by Honor James
Lords of the Expanse
Bonds of Blood
It was an arrangement, a contract, a deal between factions. Andries Mauricio is a soldier, does his duty, serves his people, and prays to die with dignity when his day comes. But then she steps into his life, rearranges all his preconceived notions, and puts his carefully controlled world into a tailspin. If only he knew for sure she was there for him and not to gain information for her backstabbing father.
Every moment of her life is filled with terror and worry, every moment carefully thought out so as not to bring pain. Xandra Ripley knows how her days will end. Then it all changes with the first kind thing ever done for her.
With war imminent, there they are, in the middle. Xandra wants safety. Andries wants his enemies dead. Can two more different people ever see what they both have before it's too late? Time is running out, and everything, including their hearts, is on the line in the most important battle of their lives.
Genre: Futuristic, Science Fiction, Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 95,506 words
BONDS OF BLOOD
Lords of the Expanse
Honor James
EROTIC ROMANCE
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance
BONDS OF BLOOD
Copyright © 2013 by Honor James
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-320-0
First E-book Publication: February 2013
Cover design by Harris Channing
All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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I dedicate this novel once more to you, my Dear Ones, the Readers. Without you, dear ones, I couldn’t continue to do what I do. Thank you for your continued support as well as your wonderful feedback.
BONDS OF BLOOD
Lords of the Expanse
HONOR JAMES
Copyright © 2013
Prologue
Vampire Genesis–In a time long since forgotten
Of all things in life there are only certain constants. Life, death, war, and greed, these are all things that remain the same no matter which life you come from, no matter which race you are. Human, Vampire, non-Vampire, it’s all the same, these constants. Sometimes, however, there are some others thrown in, rare and beautiful as they are—kindness, hope, love.
The Vampire Nation was formed in darkness. It crawled from that darkness in its beast form and was eventually tamed by wisdom.
In the beginning the battle between Vampires and non-Vampires of the world Castitas was legendary. Brutal and savage, the Vampires began to cut through the more human side of their world like a hot knife through butter. It mattered not to them the destruction they wrought. Their hungers, their base desires were all that mattered.
And then it changed. One day all of this changed when from the non-Vampires came a woman. She was not a woman of large or massive stature, but the power she wielded, the strength she showed brought all battles to a halt. She was a seer, a prophet, and the words she spoke would change everything.
Soft and gentle the words were spoken. The ruler of the Vampire nation laid down his weapon at her feet and listened.
From the non-Vampire of our world will come the first daughters. The daughters of Eve. They will be the beginning of your future Vampire lord. They will lay the foundation of what will come, what will be one of the greatest and most powerful nations in the universe ever.
In the beginning they will bind their souls to the lords of the Vampire nation, teaching them, showing them love and trust. But in time, those first seeds sown will spread on the winds to other worlds to find those lines worthy and strong enough to be a Vampire lord’s true mate.
Together the first daughters here in the non-Vampire realm and your chosen of the Vampire nation will learn just what it means to be bound as one. They will be the future for all, Vampire and non-Vampire, my lord. Soon each of the High Lords who serve under you will begin their house. Honor, truth, justice and equality will be at the very heart of this. To these first High Lords a bride shall soon come and from there, my lord, we shall make history.
Chapter One
Staring out the window that had been specially treated to keep out the damaging rays of their sun, Andries’s mind was on things other than the discussion in the room behind him. He knew that he should be paying attention, but he had no patience for politics and the mechanics of the so-called “peace” talks. He knew war, how to kill in absolute silence, how to take a life with ease, thousands of variations and all of them without a weapon. Put a weapon in his hands and, just as it was with his men and the others of their military, he was nigh unstoppable.
“Colonel Mauricio,” one of the voices behind him called, attempting to regain his attention to the discussion currently on the floor.
Turning his six-foot-six frame, Andries lifted a brow which matched the blacker-than-night hair cut in the brutally short military style as he focused his citron gaze on the speaker. As it always did, his unusual eye color made the man decidedly uncomfortable, so much so that he
looked down to the papers before him to avoid it. “Yes?” Andries asked, his voice a low rumble of sound, one he’d once heard made a man wish for death rather than hear anything more from his mouth.
Clearing his throat, the chancellor, a member of their ruling Alliance, glanced to the others as though hoping they would speak up so as to remove Andries’s attention from him. They all appeared to be ignoring him, quite pointedly. “What are your thoughts on what the Syndicate has proposed?” the chancellor asked after a moment of discomfort.
Ah yes, the Syndicate of Systems. A rather innocuous term for the human vultures and butchers that led the people under them with bloody and iron fists. Any who opposed the Syndicate became barely even a footnote in history as they were crushed under the Syndicate’s bootheels. And they dared to refer to his people as animals. At least his people had come to a peace amongst themselves and the worlds under their umbrella of protection, and it hadn’t been done in oceans of blood either.
Running his tongue lightly over his teeth, Andries considered the “offer” the Syndicate had proposed not a fortnight before. A high-born daughter of one of their leaders in marriage to a lord of his world. It was the Syndicate’s hope that this marriage would allow them entry to what the Castitans controlled, their space, the planets, and, most importantly in the Syndicate’s minds, the natural resources undisturbed upon said planets.
“You would need to find yourself a lord willing to take on a human female, chancellor,” he said in a low tone, ever careful of every word he spoke. “Not just any man is going to accept this, and I doubt greatly that any on our world will see it as the honor these humans continually claim it to be.”
The chancellors all nodded, but he knew that they’d already considered that fact, and he had a sneaking suspicion they’d already decided just who would be the one to receive the “honor.” What made his skin crawl and his blood chill was the dawning realization that he was a sitting duck for their grand plan. Andries was not just a soldier of their people, but, because of a circumstance of birth, he was also a very high-ranking lord.
All of a sudden so much came to him in crystal clarity. Stepping forward, he cut the distance that he’d been careful to maintain up to that moment for their “comfort” and watched with some internal satisfaction as they all forced themselves to remain in place, though many flinched and he was sure at least two jumped practically from their skin. “If you are thinking of having me step into this ‘honor’”—his lips curled up in a sneer that bared one of his long incisors—“you had better think again.”
Clearing his throat, the chancellor seemed to be searching for his voice as he eyed him. “But, my lord,” he said, his voice higher than normal, “we’ve already spoken with your father and he’s agreed this is exactly what should happen.” Those words were thrown out as if they might save him from Andries’s wrath.
It did have the effect of stopping Andries where he stood. “He what?” he asked in stunned horror. The man that had given him life had never been his father in any sense of the word, and yet, they thought his “permission” would put him in his place.
“Your father told us to let you know that it was his wish you accept this newest station or…” Another of the chancellors trailed off when cold yellow eyes turned his way.
“Or?” Andries growled the word out in question.
“Or he would remove his claim to you being his son,” the chancellor finished in a barely there whisper.
Stunned, Andries stared at him for a long time as those words ricocheted in his head. If his—he sneered internally—father removed his claim of the blood tie between them, Andries would lose his position in the military and be shunned from all of society. He saw the sympathetic looks the chancellors directed his way, but he ignored them. Swallowing hard, his pride pricked by the hateful position his father had placed him in, he nodded. “Fine,” he said in a biting tone. “If that is what needs to happen, then so be it, but if she is not in agreement of this fully, without threat from the Syndicate, it’s off.”
The relief that filled the room was palpable to his finely tuned senses. “We will let the Syndicate know of this latest term, my lord,” the first chancellor who’d spoken said quietly.
Turning, Andries left the room, his long strides carrying him out of there before he gave into his more primitive nature and he did as his normally deeply buried beast demanded and bathed in their blood.
“May the gods help us all,” one of the men whispered softly as he looked at his fellow chancellors, and, for once, there was no argument to that from any of them.
Chapter Two
“They have agreed, my lord,” The bulky man said from his knees before his lord and master. “The Vampire Lord has agreed as you said he would.”
Dressed in garnet and silver, the lord nodded his head. “I knew that the old Vampire would see it my way.” There was a deadly gleam in the eye of the lord in question. “You simply need to know what to use as leverage and everything will come to you.”
“And your daughter, my lord, what is the leverage you use to steer her into this alliance?” The question shot out of the man’s mouth before he could pull it away.
The laughter that echoed off of the tapestry-lined room wasn’t of mirth or joy, it was of cunning. “That one is easy, Marcel. She will do as I tell her, or the thing she holds most dear is gone.”
“The stipulation is that he will not accept a bride who has been forced into the union,” Marcel said as he flinched, knowing the strike would come and felt amazed when it didn’t.
“He will simply not be told she is being forced. Xandra has learned not to cross me. That lesson was taught to her long ago. No, Xandra knows her place.” The lesson had been one that Lord Ripley had enjoyed. “And her lesson earned me my place in the Syndicate, because of the brutal murder of my beloved wife.” He snorted. “I am now the most revered and feared man in the cosmos.”
Marcel paled. He simply nodded his head and bowed in supplication. “Yes, my lord, that you are.”
“Go, bring my daughter to me. It’s time that the little bitch learns that she has to pay for the freedom that she has had all these years. Now it is time for her to do as I have raised her to do, or else.”
Marcel didn’t stand. He scooted out of his master’s sight before standing and racing through the halls to find Lady Xandra.
* * * *
Long lavender hair was caught in the breeze and impatiently tucked back behind small ears as the woman bent over the leg of the small boy screaming on the grounds. “Shh, I have you, Anaka, but you need to trust me.” The woman was young, but the sadness in her eyes told that she had seen far more than she ever should in life.
“We are almost finished here, Anaka, and then you can run off to your parents, darling. Be still.” Her voice was like that of the gentle breeze, soft but with the ability to turn strong, forceful at any moment.
“It hurts, Xandra!” he cried out again, hands gripping her arms, bruising the honey-colored skin of her body.
“I know, Anaka, and I wish I could give you a shot for the pain, but not yet.” She smoothed her long fingers over his hair. “Think about your puppy. You saved her from death, Anaka. That was very brave of you.” She looked to her personal assistant, who was even now treating the leg of the child, and nodded. “See, almost done.” One thing about the assistant, he was a more than adept healer. Too bad she couldn’t stand to be alone with him.
“It is done, my lady,” the man said finally in more of a sneer than not. What was clear on his face was that he didn’t understand why the woman insisted he treat a peasant. Xandra knew, though, that it was more information he could give Lord Ripley, and the lord was always very appreciative of information.
“Thank you, Diego. You can go now.” Xandra held her hand out to the small boy. “Come along, Anaka. We will get you home.” Xandra was unlike any of their people. She was that one rare being who was prophesied to be born, and her father made certain that all i
n the Syndicate recalled that she was the incarnation of their once Goddess Gaia, even if she knew she wasn’t.
Xandra’s long lavender hair, light-green skin, and eyes the color of the moon showed her as being more than just a human. They showed her as being something else entirely. She was her mother’s daughter, her mother who was a far-distant relative to the very Vampires that her father sought an alliance with.
Diego shook his head. “You know the rules, my lady.” The words were said with complete disdain for her. He didn’t like her at all. Her and her goody-two-shoes attitude, believing that there was more to life than constant war. No, someone needed to break the bitch, and he was glad that it was going to be someone as brutal as a Vampire lord. Too bad he wouldn’t be there to watch…or could he?
Marcel came tearing down the fields and was huffing and puffing when he reached Xandra and Diego. “My lady.”
“Take your time, Marcel. Go home, Ana. Go home and I will see you another time, all right?” She touched the child’s cheek and sent him on his way before looking at her father’s right-hand man. “Did you need me, Marcel?”
“Yes, your father has news,” he said with a gleam in his eyes that made Xan’s blood run cold.
“I will come straight away. I need to change and become presentable for him.” She had learned not to go without ensuring she was cleaned and properly dressed first. It only took once of having to walk through the palace naked to ensure she never made the mistake of not following his edicts to the letter again.
