Blood at Stake (Warriors of the Krieger Book 2) (5 page)

“I’m fine,” she assured her friend. “Don’t
worry about me.”

Abby straightened when she looked up and saw
me behind Lydia. The newly turned vampire smiled stiffly and
returned to her customers.

We walked past the bar, and the young male
bartender nodded toward Lydia, sliding her a mixed drink. Lydia
scooped it up into her tiny hands before the glass had come to a
complete stop, like this was her nightly ritual. She sauntered
toward the office, not speaking as she walked. I scented the aroma
of the amber liquid in the glass and knew that she was hitting the
hard stuff already. I also knew that Lydia and Charity liked to
drink occasionally, and I didn’t have a problem doing that
myself…when the time permitted.

She sat down behind the large oak desk and
clicked on the computer, the machine hummed quietly to life. The
drink was downed in only a few sips, and she set the glass on the
corner of the desk.

“Are there any leads on the guys that
attacked me?” she asked, pushing a strand of her beautiful, auburn
hair behind her ear.

“Not at this time,” I admitted. “We are
looking for them and any information we can find on those bullets
they used to shoot you with.” I saw her flinch, and I wanted to
take those memories away. No female should be treated the way that
Lydia had been the night before. The beautiful, petite vixen should
be cherished, not harmed.

Her emerald eyes softened and she pulled a
card from her desk. After scribbling on the backside of it, she
handed it to me, “Here’s the number directly to my office. You
know, just in case.”

I walked around the desk and sat on the
edge, kicking my feet straight out in front of me. She was so close
that I reached out and stroked her cheek while she was seated in
her chair.

“You need to be safe, Lydia,” I sighed, as
she closed her eyes and leaned into my palm for comfort. “Please
don’t leave this place with anyone but me.”

“I’ll call you about an hour before I’m
ready to leave,” she said and placed her tiny hand over mine. I
felt the stirrings of something deep in the pit of my stomach. It
was a tightness that made the muscles over my abdomen tremble.

“Promise?” I raised a brow. Lydia and
Charity were two of the sneakiest females I’d ever met, and I
wouldn’t put it past her to head out on her own.

“Promise,” she replied, her eyes never
leaving mine.

“I have to go,” I said, regretfully. Leaning
down, I captured her lips. Managing only the briefest of touches, I
pressed my lips to hers and pulled away.

“Be safe,” she said, touching my cheek. We
didn’t speak for a few moments, both of us remembering what had
happened earlier in the evening.

I nodded, because I didn’t trust myself to
say anything else. I didn’t want to leave her here alone, but I
knew that she’d be okay. I had a patrol already in the area. I had
to keep telling myself that she was going to be safe.

After closing the door to her office, I made
my way back to the floor of the club. All of the employees watched
me, with a bit of wariness in their eyes, as I passed a few
customers sitting in booths to my right. The music was fast and
modern. Dancers were already gyrating on the floor in the center of
the room.

The bouncer removed the red rope and allowed
me to exit without a word. He turned to a young vampire couple and
asked for identification before allowing them access to the club. I
walked around the side of the building searching for anything out
of the ordinary on my way back to the Hummer.

The night was cool and quiet. The sky was
cloudless, and the moon was only half full. My senses were on high
alert. Someone was hunting us and, from what I’d seen, they were
serious about taking one of us out. As far as I was concerned, no
one was going to hunt the woman inside that club…

No one!

Chapter 5

Lydia

Ashby had only been gone an hour, and I
couldn’t concentrate. He possessed my mind and body. Whatever
happened back at the
Krieger
estate was more than just sex.
It was a claiming. The sweet ache between my legs was welcomed, and
I didn’t want to lose whatever connection we had.

I rubbed absently at my chest and frowned at
the tightness there. Stress from the attack the night before
must’ve been getting to me, because I felt strange. Humans, out of
all of the species that hated us, were out to get us. I didn’t want
to be on the wrong end of a stake
ever
again.

My neck still burned slightly from the
bullet that had sunk in the flesh there. Ashby said it had been
enchanted by a witch. My immediate thought was to call Kai Laveau,
our witch friend from Maple Hills, who helped Charity formulate a
potion to cure the Lycan victims a few months ago.

A knock on the office door brought me back
from my thoughts. Meadow entered, and I saw the red tinged tears
rimming her pretty blue eyes.

“Don’t cry, sweetheart,” I said, standing up
from my seat and opening my arms to her. She was new to her powers
of precognition and had arrived just in time to see me shot and
staked out back behind the club.

“I was almost too late,” she sniffled and
squeezed me a little too hard for my liking. Although we were
vampires, we still needed time to heal. We still felt pain.

“You did fine,” I assured her, pushing her
away carefully. “Why are you here? Aren’t you off tonight?”

“Yes, ma’am,” she smiled. “I’m on my way to
the support group
Krieger
Dragus and Lady Charity enrolled
me in for my abilities. I just wanted to stop by and check on
you.”

Every vampire had some ability. Usually, it
took a good ten years for that talent to manifest. We had support
groups for the new vampires to help them harness their special
talents. Charity asked Dragus to get Meadow into one, and I’m glad
that they took care of that before they left on their
honeymoon.

“Well, I’m fine. Now, get out of here and
have fun!”

She laughed and gave me another bone
crushing hug before bouncing out the door. Her brown hair swayed in
time with her steps as she walked down the hallway leading toward
the front of the club.

The night had been very productive. I was
able to get a few things accomplished that I’d been putting off for
the past few weeks. My chest ached periodically throughout the
night. It wasn’t enough to disable me, but the tenderness stayed
just under the surface, reminding me it was there. I called Dr.
Mason at the hospital, and he told me that I shouldn’t be hurting
or in any discomfort except for maybe some burning around the
wounds.

This was different. The dull ache felt like
someone was pulling on my chest. It was like, if I let go and gave
in, I’d be pulled to whatever wanted me. I imagined an invisible
entity dragging me out of my office and through the streets to
wherever it wanted me to go.

Finally, right at closing time the pull
lessened. I took a deep, satisfying breath of air, tasting the
unique scents of everyone who’d passed through the club tonight.
Jackson, one of the bartenders, was cleaning the bar top when I sat
down on a stool. He slid over a shot of whiskey and smiled, “You
look like you could use that.”

“You know me so well,” I smiled and then
laughed when he shook his head.

A slight breeze blew across my arm, as I
sensed Ashby enter the bar. When I turned around, he looked almost
lethal standing there in the doorway. His face softened when his
eyes found me sitting at the bar. The tight feeling in my chest all
but vanished.

“Hey, doll,” he said, leaning in to place a
soft kiss to my lips. He tasted amazing, like a fine wine made just
for me. His clothes held many different scents, of both male and
female, human and vampire. Something inside my chest pinched, and
all I wanted to do was rub myself all over him so that the only
scent he had on his body was mine.

“Hey,” I said, instead of dragging him back
to my office for a quick romp on my desk. “How was work?”

“We can talk about it while I drive you back
to your place,” he stated. Something in his tone told me that he
didn’t like whatever he had to tell me, and I had a feeling I
wasn’t going to like it either.

Once inside the
Krieger
Hummer, Ashby
sighed heavily, “We found some information about who attacked you.”
I noticed how the muscle in his jaw ticked at what he had to tell
me.

“And?” I pushed.

“Seems that there is a human group that has
been attacking our kind to obtain blood to change themselves into
vampires. The idiots think that they can duplicate the process by
draining the human of blood and pumping our blood into the human
once they reach the point of death.”

“Well, that’s just stupid,” I laughed. “It’s
not that easy.”

Our blood had to be delivered fresh into the
human. If they were harvesting our blood and giving it to a human,
they’d have to basically force us to give our blood straight from
the vein. A transfusion wouldn’t do anything. The genetics in our
blood died out seconds after it left our body.

We consumed human blood for nutrients. Our
blood was different from a humans, thicker. The change was made
when the human body was drained, by the mouth of the maker and our
fresh
blood was consumed. The DNA in our blood changed the
whole makeup of the human body, because the human’s blood would no
longer be in charge. When you drain a human to the point of death,
there was so little of the human blood left in the system that the
vampire blood kills off what remains during the change. So, in a
sense, the human dies until the vampire blood takes over the body,
giving life to its new host.

This was why when you become a “maker”, you
have a bond with the human you changed. It’s almost as if you have
given birth to a child.

“We know that, but the humans who attacked
you don’t,” he sighed. “We found an old abandoned camp downriver
from Port Royal about thirty miles. There was a dead human there
and empty vials of blood…vampire blood.”

“Any sign of the humans who attacked me?” I
shivered. Ashby placed a hand on my leg and shook his head. I had a
feeling he wasn’t telling me everything, as if the scene they’d
found was more gruesome than just a dead body.

We arrived at my house, which wasn’t too far
from the
Krieger
estate, within fifteen minutes. I lived in
a nice modern home that I’d had built about twenty years ago and
had just remodeled it with new carpet, paint and updated kitchen.
Although I never used the kitchen, it would help if I ever wanted
to sell it and move somewhere else.

“I’ll walk you inside,” he said, looking
around the property. There were about two hours before the sun came
up and soon my
Nachtmann
would show up to watch my home
while I was in my death sleep for the day.

Ashby took my keys as we reached the door. I
stood in place when he held up his hand and closed his eyes in
concentration. He spoke in a low whisper only I can hear, “Let me
just check.”

Suddenly, I felt something move across my
body, an invisible touch that I barely registered. The
Krieger
had unbelievable powers that went above and beyond
what normal vampires possessed. I assumed he had some ability to
feel
his surroundings with only his powers, because that’s
what it felt like to me.

“Everything’s okay,” he said, with a
relieved sigh.

“What did you do?” I asked, wanting to
confirm what I suspected.

“I can push my powers out,” he smiled. “I
can feel other people, human or vampire, around the area I am in.”
He shrugged and followed me inside.

“How far out can you reach?” He took my hand
and tugged me to sit on the sofa, pulling me down onto his lap. I
had to concentrate, because being this close to him caused all
kinds of ideas to run through my mind.

“A half of a mile,” he admitted. “If I
concentrate, maybe a mile.”

“I can make you see things,” I admitted
freely.

“Like?” he asked, with a raised brow.

“Usually, things I’ve seen or I can even
make up a scene in my head and project it to you.”

“Can you show me something?” he asked in
awe, leaning back into the soft material, pulling me with him so
that I was nestled into his massive chest.

“I guess,” I bit my lip. “What do you want
to see?”

“Show me where you grew up,” he smiled. “I’d
like to know.”

Closing my eyes, I pictured a time long ago.
It was the early seventeen hundreds, I was a young woman dressed in
fine material my mother had acquired in town. She’d hand sewn the
yellow cloth just in time for the spring, making me a beautiful
dress.

My father was a blacksmith and had made a
name for himself in the area. He worked hard for the things he
provided us. The people of Birmingham, England were our friends,
not a one ever saying a bad thing about my family name.

There had been rumors of a demon taking the
lives of cattle just outside of town. The animals were all drained
of blood. Only puncture marks in the throat showed how these
animals may have died.

I was expected to marry the son of the
wealthiest farmer in town. The same family that had found their
cattle dead. It’d been months since any problems, and my family and
I were out at their home for dinner. We’d sat on the porch with his
family until the sun was almost down. My father had wanted us to
hurry home, because of the continued unease around town concerning
the possible demon in the area, even though there hadn’t been any
killings reported for some time. I pictured myself laughing with my
mother over the silly rumors that had been spread around town.

I stopped for a moment to collect myself. It
was hard remembering what had happened to me that night, but for
some reason, I wanted Ashby to know.