Tempted by Blood

by Laurie London

  He was impressed by this human woman’s passion and unwavering support of one of his people. “I’m saying, no, I won’t accept his resignation because I want him to stay on as a Guardian.”

  Jackson snapped his head up. “What? But I’m an Unseen. I thought—”

  “You’re not reverting, Jackson. Dom just informed me that an ancient dormant power has been awakened in him, too, but it has nothing to do with reverting. It’s activated by the blood of someone with whom you share a special bond.” It royally pissed him off that he was just finding out about this now. Had he known that one of his field team leaders had the power to vapor, he’d have taken advantage of it. He could think of many opportunities to put that ability to good use.

  “Enlazado por la Sangre. Bonded by blood.” Dom looked up from where he was holding Krystal’s hand. “He’s right. As long as I have ample amounts of Mackenzie’s blood in my system, I’m able to vapor. Turn myself into mist. It can come in pretty handy sometimes.”

  “Yes, it has.” Lily looked as if she was about to say something else, but when she glanced at Santiago, she changed her mind and snapped her mouth shut.

  Jesus, Mary and Joseph. There was obviously something going on between these guys that Santiago didn’t know about. They all worked so closely together, it was as if they had their own little goddamn club. Did they pass around notes and tell secrets, too? Play with Barbies and have sleepovers? Thank God he was up at Region most of the time. He didn’t have the time or patience for bullshit like this.

  Jackson took the clothes Arianna held out to him and got dressed. “But my cravings. My over-the-chart energy needs. How do you explain that?”

  Santiago folded his hands over his chest. “I’m not saying you weren’t on the road to reverting. You certainly may have been. But your actions tonight prove you’re not. No revert would’ve been able to resist sweetblood. Hell, not many law-abiding vampires could’ve, either. Whether you’ve gained control over your dark nature yourself or the blood of your woman has something to do with it, I don’t know. All I know is that you’re a damn good agent and I’m not about to agree to your resignation.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  “I’D REALLY LIKE TO TRY IT sometime.” Arianna dipped the peanut butter and honey sandwich into the egg mixture and set it on the griddle.

  Jackson peered over her shoulder. He’d never eaten something like this, but since it involved his favorite food, he was game. Plus, Arianna was a great cook. She’d made him try things he never thought he’d like. The sizzling sound made his mouth water. “No.”

  “But why? Haven’t I demonstrated to you that it might be something that I’d be into?”

  He laughed and sat up on the counter where he could watch. “I like the fact that you like me for me. That you don’t need…extra stuff to be…happy.”

  “You make me happy, but whatever. I’ll wear you down eventually.”

  She could try to talk him into it, but he wasn’t going to cave. That was the old him and he’d like to keep it that way. Thank God, Lily walked in, ending the conversation.

  “Alfonso thinks he found the perfect location for the proposed safe house and wants the two of you to check it out tonight.”

  During the debriefing after the island, Jackson had told Santiago about the Sector Mistress’s plans for sweetbloods. Since Krystal had been victimized several times already and was Arianna’s cousin, he agreed for them to look into some long-term options. He wasn’t completely sold on the idea—a Guardian’s responsibility wasn’t to get involved in human affairs—but he was willing to listen. Which for a close-minded son of a bitch like Santiago was a huge concession.

  “I can’t wait to see it.” Arianna put the sandwich on a plate. “Careful, it’s hot. Do you want one, Lily?”

  With a perplexed look on her face, Lily watched as Jackson took a bite.

  “It’s really good,” he managed to say with his mouth full. “The peanut butter’s all melty.”

  “Sure. Why not? Looks interesting.”

  Dom, Mitch and Cordell entered the kitchen and Arianna ended up fixing each of them a toasted sandwich, as well.

  “I’m glad you’re all here,” she said. “I got a call from a friend who worked with me at Xtark. Says I quit just in time. With Carter, the lead game designer, mysteriously gone, the company is making all employees take a mandatory, nonpaid two-week vacation. Sounds like they’re scrambling to regroup.”

  “We hamstringed Darkblood efforts again.” Jackson gave Mitch a high five and they clinked milk glasses.

  “They didn’t have a backup plan in case he left?” Dom took a small sample bite of his sandwich then followed it up with a larger bite.

  “Remember, they had always planned to turn him. They probably didn’t think they’d need a contingency plan.” Lily waved a bite on the end of her fork. “Next time you’re up, Arianna, can you make these for Zoe? She’d love this.”

  “Yeah, sure.” After fixing Jackson a second one, Arianna joined them at the center island, plate and fork in hand.

  Lily continued, “They must’ve figured they’d string him along for a while, keep this hanging over his head to get him to do what they wanted with the game.”

  Jackson noticed Arianna staring at her plate for a moment. He reached over and rubbed her back.

  Even though Carter had betrayed her, she still felt badly about the circumstances that had forced him to do something so terrible. She didn’t think she’d ever make a choice like he had, but you never knew until you walked a mile in someone else’s shoes.

  She flashed him a tiny smile.

  After finishing the first sandwich, he wasted no time starting in on the second one. “Yeah, they basically had him by the nuts and he couldn’t do a damn thing. Hey, where’s Xian? I want him to try this.”

  “He’s got a date,” answered Cordell.

  “Niiice,” said Jackson. “I’m going to wait up to see his walk of shame.”

  “I doubt there’s going to be a walk of shame,” Mitch said. “Xian is too much of a gentleman, unlike some people I know. Not everyone expects a first date to involve sheet time.”

  “You are so wrong about me,” Jackson said. “Arianna, tell them. We didn’t roll around on the first date.”

  “Uh, technically, we’ve never even had a date.”

  “What do you call that night when you fixed dinner for me at your house? We had wine. We talked. And we most certainly didn’t have sex.”

  Arianna laughed. “That was my attempt to get information from you and to keep you from biting my neck. It wasn’t really my idea of a date.”

  “DON’T PEEK,” JACKSON SAID to her as he led her outside.Arianna carefully picked her way down the front steps of Casa en las Colinas.

  “How can I with your hands over my eyes?”

  “Because you’re a cheater and I don’t trust you.”

  She knocked him playfully with her elbow. “What? When have I ever cheated?”

  “Do the words Texas Hold’em mean anything to you?”

  “Last night? That wasn’t cheating. Lily said she saw you peeking at my cards, so I was just evening the score. Ask Mackenzie. She saw it, too.”

  “I wasn’t looking at your cards.”

  “Then what were you looking at?”

  He hesitated.

  “See? Busted. You were trying to look at my cards. My cheating was canceled out because you did it first.”

  “Okay. Fine. But it wasn’t your cards I was trying to catch a glimpse of. It was your breasts.”

  “You’re so full of crap,” she said, laughing.

  “I’m serious. When it comes to you and your body, I’m a weak man, Arianna. A very weak man. I resort to all sorts of bad things when it come
s to you.”

  After about twenty steps on the gravel driveway, he stopped her. Night had fallen not long ago and the crickets were just starting up in the forest. He still hadn’t dropped his hands from her eyes.

  “What is this all about? Where are we going?”

  If the empathic connection worked equally both ways, she’d have tried to read his thoughts, but all she got from him was his excitement. Mackenzie had said she was able to hear Dom’s thoughts, but then, they’d shared a lot of blood, too. Arianna hadn’t had any of Jackson’s. Yet. While Mackenzie and the other changelings she’d met didn’t seem to be drawn to sweetbloods like other vampires were, she wanted to make sure it wouldn’t adversely affect her ability to be around them and run the sweet home before she went through the transformation process. Although Jackson was eager for her to be a changeling, he understood that the home, as well as her blog, were very important to her. And for that, she loved him even more.

  “I’m taking you out on our first date.”

  Her heart swelled. He’d remembered that offhand comment of hers. “You are?”

  “Do you recall when we first met and I made fun of your car?”

  “Yeah. You said it was a junker and a piece of shit.”

  “Well, that piece of shit saved our lives,” he said, removing his hands. “I had it repaired.... And then some.”

  She blinked once, twice, hardly believing what she saw.

  There, parked in the driveway, was her Caddy, painted her favorite shade of green.

  “Oh, my God.” She ran up to it and walked all the way around. It looked like a totally new car. All the dents were gone, the bumper reattached, the wheels rechromed. She opened the back door. Even the seats inside were new. The car had been completely restored.

  “You…you did this for me?” Tears stung her eyes as she turned toward him.

  “Yes. You like it?”

  “Looking at it now, I feel guilty about how badly I’ve treated it over the years. It’s…it’s gorgeous.”

  “I had thought you were just being careless, but it was on purpose?”

  She told him the story of how her father had given it to her years ago, thinking it was her birthday, when it really was the birthday of one of his girlfriends. She’d mistreated it all these years because of him.

  His expression darkened. “I’m…sorry. I should’ve asked you first. It was wrong of me to assume you’d like it fixed up.”

  Her heart felt like a huge, unwieldy lump in her throat. How long had he been planning this? Parts for such an old vehicle couldn’t have been easy to find. She grabbed his chin, forcing him to look at her. “I totally love it, Jackson. It’s the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me.” She reached up on tiptoe and kissed him. “Thank you.”

  “I didn’t know what it meant to you. What it represented. If you’d rather not drive it, I’ll understand completely.”

  She stood on the doorjamb so that she could look squarely into his eyes. “I can’t run from my past, Jackson. And you know what? I don’t want to. Are there things I wish had never happened? Absolutely. But my past is what made me what I am today and without it, I wouldn’t have you. This car—then and now—represents how I’ve changed since you came into my life. You’ve provided me answers that I’d been searching for over a lifetime. You filled a void inside that I didn’t think could be filled. And like this car, I feel like a better me. I’m happy… I’m fulfilled… I have answers. And it’s all because of you. God, I love you so much, it hurts.”

  His lips were crushing hers before her brain had even registered that he’d moved. In a flash, he shoved her into the backseat of the car and was on top of her.

  She laughed. “What if someone looks out and sees us?”

  “This won’t take long,” he grunted.

  Powerful muscles bulged under her hands as he shoved her skirt up to her waist. He unzipped his jeans and his thick erection sprang free. When he gripped the base of it to guide it into her body, her breath hitched.

  There, on the ridge of the tip, was that small metal stud.

  A thrill of excitement ran the length of her spine and curled itself deliciously low in her abdomen. Her thong rubbed against the sudden heat between her legs. She reached down and pulled the fabric aside. Had he forgotten he had it in? No way was she going to say anything, in case he stopped and removed it.

  When he slipped the tip into her folds, the warm metal pressed against her sensitive bud. Oh, my God, this was going to be amazing. She tilted her hips, eager to take him in, but he hesitated.

  “Will you tell me if it bothers you?” he whispered into her hair. “I’ll go slow so it doesn’t freak you out.”

  So he did remember. “It’s not going to freak me out,” she replied, digging her nails into his buttocks, urging him to continue. The heat between her legs was almost unbearable. Her body ached with a need so powerful that she was certain she’d shatter into a million pieces if he wasn’t soon inside her.

  This man was everything to her. He owned her heart and soul.

  As he slowly slid past her folds, the stud rubbed along her sensitive flesh, demanding her full attention. A surge of pleasure hit her so hard that she was certain she must’ve screamed.

  Not all the way inside yet, he stopped, a worried expression plastered on his face. “Are you okay? Do you need me to—”

  “Shh.” She brushed aside a strand of his hair that had loosened from his half ponytail and kissed him. “I’ve never had it happen so fast before.”

  Apparently satisfied by her response, he pushed his tongue into her mouth, claiming her, as he thrust himself the rest of the way in. She gasped against his lips, her inner muscles stretching just enough to accommodate his size. And then he began to move inside her.

  Over and over he thrust as animalistic male sounds rumbled in his chest. That metal stud rubbed against parts deep inside her that, until now, were foreign to her. A wave of pleasure so intense that it bordered on pain swept relentlessly over her again. She clasped her legs around his hips and hung on. Then, with one final push, he stopped, holding himself deep inside. He filled her unlike any man had ever done before.

  “Oh, my God, Arianna. Oh, my God.”

  Then his whole body shuddered as he released into her.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Three months later

  THE CROWD AT THE RIBBON-CUTTING ceremony was larger than Arianna expected. It seemed as though everyone who worked at Region or any of the field offices had brought a guest or two. The small theater was packed. They all wanted to see the Agency’s new sweetblood house, officially called a sweet home, even if it was all handled virtually. No one except a few authorized personnel was allowed to know the actual location.

  She looked around expectantly but didn’t see the people she’d invited. They’d promised they were coming, but she didn’t expect them to be true to their word. If they showed up, great. If not, it wasn’t like she had her heart set on it.

  A warm hand covered her shoulder. “How are you doing with the crowd? Hanging in there?”

  Touched by how considerate Jackson always was, she placed her hand over his. Her nervousness about large groups of people hadn’t come up much, so the fact that he remembered meant a lot to her. Even without the empathic connection, she’d bet he would’ve noticed.

  “To tell you the truth, I hadn’t really thought about it. I’m nervous, but it’s because of my speech. Many of these people don’t know me yet and this is the first impression they’re going to have. Not just of me but the entire sweet-home idea.”

  “Just talk about it like you’re explaining it to a friend. You’re passionate about this concept, Arianna. They’re going to see that and see this project for what it’s worth. All the regions have stru
ggled with how to protect the sweetbloods in their areas. This might very well be the solution they’ve been looking for.”

  Someone tapped on a wineglass and pretty soon the whole room was a cacophony of tinkling wineglasses.

  Dom walked up to the podium and adjusted the microphone for his height. “A few months ago when I first met Arianna, I was immediately impressed by her intelligence, her loyalty and her courage.”

  Arianna’s face heated and she didn’t hear much of the rest of his introduction. When everyone began to clap, she knew it was her cue.

  Dom gave her a quick hug. “I meant every word.”

  “Thanks,” she said, trying not to sound too sheepish.

  She pulled the microphone down and looked out into the crowd. Amidst a sea of unfamiliar faces, she spotted Lily and Alfonso near the stage. Good. She planned to point him out as the genius behind the design of the home and its extensive safety features.

  Kip, Mitch and a few of the other Guardians stood clustered together. Cordell stood alone and slightly away from them. His wife, Shannon, had been sick. She hoped it was nothing serious. She made a note to ask Jackson about it later. Since she was going to be working closely with Cordell, not only as the sweet-home administrator, but also because he’d agreed to be the new IT guy for Paranormalish, she wanted to be sensitive to what was going on in his personal life.

  She wished that Finn, a helicopter pilot for Region, and his fiancée, Brenna, could’ve come. A former Army Ranger, Finn was in charge of security at the house, but since he was a sweetblood, Santiago thought it best if he wasn’t around this large group of vampires.

  In the second row were a few of the Council members she’d met already. Their presence would’ve made her the most nervous, but she’d already been introduced to Trace, one of the newest Council members in the area. He’d said he was one hundred percent behind her and that a solution like this was long overdue. A beautiful woman with chin-length dark hair sat next to him. Mackenzie had told her that Trace’s woman had recently gone through the changeling process, so Arianna was eager to meet her and find out exactly what her experience had been like—though apparently it had been done to save her life.