Blood Ties

by Lauryn Evans

  Renata furrowed her brow. How did he know that about Laurentia Crowe?

  Only Alexander knew that.

  There was only one way he could have learned such information.

  “Did you go into my bedroom? Did you read the journal?” she asked.

  “It’s not what you think,” he pleaded. “I had to know how you knew about her.”

  Renata was fuming. Sarcastically, she spewed, “And now you’ve suddenly had a change of heart towards vampires to the point that you are willing to go against your Order to warn me?”

  “Yes,” he said solemnly. “The ‘change of heart’ started after you talked to me when I was here. You were nothing but kind to me, and I heard you tell your guard not to torture me.”

  Renata’s hard expression softened.

  “You showed me that not all vampires are killers.” Jackson continued, “And, I don’t think you should have to die for defending yourself.” He ran a hand through his black hair. “I’ll help keep your spy hidden, and I will look out for you, whether you believe me or not.”

  Renata was silent for a moment. “Thank you.”

  “Don’t mention it.” He twirled her around.

  The trumpet and violin duo ended their song. Jackson’s hand fell from Renata’s waist, lingering.

  Renata looked up at him and caught his burning stare. For a moment, their gazes locked. Her eyes darted down to the ballroom floor as she placed a stray hair behind her ear and quickly left him alone where he stood, staring after her.

  TEN

  “He said he was going to help you,” Renata said to Wyatt after the party, where he stood in front of her desk in the office. Adela and Will accompanied him.

  Renata purposefully left out Jackson’s warning on her life and the threat to the House if they tried to stop him. “I still don’t know if he can be trusted.”

  Jackson confused her. He saved her in the alley, yet he killed Lily and Emma. He threatened her in the garden, yet he was at the party last night to warn her about a possible attack on her life. He made her angry and invaded her privacy, yet his intentions seemed genuine. No one else confused her this much. Yet her heart still seemed to yearn for him, despite her mind’s struggle to extinguish those feelings. Jackson Crowe was a walking contradiction.

  She couldn’t afford to fall for him. Not when the House was under threat of attack. Especially when she wasn’t sure if she could trust him. Trusting him could very well spell out their ruin.

  “I don’t trust that guy, Ren.” Will added, “he snuck into the mansion and was in your room without anyone seeing him. He’s dangerous.”

  “Use your judgment, Wyatt. Be wary before you know you can trust him for sure,” Renata said in response to Will’s comment.

  “I will.”

  “Was anyone in the Order suspicious of your disappearance? Were you followed?”

  “No,” he said. “I told them I was visiting my parents. No one followed me.”

  “Good,” she said. “You should be getting back.”

  “You’re sure we can’t trust him? After everything that he’s done?” Wyatt crossed his arms. “If he wanted to hurt you, Renata, he would have done it by now.”

  Wyatt made a good point, but Renata didn’t tell him this aloud. She kept quiet, then said, “For all we know, he’s trying to earn our trust to betray us on Scott’s command.”

  All of it could be a trap. Even though she hoped it wasn’t.

  Wyatt nodded and left. Renata nodded to Adela and Will, signaling their dismissal. The two of them trailed out, leaving Renata alone with her anxieties. She felt more threatened by the Order than she ever had before and feared that her actions would have devastating consequences for the House. Her decisions could put everyone in the mansion in grave danger.

  Now, more than ever, she wanted to strike back and destroy the machine that made the magna elixir. Only then would the Order be less of a threat than they currently were. Renata felt trapped. She couldn’t act now and risk invoking more of Scotts’ anger. Her hands were tied.

  The Order will always be a threat, she realized. They would always hunt them, hunt vampires, whether they had the elixir or not.

  ~

  Renata spent the whole morning practicing new pieces in the common room. Playing the piano made her miss her weekly lessons with Wyatt and made her realize how much she missed his friendship. She was grateful that he was willing to help her and the House. He was human. The Order wasn’t a threat to him.

  Things at the House had been quiet, with an element of normalcy. Renata hadn’t seen or spoken to Jackson since the party, nor had she heard anything from Wyatt since she last saw him. She hoped he was alright, that nothing happened to him.

  Everything is fine. He probably has nothing to report.

  Renata was struggling to relax. The other House members cherished this temporary peace. She heard Edwin and Veronica talking and laughing somewhere in the House, and Adelaide was outside gardening with Alice while she tended to her herbs. Renata was sure Will was downstairs training.

  Despite how much she wanted to, she couldn’t shake the worry. The normalcy unnerved her. It couldn’t be this quiet. The Order had to be planning something, plotting an attack. The feeling of not knowing ate at her.

  The worry wasn’t the only thing she couldn’t shake. She couldn’t shake her growing feelings for Jackson. She was intrigued by him, even though she barely knew him.

  Renata found herself climbing up the grand staircase up to the office to work. Working, planning the mansion’s events, seemed to be the only thing that could distract her.

  In the hallway, as she passed her open bedroom door, she spied a piece of paper on the floor by her bed. Renata didn’t remember leaving her bedroom door open. If anything, she distinctly remembered closing the door before heading downstairs.

  Renata saw that the piece of paper she held was a note. The handwriting was large and loopy, but neat. The note read:

  Renata,

  I have important information to tell you, but I can’t on this note, it’s too risky. Meet me at Easton’s Beach. We can talk there.

  Jackson

  Renata folded the note and slid it in her pocket. Jackson had been in the mansion again without her being able to detect him. Which both frightened and irritated her.

  Why couldn’t he tell me this here, at the mansion?

  Renata assumed whatever he had to tell her was important, or he was setting her up. She didn’t want to think Jackson would lead her into a trap. She was beginning to trust him after what he said at the party, although she was still suspicious of where his loyalties lie. Renata tugged a hoodie on over her head and headed back downstairs.

  “I’m heading out to the library if anyone’s looking for me.” Renata waved to Heather, who was on the couch watching television in the common room.

  “Okay!” Heather responded, her eyes glued to the TV screen as she watched another episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.

  Renata grabbed her car keys and drove to Easton’s Beach, not far from the mansion.

  Good lord, he was insufferable. What was the point of driving to the beach when he could have told her back at the mansion? She chided herself for being crazy enough to come out here to meet him.

  Beach weather had not yet arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, and the cliff walk overlooking the beach was relatively empty due to the cool coastal winds.

  Renata pulled up to park at the beach, seeing no sign of Jackson. She got out of the car, assuming he was late for their meeting, even though he was the one who arranged it. Ten minutes had passed, and there was still no sign of Jackson.

  Fear pooled in the pit of her stomach. She began to walk onto the beach, crashing waves, and the sound of cars driving the only audible sounds.

  Jackson had set her up. The note was a trap, a way to get her outside of the mansion, vulnerable. She knew she should never have trusted him. Now, she was alone, no one knew where she was, and members of
the Order were probably here to kill her. A concoction of anger and hurt boiled inside her.

  Consumed by her emotions, Renata completely forgot about her surroundings.

  Renata was pushed down onto the sand. She picked herself up and saw a wooden stake embedded where she’d been standing just moments before. Adrenaline pulsed through her veins. This trap was meant to kill her.

  Whoever threw the stake must have been up on the cliff walk. But there was still someone behind her—the person who had pushed her down.

  She turned, ready to fight, to see who was behind her. She raised her fist, poised to punch.

  “Hey! Hey, it’s me,” Jackson said, putting his hands up in front of him.

  “You,” Renata spat out with rage and disgust. “You set me up.”

  “We can talk about this later, but right now, we need to get out of here.” Jackson stood, pulling Renata up. “Come on,” he said gravely, running to his black Jeep Wrangler. “Unless you’d rather stay here?”

  Renata ran after him and got in the passenger side of the Jeep, giving him the silent treatment the rest of the drive back to the mansion.

  The audacity of the man to set her up. She trusted him.

  Maybe that was a mistake.

  Once they arrived, she stormed out of Jackson’s Jeep and into the mansion, slamming the door in his face.

  He knocked and stepped over the threshold. “I’m coming in.” Concern shone in his brown eyes. “Are you okay?”

  “I have nothing to say to you.”

  Jackson sighed.

  Renata pushed him away. “I trusted you and you set me up just to pretend to be the hero.”

  “What are you talking about?” Jackson said. “I saved your life.”

  “Why weren’t you there then?” She spat out.

  “What are you talking about?” Jackson asked, confusion etched across his handsome features.

  “You asked me to meet you there,” Renata said with a vicious tone. “Apparently, you had some important information that was too risky to tell me in the mansion.”

  “No,” he protested, “I didn’t.”

  Renata pulled the note out of her pocket and handed it to him. “Then, what is this?”

  “I didn’t write this, Renata.”

  “How did you find me then?” she asked, skeptical.

  “I came to the mansion to talk to you, and Heather said you were at the library. On my way there, I saw your car at the beach. I thought something seemed off,” he replied.

  Renata only told Heather where she was going; the only way he could have known she was at the “library” would have been if Heather told him, meaning Jackson was telling the truth.

  If he didn’t leave her the note, then that meant someone else did.

  “Where did you find this?” Jackson asked, his deep voice laced with concern.

  Renata’s body went rigid as she pointed to the spot on her bedroom floor, where she found the note. “Right there.”

  “Someone from the Order did this,” Jackson said. “This was a planned assassination attempt.”

  “Jackson, they know about you,” Renata’s voice shook. “They know about your visits. They made the note seem like it was from you so that I would believe it.”

  And I fell for it.

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. My uncle confides in me less and less. I think he’s suspicious.”

  “Now he knows. They must have seen you there with me,” Renata bit her lip. “Thank you for saving my life.”

  Again.

  If Jackson’s observant eye hadn’t noticed her car, she would have been dead, due to her own lack of attention. Guilt gathered in her gut. She immediately assumed he betrayed her, while his behavior proved he was trustworthy. “I’m sorry for assuming you set me up.”

  “It’s okay,” he said. “I understand why you don’t fully trust me.”

  “Someone else left that note,” Renata said, staring at the floor. “That means someone was here today. And I had no idea.”

  “I don’t think it’s safe for you here anymore.”

  “I don’t think the Order is safe for you anymore,” she countered.

  “I can deal with my Uncle,” Jackson said. “He won’t hurt me. But he will hurt you and the others.”

  The room was silent for a moment.

  “I told Will and Heather about leaving your car. They’re going to go get it tomorrow when it’s safe.”

  “Why do you keep going against your family to help me?” Jackson’s body faced her as she spoke. Renata looked up at him, and this time didn’t break eye contact when his gaze interlocked with hers.

  “Something about you makes me want to keep you safe.” Jackson turned and left.

  Speechless, she watched him go.

  ELEVEN

  Renata’s eyes fluttered open, the morning sunlight peeking into her bedroom through the blinds. Will and Adela would be angry that she lied about where she went. Will especially would be upset with her. She turned her head to look at the clock beside her bed. It read ten-thirty.

  Hunger took hold of her body. She hadn’t fed since the party. Maybe that was the reason why she’d slept for so long. She got dressed then wandered downstairs to the kitchen, pulling out a stolen hospital blood bag Will brought back last month.

  The dull taste of stale blood touched her tongue, but her body was already starting to feel replenished. Renata could smell the human blood flowing through Jackson’s veins before she saw his sleeping figure, lying on the couch in the common room dressed in the same clothes he wore yesterday.

  He must have stayed here overnight. The thought warmed Renata’s heart and gave her butterflies in the pit of her stomach. Maybe he cared enough to stay, to make sure she was alright. Just maybe. She brushed off the ridiculous thought. Jackson was simply a nice guy, and that was all. And he was still a member of the Order.

  Renata quietly peered through the window to see her little car parked outside the mansion in its usual spot. She would have to thank Will and Heather for that.

  Jackson stirred and then sat up on the couch as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

  “I’m sorry if I woke you,” Renata slowly lowered the blood bag from her mouth, suddenly aware of the bright red blood staining her lips.

  “You didn’t,” Jackson told her. Self-conscious, Renata wiped the blood from her lips with a paper napkin she found in the kitchen, worried the sight of it would make him uncomfortable, being human after all.

  “Good,” she said, redirecting her attention back to the conversation. “How did you sleep?”

  “Not too bad,” Jackson replied as he stretched out the knots his back. Her eyes wandered to his strong-looking shoulders.

  Renata could see right through his white lie but decided not to say anything. “If you’re hungry, I can ask Edwin to make something for you,” she offered.

  “It’s okay. I don’t want to bother anyone.”

  “It’s no bother,” Renata assured him. “Edwin loves to cook. He looks for any excuse to actually,” she caught herself rambling. “I’ll send him out here so you can tell him what you’d like.”

  “Thank you, Renata.”

  “Of course,” Renata said as she went to go find Edwin, her usually pale complexion redder than the blood in the bag she drank from.

  Renata finished her blood bag and cleaned her mouth. Feeding made her feel better, more energized. Renata sauntered into the second floor common room, where she found Edwin, Heather, Will, and Veronica sitting and talking, enjoying their free time.

  “Edwin,” she said as she entered the room, “Would you mind making Jackson some breakfast?”

  “Not at all,” Edwin said excitedly. “We should have some ingredients left from before Wyatt left that I can use to whip something up for him.”

  “Thank you, Edwin. He’s downstairs in the common room.”

  “You’re welcome,” Edwin said as he left the room.

  “I wanted to thank
you two for picking up my car,” Renata said sheepishly to Heather and Will, knowing this would stir a conversation with Will that she wasn’t looking forward to having.

  “Don’t mention it,” Heather smiled at her.

  Will remained silent with a hard look on his face. The tension between the two was so thick.

  Clearly, Renata was not the only one who could sense it. Heather stood. “We’ll give you guys your space.” With that, she and Veronica left Will and Renata alone in the common room. The thickness in the air suffocated her.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell anyone where I was going.” Renata explained, “I didn’t want to put anyone at risk by coming with me, so I thought it would be better if I went alone.”

  “Yeah, Ren, I’m mad you didn’t tell me where you were going,” his ginger eyes narrowed. “But I’m more upset that you didn’t think to tell anyone that Scott’s trying to kill you. In all our years of friendship, you’ve never kept anything from me before. Lately, it’s been happening a lot.”

  Renata sat down in the chair across from Will. “Jackson told you.”

  “He mentioned it when you were in your room. The note, the attack…” Will trailed off, running his hand through his short, sandy-blonde hair. “Have you lost your mind? What were you thinking?”

  Renata wrapped her arms around her torso. She hadn’t been thinking.

  “You don’t hesitate to put yourself at risk,” Will sighed. “Or put yourself in a potentially dangerous, life-threatening situation, instead of just asking someone for back up.”

  “I won’t risk the lives of the vampires who depend on me. I’m their leader, your leader, and it’s my responsibility to protect this House, whatever it takes.”

  “You don’t have to do it alone.” Will shook his head. “That’s not what Alexander would have done, and you, of all people, should know that.”

  Of course, he feels this way. Will didn’t know that Alexander sacrificed himself to protect them and that she was willing to do the same.

  “Will, Alexander wasn’t killed by a magna.”

  “What?”

  Renata inhaled. “Alexander sacrificed himself. He secretly poisoned his blood and allowed the Order to use it to make the magna elixir. The batch made with his blood killed all the hunters who drank it to buy us time.”