First Blood (The First Blood Series Book 1)

by Heather Karn

  “No, I really can’t. I think we deserve a look.” A shoe hit the wolf on the side of the face, the heel clocking him on the temple. Shannon had good aim. He scowled at her while picking up the shoe, but instead of returning it, he took off toward the house with it, and he would have made it inside with his treasure in hand had the grass beside the stone path leading to the front door not grown several feet to wrap around his legs and ankles. With his legs held in place, the forward momentum of his upper half sent him flying forward, and he braced himself seconds before the impact so he didn’t crush his face against the stone path.

  “Really?” He fought his bonds, to no avail. They weren’t giving him up quite yet.

  “Then don’t take my things,” Shannon called back, in no hurry to release him as she grabbed her purse from the front seat. “And we aren’t having a show. You get to see the dresses the night of the Ball.” She made her way to Jackson. Her words didn’t reach me, but her chiding tone did as the grass released him and receded to its normal size.

  “She’s good, isn’t she?” Avery asked, nudging my arm with his elbow.

  I nodded, still impressed. It had taken less time than it took to blink for the grass to grow and stop Jackson. I’d seen Clara try to grow a tomato plant from a seed, and it had taken weeks to mature. In fact, it took almost as long as a normal plant, except this one had far more tomatoes grow on it than normal. That was worth the wait.

  Raven walked past us, heading toward the house now that the path was clear. Luella followed after him, leaving Avery and I to bring up the rear. There was someone missing, and though I needed to relax and let him live his life and not be a mother hen, I couldn’t help but worry.

  “Where’s Lee?”

  “Upstairs on his laptop doing something techy. His technological skills, and that he can fight, were the main reasons he was assigned to the Elite program. He’s not going to be as good of a fighter as the rest of us because he is only human, and many of our foes are supernaturals. However, he can still join us, but Raven’s hoping his love of technology will help him see what we need as a team and how to better the technology that we do have. It’s brilliant, really.”

  I could have told them my brother was brilliant. He’d taken my parent’s computer apart when he was ten. They’d grounded him for a month, but after he’d put the desktop back together and it worked better than it had before, they’d voided the grounding.

  “I’m surprised you can get him away from the laptop for meals, to be honest,” I laughed, heading toward the basement staircase with my bag of shoes while Avery moved to go up.

  “He tried this morning, but I threatened to drown the thing if he did.”

  “Good call,” I yelled behind me, heading downstairs.

  The darkness called to me, and by the time I cleared the last stair, the sunglasses were free from my face, letting my eyes see naturally for the first time in hours without tearing up. My shoulders sunk. I wanted to be able to see outside again, but how long would it take before that would happen?

  “I put your dress on your bed.”

  Raven’s voice right behind me made me jump, and I spun to face him. His hair hung in damp waves around his head, and his shirt clung to him. That was the fastest shower known to any creature. Or had I spent so much time talking to Avery that I hadn’t noticed how much time had really gone by? No, it hadn’t been long.

  Catching myself staring, I gave myself a mental head slap. “Thanks, Raven. Umm, can I ask a question?”

  He smirked. “Only one. We have a quota for the day.”

  Before I could stop myself, I reached out and punched his arm in retaliation of his sarcasm. The move stunned me as much as him. Raven arched an eyebrow at my playfulness. Yup, I’d spent too much time with Jackson, who was an easy target for such abuse because of his attitude. Raven had caught me off guard.

  “Sorry,” I choked out, eyes wide.

  “Don’t be. I deserved that.” His smirk was replaced by concern as his eyebrows drew low. “What did you want to ask?”

  Now that I’d made an idiot of myself again with him since I’d returned, I didn’t want to ask any questions. I wanted to run. Go to my room, lock the door, and hide. Even the darkness couldn’t hide a blush if I messed up again.

  “You were wearing a necklace earlier. I wanted to see it. What does it mean?”

  Raven lifted a gold chain out from under his shirt. The pendant hanging from it was also gold, and it was so intricate that I caught my breath at its beauty. When I reached out a hand to take it from him so I could see it, he gave it to me without complaint about my nosiness.

  “What is this?” I asked, staring at the circular pendant which had tiny spaces cut out of it so the gold remaining formed the image of a tree. “It’s beautiful.”

  “It’s the symbol for the vamlure first House.”

  My eyes shot up to him. “How much do I still not know about the vamlure?”

  “Probably a lot. There’s so much, and I forget you know nothing about us and it’s something so natural for me that I don’t think about it affecting you.” He took the pendant back and nodded his head toward our apartment. “Let’s go have a talk, shall we?”

  “I’m beginning to dread these talks.”

  Raven chuckled as I followed after him. He led me to the couch after I made a pit stop at my room to drop off the box of shoes. When I sat on the opposite side of the couch from him, the mini fridge caught my attention and the memory of my previous thirst hit me. How had I been so stubborn? Now that I’d drank blood, I couldn’t see it as a bad thing. It had helped me save so many lives last night.

  “Are you thirsty?” Raven asked, a note of concern in his voice. “If you need blood, take it. Just don’t drink too much.”

  “I’m good. I was just thinking about last night. Anyway, what about vamlure and houses?”

  “Not literal houses,” Raven chuckled. “Long ago, our kind didn’t get along with each other well. I’m not sure of the details. I only know there were scuffles and battles that claimed many lives. Since we lived in family units at that time, the five largest families came together. They would form Houses, or groups that each vamlure would belong to. They could choose which House to join, and their family would belong to that House for generations. The Houses would also be responsible for the actions of their people.”

  “So, the Houses are ruled over by a monarchy? The ruling family?”

  “You could say that. It’s less ruling them as much as keeping them safe and giving them someone to go to when problems arise. Protection. The Head of the House clears up problems and strife between the other Houses as well as within the House. At least they used to. There’s so little fighting among any of our kind anymore that their role has turned into the survival of their House and to keep their people safe.”

  “So there are five Houses? Which House are you in again?”

  One side of his lips twitched. “The first. House Cartana.”

  While he spoke, a thought occurred to me. “Last night you said that two groups started the Salem Witch Trials and the witches destroyed them. Were those two houses?”

  His humor left, and he stared out across the room like he wasn’t even aware it existed anymore. “Yes. The Third and Fourth Houses were destroyed. Rather, their leaders and heirs were all killed. Members of those Houses changed Houses to protect their families.”

  “They abandoned their House when they needed them?”

  “Not abandoned. The leaders of the two Houses ordered those with families to switch Houses, which would protect them. Fourth House, House Kalite, was the smallest, but their people were brave. Third House, House Takal, was much larger than Fourth House, and it took longer to destroy their leadership. Rumor has it some survived but went into hiding and have since died. I’m not sure that’s true. Either way, they would have no one to lead. There isn’t a vamlure alive who would claim either of those Houses. If they did and a witch found out about the claim, they’d be kil
led.”

  My heart tightened. “What about Shannon? How does she feel about all of this?”

  Raven grinned for the first time since explaining the Houses destruction, and it surprised me. “Shannon is unique among witches. She doesn’t harbor the old hatreds. Actually, most younger witches and warlocks hold no ill will against our kind or the two Houses.”

  “So, which house am I? Is there any way to know?”

  He shook his head. “No, there’s not. So much time has passed since the Houses were established, and there has been so much intermarrying that you likely have blood from all three of the surviving Houses in you. When you’re ready, you can pick which house to join, but it’s not a decision you should make lightly, so take your time. After you’ve trained a bit longer, or become a full Elite, I’ll take you to visit each of the three Houses’ main compounds. Then you can choose.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Does this answer all of your questions?”

  “For now. At least until something else comes up you’ve accidentally omitted.”

  Chuckling, Raven stood and stretched his arms to the ceiling. His shirt rode up a few inches, giving me a view of skin between his pants and belly button. I wanted to turn away, I really did, but my eyes were glued to him. Thankfully I forced my eyes to rise to his face before he looked back down at me.

  “Want to see my dress?” I asked, the question popping from my lips before I could stop it.

  His eyes widened. “I thought I wasn’t supposed to see it yet.”

  I shrugged. “I don’t care if you do, and this way you can tell Jackson you’ve seen it and rub it in.”

  “And here I thought you were nice.”

  “He deserves it.”

  “He likely does.” Raven grinned. “Do I get to see it on you or just see it?”

  I debated the options. “It’ll hurt him more if you see me in it.”

  “That it will.”

  Standing, I headed toward my room and closed the door. My nerves were alive with excitement, anticipation, and anxiety, as was my stomach which twisted and somersaulted all over the place within me. Why did I want him to see me in the dress? And why this sudden attraction to my trainer that hadn’t been there a week ago? Was it because of him being a vamlure? Or that I’d matured and drank blood? His blood? I wasn’t ready to ask him, and I didn’t know if I ever would be, but for now, I pushed the thoughts of his earlier shirtlessness away before they could take over my brain. I had a dress to put on after all.

  After several minutes of fighting with the dress’s zipper, I finally had it in place. Forgoing the shoes, I checked myself one more time in the full length mirror attached to my closet door, wiping my hands down the satin dress. It was as gorgeous as I’d thought it would be while on the hanger, and I was glad not to be waiting until the night of the Elite Ball for him to see it, for anyone to see it. I would be a ball of nerves that night, and I was likely not to enjoy myself until we arrived at the Ball.

  Taking one last fortifying breath, I twisted the door handle, and pulled it open, my eyes seeking out Raven the moment I stepped into our small living room area. He stood behind the couch we’d been sitting on in the open space between our two rooms. The moment he saw me, his eyes drank me in, starting from my shoulders all the way down to my feet and back up again. His stare didn’t make me uncomfortable as I’d feared it would, but I longed to know what he thought.

  “It’s a nice dress, but I have to say, you make it beautiful,” he murmured before his lips twitched again. “And I’m glad I get to see it on you so I can let both Jackson and Avery know you’ll be the most beautiful woman at the Ball, and they won’t be able to see you until that night.”

  It was more than a bit pleasing to know he found me beautiful, and I fought not to blush at his praise. “It’s the dress, Raven.”

  “No. It’s your eyes. Your smile. It’s you.” He shrugged, appearing sheepish for the first time. “I’m not sure if it’s appropriate for me to be telling you all of that, but it’s the truth and I won’t lie to you about it, not when you were kind enough to change into the dress. Especially so I could hold it over the other males’ heads.”

  “Any time,” I laughed. It probably wasn’t appropriate, but we were both adults. If he wanted to give me a compliment, I found nothing wrong with it. “So, you always go stag with Avery?”

  Raven snorted and leaned against the back of the couch, folding his arms over his chest which made the muscles in his arms bulge. “We usually ride over together and find our friends who also came stag and we talk work the entire time. Nothing too exciting.”

  “So you don’t dance? Not even on the fast songs?”

  “Nope. We find a corner and discuss the problems we’ve been seeing, the missions we’ve been called out on, and any patterns that we’ve been seeing within species we’ve had problems with. To most it sounds boring, but for us, it’s a night well spent.”

  I arched an eyebrow at him. “Have you ever danced at all? Fast danced? Ballroom? Slow danced? Line danced? Anything?”

  He shook his head while he thought. “No to slow dancing and ballroom dancing. We had to check out a club downtown once for a warlock accused of selling Elite information and I had to dance there to blend in, but it wasn’t my favorite assignment.”

  “You’ve never slow danced?” I asked, incredulous that this man had gone his whole life without doing any dancing. Dancing in a club for work didn’t count in my book.

  “Nope.” He shrugged. “Can’t say that I have.”

  “Then we’re going to fix this.”

  His eyes narrowed a fraction before I disappeared into my bedroom to grab my personal cell phone. Searching through my music, I found the perfect song as I came back into our living room. Setting the phone on a side table, I hit play and approached Raven, whose brows were still low over his eyes. He wasn’t scowling, but he wasn’t smiling either.

  I grabbed one of his hands and tugged. He willingly followed me into the center of the clear area. When we stopped, he didn’t make a move to dance with me, and I worried I’d overstepped my bounds with him. Maybe not Elite bounds, but personal boundaries. Oh well, I’d started this, and by golly I was going to finish it. He’d be able to say he’d slow danced by day’s end.

  Taking his other hand, I set both of them on my hips and wrapped my arms around his neck, keeping several inches of space between us so I wouldn’t make him any more uncomfortable. Taking the lead, I swayed to the rhythm. It took him a little longer to relax, and when he did, he settled his hands on my hips and stepped closer, closing the gap between us. Now it was my turn to tense up. I’d danced with a few guys, but never like this, never so close and aware of them.

  Raven’s hands slid to the small of my back, and I forced myself to relax against him and focus on the music. Resting my cheek against his shoulder, I let myself enjoy his touch, knowing that tomorrow I’d likely want to hit him during training. The song ended too soon and a new song with a rhythm far too quick for slow dancing took its place.

  Stepping back, Raven grabbed my phone, and instead of giving it to me, he tapped a few times on the screen before the song I’d just played restarted. “I liked that one,” he responded when he caught sight of my arched brow. “And if I’m going to take you to the Ball, then I think I need practice so it’s not so obvious I haven’t slow danced before.”

  My heart leapt to my throat. Had I heard what I thought I’d heard? I couldn’t have. There was no way he wanted to take me to the Elite Ball. He went stag and didn’t take women. Was he hoping I’d want to date him after all?

  “You want to take me?” I squeaked as he settled his hands back on my hips, moving close and swaying to the song. Swaying was safe. It didn’t get my bare feet stepped on.

  “If you’ll go with me, I’d like to take you. Unless you’d planned to ask someone or were waiting for someone else to ask you.”

  “No,” I responded faster than I should have. “No, I was planning
on going stag too.”

  “Then will you be my date? It doesn’t have to be a date, but this way neither of us has to go alone.”

  “Sure, I’d like that.” And I would. Who was this man and what had happened to the grumpy one I’d met a week ago? Were the girls right that since I’d drank blood he’d mellowed out?

  He grinned and tightened his hold on me. “Good. Now, dance with me so I don’t feel so awkward standing here with my arms around you.”

  “You never feel awkward,” I countered.

  “I will if I step on your feet at the Ball.”

  Seconds later footsteps pounded on the staircase as someone descended and Avery called out that Raven was making chicken pot pie for dinner. The next moment I found Raven’s hand around my waist, carrying me. He deposited me in my room with a grinning order to change before closing the door behind him. Yup, he didn’t want Avery to see me. And he called me evil.

  Chapter 23

  I was right. By the time Raven announced it was time to break for breakfast, I was a hot mess who wanted to wipe the grin off his face with the dirt, but that wasn’t going to happen for at least the next fifty years. He’d been right. I was faster and stronger, but I still had no fighting ability to save my life.

  “How’s she doing?” Avery chuckled, sitting beside me at the table. I’d purposefully not sat beside Raven, and he’d rolled his eyes at my small attempt at defiance. Folding my arms, I waited for Raven to tell Avery exactly how awful I was doing in training.

  “Not bad. She’s better than she was that first day. Still a long way to go, but if she keeps this up, she’ll be at our skill level in months instead of years. What?” he asked with a grin when he found me staring open mouthed at him.

  “You think I’m better?”

  “Much. Now hurry up and eat. Your next lesson is in ten minutes.”

  “You want me to fight on a full stomach?” There was torture, and then there was torture. If he’d told me we would be sparring again after breakfast, I would have eaten lighter.