Blood Lines: Conduit

by Mechele Armstrong

  His head spun. He almost went to his knees. His attraction. The chemistry. The pull between them that went even beyond desire, his need to be in her presence. Could Copper be his mate? Henri had told him for years he’d find his mate eventually. He’d ceased believing he would.

  He had no idea of the bonding rituals. Hell, had Henri not told him of Conduits, he never would have had any idea what she was.

  A buzz droned inside his head. Her voice.

  “Are you drunk or something? Drugged out?” She snapped her fingers in front of his face.

  “I’m fine. What were you saying?”

  “I want to know everything. Everything you do.” Her eyes snapped the fire her hair resembled.

  The effects hadn’t worn off, but his body slowly adjusted to its new capabilities. How long would he be like this? Damn, he’d forgotten how much trying to get a handle on abilities sucked. No wonder so many new vamps went loco. “It’s going to take a while to explain all this.”

  “You don’t have that long. I want to know what happened to my sister. Skip the rest.” He moved closer to her, and she shied backwards. He wanted her body touching his. His eyes zeroed in on the small cut on her lips. He swallowed. Wanted to kiss her and feed all at the same time. Blood rushed through his veins, down to his cock, stiffening it more. He could feel the blood, could feel the rush. Heady. And much more blood went there, he’d get a headache.

  Bastian sighed. “It isn’t that easy, Copper. You’re getting into things you have no business knowing.”

  “I knew it. You’re into all that S&M crap. That’s what’s gotten her into trouble.”

  “No. I’m not into S&M. Not exactly.” Although, her in a leather bustier and thigh-high boots captivated his mind. His erection throbbed. Too much blood pooled away from his brain, making him light-headed. He turned his mind to anything but Copper. Anything to get his libido down. But the worst ache came from his hunger. Her blood sang to him with its rushing and gushing.

  “Well, I know all about her activities. So I’m not getting into anything that’s over my head.” She folded her arms.

  “This has nothing to do with S&M.”

  “What does it have to do with?”

  “I have an enemy. I think my enemy took her. Is holding her.” Mostly the truth.

  “You mean like kidnapped?” Copper’s voice rose. “Someone kidnapped my sister, and you haven’t called the police.”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “911. Not all that complicated, asshole.”

  “The police can’t ... shouldn’t be brought in.” He watched her breathing hitch. Her breasts moved with each breath of air she took. Between them would be a nice place to be.

  “My face is about six inches above where you’re staring. And why no police?”

  He forced his eyes away from her chest to her face. Disgusting vegetables. Lima beans. Brussels sprouts. Must keep mind on conversation. “Because it’s complicated.”

  “You either tell me the whole truth about this. Or I call 911 right now.”

  “You can’t.”

  “Sure I can. Watch me.” She stomped toward the phone in the living room. “It’s easy. First, a nine. Then, a one ...”

  He had her in his arms before she’d taken too many steps. His muscles stayed tensed from the pounce. He could catch a gazelle like this. Maybe even rival a lion. It had been five minutes. Five minutes with a single drop. Damn.

  “Let me go!” She aimed a kick at his shins. He dodged it. Captured her hands before she could lift them to smack at him.

  “Look, Copper.” Another kick, another dodge.

  “Let go.”

  Bastian pulled her against him. Her body slid, the contact making him moan. Such perfect breasts to suck and hold now rested against his chest. He put his thigh between her legs. The warmth surrounded him. He wanted her naked. She would arch toward him. Her hair would tickle. He rubbed his thigh across the seam of her pants.

  She went slack. “Don’t do this.” Fear rushed off her in waves, in the scent of her sudden sweat. In the hair rising and goose pimples that erupted on her forearms. She thought he intended to take her by force.

  He growled. Put reins on the beast he kept shackled most of the time. The beast that cried to claim what already belonged to it. His body shuddered with the effort. “I’m not going to rape you. I need to talk to you. But if I hold you like this ... I may lose control. Promise me you won’t go for the phone.”

  “I promise.” She nodded. Every reaction triggered by her words told him she lied.

  “Now promise me truthfully. If you fight me, I will not tell you anything more about your sister.” He rubbed his leg against her again. The moisture that leaked almost undid him. Her arousal. Rip off her pants. Dive in with his fingers. Coat them in her scent. He groaned. “Not like this.” Steadied his voice. “Promise me.” He didn’t want to scare her. But he’d never been closer to losing himself to his animal instincts than he was at that moment.

  Copper swallowed. “OK. I promise I’ll listen first.”

  He ran his fingertips one last time over the skin of her arms, and then released her. “Copper, some of this is going to sound ludicrous. I need for you to try and have an open mind.” He took a deep breath. “I’m a vampire.”

  “You are crazy.” Each word came in a measured clipped voice. “Listening time over.”

  “No. No, it’s not.” The letter opener sat on the end table by the couch. He picked it up and plunged it into his stomach. Reeled back from the pain.

  Copper shrieked. “Oh, my god! What did you do that for?” Her eyes were wild and wide with a face full of horror.

  “I’ve found ...” He gritted against the pain, pulling out the opener. “... the more demonstrative the show is, the easier it is to get people to believe what I am.”

  He lifted his shirt, showing the pastel pink substance on his abdomen. She gasped. The wound had already started to knit itself and worked to do so more while they watched.

  “I’m a vampire, Copper. A real one.”

  Chapter Seven

  Bastian took her small hands and put them on the woundless spot on his stomach.

  She swallowed. He followed the movement down the long, slender slope of her throat. His tongue could find every nook and cranny. Taste her sweet skin. She put a hand over her throat. He forced his eyes upward to meet her glare. This, he couldn’t blame on the blood he’d taken in. The effect had slowly worn off and had vanished when he’d stabbed himself. This was lust. Driven only by needing her above anything he’d ever needed before. He needed to make her his.

  “No. This cannot be.”

  “It is.”

  “You’re nuts.”

  He smiled, letting his elongated canines show between his lips. “No. Not nuts. I’m a vampire.”

  She took a step back, eyes screaming as she scrambled. “No. Those are fake. They can’t be real.”

  “They’re real. Yes.” He picked up the opener again.

  “No! Don’t do that.” Her voice rose several pitches. “Please.”

  “I’m a vampire, Copper. Say it.” Saying it aloud helped the brain process the truth. She couldn’t deny what she’d seen. He needed her acceptance, and quickly.

  “You’re a vampire. How can that be?” She shook her head. “I’ve seen you in daylight. And not crispy.”

  “That’s a myth. I can walk in sunshine. Makes me uncomfortable, but I can do it. Lots of myths exist about us. But we are as real as the moon above.”

  “Where’s my sister?”

  “I don’t know.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I wish I knew her location.”

  “But you said an enemy of yours had her.” Her voice went an octave lower but had a plaintive note. He grasped her hand in his. Squeezed it. Led her to the couch and sat down beside her. He stroked her soft skin with the pad of his thumb. Memorized each bone, each hollow in the skin.

  “An enemy of mine does have her. But I don’t know where
.”

  “Don’t you have vampire spidey senses or something? Mind reading? Something you can use?” she huffed, scooting away from him. Did she have as much trouble thinking in proximity to him as he did to her? He couldn’t read her thoughts, but she showed signs of desire. She had to get past him being a vampire. And her sister having been his lover. It was imperative she dealt with those things. For his sake. And hers. If she was his mate, once they bonded, he could protect her. If anything happened to her ... No, he’d never let it.

  “Not any spider senses. I can sense vampires. But Evangeline knows this and is staying out of my range. I know she has people in the city, but I don’t know them so I can’t track their movements. If I find her, I find Crimson.”

  “So Evangeline is the bitch whose ass I have to kick.” Her body stiffened, tension vibrating out of it. It hung thick in the air around her.

  “No. You will stay far away from Evangeline.” Uh-oh. That came out like an order. It was, but usually he had more finesse than that. Orders as requests, less likely to set someone’s hackles the wrong direction. Something about her brought out his primal side.

  “Oh, like hell. She has my sister. I’m not staying out of this.” Copper sat forward on the cushions. Her face flushed. How far did the flush go down? He could follow it with his fingers ...

  “I never asked you to stay out of it. But the last thing I need is for you to get involved in this, and get hung up in Evangeline’s plans. Right now Evangeline thinks I think you’re Crimson. She’s bound to make a misstep.”

  “It hasn’t worked so far. You don’t have my sister back.”

  He sighed. “I know. I know this is hard. But going off like a bunch of cocks in search of hens won’t net us anything.”

  “That metaphor sucks.” It did. An old joke he and Henri had passed back and forth. She shook her fiery hair out, and it stretched halfway down her back. “I’m promising nothing. Who is this Evangeline, anyway?”

  “Another vampire.”

  “Figures. What did you do to her?”

  “A long time ago ...”

  “... in a galaxy far away ...”

  He arched a brow at her.

  She didn’t blush or flinch but waved a hand. “Sorry. Continue on.”

  Her smart-aleck comments were a thin disguise for her fear. He wanted to press, to make her lose her fear of him. But it had to come in her own time. No matter how much he hated it.

  “I killed her lover.”

  “Oh. So you killed the man of her dreams, and now she wants your pain?”

  He nodded, sliding his arm along the back of her seat. “And suffering. But it was the woman of her dreams.”

  Copper blinked. “She was a lesbian?”

  “All vampires become bisexual when they are turned.” He shrugged. “Evangeline was a lesbian as a human. In Victorian England.”

  “I bet that went over well.” The cushion made a soft sound when Copper pulled her legs up under her. “Now she’s a psycho, door-swings-both-ways creature of the night.”

  “Pretty much.” Bastian turned so he could get a better look at her face. It blocked her from moving away, too. He slid his leg against hers. Instant sparks.

  “Why?” Her voice came hesitant. Quiet. But probing.

  “Because she loved to kill. Marie was an animal. And I couldn’t let her slaughter innocent people. Evangeline has hated me ever since. She vowed revenge. I had no idea she’d wait over a hundred years to get it.”

  “How noble.” Her tone quieted. “Do you kill? How do you get blood?”

  “I’ve never killed. For blood, I use a willing human, or I now have suppliers from blood banks. But I have never taken a human life for my meal.” Henri had insisted on that when he’d made Bastian so many years ago in Italy. Henri would have killed him before he’d let Bastian hunt a human. Henri had taught him to control the beast that took over so many new vampires. In all his years, Bastian had never been closer to embracing his primal side. This woman brought all that out in him.

  “What other powers do you have?” Copper shook her head. She believed, but her head still asked questions, trying to make sense of it.

  “I have heightened senses. They are more in line with an animal’s than a human’s. I can do some mind reading.”

  “You’ve read my mind?” She gulped. Her face flushed again.

  “No. I can’t read your mind.”

  “You can’t?”

  He shook his head. Her sigh of relief made him smile. What thoughts had she had about him that she didn’t want him to know about?

  “What happened earlier when you kissed me? You looked like you’d been thrown for a loop.”

  Damn, he hadn’t been ready for this conversation. “I got a taste of your blood.”

  “I know. Icky, by the way.”

  “The drop energized me. Copper ... I think you ...” He broke off. Think with your head, not with your cock. If he told Copper what she was, she could broadcast that to any vampire who tried to read her if they got into her mind. If she didn’t know, no one else would know. She’d forgotten his outburst of earlier. Best to leave it alone. Bastian could block most vampires from his head. He had no idea if other vamps would be able to enter her mind when he couldn’t. Couldn’t take the chance that they could. If he were the only one who knew, her ability would stay secret. “I think you must have a strong blood source. Lots of iron.”

  “Well, I do eat my Wheaties. What’s your game plan now?”

  “Try and find Evangeline. Get Crimson back.”

  Her solemn jade eyes met his. “Then everything goes back the way it was.”

  Nothing would ever be the same. Hadn’t been since the day she’d gotten off the plane in St. Louis. “I ... don’t know about that.”

  * * * * *

  Copper leaned back on the sofa, sinking into its depths. Ignored his tone and his gleaming eyes. Didn’t want to think about this right now. Too much other stuff was piled onto her mind, demanding a review. Crimson had a vamp for a boyfriend. And was being held by a nutty one.

  “I know it’s a lot to take in.” He scooted closer to her. Retook the hand she’d pulled away. His fingers stretched out so long. He had pianist’s hands.

  “You think? Not every day I find out Nosferatu is real.”

  Bastian drew back, face aghast. “I am not Nosferatu.”

  “You’ve watched it?”

  “Well, of course. I watch everything vampire. Read a lot of books too. And laugh my ass off at how wrong the myths are.”

  “That’s real adult. How come I didn’t notice the fangs before you told me?”

  Bastian ran his hand along her arm. “Happens. The vampire who made me taught me to conceal them. To live among humans.”

  She shivered at his fingertips touching her. Inched away from him. “How are vampires made?”

  “A human has to be at the point of death and have all his blood drained. Then, they must drink blood from a vampire.”

  “Why drink from a vampire?” Her face crinkled with curiosity.

  “Because a vampire’s blood holds the power that make us what we are.”

  All this information didn’t help get her the one thing she wanted. Wanted more than Bastian. Her voice cracked. “I want my sister back.” So weak. She hated the way it sounded.

  “I promise you, I will get her back. I’ll do whatever it takes. I know more now than I did.” His voice sounded like a knife against an iron sharpener. He meant the words.

  “Did ... she tell you about me? That’s how you knew who I was?” Duh. Crimson had to be the one who’d told him about her twin.

  Bastian nodded. “She told me she had a twin sister. How did your mom come up with those names?”

  Copper smiled. “Mom didn’t know she was pregnant with twins until things started happening after Crimson was born and out popped me. We both had red hair. She is ... was an artist. So with two red-headed babies to name, she picked two reddish color names.”

&nb
sp; “You said ‘was an artist’?”

  “Mom died six months ago.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” He patted her shoulder.

  The tears welled up in her eyes. She didn’t want to cry but every time she heard those words, it reminded her. Of the loss. Crimson had come home. But not for long. And obviously hadn’t shared the reasons for her visit. “Mom had a long, full life. She died of bone cancer.”

  “Crimson said you’d had to move back to St. Joseph. That was why?”

  “Yeah.” She took a deep breath. She’d managed not to cry. “Someone had to take care of her. Crimson ...”

  “Crimson?”

  “Wasn’t happy I left. And that I stayed. But I had to take care of Mom.” She hadn’t wanted to move back at first. Leaving the small town they’d grown up in had been the first thing on both their minds after graduating. But Mom had needed it. So she’d done what she thought was the right thing. Then after Mom had died, she’d hidden behind jobs and boyfriends to stay in the safe bubble, where she at least still felt close to the one parent who’d loved them.

  Bastian had inched closer while they’d talked. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder. She leaned into it. Could get used to him being so close. “How about your dad?”

  “Our father was never involved. Other than semen.” Nor had a string of boyfriends been involved enough to get to know them. No matter how many times Mom had told them, “This one is the one.” And had transformed herself from eccentric artist to whatever the guy wanted her to be. Each relationship had lasted only months.

  “Crimson talked about you a little. Hardly ever your mom.”

  Only a little? Copper fought off the soupy feeling in her gut. Crimson had been so angry when she’d left St. Louis. And every visit home had resulted in arguments. Made sense, with the questions he’d been asking. Questions he should have known the answers to. Crimson hadn’t wanted to talk about her. She looked down at her hands, rubbing them together before speaking. “Crimson and Mom had lots of differences. Crimson never forgot when dinner was late, paint brushes were everywhere, or Mom wore something artsy to school or said something ditzy. But I loved my mother for all her eccentricities. Crim never understood that.”