Blood Price (Blood Immortal Book 1)

by Ava Benton

  “What happens if she gets back and there’s nobody here?” Cressida asked.

  I wasn’t used to hearing her sound so helpless. She normally took control and never let anybody around her forget she had it. Losing her child wasn’t something she knew how to navigate.

  Odds were, she hadn’t lost her forever. We would find Vanessa sulking somewhere, probably enjoying the thought of the rest of us panicking.

  Mariya looked around, then shrugged. “She’ll probably think somebody broke in here while she was gone, from the way you’ve stormed through. But hey, she deserves to sweat a little, doesn’t she?”

  I barely had time to stifle a chuckle before she walked past me and out the door.

  I found myself following her, though it was my idea to look for Vanessa all along.

  “I need to know I can trust you,” I said as we rode down in the elevator.

  “Trust me? Why wouldn’t you be able to trust me?”

  I opened my trench and revealed the smaller daggers, the hunting knife, the zip ties which might come in handy during questioning. Much stronger and easier to transport than a length of rope. The large, freshly polished silver dagger—my pride and joy, sat in its holster on my hip.

  Her eyes widened.

  “I need to know that if I’m forced to use any of these, you won’t back down or run away.”

  She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment.

  I tried to ignore the way that made me feel deep inside, and down south. I didn’t have those feelings. I was supposed to be like a machine, impervious to emotions and lust.

  Finally, she spoke. “Y—you think it’ll come to that? I thought—”

  “I don’t believe she ran away, Mariya,” I growled, closing my coat, fighting away the things she stirred within me.

  “You don’t? Why didn’t you say anything up there?”

  I couldn’t help but sneer, and understanding touched her face.

  “Right. My mother.”

  I nodded. “She wouldn’t have taken it very well.”

  “No, she wouldn’t have.” Her eyes went wide. “So? What do you think really happened?”

  “Her balcony door was slightly ajar. Either she went out last night, or somebody came in. The lock wasn’t forced, so I’m thinking it was the former.”

  “Oh, no…” She reeled, then fell back against the wall.

  “I need to know you’re going to stay strong,” I barked, making her jump.

  “I will. I promise.” She had gone a little pale for a moment, but she regained control of herself.

  “Good. Because you know a lot more than I do about the creatures we might be dealing with.”

  “Creatures?”

  We stepped out into the lobby, and she hurried to keep up with my long stride.

  “Witches. Sorcerers, maybe, who knows.”

  “It’s been a century since the last time we had trouble with sorcerers. Not even during my lifetime.”

  “I know. Which is why I have to think of them first. They’ve been lying in wait.”

  We stepped outside together.

  The sky had clouded over since the morning, and a cold rain had started to fall. Not heavy, but enough to make Mariya shiver and close her coat tighter around her neck.

  I wondered why she didn’t just cast a spell to keep herself warm or something, but it was a very vague thought. Because something much more imperative was gripping me.

  The need for human blood, which hit me like a tidal wave as a sea of humanity flowed past in all directions.

  6

  Mariya

  Just like that, Elias went rigid. Like a statue.

  One moment he was talking in that low rumble of his, almost snarling, and the next he went still.

  I touched his arm, and he recoiled like something burned him—or he had felt something nasty.

  His eyes met mine, and I barely held back a gasp of surprise. They weren’t that beautiful, icy blue anymore. They were blood red. And they smoldered like they might burst into flame at any moment.

  “What’s happening?” I whispered, cowering away from him. I had never been so terrified in my life.

  His lips pulled back from his teeth in a snarl.

  My eyes darted around, half looking for help and half praying that no one noticed as we stood together under the overhang attached to the front of Vanessa’s building.

  “I… I can’t…” He swallowed hard. “I can’t stand it…” His face twisted, turned ugly. His eyes bulged, his skin went whiter than white. His jaw worked like his fangs were extending and he didn’t have room for them when his mouth was closed.

  “What? What can’t you stand?” I whispered.

  “Blood. I need blood. Now.” He seemed to tower over me as his senses slipped away.

  I was losing him. It was so easy for me to forget who he really was. What he was. Not even human.

  Just a vampire. It was so easy to forget.

  “You need to deal with it,” I spat, staring up at him with all the intensity I could manage even though I was pretty close to peeing my pants. Or screaming.

  “Don’t tell me—” he snarled.

  “I know she cast the spell on you, because I was there when you woke up. You should be able to control yourself in the presence of humans. You need to try.”

  Why had he lost the control he’d had all this time? What changed?

  “It’s too much.” His chest rose and fell with each desperate, rasping gasp for air. His body almost vibrated with need. I had never seen anybody lose it like that and had no idea what to do.

  He grabbed my arm and squeezed until I yelped.

  I didn’t fight him as he dragged me around to the side of the building and into a dark, dank, sour-smelling alley where rain water ran down the brick walls.

  He slammed me into one of them so hard, it knocked the wind out of me.

  “Stop this,” I said, shoving him as hard as I could once we were away from prying eyes.

  It was no use, he was too strong. As unyielding as the bricks against my back.

  “Your blood… I can smell it… it’s like hers…” He pressed me to the wall and leaned in close, his hot breath rasping in my ear as he ran his lips over my throat.

  My eyes closed before I could help myself. Being so close to him, like I had imagined so many times...

  My eyes snapped open again, and I did the only thing I could think to do. I brought my knee up as hard as I could and winced as he howled in my ear.

  He fell back against the wall opposite me and writhed in pain, gripping himself.

  “Now. You listen to me.” I took the chance of charging at him, holding my hands up in front of me. “You know who I am and you know what I can do. I might not be my sister, but I’ll knock your damned head off if you ever pull some shit like that with me again, vampire. Understood?” I didn’t want to use magic on him, but he’d really pushed me.

  His eyes were squeezed tight as he grimaced in agony, but he managed to nod his head.

  “I understand you can’t help the way you are, but you need to fight it right now because we have to find my sister. Got it?” I didn’t lower my hands, just in case he felt like springing on me again.

  I felt the power tingling in my fingertips, just ready for me to unleash on him. I didn’t want to have to use it—not on him—but I knew I would if he pushed me any further.

  His eyes opened slowly.

  I could almost taste my relief when I saw that they’d gone back to their normal color, not that horrible blood red.

  “You’re going to behave now?” I asked.

  “Yes. I will. I apologize for losing my self-control.” He stood slowly, grimacing in pain as he did. “You were right, of course. Vanessa performed the spell to keep my blood lust at bay. I’ve never reacted that way before, ever. It’s never hit me so hard. All those people…” He sounded almost wistful as he turned his head and looked down to the end of the alley, where oblivious humans walked past.

&n
bsp; They had no idea how close they had come to being his lunch.

  It hit me. “Because she’s not with you,” I said, finally letting my hands drop to my sides. “I never thought about it. The spell works, but it’s not as efficient when you’re not together. You’ve never felt that way because you’ve never been without her since you imprinted on her. And I guess there weren’t this many people everywhere the last time you were here, with your last charge.”

  “You’re right. It’s the only explanation that makes any sense.” His forehead creased when he frowned, and his thick, dark eyebrows knitted together. “I don’t know if I can control it.”

  “You don’t have a choice,” I reminded him. “I wish I could cast a spell for you. But we both know how that would go.”

  “That’s true.”

  Both my coven—not to mention the High Council—and his Fold would be pretty righteously pissed off if we messed around like that. Once a vampire imprinted on one of us, it was only that witch’s blood they would drink. Only their spells they could live under.

  I had an idea. “What about animals? There’s bound to be a stray dog or cat around here.”

  He shook his head. “Animal blood is… disgusting.”

  Says the vampire who thinks human blood is a delicacy. “Beggars can’t be choosers,” I said, instead saying of what I was thinking.

  He sneered. “I’ll be all right. I’m aware of it now, and I’m controlling it. The whole thing simply came as a shock. I can still smell the blood, but I don’t need it.”

  “That’s a relief, then.” I was so relieved, I could’ve cried.

  I looked up and noticed that it was still raining. And I was getting soaked. “You think you can walk?” I asked, looking him up and down.

  “I’ll try,” he sneered.

  I regretted trying to be polite. “Good. Let’s get moving.”

  “Where do you want to check first?” he asked.

  “You’ll see.” It was going to my head, the fact that he had to follow my lead. I knew it, and I didn’t care.

  In fact, I felt a little proud. For once, somebody had to listen to me.

  7

  Mariya

  I brushed the rain from my coat once we stepped into the club and wished I had an umbrella. My hair was a soaked, tangled mess.

  I shook what water I could from it and fished around in my purse for a clip to hold it back. A messy bun was better than letting it hang in my eyes.

  “Why are we here?” he asked. There was a look of disgust on his face.

  “Don’t bother looking like you just stepped in dog shit,” I muttered through clenched teeth as I scanned the room and saw nothing but hostile eyes looking back at me. “Nobody here likes you any more than you like them.”

  “Thank you for the update,” he growled back.

  “Listen up. This happens to be one of the social hubs of our world—mine, I mean. You can’t tell me my sister never told you about this place.”

  “She might have mentioned it once or twice, but it isn’t like we spend long nights chatting by the fire. This was part of her old life.”

  “Right. She used to come in here all the time. Before she took over the coven, I mean. Now, she can’t come and go as she used to.”

  “That, I’ve heard about,” he chuckled humorlessly.

  “I’m sure you have. Come on, and behave yourself for her sake.”

  I led the way through the nearly empty club.

  It looked as though only the employees were there, getting ready for that night’s crowd. With the lights on and no music blasting from the speakers, it was like a completely different place. I had spent my fair share of time here. I wasn’t under the same restrictions my sister was.

  I recognized Julius behind the bar, restocking the bottles and polishing the glasses. “Julius. Long time, no see.”

  “I was just thinking the same thing about you.” The tall, burly bartender shot Elias a dirty look. “Him, I could do without seeing at all.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m sure he feels the same way.” I could feel the disgust coming off Elias in waves, like he would rather do just about anything else than be in the presence of so many witches.

  Coven meetings must have been a real joy for him.

  “I know you have to have a good reason for bringing him in here.” Julius leaned on the bar, arms spread wide. Maybe to show my vampire companion what a long reach he had in case fists started to fly. “So? What’s up?”

  “I know you’re the eyes and ears of this place,” I said with a wide smile. “You know all the dirt on everybody who steps foot in or out.”

  “Could be,” he grinned.

  The overhead light shone down on his smooth head with its variety of tattoos.

  He’d updated his ink since we were together, I noticed.

  “Have you heard anything about my sister?” I asked, reminding my hormones to give it a rest already.

  He snorted. Hard. “Her? Miss Shit-Don’t-Stink?”

  “Ah, so you have,” I laughed, even as tension knotted in my stomach. “Yeah, she’s sort of a big deal now.”

  “Too big a deal to stop by anymore,” he said, shaking his head with a frown. “A real shame. She lit this place up.”

  “Yeah, it’s a shame she found something more important to do with her life,” Elias snarled.

  I threw an arm across his chest but didn’t look at him.

  “Anyway. Anything, you know, not so nice? Not even specifically to do with her? You can tell me,” I winked. “Come on. For old time’s sake.”

  Elias snorted in the back of his throat, but I ignored that.

  Julius’s expression softened as he remembered the handful of nights we’d spent together.

  My crazy, misinformed youth.

  His eyes moved back and forth before he leaned in and dropped his voice to a whisper. “You did not hear this from me. Do you understand? I mean, you weren’t even here.” He glanced at Elias. “I really wish you didn’t bring him in here with you. They’ll remember him, anybody who gets asked any questions later on.”

  Shit. I never thought of that. “We’ll have to take our chances. What is it?”

  He looked around again before saying, “A couple of strange dark warlocks have been showing their faces around here. The last three or four nights. They sit at the bar for hours, drinking their faces off. At first, they’re cool. You know? They don’t say much, they keep to themselves. After an hour or two, shit starts spilling out of their mouths faster than I can pour the drinks. Now, you know the crowd we usually get in here. They just want to have fun. These douchebags have already scared a bunch of our customers away.”

  “What do they talk about?” I asked, breathless.

  “Something about a ritual. Something that hasn’t been done in years. A chosen one, sacred blood. Something that would let a sorcerer take over the powers of another witch or warlock. How much they were looking forward to the ritual taking place and how important they’ll be when their boss takes over one of the covens after this ritual.”

  “Did they say when that would be?” Elias asked. His voice was flat, emotionless.

  “They didn’t.” He straightened up and went back to his work. “As I said, you never heard it from me. Now, I think you’d better go. Fast.”

  He wasn’t kidding.

  We were attracting more attention than I was comfortable with.

  I felt curious eyes on us as we stepped back from the bar, then left the club hand-in-hand.

  I didn’t know when I took Elias’s hand, but I was holding it when we stepped back out into the nasty, chilly gloom.

  “What did you make of that?” I asked as I turned up my coat collar against what had become a heavy mist. My palm still seemed to tingle from the touch of his skin.

  “Have you ever heard of that ritual before?” He looked up and down the street.

  His jaw worked, the muscles jumped. Clearly, he was still struggling to keep his blood lust under control.


  “No, but I’m sure there has to be a record of it somewhere. I could ask Mother.”

  “Don’t do that. It’ll only get her all worked up and she’ll want to mount a war when we’re not even sure who the enemy is. Although I have my suspicions.”

  “Where should we go now?”

  “The mansion. The library at the mansion. If there’s a clue to find, it’ll be there.”

  8

  Elias

  Mariya and I were leafing through books at the mansion’s library. Mariya’s hair a sexy knotted mess she’d pulled back.

  “I never thought I would say this, but I wish I knew more about black magic.” Mariya shook her head as she flipped through page after page so fast, I thought she might tear them.

  “Nothing in the book on rituals?” I asked.

  “No. Nothing that fits in with what Julius told us. A chosen one, sacred blood, taking another witch’s power. I feel like we’re running out of time and I don’t know what to do about it.” A note of panic crept into her voice.

  “Remember when I asked if I could trust you?” I called out from the corner of the library as I pulled down another book on ancient blood magic.

  There was a “k” on the end. Magick. It looked around as old as I was, if not older.

  “Yes, yes. I remember.”

  “I need to know you’re going to keep your head on straight.” I picked up the book she had just finished skimming through and handed her the new one. “Start on this.”

  “I feel like my eyes are crossing. What time is it?” She rubbed the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger.

  “Not late enough for us to quit.” I spread out a weathered old scroll and tried to make heads or tails of it, barely paying attention to her question.

  “Nice. Very nice. Like I would quit on my sister.”

  “I didn’t mean you would.”

  “You’re the one who used that word,” she snapped. “She’s not just my sister. She’s my High Sorceress. This is a bigger deal than you realize, Elias.”