BloodBorn

by Linda Jones Linda Howard

  Luca held on to her, gently but also firmly, as they climbed the stairs to the ground floor of the house. It looked different from when they’d last seen it. There was dust and blood everywhere, rumpled clothing strewn about, walls and furnishings crushed. A discarded sword or two were lying in the dust.

  Isaac and Duncan were still guarding the door, though the fight was over. There was a deep gash in Duncan’s face, but it was healing before her eyes. Amazing.

  She could do that now. Did she still have an aneurysm, or was that healed? Who the hell cared? Even if it burst now her body would immediately heal itself. She was free, free of the specter of death that had hovered over her for so long.

  They heard voices from the back of the house and headed in that direction, Isaac and Duncan trailing behind.

  The first thing Chloe noticed, as they came upon a group in the dining room, was that two of them, a red-haired girl and a young man with a shotgun, smelled wonderful. She was drawn to them, she wanted to get closer, but Luca stopped her with a firm grip and a word.

  No.

  And as if they knew what she was thinking, Sorin and one of the warriors placed themselves between her and the yummy smell.

  Hunger. That’s what she experienced as she smelled the humans. Hunger. But she had more control than they seemed to think she had. She’d been able to resist chocolate ganache cake when she’d been dieting. She could resist the humans now.

  The vampires seemed surprised that she didn’t leap on the humans in the room. Luca’s grip eased. A little.

  “She has unusual control for a fledgling,” Sorin said, but he didn’t move away from the redhead.

  Luca gave her a deeply speculative look. “She does,” he agreed.

  Indie stepped around the protective males. Her expression was grim. “What has he done to you?”

  “He saved me,” Chloe said calmly. “I was dying, and with my permission, he changed me.”

  The redhead peeked around Sorin. “Chloe!” she called.

  Not trusting herself much more than Sorin and Luca did, Chloe didn’t move closer. “Do I know you?”

  “I’m Nevada. Apparently, I’m a, uh, witch. I tried to send you a warning when I found out that the vampires were coming after you.”

  “Remember,” Chloe whispered, as the contact she’d dismissed came back to her. “You warned me they were coming and then told me to remember.”

  “That’s why you didn’t forget me,” Luca said, relief in his voice, relief that he finally had an explanation.

  Nevada blushed. “I guess the spell didn’t work exactly as it was supposed to.”

  Chloe smiled. Nevada drew back a bit, obviously afraid, and Chloe realized that her fangs, a new development, were extended. “Thank you,” she said. “Don’t mind the fangs. It’s nothing personal.”

  The redheaded witch looked confused.

  “If I hadn’t remembered Luca, nothing would’ve happened as it should.”

  Luca stepped around her, maintaining his grip on her arm. She looked at that hand and raised an eyebrow, and he released his hold. Reluctantly. “I’ll be good,” she whispered.

  He stood slightly in front of her, and she knew he was alert to the possibility that she might, at any moment, pounce on the delicious humans. He didn’t yet know that part of what she’d brought with her to this new life was her discipline and control. She’d show him, though it might take some time.

  “How many warriors are there?”

  “A handful here, others on the way,” Indie answered.

  Luca faced her. “Can we work together?”

  “I don’t see that we have any choice,” she responded, obviously unhappy about the prospect of fighting beside those she’d come here to kill.

  “Marie escaped,” Luca said. “This won’t be over until she’s dead. We can kill every soldier she’s recruited and in a few years this will start all over again, in another place, when we don’t expect it and aren’t prepared. If she’s determined to do this, nothing but death will stop her. And as a blood born, she won’t be easy to kill.”

  “She’s not indestructible,” Sorin said.

  Chloe stared at the blond vampire. She knew where everyone else here stood, and why, but he was a mystery. “For all we know you’re a spy. You changed sides pretty quickly. Why should we believe anything you say?”

  He looked her in the eye. “In the beginning I saw the pretty version of Regina’s plan. It was an ideal, a perfect world for us. But over time I saw the wrongness of her thinking. When she killed Jonas, an act I’m sure she already regrets, I knew it was over, for me. She’s going to kill anyone who gets in her way, human or vampire. If she has her way, there will be nothing left of the world we know.”

  “He saved my life tonight,” Nevada said softly. “Sorin can be trusted, I swear.”

  The human with the shotgun raised his weapon slightly in the air, as if he were a schoolboy asking for permission to speak.

  “I’m low man on the totem pole here tonight, so maybe I should just keep my mouth shut, but seriously, warriors, vampires who are apparently on the right side of things, me, the spell being broken … it can’t be coincidence that all this happened on the same night. How is that even possible?”

  Nevada blushed, blood flooding her cheeks. A new and tantalizing scent filled the air, but Chloe recognized it for what it was. It was also forbidden. She had the strength to set aside any impulses that would make her no better than the monsters who’d made terrible plans for the world.

  “That was me, again,” Nevada admitted. “I … I cast a net, asking for help. Any and all help. I didn’t know what else to do.” She gave in to a little smile. “And it worked. How cool is that?”

  Chloe felt the surge of Luca’s annoyance.

  “You got me here with a spell?” he asked tightly.

  “Well, not just you,” she said.

  “You don’t appear to be even a quarter of a century old, and yet your magic affected me not once, but twice. That’s impressive.”

  Chloe suppressed a smile. Luca might admit aloud that Nevada’s magical abilities were impressive, but inside he was seething. He definitely didn’t like the idea that he could be affected by spells cast by a small, and very young, human.

  They began to talk battle plans, recruitment, strategy … which almost bored Chloe to tears. After a while she found herself studying the throat of the shotgun-toting human. He did smell good, and surely he had blood to spare. He had a deep scratch on his arm. While she couldn’t see the wound from this angle, she knew it was there. It smelled heavenly.

  Though she hungered for a taste, she was not beyond her own control. She could just lick off the excess without biting, without taking something she shouldn’t … Luca took her arm again, and held on tight.

  He knew her every thought, her every desire.

  Chloe looked down at the hand on her arm, but her thoughts were immediately yanked from hunger to the startling realization that her life had changed. Her black shirt was soaked in blood. Luca’s hand, his clothes … they were both drenched in that which nourished vampires and made them strong.

  She looked up, caught Luca’s eye. Instinctively she leaned into him. This certainly wasn’t where she’d thought this night would end.

  “There has to be a shower in this house,” she said.

  “Upstairs,” Nevada said. The little witch was probably as anxious for Chloe to get cleaned up as Chloe herself was. It wasn’t a pretty sight—not that she and Luca were the only ones wearing evidence of battle. “My bathroom has plenty of towels. I’m not sure about the other rooms.” She gave simple directions, and they were on their way before she’d finished. Talk of what might come next continued in their little group of vampires, warriors, and humans.

  Away from the scent of the humans, Chloe’s desire for a taste of blood faded. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as they moved quickly, incredibly quickly, up the stairs. Reaching beyond the house, beyond the stench of
death and the tantalizing scent of blood, she took in the summer scent of flowers, grass, air, and water. She could swear she actually smelled the moon.

  Luca didn’t go to the room Nevada said had been hers, but chose another. This bedroom was stark, minimally furnished and without any personal touches. In the attached bath, a towel hung from a decorative rack. It would do.

  Moving quickly, Luca removed her clothing and his and turned on the water. Together they stepped into the large brown-tiled shower, standing close within the spray that was pleasantly cold, then pleasantly warm. Chloe looked down once, and watched the pink swirl of blood and water circling the drain. It wasn’t at all appetizing. She closed her eyes and leaned into Luca.

  The stark truth was that everything that had once been hers was now gone. Though she was very much alive, the life she’d always known was over, so in a way Chloe Fallon truly was dead. She knew that was the way of things, had known it when she’d told Luca she wanted to live.

  As sharply sad as it was to leave everything she knew behind, she didn’t regret the decision she’d made. This was the end of one life, that was true, but it was also the beginning of another.

  “Even my love for you is sharper and deeper than before,” she whispered. “I didn’t think that was possible, but it’s more solid, more certain. It’s like until now I’ve been seeing everything in black and white, and now there’s color all around. You’re a part of me, Luca.”

  “I am.”

  “There’s so much to learn, so much I don’t know. But I don’t suppose there will be any rest until the psycho who stabbed me is taken care of.”

  “Not much, no.” He sounded … displeased.

  Water rained down on them; that water now remained clear as it washed away. She looked up at Luca, saw him so clearly, so sharply, as if he were also new. “Do you regret giving me your blood, making me like you?”

  “Never.” His answer was so quick and certain, she couldn’t doubt his sincerity. “If I sound annoyed it’s because I want to take you away from this war and spend years teaching and training you. And I can’t do that, not yet.”

  Chloe knew she should mourn her old life, and she was certain there would be moments when she did. Friends and family would be hard to leave behind. But right now, with an uncertain war coming and Luca at her side, she wasn’t at all sorry to be who she’d become. Everything she’d ever done, every choice, every accident, every seemingly meaningless step had been leading her here.

  “I believe I’ve been waiting for you all my life,” she said, the certainty of it grabbing her in the gut.

  For a moment Luca was silent, and then he whispered in her ear. “Trust me, love, I’ve been waiting longer for you. Much longer.”

  Indikaiya’s grip on the hilt of her sword tightened, as she instinctively prepared to strike. The sight of Chloe—her conduit, her descendant—as a vampire turned her stomach and broke her heart.

  The surviving warriors, the witch, the boy with the shotgun, and a handful of vampires congregated in the basement of the mansion where the battle had taken place, since dawn was upon them, and even the vamps who could tolerate the light didn’t like the idea of facing the morning sun. She’d come here with the intention of killing every vampire in her path, but she’d not expected that any one of them, much less a small handful, would actually be willing to fight on the side of right.

  Luca and Sorin had both dispatched more than their fair share of rebels, and Chloe had made it clear that she’d not been turned against her will. Indikaiya had no excuse to dispatch Luca Ambrus. Annoyance was not an acceptable reason for removing his head.

  In the past few hours, everyone who’d fought in the battle had gotten cleaned up and changed clothes. Chloe had found a suitable outfit in the witch’s closet, and the males had rummaged through rebel soldiers’ things. Nothing the petite witch owned would fit Indikaiya, so she’d settled for a silk shirt that smelled like Sorin and a pair of trousers a much smaller vampire had once worn.

  The boy with the shotgun, Jimmy, was talking on his cell phone, trying to make impossible explanations to a girl he called Kate without actually telling her anything she should not know. He was a potential warrior himself, if a reluctant one. He had not run, not before the battle, not during … and not after, as plans for continuing war were made.

  Rurik was flirting outrageously with the little witch, and Nevada, who had an important task before her, was shyly flirtatious herself.

  The two humans, Jimmy and Nevada, were constantly surprised by the appearance of a “new” vampire in their midst: Luca. At first it had been amusing; now it was simply annoying. Nevada had mentioned that given time she could come up with a fix for the problem … and then a few minutes later she’d mention it again. The warriors did not have this problem. Many of them were as old as Luca, some were as powerful, in their own way. They all came from a different world and were not affected by his magic.

  Chloe, Luca, and Sorin had gathered at the end of the hallway, and spoke with animation. They were an odd group, with mixed feelings that were, at the moment, ignored in the name of a common cause. At first Chloe had kept a wary distance from the vamp with the long blond hair, but her attitude had gradually shifted. She was no longer quite so on guard with Sorin; she was actually beginning to trust him. No vampire could truly be trusted, not in Indikaiya’s experience.

  Warriors continued to arrive. They’d missed the initial battle, but there would be others. And it looked as if the war they’d come here to fight wouldn’t be so simple as vampires against warriors. There were four vampires who’d killed their own kind tonight, who’d protected the humans, as Indikaiya had come here to do. She was not foolish enough to dispatch an ally in a war where she needed every ally she could get.

  Chloe said a word to Luca and stepped away from him, heading toward Indikaiya with a smile. The rising sun had dimmed her new vampire’s energy, even though she hadn’t seen even a hint of light. Luca watched her closely, especially as she walked past Jimmy. But she passed the human without anything more than a quick glance; she was very much in control of herself, which was rare for a new vampire.

  “You nearly drove me crazy,” Chloe said gently as she came near.

  “My apologies,” Indikaiya said, the words accompanied by a curt bow that would’ve been more appropriate in another time. “Of all my descendants, you were the strongest, psychically. Your mother could not hear me at all, and the others … they were simply not capable.”

  “It’s okay. You were doing what needed to be done. I know that now. But man, when all I could see was a braid and I was hearing your voice out of nowhere … definitely nutsville.”

  “It was necessary.”

  Chloe lowered her voice. “I just want to make sure that you’re going to keep your word. About Luca. You said you wouldn’t kill him.”

  “He still has his head, and his heart.”

  “I’d like to keep it that way.”

  Luca Ambrus needed protection less than any being on this earth, as far as Indikaiya could tell, and yet here was Chloe, shielding the blood-born vampire as best she could. “You love him.”

  “I do.”

  Indikaiya was attuned to the power in the room, to every vampire, the two humans, to the warriors—some she knew well, some who were new allies—and suddenly she was aware of a new and different energy, something rare and powerful: another descendant.

  A half breed in the belly of a new vampire; a vampire who was also a conduit, both impregnated and turned by a blood born. Such a thing had never happened before.

  Chloe had no idea that she was carrying a child conceived before she’d been turned. Indikaiya didn’t think Luca knew, either … though with his gift he would likely figure it out very soon. She was only able to sense the child because she was so attuned to those in her bloodline.

  Like it or not, the war Indikaiya had come to this world to join would not be a simple one. Vampires like Luca and Sorin would be fighting beside
the warriors, not against them. Chloe and her child needed to be protected, just as the humans would be. There would be those, human and vampire, who would do their best to make sure the half breed didn’t come into this world. Indikaiya herself would argue that such a being should not come to be, and yet this was Chloe’s child, Indikaiya’s own blood.

  This would be a war fought in shades of gray, and she much preferred black and white. Good and evil.

  As if to prove her point Sorin caught her eye, smiled and, heaven above, winked at her.

  The sooner they killed the vampire queen and ended this foolish revolution, the better off the human race, and Indikaiya herself, would be.

  WARRIOR RISING

  BY LINDA HOWARD AND LINDA JONES

  Coming in Spring 2011

  The Immortal Warrior Indikaiya, and others of her kind, are fighting a war with the vampires in order to preserve the human race. For Indie, what should have been a simple, black-and-white war has become tinged with many shades of gray. Her blood descendant, Chloe Fallon, has not only bonded with the blood born vampire Luca Ambrus, but to save her life she had to be turned vampire. Not all vampires are aligned against the Warriors; Luca himself, and some of his friends, are fighting on the side of the humans. Indikaiya came into this world to fight against vampires, and she finds herself fighting beside some of them, in a war where she can’t afford to turn her back on any ally.

  Then there’s Sorin. The powerful vampire is everything she dislikes in a vampire, and more. He too has chosen to fight for the humans. As Indie and Sorin fight side by side in this war she discovers feelings for him that have no place in her world. There can be no happy ending; Sorin is vampire, she is a Warrior. If she chooses to turn her back on her calling and remain in this world, she will age and die, while Sorin does not. When the war is done, she must return to the other world where the Warriors wait and watch over their human charges.