BloodSworn (30 page)

Glenda shrugged. “All they want in payment is you.”

“Don’t do this. They will never let the shifters live if
they gain control of my blood.” She shook her head, and the room spun. “You
don’t want that type of life. You would become nothing more than a slave.”

“Unless your miracle cure can help me like the shifters and
vampires, I have no choice. I want to live.”

“Magic can’t cure diseases.” Trina stopped arguing. Glenda
had already made her decision. Her fear of being trapped in a disease-ridden
body was too strong.

“It won’t be so bad. I’ll be able to help the vampires.
We’ll be considered valuable.” Glenda smiled as she constructed a new life for
them. “We’re in this together. If you’re a good patient, I’ll do what I can to sneak
some of your samples back to the shifters for their cure.”

Blood splotched to the floor. Trina stumbled, her eyes
unable to focus, and knew she’d never make it to the door in time. With her
last thoughts, she summoned up her magic and called for Merrick’s beast.

 
Chapter Thirty-two

M
errick
was grabbing for a shirt when Beast went ballistic. A mournful howl echoed in
his ears, one so full of rage that Merrick nearly doubled over.

Nearly shifted.

He would’ve marveled at the return of his beast if not for
one thing.

“Trina.” Beast only reacted like that for her.

He sprinted to the door, hitting the intercom on the way. “Get
to the lab.”

He didn’t wait for a reply. He jerked his shirt over his
head, running full out down the hall, his bare feet giving him traction.

The world narrowed down to getting to Trina. The walls
crowded closer as if to slow him down, and he used Beast to increase his speed.
There was no pain, no hesitation. Weston met him at the corner and followed with
guns drawn.

Merrick threw himself into the room, the silence making his heart
twist in his chest. The first thing that hit him when the door whooshed open
was the scent of her blood.

Specks of it were splattered on the floor.

He had to force Beast to the back of his mind in order to slow
down and think. They couldn’t rush or they might miss something important. It
wasn’t a risk he was willing to take.

He walked over to the shifter sent to protect Trina. His
pulse was weak, his skin clammy. He gave him a wallop, but the cub remained
unresponsive. “Get one of the techs to see if they can wake him. I want to know
what the hell happened.”

The rest of the lab appeared to be empty. Maybe more
telling, Trina’s books were spilled over the counter in disarray, her pen on
the floor where it had fallen next to the overturned chair.

He picked up her bag and inhaled, gathering her scent,
relieved not to smell the slight decay that would signal death. Her stake fell
out, and he grabbed it. He didn’t spot her knife, so at least she had some
protection.  

“Gather the men. Have the Den searched top to bottom and hunt
down Glenda. I want to know if they took her as well.” Merrick picked up the
chair and threw it against the wall. Metal twisted, and the plastic seat shattered.
“How the hell did no one sense the vampires?”

How could he not have known she was in trouble?

The door slammed open and Judith and Victor sprinted into
the room. Merrick advanced on Judith. “Did you help them take Trina?”

Judith didn’t run, but bowed her head, offering up her
throat. “The wolves recognize your concubine. We would not move against you
after she’d prove herself.”

Merrick gave her a smile that caused her to flinch. “Gather the
wolves for the hunt. If you get her back, you will have your spot in the Den.”

Her head shot up and a fierce smile crossed her face. She
spun and marched out the door at a near run.

Weston pocketed his phone. “No sign of Glenda. Last report shows
she signed out five minutes ago.”

Merrick touched Trina’s drying blood, kicking himself for
not guarding her personally. “That’s around the time Trina vanished. Find them.
Now.”

It was time that this stopped. He would get Trina back and
kill anyone who got in his way.

The vampires had missed something important. The shifters
had their own secret weapon…as long as they could control him.

In two long strides, he slammed open the door to the
CreedMark ward. Drew was in the last bed with a tube in his arm. Merrick jerked
out the needle. “Get him up and ready to travel as soon as he wakes.”

Without another word, Merrick turned on his heel and went to
his room to finish dressing. The sight of the bed stopped him short as memories
of Trina’s warm form pressed against him haunted him. He tore away his gaze,
clenching his fists as he fought not to lose his mind, and lifted down the
great sword.

The metal warmed to his touch as if eager to spill vampire
blood once more. He didn’t carry any other weapons besides Trina’s stake.

They needed to move light and fast.

Beast approved, crouching close to the surface, waiting to
be called. By the time he walked into the courtyard, a crowd had gathered.

Front and center stood Eden and Dorian, arguing with Weston
to be allowed inside the Den. They whirled when they spotted him. “Where’s my
sister?”

Merrick ignored her question. There was nothing to say. He’d
failed to protect Trina, and it was his fault she was gone. He’d been careless.
Now he would fix it. “Cast your spells to locate her, and I’ll get her back.”

Eden deflated as if hoping for a different answer. “I tried.
I’ve been trying for the last hour, ever since my connection to her suddenly
died. It’s like she’d just vanished. We came here to check on her. The vampires
must have her bound her powers or hidden somewhere I can’t reach her. How could
you have lost her?”

Without Trina there to protect from the truth, Merrick spoke
his mind to her sister. “You threw her away when she was a child and needed
your protection the most. The witches bound her powers and left her to fend for
herself. The vampires have been hunting her for weeks. And despite all that,
she came out of hiding and risked her life to save your worthless hide. You
want to repay her? Find her!”

The poison he spewed didn’t make him feel any better.
Merrick pinched the bridge of his nose. All that mattered was getting Trina
back.

“Things weren’t that black and white back then. I was a
child who’d just lost her parents as well. I kept my distance to keep her safe.
Despite what you think, I’m not going to let her go now that I have her back.”

Judith loped toward them, a mass of wolves in both forms
following close behind. “We managed to track Glenda across town. When we
entered her quarters, everything had been cleared out.” Judith curled her lips.
“The human betrayed us. I have my wolves searching for any sign of her. They’ll
find her.”

He nodded, but would they find her in time? She could’ve
taken Trina anywhere. A giant bear in human form lumbered toward him, nodding
his head. “No one should lose a mate. I’ll fight.”

Merrick shook the bear’s hand, grateful for the show of
support, not to mention the destructive force of his beast. “Split into two
teams. I want one to guard the Den. The rest will come with us.”

“What do you need me to do?”

Merrick turned to see Drew behind him, visibly shaken and
sweaty, but standing on his own. “Can you reverse the connection between you
and the vampire and track back to him?”

Drew’s gaze grew distant, his skin turning a pasty shade of
green that didn’t bode well for their plan. “I can’t give you a location, but I
can tell you a direction.” He pointed toward the outskirts of the city. “Once
we get closer, I should be able to narrow it down to a building.”

A vicious smile curled his lips, and when Merrick caught the
bastard, he would die.

 
Chapter Thirty-three

T
rina
woke groggy. She shifted into a better position, but her arms refused to move,
her hands stiff and numb. Confused, she glanced down to find her wrists
strapped down, and a line in her arm. It took her fuzzy brain a second to
comprehend they were draining her of blood. She would’ve laughed if her mouth
wasn’t so dry from the drugs.

Trina vaguely remembered waking and struggling. She might
not have been able to escape, but she didn’t have to make it easy. She hadn’t
even seen the punch that knocked her silly. Her jaw still ached, but it had
been worth it when her hat dropped to the ground without notice.

The cost of her rebellion was that she had no clue where
they’d taken her. She couldn’t see anyone in the room, but felt them hovering
over the bag of blood. “All you’re doing is killing me. You won’t be able to access
any magic that way.”

“I think I’ll take that chance.” The King came into view and
smiled. Insanity clouded his eyes, and Trina wondered if exposure to magic had
done that to him or something else.

Trina shrugged, ignoring the way the room wouldn’t stay
focused, the way her eyes drifted shut.

“The instant the blood leaves my body, it decays. The magic
weakens then burns out altogether. Five minutes tops. Like normal blood. Can’t
you taste the difference between bagged blood and blood direct from the host?”

She hated to divulge secrets, but what good were secrets if
you were dead? She had to stay alive long enough for Merrick to fetch her.

And he would always come for her. Fear for him nearly
suffocated her and part of her wished he would just leave her. He would get
himself kill himself trying to rescue her.

Unless she could escape first.

When she shifted, she recognized the familiar lump of her atheme
tucked in the back of her jeans. She felt a burst of excitement but tried not
to let it show. “Why would I lie when you could easily wait ten minutes and
find out for yourself?”

The vampire hissed and whirled, snatching someone up just
outside of Trina’s view. “Is she speaking the truth?”

The King shoved the doctor forward, and Trina saw a pale
shadow of Glenda. Fear widened her eyes, and her neck was wrapped in a bloody
bandage. Fresh blood wept from the wrappings where the vampire’s fingers dug
into the wound.

Glenda clawed at the brutal griped then looked resigned. The
vampire shook her like an animal with a treat. Despite everything, Trina
interceded on her behalf.

“She can’t speak with your hands crushing her windpipe.”

The vampire hesitated and then dropped Glenda. “Answer.”

Glenda collapsed on the floor in a heap, one hand at her
throat as she skittered backward. “Most likely. Blood magic is different. It
hasn’t been studied, but the legends say that you must wield the scepter, not
steal the blood.”

Her abject fear seemed to please the vampire, which probably
saved Glenda’s life. The King absently lifted his hands and slowly licked his
fingers free of blood.

The vampire grabbed Trina’s chin, wrenched her face toward
his and squeezed painfully as anger darkened his expression. While looking at
her, he gripped the tube and viciously ripped the IV from her arm. “You’re not
going to be a nice little human are you? There needs to be a way I can access
your blood without you playing your little game of kill the King.”

He gave her a considering look that shot deep foreboding
through her. She trembled, unable to stop shaking, recognizing that crazy expression
on his face. He’d thought of something, something that she wouldn’t like.

“You have a partiality for those shifters. We’ll grab a few
with no pack affiliations and give them your blood. It will dilute it, but I
can counteract that by draining them.” He smiled, revealing teeth that had
yellowed with age. His gums were inflamed, stained a dark red.

This close, she smelled the sour stench of rotten blood on
his breath. Decay rose from his skin as if blood alone would no longer sustain
him. She’d bet her magic had played a factor in that. His symptoms were so
advanced that she wondered if he’d taken up drinking tainted blood, blood from
his own kind, when human blood no longer satisfied him.

“Or I’ll leave them alive. That way, if you try anything
tricky, the shifter will take the brunt of your magic. I would only get the
watered-down effects. To hurt me, you’d have to kill them. Since shifters can
replenish their blood faster, I should be able to take a couple of doses a day
to keep me strong.”

Real fear shook her at his simple plan, so simple it could
work, and she grasped at straws. “I thought shifters were bad for your health
like cholesterol.”

A booming laugh shook his too-skinny frame. Her ten-year-old
self remembered him as a big brute of a man. The years had not been kind to
him. The magic in her blood had poisoned him in such a way that he’d never
recovered.

“They are considered a delicacy. Bad for our health only
because they’re the very devil to catch. They often kill any vampires not smart
enough to get out of the way. Most of the time the shifters die from their
wounds.”

The conversation had put him in a good mood, and he headed
toward the door. “I must make plans. Place her back under.”

The longer Trina stayed awake, the more her head cleared of
the drugs. As the fuzziness wore off, she glanced around the room. There were
no windows. The walls were bare, the faded paint chipped or non-existent in
places. She couldn’t pierce the darkness to see more, but the smell of mildew
and mold didn’t offer much comfort.

She had to let Merrick know where to find her. If she raised
enough magic, they should be able to track it back to her.

The recently spilled of blood on the floor should’ve helped,
but the magic was reluctant to answer her call. Something was blocking her ability
to cast. She tapped into her double vision, and the room practically glowed with
magic. Thick lines ran down the sides of the room, constructed in the shape of
a cage.

“I can feel your magic inch along my skin. You might be
strong, but no one will find you here. We had this room made specifically for
you.” The twin of the one she’d killed gave a nasty smile. “You could say a
couple of witches were dying to help.”

Death magic.

That explained the strength. The vampire must have grabbed a
pair of witches on the night of the attack.

“But you go ahead and keep trying. I’ll entertain our guests
while you’re otherwise occupied.” The vampire racked a bullet into the chamber.
As he turned, she saw him loaded down with silver blades. There was a certain
relish in his eyes when he glanced at her.

With a snick, the door closed. Trina jerked at the straps,
but there was no give.

“I didn’t know. I didn’t.” Glenda rose with a shell-shocked
expression, her hands covered in her own blood.

“Untie me.”

She shook her head frantically. “He would know. He would
kill me.”

Trina ignored the tears in Glenda’s eyes and gave her the
brutal truth, a truth she must have already figured out. “He will kill you
either way.”

Her shoulders hunched, and Glenda fell into awkward silence.
“I’m programmed to do him no harm or be riddled by crippling pain.”

“Merrick will come. You can go with us when we leave.”

“I’m not as strong as you or the boy. I saw how hard Drew
struggled, and I have no magic to counteract the effects.”

Trina cringed as she watched her fill a syringe. “My blood should
help break his control.”

Glenda glanced up at her, a fractured hope shining in her
eyes before it faded to nothing. “We’re both trapped by the vampires. Only
death will free us.” She walked toward her with the needle in her grip. “I
mixed a little of your blood to create a sedative. You shouldn’t feel a thing.
It’s the best I can do for you.”

It galled her that Glenda had used the blood she left behind
for the shifters to lay a trap for her. Hell, Dorian had unwittingly handed the
woman step-by-step directions on how to abduct her.

The pinch of the needle deflated her hope. Dejected and out
of ideas, Trina watched the sedative slowly disappear into her veins.

Except that the syringe wasn’t empty when Glenda pulled it
away. The plunger never delivered the full dose. Optimism swirled around her as
darkness took her once more.