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

Was he mad because Rowland was being nice?
Why in the world would he be mad? Ashby had never shown any
interest in me all of those times that he would escort me to the
hospital or over to Charity’s during the curfew a few months
ago.

Except for the past few weeks. He had been
plenty nice when we’d run into each other, and I had this crazy
idea, a few days ago, that he may like me more than just a
friendship. But then again, he hadn’t tried to hold my hand, make a
pass at me of any kind, or even ask me out on a date. He had my
phone number and had never called for anything personal. Only to
inform me that he would be picking me up at Charity’s request.

The man was frustrating and sexy as hell. My
hormones were all in a knot over what could be…or maybe it was just
my stupid female head getting the best of me.

My super hearing picked up the sound of a
growl, low and deep, coming from the direction of the house. I
checked the porch again and saw Ashby clenching his fists, his body
vibrating from anger. “What the
hell
is wrong with him?” I
growled in frustration.

When I turned around, I saw the gates to the
main road were open. I punched the gas pedal a little too hard, and
my car jerked forward. I didn’t bother letting off the gas and
looking like an idiot. I pressed down harder and sped down the
driveway, throwing rocks in the process. My little blue Mercedes
would probably have chips in the paint, but I really didn’t care
what it looked like. Ashby was being an ass, and I needed to get
out of there.

Instead of going home, I drove over to
Nights
, the club I owned with Charity. The clock on the dash
said the time was only two-thirty in the morning, so I had plenty
of time to do some paperwork.

The club was vacant because we did not open
due to the wedding. I parked and made my way to the back door. The
parking lot was lit, and for some reason it was almost
too
quiet. I stopped suddenly, when I heard a slight rustling to my
left. My nostrils flared as I tested the air. My superhuman senses
realized something wasn’t right. The predator in me automatically
tensed in preparation of something bad. Scenting the air again, I
realized that it was not a vampire I scented and definitely not
Lycan or Hybrid. It was human.

The hair on the back of my neck prickled,
and I spun around, grabbing for the door as pain bloomed at the
back of my neck. Warmth spread from that point out to my arms, and
it didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that I’d been
shot.

My eyes blurred as I turned around and found
two males coming at me fast. They were definitely human, and the
first thing I noticed was that they had huge stakes hanging off
their belts. I heard a whooshing sound, and a small stake pierced
me in the middle of my chest, thankfully missing my heart. I
growled out a curse, swinging my head around to see how many people
were coming for me.

A younger man carried a black bag, like
doctors used to use back years ago. I tried to use my right arm to
feel my injuries, but it didn’t cooperate. I reached up with my
working arm and felt the back of my head. From the agonizing
burning, I knew the bullet must’ve been wooden, but it wasn’t
Hawthorne. This burning was worse than that horrible wood that
vampires are highly allergic to and could poison, if not kill, my
kind.

My hand came away sticky with my own blood.
The coppery smell fired my senses, causing my stomach to clench
with the need to feed and repair my body from the bullet wound.

My attackers advanced on me as I tried to
return to my feet. Blood filled my eyes and my fangs burned as they
thickened in my mouth. Humans were not prey, but at the moment, I
wanted their blood.

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 human paused for a moment. I could’ve
sworn I saw fear on his face, but he quickly righted his features
and continued to pull on my arm.

The one named Jerry ran up looking downright
pissed off. “Damn, 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 and dressed in
black cargo pants and long sleeved black 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.

“Don’t move you damn bloodsucker,” Jerry
cursed.

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

The father’s hands shook as he rummaged
through the black bag. I heard the glass vials moving around in
there and I knew that I couldn’t let them have my blood. I had to
fight them, but at the moment, I was incapable of lashing out at
them. I was getting weak. A weak vampire was worthless…and could
end up dead very easily.

Headlights suddenly rounded 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. The panicked look on her
face changed into one of rage at seeing these men over me.

“Run!” I screamed, but it came out more as a
garbled moan than a demand.

Meadow hissed, her eyes filling with blood
as she rammed Jerry, knocking him off his feet. The father produced
a gun, aiming it at her head. “I will kill you. These bullets are
wooden, you crazy bitch.”

She stopped a few feet from me, but couldn’t
edge any closer, because the dad pulled the hammer back on the gun,
showing us that he meant business.

“You better run humans,” she growled. I saw
her hands shaking with nervousness, but I wasn’t going to point out
that she was the shyest person I knew and probably wouldn’t know
how to protect herself in an altercation. She was doing mighty fine
holding her own at the moment.

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.

“Lydia,” Meadow cried. She reached for me,
pulling me to the back door by my good arm.

“Call…my…
Nachtmann
,” I growled. Once
she dropped me, I used my good arm to reach into my pocket for my
cell phone, handing it to her.

“Calling for help,” she said, as she dialed
a number.

“Hurry, please,” I tried to swallow, but my
throat was dry. I was quickly losing blood, and I needed a
replacement supply….like yesterday. I curled up on my side as best
as I could with all of these damn stakes protruding from my body.
Blood trickled down my neck from the bullet wound that was starting
to itch.

It was soon obvious that she’d dialed 111,
our emergency hotline for all things vampire. I could strangle the
little bitch. I was fine. The pain would go away if I could just
dig out the bullet and pull out the stakes.

“Yes, my name is Meadow Parks. My boss has
been shot and staked at her business. It
Nights
, a club down
by the river. Yes, ma’am. I’ll stay.” She hung up the phone and
said, “They’re coming, Ms. Lydia. Hold on.”

“You know,” I paused to take a small breath
of air. “I’d be much better if you could pull this stake out of my
chest and shoulder. Help me dig out the damn bullet while you are
at it.” Meadow looked abashed for a moment.

“Is it safe to do that? You may bleed out,”
she argued.

“That’s why I wanted you to call my
Nacthmann
,” I growled, my fangs sharp against my lip. “One
of them would have fed me so I could heal.”

“You need a hospital,” she scowled. “Can I
give you some of my blood? Will it help until they get here?” She
was offering me her blood, and I really needed it, but that would
just be awkward. She was just a child, sort of. It was weird,
taking blood from an employee. I’m fairly certain there were some
rules against that like harassment or something.

“No,” I panted, then hissed as the bullet in
my neck sizzled. (Yes, I heard it!) “I think I can wait.” I frowned
to myself when I heard sirens coming. Whoever she called was moving
at top speed to get to us. Honestly, it was just a little wound.
I’d be okay.

“Lydia,” a familiar voice called out.

It was him…Ashby.

He was here for me and somehow it made me
realize everything was going to be okay. Right now wasn’t the best
time to get all girly over the warrior, but damn, I just wanted to
let him hold me.
What the hell, Lydia!

“Over here,” Meadow called out.

When Ashby turned the corner, shock set in,
and I started to shake. The bloody tears I’d been holding back
finally fell over my lids, making a warm trail down my cheeks. My
teeth chattered uncontrollably as I reached a hand out for him.
Ashby dropped to his knees beside me and immediately started
checking my wounds.

“Oh, doll,” he growled. “Who did this to
you?” He placed his hands on the side of my face, and the worry in
his eyes made me cry even harder. My vision took on a reddish hue,
due to the blood in my tears. I really hated that I was crying, but
given the situation I was in, all I could do was cry. It didn’t
help that the warrior was showing me sympathy. He was only doing
his job, but a little part of me hoped that he was doing it because
he cared. Ok, I’m lying. A
big
part of me wished that he was
doing it because he liked me.

“H…humans,” I gasped, when the bullet
sizzled again. “Please pull out the stake, Ashby. It…it hurts.”

Bastian arrived and moved Meadow out of the
way as he set down a medical bag. Opening it up, he removed gauze
and tape. I groaned when I realized that this was going to hurt
worse than when the damn thing went in.

“We have an ambulance coming, Ms. Duncan,”
Rowland began. “We are going to pull out the stake so that your
accelerated healing can begin, but you’re going to need blood and
stitches. Do you know who your maker is?”

My heart lurched and a new round of tears
began. “My maker is deceased.”

“I’ll feed her,” Ashby blurted, to my
surprise.

“You don’t have to feed me, Ashby,” I
scowled. I sure didn’t want him to put himself out.

Ashby sat back on his heels and pulled me up
to him. He turned me on my side, and I heard his flesh open as he
used his fangs to bite into his own wrist. The smell of warrior
blood hit my senses, and I growled with the need to feed. My
predator instincts kicked into overdrive, and when his wrist
appeared at my face, I struck with the speed of a snake. I felt him
tense behind me, then his large body relaxed. For a split second, I
felt his erection pressing at my back. He shifted to a more
comfortable position, thinking I didn’t notice…but I did. Oh, boy
did I ever notice!
Wowza
!

“Pull the stake out, Rowland. She’d occupied
with feeding,” he said, but I ignored my surroundings, because
Charity was right, warrior blood was
amazing
.

The moment Rowland pulled the stake out, the
flow of blood trickled faster down my back. I sucked harder on
Ashby’s luscious wrist, moaning embarrassingly at the flavor.
Someone pressed gauze to my back, and the pain from it caused me to
growl, like an injured animal giving a warning. A huge hand stroked
my hair, and the calming effect shut off my sound.

“Alright,” Ashby whispered. “Doll, you’re
taking too much. I’m getting weak.”

Immediately, I pulled away and looked at his
beautiful face. He was a little pale, and I held up my weak wrist.
He shook his head in denial. “Please,” I whimpered. I really didn’t
want him to suffer for helping me.

“I’ll be fine,” he smiled and stroked the
side of my face, his calloused hands were rough against my skin. I
nuzzled into his palm and closed my eyes, savoring his touch.
“Where’s the ambulance?” He turned to Rowland who was on his cell
phone.

“E.T.A is six minutes,” he announced.

“That’s too long. I’m taking her,” he
stated, swooping me up into his strong arms. Oh, I liked that. I
didn’t know if it was his strength, his blood, or a combination of
both, but I had to squeeze my thighs together to keep from moaning
at the idea of his strength protecting me.

Now was
still
not the time to get all
starry-eyed over the warrior. Even though, from my vantage point,
he was even more handsome than I’d ever noticed. His scent swirled
around me. The blood from the wound that had recently closed on his
wrist mixed with his natural male scent, and it was driving me
crazy with lust. His blood was
seriously
stronger than any
human blood I had ever tasted upon my lips. Even stronger than my
makers.

When he reached the
Krieger
SUV, he
used one hand to open the back and retrieve a blanket. He wrapped
me up carefully and gently placed me in the passenger seat of the
Krieger
vehicle. The loss of his touch hurt more than the
holes in my body. He used his speed and was in the driver’s seat an
instant later.

“What did they want? Other than to kill
you?” he growled, so deep that the frame of the vehicle vibrated
with his words. The spot between my thighs heated with the action
of his anger.