Blood at Stake (Warriors of the Krieger Book 2) (15 page)

“That’s what we are checking into with
Doctor Mason,” he growled, low and deep. Quickly, his eyes
flickered toward mine. A silent vow sent between us, “
They will
not get our mates!
” I nodded my agreement, so quickly that no
one else in the room noticed.

“One of the men that took me smelled
different,” Lydia said, she shivered slightly. “His scent was like
a witch, but had this overpowering stench of musk.”

“Do you know his name?” Dragus asked, his
brow furrowed in thought.

“Myles,” she stated, nodding her head. “His
name was Myles.”

“I don’t want you at the club until we find
out who is behind this,” I demanded.

“What?” she growled, a tiny vein of blood
trickled into her eye, but I wasn’t backing down.

“No,” I barked. “And that’s final.”

“You do not tell me what I can and cannot
do,” she gritted out.

“Charity is at the club and will take care
of things there,” Dragus said, his voice as stern as my own. “You
are to stay on the estate grounds, Lydia. It’s the safest place for
you.”

“If Charity’s blood is possibly like mine,
then why is she allowed to go the club and I’m not?” she
growled.

“Charity is being watched, and she has three
guards on her,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. “There are
people hunting
you
, Lydia.”

“But you killed them,” she said, pivoting
around in her chair to glare at me. “There shouldn’t be another
problem.”

“There is,” Dragus said, standing up from
his chair and walking over toward my mate. “We have to leave from
here to go to a crime scene, Lydia. They’ve found another human
drained of blood.”

“Dammit!” She growled, slamming her fists on
the table. I heard a slight crack in the wood, but didn’t bring it
to her attention. “When is this going to end?” I knew her question
was more of a statement, and she wasn’t expecting an answer. Every
fiber of my flesh and bone wanted to tell her everything would be
okay, but I couldn’t.

“I’ll stay home with you,” I whispered,
walking up behind her and placing my hands on her shoulders. “I’ll
take the night off.”

“No,” she whispered, shaking her head. “I
want you to go. I’ll be fine. Besides, the more
Krieger
out
there looking, the faster this will be all over.”

“We will leave in fifteen minutes,” Dragus
announced, motioning for everyone to give us some privacy.

Lydia stood once everyone had vacated the
room. I held my arms open and was thankful when she walked into my
embrace. I held her for a moment, just inhaling her scent and
registering it to memory while I would be gone. My every mating
instinct was to refuse work and to stay home with her, but she was
right, I had to go. I had to find these people who wanted her
blood.

This had to end.

As the SUV pulled away from the estate, I
watched as Harlow walked her back to my home. My chest ached having
to leave her in the hands of someone other than myself, but it had
to be done.

“It gets easier,” Dragus said, his voice
only above a whisper. “You’ll learn to ignore the pulling in your
chest anytime you are away.”

“You don’t sound so sure of what you are
saying, old friend,” I chuckled.

“That’s what I keep telling myself,
Krieger
,” he smiled, shaking his head as he repeated his
words. “That’s what I keep telling myself.”

The two story house was about as nondescript
as a postage stamp. Every home in the neighborhood looked the same,
had the same color brick and even the mailboxes matched with black
iron accents.

Bastian was already inside, talking with
several human authorities, but excused himself to approach us as we
entered the front door of the house. A scent hit my nose, and I
snarled, “What the hell?”

“Easy,” Dragus warned, placing a hand on my
shoulder. The home looked like a drug house. Pizza boxes, beer
cans, and assorted trash were scattered about the room. The stench
of garbage was strong, but didn’t overpower my mate’s blood coming
from a set of stairs.

“I. Will. Not.” I turned in the direction of
a human officer, only to be grabbed by my upper arms. Dragus and
Bastian immediately cursing when they saw my fangs biting into my
lower lip. “It’s my mate’s blood!”

“We had some suspicion it was hers,” Bastian
said. “We needed you here to verify it.”

“I thought we…,” I paused, knowing the
humans were close. “I thought there were no more men there?”

“There had to be one that got away,” Dragus
cursed. “She may have been still drugged when someone was sent away
with some of her blood.”

“I will
end
them,” I snarled, my
vision taking on a red hue.

“Ashby,” Dragus growled. “You need to calm
yourself. If you can’t handle this investigation, I will be forced
to send you to the station.”

“I’m sorry,” I replied, my shoulders
slumping in defeat. He was right, I had to focus on this and not
let it get to me. The last thing I needed was for my beast to make
an appearance in front of humans.

“You two need to make your mating official,”
he said, shaking his head. “But I’m not sure even your
Joining
will calm you.”

“I think we need to lock them in their home
for a year,” Bastian snickered. I raised a brow at his comment, and
he shrugged, turning for the back of the house. I didn’t reply to
his remark and followed them toward the set of stairs leading into
a basement.

The stench of death overpowered my senses as
we found a human female bound to a table in the middle of the room.
There were no windows in the basement, and only an overhead light
illuminated the scene in front of us.

The human female couldn’t have been more
than twenty-five years old. Her eyes were closed, and her face was
relaxed as if she were asleep. There was a blue bucket on the floor
and it was half full of her blood. The congealed remains sat cold
under her slashed wrist.

“They drained her,” a human officer said,
walking into the room wearing a pair of latex gloves and white
protective coverings over his shoes. Quickly, he pulled a cover
over his nose and mouth to protect him from any diseases that might
be floating around in the air. Our team didn’t require any of those
since we were immune to anything the human may spread.

“Where is the vampire blood you found?”
Dragus asked. I jerked my gaze from the dead human to watch the
human officer walk over to an empty box on the ground.

“It seems that they gave this woman less
than two pints, but stopped before they administered more.” He
pointed a gloved finger at the box. I walked over slowly, feeling
my blood heat in anger. “We think they may have gotten
spooked.”

As I scented Lydia’s blood coming from the
box, a rumble started in my chest, sending the officer back a few
steps. “That is my mate’s blood,” I bit out through clenched teeth.
In fact, I had to rub my jaw to keep from gritting my teeth so hard
they shattered.

“Are you sure?” the officer asked.

“Yes, I’m sure,” I snarled, turning my blood
tinted gaze toward the man.

“Okay,” he said, breathing a sigh of relief
as I let my shoulders slump. “Do you know if this woman will wake
up a vampire?”

“No,” I said, looking over at the woman. “It
didn’t work. Her heart would still be beating if it did. Our hearts
do not pump like a humans, but will pulse around once a minute even
during the change.”

“We will wrap up everything here and contact
the family,” the officer said. “It seems she’s been missing for two
weeks.”

“She was kidnapped?” Dragus asked, stepping
away from his spot by the door.

“Yes,” the officer replied. “She was
abducted from her work. We have video of a van driving up to her in
the parking lot and pulling her inside as she walked to her
car.”

“Did you get a license plate?” I asked.

“No,” he cursed. “There were no plates on
the van, and it was too dark to see who grabbed her. The only thing
on the video was a bunch of dark, hooded men.”

“May we see this video?” Dragus asked.

“You can follow me back to the station and
you can take a look, but we’ve had our best team working on it and
found nothing.”

Several men entered the room. One pushed a
stretcher to remove the body, and the others held bags of chemicals
for cleaning. There was nothing else we could do at the scene, so
we followed the human officer out of the house. Hopefully, we could
find something on the video that they missed, but from the sound of
it, we were still clueless as to who was after my mate.

Chapter 21

Lydia

“Why can’t I just go into the club?” I
complained, crossing my arms across my chest. “It’s not like you
are going to let anything happen to me.”

I was pacing the living room floor in front
of the couch while Harlow, my now bodyguard, stood in the corner
with his arms crossed over his massive chest, mimicking my pose.
There’s no way I can sneak away from him? Damn!

“Your mate forbids it,” he growled,
spreading his tree-trunk thighs wider as if to intimidate me. He
was doing a mighty fine job at it, too.

“
Forbids
,” I scoffed. “No one
forbids
me to do anything.” I may or may not have stomped my
foot and made a sound of frustration.

“It’s for your safety, Lady Lydia,” he
smirked. He was right. I didn’t want those people trying to take my
blood again. It was pointless to argue with him, and he and I both
knew it.

“First off,” I said, glaring at the warrior.
“Do not call me Lady anything. Secondly, I am my own person. I
don’t take orders from anyone, not even Ashby.”

“I have been told of your devious ways,” he
smirked. “I will do everything in my power to keep you safe, but
you
must
listen to me. I don’t care for temper fits that
children throw, and I won’t tolerate it from you either. So, let’s
get that straight right now,
Lady
Lydia. I respect females
and would never lay a hand on one, but it you so much as look like
you are about to ditch me…I will toss you over my shoulder and lock
you in the bedroom. You understand?”

Well, hell. “Yes,” I snarled. “You are no
fun.”

“Never said I was,” he smirked, just the
corner of his lip twisted.

“And you’d tell Ashby if I tried to give you
the slip, huh?” I smiled, not really angry at the man. He was a
warrior and trained to anticipate anything…even watching over a
stubborn redhead.

“You better believe your ass I will,” he
nodded.

I went to the kitchen, finding a bottle of
red wine and a pint of blood in the refrigerator. I pulled a goblet
out of the cabinet while the blood warmed in the microwave. I mixed
the wine and blood together in a fifty-fifty mix, then decided to
go a little heavy on the liquor. With everything going on, I
thought I deserved something to relax me. As I walked back into the
living room, Harlow raised a brow at my cup, but didn’t say
anything when I took a seat on the couch I’d just been pacing in
front of for most of the evening.

I shot a text to Meadow and told her I
wouldn’t be in tonight. She replied that everything was under
control at the club. Charity was at the mansion doing her
head-of-the-estate duties and here I was…alone.

The sound of soft footsteps approached, and
I stood up to see who was arriving, but Harlow zipped past me,
holding his hand up in silence, telling me to stay back. He peeked
through the little hole in the door and relaxed his hand on the gun
at his hip.

“Lady Elise is here to see you,” he
announced, opening the door with a bow, fist over heart. “My
lady.”

“Thank you,” she smiled, stepping through
the doorway.

“Hello, Lady Elise,” I said, standing up to
greet her.

“Please, just call me Elise,” she chuckled.
“These brutes are always formal, and it drives me nuts!”

“Glad I’m not the only one,” I glared at
Harlow over my shoulder. He just shrugged and resumed his position
against the wall.

I’d met Elise when Charity had been brought
to the mansion for her safety when the Lycanthropes were
terrorizing the town. Tonight, Elise was dressed down in jeans and
a cute purple blouse that buttoned down the front. She looked very
young, maybe in her early twenties. Her hair was long and jet
black. Her eyes matched my own mated pair, and her accent was thick
and sounded Romanian.

“Would you like a drink?” I asked, holding
up my cup.

“Wine mix?” she asked, raising a brow. The
corner of her lip lifted in a quirky smile. I really liked her.
She’d fit in great with me and Charity.

“Yes,” I smiled.

On her nod, I made my way to the kitchen,
Elise following behind. “What can I do for you?” I handed her the
warm wine/blood concoction and chuckled when she moaned at the
taste.

“I just wanted to check on you,” she said.
“I’ve been worried as to why these humans want your blood
specifically.”

“I’ve been thinking the same thing,” I
admitted.

“This is why I stay on the estate and at our
home,” she sighed. “If anyone found out that I’m a
Born
Blood
, then I would be hunted and destroyed like my family.” I
saw a hint of sadness reach her eyes, but quickly vanished as she
turned up her goblet, downing the rest of her drink.

“So, what is it about my blood that is so
special? And how do they know about me?” I wondered aloud.

“Hopefully Ashby will find out,” she
said.

“I don’t want to be stuck here,” I admitted.
“I have to work, and I have a business to run.”

“But is your business worth risking your
life?” she asked, causing me to curse at the truth to her
statement.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “No, it’s
not.”

“Come on,” she smiled. “Let’s have another
glass of wine and watch television. There’s nothing we can do until
the warriors return for the evening.”