t even complain about me
not letting her walk.

Back at the mansion, I let her take blood
from me to strengthen her. I made a vow right then and there. No
human would hurt another of our kind again and take their blood. It
had to end.

Chapter 13

Lydia

The club fell silent, the only sound was the
music thumping through the speakers. I turned from my perch at the
East Bar and gasped aloud, “
Charity!
”

My child and best friend ran toward me, her
arms open wide. We embraced as if we hadn’t seen each other in a
decade.

“Oh, I missed you,” she smiled, pulling back
to look me over. Her immediate frown told me she had been
worried.

“I’m fine,” I promised. “You can’t get rid
of me that easily.”

“Um,” she froze, staring at my face. “What
happened to your eyes? Is there something you need to tell me?”

“I’m mated,” I announced proudly.

“With Ashby?” she smiled.

“Come to the office so I can tell you all
about it.” I laughed when she tossed her blonde hair over her
shoulder and took my hand. I chuckled again when I heard her
mumble, “
Thank God it wasn’t Walter
.”

When I turned, all three of her personal
guards froze when they saw my eyes for the first time. I gasped
when they slammed their fists over their hearts and dropped to one
knee, “My lady.”

“Ugh,” I grimaced. “Get up! You know I’m
going to hate this!”

“It’s tradition,” Charity giggled.

“Come on,” I growled, not liking this
formality crap.

Charity’s guards, Brock, William and Adam,
the hybrid werewolf/vampire, followed us down the hallway to the
office. The men were assigned to her protection when Dragus was at
work or otherwise unable to be at her side.

“Oh, no,” I held out my hands. “Girl talk!
You stay away.”

Adam looked as if he wanted to say
something, but from the glare I gave him, he thought better of it.
We rolled our eyes and allowed Brock to do a sweep of the office to
make sure there were no bad guys hiding in the filing cabinet or
anything.

“Geez,” I said, once the men were shut out
in the hallway. “I didn’t miss them hanging around.”

“Okay,” she said. “Talk!”

“Well,” I began. “Ashby and I had one night
of really amazing sex, and when I rose the next evening, we were
mated.” Charity opened her mouth to say something, but closed it
quickly and frowned. “I know it’s a lot to take in. Obviously, the
gods wanted this Charity. It’s strange and I’m just getting used to
it myself.”

“This
is
strange,” she continued to
frown. “Are you…happy?”

“I really don’t know what to think,” I
sighed. “It happened so
fast
.”

Charity came around the desk, and I stood
up. We hugged for what seemed like forever. The knot in my throat
constricted, and I took a shaky breath. She smelled like sweet
roses and home. I’d missed her so much over the past couple of
weeks.

“Talk to me,” she demanded. I looked into
her eyes that matched my own and smiled weakly.

“I don’t know what to think,” I said,
repeating my early statement. The prick in the back of my eyes was
getting stronger. I didn’t want to cry, but I had a feeling it was
going to happen.

“You’ve already said that,” she whispered,
our arms were still wrapped around each other. Charity pushed the
hair out of my face and closed her eyes with a heavy sigh when she
saw my eyes welling up with tears. “It’s just you and me in here,
Lydia. You can let go now.”

With her words, I let the tears fall.
However, they didn’t fall…they exploded out of my eyes. Bloody
water trailed down my face, and I blubbered all of the thoughts I’d
been too worried to speak aloud.

“I…like him, but I…I don’t know him. He’s
sexy and frustrating and protective and caring and…and…oh, Charity!
I don’t know what’s happening to me, to
us
! I agreed to move
in with him at the estate, because of my safety as a mate of the
Krieger
. Stupid humans are after my blood, and I don’t know
why! I’ve been shot, staked and woke up as a mate to a warrior. All
in a matter of
days
, Charity!
Days
! Not weeks, or
months, like it’s supposed to be!”

“Oh, Lydia,” she cried along with me. “Do
you want me to take you away? You know, you can leave and get some
distance. It’s the only way to break the mating, but it will be
painful.”

“I know,” I sniffled. It was possible and
could be done, but if you found yourself mated there was a way to
get away from it. The rumor was that the pain of distance would
have you begging for death. That was for a regular mating, between
two mates. How bad would it be to try and break a mating with a
warrior? Would Ashby go insane? Would I? “I like him, and I really
want to try to see where this goes.”

“Do you think you can love him?” she asked.
Now
there
was the question I had been holding in the back of
my mind.

“Honestly?” I looked at my best friend, my
child. She stood there waiting on the answer I didn’t want to
reveal, but if I had to reveal it to anyone, it would be her.

“Yes, Lydia. Honestly? Do you think you can
love him?” She tucked a stray lock of hair over my ear and waited
for me to answer.

“I think…I think I already do,” I cried.

“You have to tell him,” she said, wiping
away my bloody tears.

“I know,” I said, reaching for another
tissue from the box on my desk.

We screamed as the office door smashed in
with an explosion of two very pissed off and extremely large
warrior males…our mates. Dragus and Ashby rushed to our sides,
their hands cupping our faces. “What’s wrong?” they asked in
unison.

“Nothing,” we replied, laughing shakily as
we wiped the remaining tears from our faces.

“We felt you,” Dragus said, his Romanian
accent thick as he checked over his mate.

“Baby,” Ashby said, holding me tight to his
chest and breathing out a heavy sigh of relief. “Talk to me.”

“We were just talking,” I said, wiping
frantically at more bloody tears.

“Yeah, girl stuff,” Charity shrugged, giving
Dragus her sweet, perfect smile that I knew melted him in those
heavy, black boots he wore.

Ashby rubbed his fist over his heart and
swore under his breath, before slumping down into my office chair,
pulling me as he went. “You scared the hell out of me.”

“This mate stuff is weird,” Charity rolled
her eyes. “In Hawaii, I was startled by a spider, and Dragus came
into the living room with weapons drawn for battle, just from
feeling my panic for half of a second.”

“It gets stronger,” Dragus admitted, giving
Ashby a knowing look. “The bond. It’s like we are one, and I felt
Charity’s panic. It scared a hundred years off of my life.”

“You’re a vampire, Dragus. You can’t scare
years off of your life,” Charity scoffed, rolling her eyes and
handing me several tissues to wipe my face. “You can go now. We are
okay.”

“Why don’t you come home?” Ashby asked,
softly.

“I need to work,” I said, pointing to a
stack of paperwork.

“Dragus and I have to run to Valencia County
to pick up some new warriors that will be starting the training
program. I don’t want you to be alone,” he said, kissing my
temple.

“I’ll be fine,” I promised. “I’ll need a
ride home, though.”

“I can have Adam or Brock swing by whenever
you are ready,” Charity offered. “I’m heading home for the night to
finish unpacking.”

“If you don’t mind?” I smiled. “I don’t have
my car.”

Dragus and Charity left the office to give
us some privacy, after promising to send someone to drive me home.
Ashby buried his face deep in my auburn curls and inhaled my
scent.

“I’ve never been so scared in my life. I
felt
you. It hurt my chest.” He followed the statement up by
pulling my hand to the center of his chest, just to the right of
his heart. I rubbed the spot softly until a soft rumble vibrated my
fingers. He liked when I touched him.

“It makes me feel better knowing you’d feel
me if I was ever hurt or in danger,” I admitted.

“I’ll always save you,” he promised, cupping
my face. “I’ll always protect you.” His hand was so large that my
head felt like a doll’s in his palm.

“I know,” I whispered.

“Let Adam or Brock pick you up and take you
back to the estate,” he said, kissing me softly. “I’ll be home an
hour before sunrise.”

“Okay,” I smiled. “Be careful and come home
to me.”

“Always,” he promised, and after a lingering
kiss, walked out the door.

Charity had me admitting that I was in love
with him, but I wanted him to say it first. I wanted the big
warrior to confess his love. I knew he already cared for me by his
actions. The fact that he didn’t send me away to break the mating
bond had to count for something. Right?

Most of the night, I sat in my office and
worked on the necessary things that needed to be done. Jackson
brought me a drink halfway through the night and even the blood and
wine mixture didn’t settle my nerves.

I cleaned up my desk and turned off the
lights on my way out to the main club. The doors were already
locked. Jackson was helping sweep the floors and security was there
to walk the females out to their vehicles. I sent a quick text to
Charity asking that she send someone to pick me up at the back of
the building.

I left Jackson to lock up and stepped
outside to wait for my ride. The weather was nice, there was no
wind and the stillness of the night ended up being my worst
enemy.

Because I didn’t scent the humans who were
there to take me. A prick of pain hit my neck, and I reached back
to grab at whatever it was. My fingers touched something cold and
hard. A dart? An involuntary hiss escaped my lips as I felt a
numbing sensation spread throughout my body.

“Damn!” I spun and tried to run, but the
sedative rushed through my system at an alarming speed. I fell to
one knee, my vision blurred and I saw them coming for me. Three men
in camouflaged clothing, dark paint on their faces, and black caps
on their heads raced forward as my body collapsed onto the pavement
below me.

Chapter 14

Ashby

Four recruits piled into the back of the
Krieger
SUV as we were ready to head back to Port Royal.
Dragus was satisfied with the new men. Each of them were at
different levels in their training.

Zin, a tall, bulky warrior with a Native
American background, was soft spoken and didn’t talk much other
than when he was asked a direct question. He was the newest of the
recruits and would be starting his first training session next
week.

Dante honestly worried me. My senses picked
up that he was dangerous, but I had to trust him being as he was a
fully trained
Krieger
and would be heading up the new
classes at the estate in Port Royal. Something about him made me
uneasy. His dark brown eyes and even darker hair left his
expression unreadable. The male was almost as large as Dragus and
that was saying something.

Kale was a blonde warrior with too many
muscles. He had just graduated, and along with Dante, he would be
an instructor here in Port Royal. From the slight uplift to the
corner of his lip, I assumed he felt more at home by playing pranks
on his fellow warriors. Dragus would most likely kick his ass
before the end of next week. He had a playful British accent, and I
noticed how the women servants drifted in his direction. His hair
was the same blonde color as my own, but long enough that he kept
it tied at the nape of his neck, and his eyes were such a dark
blue, they almost looked black.