Blood

by K. B. Ladnier

  It amazed me how Claudia could deny a man like him, when not only did he obviously love her, but practically worshipped her and would get on his knees if she asked. One day, that best friend of mine would stop being stubborn and just take what was so blatantly offered to her.

  “I’m quite well, Lucy. Glad to see you’re around causing mischief again. I was starting to worry Claudia would never get a full night’s rest until you were found. Are you well?” He palmed my face turning it side to side, checking me over like a mother hen.

  I laughed and pulled his hands away. “I’m fine. I promise. Turns out I wasn’t taken by someone who meant me harm.” I looped my arm through his and pulled him over to Vex, who had a strange look on his face.

  When they were facing each other, simultaneously they shouted and pointed at each other, “You!”

  Vex instantly grabbed me and pushed me behind his back, guarding me from Abraham like a damn dog.

  “What’s going on?” I tried shoving out from around Vex, but he wasn’t having it.

  “I’d like to know the same thing!” Claudia said, throwing a shady look at Vex.

  “Get your hands off Lucy, Vasiliy! You should not be here!” Abraham hissed at Vex, his stance ready to pounce.

  “You two know each other?” I asked, still uselessly trying to get around Vex.

  “I should say the same for you!” Vex sneered back.

  Both men were almost chest to chest, staring each other down with death glares.

  “Hold up just a damned minute!” Sloan bellowed, he and Hollis coming between them to push them away from each other.

  “How do you two know each other and why shouldn’t either of you be here?” Hollis asked calmly, looking back and forth between them.

  “He is Bellamy’s lap dog! It’s been a good hundred years since I’ve seen him, but none have made me ashamed of being a vampire quite like him!” Brahm shouted, angrily gesturing at Vex.

  “You’re one to talk! I don’t share blood with the monster behind the minions!” Vex replied angrily.

  They began shouting back and forth at each other, none of us able to make out what they were saying since they were speaking a language I wasn’t familiar with. I’d finally had enough of the warring testosterone, pulling myself out from behind Vex while he was distracted. I stuck my fingers in my mouth, letting out a loud, high pitched whistle. They both went silent.

  “Enough!” I yelled. “You two! Corner chairs. Now!” I pointed my finger at the chairs set up in the corner of the room.

  Claudia and Sloan silently giggled at my treating them like four-year olds. Surprisingly, it worked.

  They each sat in a chair, leaving the one between them empty and crossing their arms as they glared at each other.

  “This is how it’s gonna go!” I put my hands on my hips and stood before them. “One at a time you both will explain to me how the fuck you know each other!” I pointed at Abraham. “But first, I wanna know what Vex meant by you sharing blood with Bellamy. And for the love of God, please do not tell me he means that in the drinking sense!”

  Brahm threw one last leer at Vex before answering. And boy was it a fucking doozy that none of us were expecting.

  “Bellamy is my brother.”

  Shit, meet fan…

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Hold on. Back the hell up! Bellamy is your brother?”

  I was stunned. In the few years I’d known Abraham, I’d never heard any mention of a brother. And now, suddenly he was telling us his brother was not only a psychopath that made Vex look like a damn kitten, but was the cause of all of our problems right now.

  “Half-brother, technically. I haven’t seen him since I saw Vasiliy here at least a hundred years ago. We don’t get along that well because of his insatiable need to be more powerful, more violent. We stopped interacting with each other at least six hundred years ago.”

  “This world just keeps getting smaller and I’m not sure I like it,” Claudia said with a sigh and sitting in the empty chair between our feuding makers.

  “Did you know he was the one behind the shit storm that’s been hitting the city?” Sloan asked.

  Brahm looked surprised. “He is? I had no idea, whatsoever. Though, if I’m being honest that doesn’t surprise me. He’s a malicious bastard that always has to come up with some way to dominate over the humans. It’s not his first attempt. He’s had a hand in a lot of the wars that have plagued humans within the last two thousand years.”

  “I find that hard to believe,” Vex muttered insolently from his seat.

  “Behave, Vex,” I said to him, palming his cheek in my hand to comfort him. “He is Claudia’s maker and a dear friend to me. If you can’t trust him, at least trust me.” I could understand why Vex immediately felt distrust towards Brahm. The hell that Bellamy put him through all these years would make anyone act the same in his position when confronted with his enemy’s brother.

  Vex sighed and pulled me to sit on his lap, leaning his forehead against my temple to whisper, “I’d trust you with my life, pet. You know that.”

  “Now that I’ve answered your question, how about you answer mine, Lucy,” Brahm said to me, his eyes flicking back and forth between Vex and I sitting in this intimate fashion. “Why is Vex here? He has just as much a body count behind him as Bellamy and is twice the psychopath.”

  “Long story short, Vex is my maker. He changed me and left me to avoid Bellamy finding out about me. He was the one who took me that night. He thought Bellamy was getting too close after those vampires attacked me in the alley and decided I was safer under his nose.”

  Abraham’s jaw dropped. “This is truth?” He looked at me and then at the others, all of who were nodding. “Small world, indeed. Can you trust him, though?” Brahm asked me seriously.

  “Yeah, I can.”

  “And you three?” He asked Hollis, Sloan and Claudia.

  “He could’ve handed her over to Bellamy or killed her at any time. He didn’t,” Hollis answered. “His information on what Bellamy’s planning is invaluable. We’d never have figured it out without his help. So, yes. I trust him.”

  Sloan nodded, agreeing with Hollis’ statement.

  “I don’t trust his fashion sense, but Vexie is good people, Brahm.” Claudia grabbed his hand and squeezed. “You can trust him.”

  With that, Abraham relaxed and smiled up at Claudia with all the adoration all three of my guys give me every time they looked at me.

  Seriously ... how the hell did she miss that?

  After I recounted the story of what happened to Abraham, it was decided we all needed a day to relax and rest. We had one more day before Bellamy planned to attack and all of the STF was getting ready for the counterattack.

  I finally met this Bishop Bentley character and boy, they were not exaggerating. I almost wet my pants when he walked into the room.

  He agreed that his team would be helping Hollis’ take down Bellamy. He even contacted the human police at NYPD to let them in on what would be happening. They’d all be given specialty weapons to help combat the vampires, but were told to keep what was happening as on the down low as possible. We couldn’t incite panic or let Bellamy know we were onto him. They weren’t pleased, but they knew that no vampires other than our little group and the ones within the STF were to be trusted. There was no telling who was loyal to Bellamy and who was just an innocent vampire caught in the middle of a war.

  It was decided that all my guys would just stay with me at mine and Claudia’s apartment, while she stayed with Abraham at the club. None of us wanted to be separated right now and Claudia would be fine with Abraham once again.

  The sun set on the night before Bellamy would attack, and I awakened to all my men talking amongst themselves quietly. I slid my coffin lid open and eyed them suspiciously. Vex was dressed in his usual clothes, but was wearing one of Hollis’ vests with the STF patch taken off.

  “What’s going on?” I asked them, getting a bit worried
he was about do something really dumb.

  “I think I know of some other vampires who would stand against Bellamy,” Vex replied, walking up to me and brushing a stray dread from my face. “I would have to check a few of the places they nest and ...”

  “And?” I prodded; dread hitting my stomach like a ten-pound weight.

  “And ... I have to go alone.”

  ‘What?” I shouted at him, making him lean back in shock. I looked over his shoulder at Hollis and Sloan, both looking guiltily at their feet. “And you two agreed this was okay?”

  “It’s a smart move, Luce,” admitted Sloan, coming up to me and rubbing the back of my shoulder. “The humans have no idea what they’re up against and we have no idea how many vampires Bellamy has. We need the bodies.”

  “Vex is gonna be a body if they decide to kill him. There may not even be a body left!”

  Vex grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to look at him. “Lucy, I’m almost offended you think I can’t take care of myself. I will be fine. I’m positive they will be on our side. It’ll take me only a few hours there and back. Trust me, okay?”

  I chewed my lip, debating on if I could hold him down until he relented on this fool’s errand. But then common sense kicked in and I saw the bigger picture. We did need all the help we could get and Vex was hundreds of years old, making it least likely they’d be able to take him. With logic taking over, my shoulders sagged and I nodded my head in defeat.

  “Alright. But you better take a cell phone with you and keep me updated or so help me, I will find you, stake you, and then give Betty to Sloan to use as an everyday tool.”

  Vex gasped dramatically, his hand flying behind him to grasp the hammer itself protectively. “You wouldn’t dare! She’s worth more than that!”

  “Then I suggest you keep in touch. Deal?” I raised my brow, challenging him to test me on this.

  “Deal. You’re an evil woman, Lucy Bryant,” he said with a smile and leaned down to kiss me. He kept it short because the other two were still getting used to the idea of him being with me alongside them, but it still had all the meaning it needed to in it.

  I felt the loss of his presence the moment he left, trying my hardest not to show it to the other two. I plopped down on the couch and searched for the remote between the cushions, hoping to watch something that would take my mind off worrying. When I finally felt it and pulled it out, a hand came over me and snatched it from me.

  Sloan was leaned over me smiling like the dog that got the bone. “Nope! No TV. You’ve been gone for weeks and we want to spend time with you,” he said, tossing the remote to the other couch.

  “We can’t do that watching TV? I need to distract myself.”

  Hollis sat to my right, his arm coming around to rest on the back of the couch behind me. “We could, but we have other things in mind,” he responded with the same look that Sloan had just given me.

  My stomach twisted anxiously, having an idea of where this was going. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t almost instantly wet with need, at the thought of them both taking me together. Sloan jumped over the couch and landed on my other side, his hand gliding up the inside of my thigh and his mouth next to my ear. I shuddered at the sensations that shot through me at such gentle touches.

  “We will be distracting you just fine, Luce. Don’t you want us?” Sloan whispered huskily.

  I felt Hollis lean in on my other side, his lips caressing my bare shoulder and hand on the inside of my other thigh. My body was beginning to shake with desire, my breathing coming out in gasps. They had no idea how badly I wanted this, but I couldn’t tell them that because Sloan’s hand went higher, sliding in beneath my underwear. My head flung back, a moan escaping from my lips.

  “I don’t think she can answer you. Maybe we should make her see reason. What do you think, Sloan?” Hollis said, his hand coming up to knead my breast and teeth grazing my exposed neck.

  “I’m all for making her see reason, maybe some stars right after. You know, let’s make her scream while we’re at it.”

  His fingers plunged into me, making me do exactly what he wanted. I screamed in ecstasy at his touch.

  I was picked up and placed on the soft carpet on the floor, both of my men lifting their shirts over their heads as they stood above me, giving me an uninterrupted view of both of their drool worthy, sculpted torsos.

  “Think you can handle both of us at once, Lucy?” Sloan asked me seductively as he and Hollis dropped to their knees simultaneously on either side of me.

  “Y-yes. Please...” I begged them, bringing my hands up to touch both of their chiseled abs.

  “Well, since you said please,” Hollis said in a low growl.

  Then they descended on me.

  They were a frenzy of mouths and hands, touching me everywhere and ridding me of my clothes as they went. I fell into a state of absolute bliss as they kissed, bit, and licked their way along my body. It took a bit of practice maneuvering ourselves into positions that benefited us all at once, but I was always the center of all the pleasure. They were everywhere.

  At one point, Hollis had bitten me just beside my core, causing one of the most violent climaxes I’d ever experienced. It was all almost too much to bear, but it was the most exceptional sexual experiences of my life being with them at once.

  We went on for the next two hours, none of us stopping to rest at any point in time.

  When we finally did, we all lay there exhausted. Sloan on his back with his arm slung over his eyes as he tried getting his breathing under control. Hollis rested on his stomach, arms splayed out on either side of him. I lay in between them, my head on Sloan’s chest, my right leg resting between Hollis’. My right hand played with Sloan’s hair while my other rested over Hollis’ arm slung over my stomach.

  This was how Vex found us when he came back.

  He had texted me from the phone Hollis had given him thirty minutes ago, saying that the vampires were in fact on our side and would fight with us.

  “What the hell? How come I wasn’t invited to the Lucy Love Nest?” Vex jested above us with a smirk firmly in place and his arms crossed over his chest.

  “It’s not my fault. They just attacked me,” I defended myself with a grin that was anything but innocent.

  “Yes, pet. You look absolutely ravished.” Vex chuckled and held a hand out for me. I grabbed it and he lifted me up, bringing me into his arms for a warm hug. “Next time I want in.”

  “As long as you don’t bring Betty, we’re good.” Sloan mumbled from the floor.

  “Why must you always ruin my fun?” Vex kicked at Sloan’s foot.

  I swear these men of mine would never get boring.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The following morning after being made into a sexy sandwich by Hollis and Sloan and before the sun came up, we all made our way to the STF station.

  There’d be no resting for me today.

  We had to get with all of the team members from Hollis’ and Bishop’s teams to go over the game plan for the coming fight we’d be facing this evening. Claudia and Abraham were meeting us there. Abraham offered to lend a hand on the condition that Claudia would be kept out of it. She was angry, obviously, but I agreed with him. Claudia was less of a fighter than I was.

  There had been a huge fight between me and the guys on my participation. Vex was teetering between letting me and not, but Hollis and Sloan had both argued with a resounding no.

  “She isn’t a fighter, Vex! You weren’t there when your men took her that night. She doesn’t know how to fire a weapon and was too scared to even move off the floor. This is too much for her!” Sloan had shouted at him.

  “Um, I’m right here,” I’d argued, apparently invisible.

  “You weren’t there when she fought me off. Yes, she was scared, but she’s also tactical and a good runner. I couldn’t catch her even drugged out of my mind!” Vex argued back.

  “Still right here, guys.”

  “I’m not c
omfortable with her being there. We’d all be too worried about watching her back instead of ours. Concentration would be completely out the window,” Hollis added.

  “Guyyyyys,” I had said a little louder, still being completely ignored.

  “Just give her a gun and put her between all three of us. I think she’d surprise you if you just let her,” Vex stated with a shrug.

  They continued arguing back and forth, so I slipped off the bar stool I was sitting on and grabbed Hollis’ gun from his holster on the table, still very much invisible to them.

  I checked if it was loaded and then held it up, aiming at the eye socket of a skull on the poster hanging by the door. When my sight was lined up, I fired.

  The loud bang of the gun had all three of my men ducking down, looking everywhere for the threat, only to see me standing there with the gun. I lowered it and set it down back in its holster.

  “What the fuck, Luce?” Sloan had shouted. All three of them stood there gaping at me.

  “If all of you would stop prattling on to each other like I’m not even here, you’ll notice I actually have pretty good aim.” I had pointed at the direct bullseye mark in the middle of the eye socket I’d been aiming at.

  “When the hell did you learn to shoot that?” Hollis had asked while walking over to grab his gun and attach it to his belt.

  “One of Vex’s men showed me while I was there. He would give me lessons while watching over me when Vex was gone,” I had said with a shrug. I hadn’t told Vex that because I hadn’t wanted him to get mad at the guy.

  “Which one?” Vex had asked.

  “Gangly one with the hair that fell in his face all the time.”