The Blood Bundle, Books 1-2: Blood Singers and Blood Song (New Adult Paranormal Vampire/Shifter Romance) (5 page)

“It's the blood share...
it will pass,” he said, intuiting her body's response.

“Put me down,” she
repeated.

William gently put her on her feet, his hand
gripping her bony elbow, which had become like a twig since they
had taken her.

Julia longed to tear it away from him but
knew that she could hardly stand. She fumed where she stood; trying
not to think about the blood she'd drunk from her husband's
murderers.

The memory encroached on her mind ruthlessly
and she shut it down like all the others she didn't want to see.
Biting the inside of her cheek. Blood welled inside her mouth like
sour copper and she made a slight noise. William looked at her
sharply, sucking in his breath and began to breathe through his
mouth.

Julia smiled genuinely for the first time
since her ordeal began as a terrible idea took shape in her
mind.

She knew how to escape.

Just as she would press her advantage a
large woman burst through the door and Julia's heart skipped a
beat, racing inside her rib cage. She swayed and William pulled her
gently against him.

She didn't resist, there was no use. But she
would soon permanently resist.

Oh, so permanently.

*

caregiver

Susan looked at the Blood Singer that the
runners had acquired some months past and it was the first time
that the girl hadn't been half-unconscious. Countless bowls of
soup, water poured down her throat, sponge baths and dressings
she'd shared with the girl.

But she looked at Susan as a stranger. For
she was. The trauma surrounding the acquisition had been so
overwhelming the girl had yet to recover. When she was finally
dying, William had been beside himself to save her and been given
the green light.

Blood share.

He had done it, even with the potential for
scrambling the wires of his quarry, he had done it.

Now she stood, now she looked as if she
might survive.

Even Susan could see beneath the
dishevelment and scrawny physique to the healthy girl she had been.
She would be well again, Susan vowed.

She had to be.

Julia was the Rare One. Susan's eyes flicked
to the pale, moon-shaped scar on the girl's head.

Susan approached her and took her gently
from William's arms, his hands trailing reluctantly from her body.
Susan glanced at William, the feral vestiges about him still.

“You'd do well to leave us
for a time,” she said significantly and William nodded. Heaven knew
he was having to stretch his limits with her fresh blood a darkly
blooming fragrance in the room, suffocating his
reasoning.

His directives.

William walked away, the pull of his blood
in Julia's body beating in time with his heart. It felt like warm
taffy as he moved through the door, swimming upstream. His hand
landed on the doorknob.

Julia watched the vampire turn the knob,
stiffen and quickly slip through.

Susan breathed a sigh of relief when the
vampire left. Julia tried to pull away but Susan gripped her upper
arm, her fingers encircling the whole of it.

Julia glared at her. “Take your hands off
me.”

Susan smiled. “Listen to me,” she began, her
eyes boring into Julia's. “I am not like them. But you know that,
don't you?”

Julia didn't answer. She was not going to
cooperate with any of this.

“I am human...”

“Yeah, whatever. You work
for them. That's all the info I need.”

“Who do you think got soup
down your throat? Bathed you? Put clothes on you?”

Julia looked at her in horror. She touched
her when she was unconscious. Julia studied her closely. There was
something... almost familiar about her.

Memories assaulted her in a torrent. Being
in a tub and floating. This woman washing her... ugh. Julia thought
of the intimacy all that entailed and wanted to throw up. She
remembered the food that she'd been spoon fed woodenly. She'd
wanted to die.

She still did.

Susan looked at her, watching the emotions
and thought processes flood her face, filling it with recognition
and understanding.

She nodded. “You remember.”

“Yes,” Julia replied
through clenched teeth.

“Not a very grateful sort,
are you?”

Julia tore her thin arm free, her legs
trembling. “I didn't ask for anyone to care for me,” she said in a
fierce voice, the first, hot tears falling. “You should have let me
die. That's all I want. I want to die.”

Susan was moved with compassion. This waif
with such bottled up emotion and aggression had lost too much. They
would have to start from nothing with her.

Ground zero.

Susan crossed her arms and stared at Julia,
who glared back, raising a hand to move her tangled hair behind her
ear.

“Well, my dear, you're not
going to die. On the contrary, my job is to get you living and
healthy for transport.”

Despite her commitment to be contrary, Julia
heard herself ask, “Transport... where?” her lip quivered, on the
brink of crying harder.

“Seattle. You were
acquired by that coven.”

Julia's vision wavered, tripling. She began
to fall and Susan screamed, “William!”

Suddenly she was held in arms of warm steel.
Julia's heart slowed and her body calmed, her body's chemistry
lulled by his closeness. Just before she crossed the threshold into
unconsciousness her mind told her what she feared most.

Blood
share
, her body a traitor to her
mind.

Somehow, she was connected to her captor.
Whether she wanted to be or not.

Julia faded, the tailspin of knowledge
following her down into the spiral of her dreams of before.

consequence

Truman looked from one to the other of them
and sighed. “Listen kids...” he ripped a hand through his already
disheveled hair. “I believe you tried to do the right thing, but
Caldwell...” he spread his palms away from his body.

Jason dropped his eyes, his hands gripped in
Julia's. He hadn't meant to kill Terrell. But... when he saw him
shoot at Julia, something profound and primitive had kicked in. All
he could think of was eliminating the threat.

Eliminating Terrell.

So he did. Terrell was gonna kill her. A red
veil had descended, clouding his vision, clouding his mind. It
hadn't lifted until the cops had pulled him off Terrell.

Four of them.

At least they'd let him wash off. Wash
Terrell off him. He'd had blood splatter and gore wrist-deep. His
stomach churned a little with the memory.

Now he and Julia were in the police station,
making noise about self-defense. The cop might look like a rumpled
dishrag but his eyes were sharp, sharp like the bald eagles that
flew outside the windows. Those eyes tracked him like the majestic
bird, equal parts wise and aware, missing nothing.

“You're of age, son. It
doesn't matter that you were still technically a student. We know
you're over eighteen. Hell... you're almost nineteen, aren't ya?”
When Jason nodded, he continued, “So is your girl here.” His gaze
went to Julia and Jason tensed. The cop took that in, wondering
about the extreme protectiveness of the kid, it struck him as
noteworthy. If he could be called a kid. He looked like a man to
Truman, all height and muscle mass. A jock.

The girl was the opposite. She had a sullen
and fiery cast to her but she was a tiny thing, different coloring,
all champagne and... those eyes, he thought, repressing a shudder.
They were like a cat's, spun gold. They followed him with an
intensity that was unsettling. He cleared his throat. “As you know,
the teacher was the one that brandished and fired a weapon. You may
be able to get off with counseling. But, your reaction wasn't
typical and there will be some accountability for that.”

Jason nodded and Julia stifled a sigh. She'd
never get the image of their teacher's brains on the floor out of
her mind. The bigger question would always be: why? Why did he try
to shoot her?

As if reading her mind, Detective Truman
asked, “Is there some reason Terrell would commit violence against
you, Julia?”

Her face showed her
confusion
, Truman thought. She didn't know
either. He'd do some digging and see what was what. Try to make
sense of the senseless.

His eyes flicked to Jason. “Your parents
have made your bail. And,” he waggled a finger, “I wouldn't skip
town, pal.”

Jason almost laughed. Like he'd leave
Julia.

Ever.

He squeezed her hand and she squeezed back.
He stood to leave, pulling her with him.

His last thought as he left the building was
that their elopement plans were screwed. With a grim face, he
pulled Julia behind him, his parent's car parked in front of the
broad concrete steps of the precinct.

The storm on his dad's face told him what
the next few days would be like. The barometric pressure was
dropping as it moved in.

*

Jason

It was a tense drive on the way to Julia's
house, his parents were glancing back at them in the rear view
mirror surreptitiously. He wanted to comfort Julia more than he
wanted to worry about a lecture from them. Forget that he'd almost
been killed himself, that he'd protected Julia... maybe more kids.
It was all about image. And he had tarnished theirs. He was so
pissed he could spit. It'd be so great once he and Julia were
safely in Anchorage, married and beginning their life together. His
parents could piss up a rope. He'd accomplished everything they
wanted, they needed to get off his dick about it.

Julia interrupted his thoughts with a small
noise and he looked down at her, a small bundle in the cradle of
his arms. He was instantly alarmed.

Delayed shock.

Great timing, they were just pulling up to
her front door, her Aunt Lily waiting on the top step, wrapping a
thin cardigan around herself, her hands fisting the material in a
death-clench. She skipped down the stairs, making a war path for
their car.

Before Jason could properly shield Julia,
Lily had torn open the door, putting her hands on Julia.

“Don't, Lily,” Jason said,
meeting her tense and angry eyes.

“You don't tell me what to
do. I almost lost my niece today. The one that you were taking care
of.” She said that last like an accusation and it made Jason's
heart clench in his chest. He
had
taken care of her. The best he could. He didn't
need this right now.

Julia didn't need it.

He looked down at Julia, her skin clammy and
pale, her breathing rapid.

“What's wrong with her?”
Lily asked in a panic.

“She's in shock,” Harold
Caldwell said.

Jason sighed. “Please move, I'll carry her
into the house and get her in a supine position.”

Thankfully, she backed away and Jason
unfolded his body outside the car, swiveling Julia as he went,
swinging her up into his arms.

“Jason,” she said, her
eyes fluttering open. They widened and she said, “They're coming...
the wolves and... the blood... blood...”

“What is she saying?”
Shelia Caldwell asked.

Jason shook his head,
puzzled. “I don't think it's anything. She's in shock, getting her
lying down is key here, Mom.” Jason's eyes left the loose group of
adults and he strode to the house, toeing open the unlatched front
door. He pegged the first sofa he saw and brought a still and pale
Julia to it, laying her down gently. He swiped a hair from her
forehead and kissed it. She felt cool. He wasn't leaving until she
was okay.
She was far from okay,
he thought as he looked at her.

“Stay away from here,
Jason,” Lily yelled, huffing into the room.

“I don't think this is
helping things...” Shelia said, her hands fluttering helplessly in
front of her.

Lily gave her a withering look of such
contempt that Shelia took a step back. “Don't tell me what is
helpful or what is not. What would you even know about suffering...
challenges, anything? Eh?” Seeing Shelia's helpless expression she
said, “That's what I thought. Go home to your fancy house and your
comforts and leave me and my niece alone.”

Harold Caldwell looked down his nose at Lily
Wade. She was beneath him. He had suffered the relationship between
Julia and Jason, knowing it was a high school sweetheart thing.
Jason would see that she was all wrong for him and dump her when he
was attending college. This incident might prove to be the perfect
break for the relationship.

It put Harold in good spirits. Magnanimous
spirits.

“We understand, Lily. Of
course we'll leave you here to comfort Julia.” He smiled the first
genuine smile of the day since hearing the wretched and humiliating
news of his son's involvement in the shooting. He began to back out
of the house when he caught sight of Jason moving back toward the
couch. He pursed his lips into a thin line.

“Jason,” he commanded in a
low tone.

Jason didn't even turn. “What?” His eyes on
Julia's pale face, her lips tinged blue.

“Let's go.”

“No,” Jason said, his eyes
steady on Harold's.

Lily's head snapped up. She wasn't having
this big guy in her house. This kid that Julia was gone over.

This family! How dare they try to bulldoze
their way in her house, force their involvement. She picked up the
nearest phone, her finger hovering above the number nine. “Don't
make me call the police,” she threatened Jason in a low voice.