Forbidden Blood (Vampire Venators Romance Series)

by Heaton, Felicity

  “I am.”

  He wasn’t very talkative. She had hoped that he would turn out to be a talker so she could chip away at his hard exterior and see what lurked beneath.

  What could she say to get him talking? His distance wasn’t going to deter her. If they were going to be working together, then they at least needed to be on talking terms. Perhaps he wasn’t used to company. If his building were empty as she suspected, it would make sense that he hadn’t had much practice at making idle conversation. Her apartment building was full of people of all ages, and most of them stopped in the corridors to talk about trivial things like the weather, work and where they were going to or coming from. She’d had plenty of practice at making conversation. He would just have to catch up.

  “Must be a pretty lonely job.” She regretted her choice of words when he looked at her out of the corner of his eye and a strange sense of hurt filled her. It wasn’t in his eyes, they were dark and narrowed, but something about him gave her the impression that he was lonely. “Sounds more interesting than my job though.”

  “And what is your profession?” He had a very formal way of talking at times, speaking with a regal edge to his deep voice.

  “I wouldn’t exactly call it my profession, but I’m an analyst.”

  His expression turned thoughtful. “An analyst? That could be useful in finding the man who is after you.”

  Amber laughed and he glanced at her.

  “Only if he needs his numbers crunched. I’m more like an account… not the sort of analyst you’re thinking of.”

  “I apologise.” He frowned at the road. “I do not know much of offices and such.”

  Amber smiled. “I got that impression.”

  Kearn didn’t say anything. She picked at her bandage again. Her hand still hurt but the bleeding had stopped now and the pain was lessening.

  “Where is the building from here?” he said and she realised they were in the side street where the men had attacked her.

  Amber directed him towards the building, leading him through the maze of one-way streets. He pulled the car to a halt around the corner from the gates of the old redbrick factory and looked across at her.

  “Stay here. Under no circumstances are you to leave the vehicle.” The hard edge to his voice made her nod in agreement even when she wanted to say that she was coming with him and he had no right to tell her what to do.

  He turned off the engine and then stepped out of the car. The moment the door clicked shut, she felt on edge. With Kearn around, she had felt safe from the vampire. He had been a talisman that had kept the dark thoughts and her fear at bay. What if the man was in the building? Would he try to control her again if he knew that she was here? She didn’t want to be his pawn in whatever game he was playing with Kearn, and she didn’t want to die.

  Amber stared at Kearn’s back as he walked away from her in the beam of the headlights, her sense of safety leaving with him. He reached across and removed his gun from the holster. It flashed in the white light. He looked menacing dressed head to toe in black, his silver hair dancing in the night breeze and his gun in his hand. A fitting look for a man who hunted vampires. At the corner, he looked back at her and then he was gone.

  She went to curl up on the black leather seat and then thought the better of it. Judging by the way people had stared at it during the journey here, the car had to be worth a hundred grand at least. She couldn’t go putting a dent in the leather or scuffing it with her heeled work shoes.

  The empty road was too quiet, increasing the creeping chill inside her. After a few wrong choices, she found the button for the radio on the black console and it came on, illuminating the dashboard. She kept the volume low, afraid that it would attract the wrong kind of attention if it were louder, and then tried to figure out how to turn off the headlights. She couldn’t find the switch for them but she did find one that locked the doors. This car was nothing like any she had driven before.

  Someone walked past the end of the road ahead of her and she froze, cautiously watching them until they disappeared from view.

  What was Kearn doing? Had he gone into the building to find the men who had attacked her?

  Vampires. It seemed incredible that they existed and she felt as though she shouldn’t believe it even when she did.

  Was Kearn going to kill them?

  She didn’t like the thought of him killing someone because of her, but she wanted to be safe again and go back to her life, and she knew that wouldn’t happen without the vampire dying. Did France have vampires too? Kearn had said that once he had captured the man, she would be safe. No one else would know about her blood. No one except Kearn at least. Would he keep her secret for her? She wanted to escape London more than ever now, wanted to go somewhere new, where no one knew her, but she wasn’t sure if she would ever feel safe again. Vampires would constantly be on her mind. Maybe she could ask Kearn for some self-defence lessons in return for helping him. She would feel a whole lot safer if she knew how to kill a vampire.

  Amber pushed her wavy brown hair out of her face and then tied it up into a ponytail. The building to her left was dark. Would Kearn find anyone in it? If the vampire had known he was a Venator, then surely he knew that Kearn would come after him. He wouldn’t have remained in the building.

  The hairs on the back of her neck rose and she swore she heard someone saying her name. She looked around the streets but no one was there. The feeling came again, a notion that someone was calling to her. Was it the vampire?

  She reached over to turn the radio up in the hope of drowning out the feeling and stopped dead when a loud cracking noise echoed around the streets. She had seen enough movies to recognise the sound. A gunshot. Kearn.

  Without a second thought, Amber left the car and ran to the corner. No one was in the narrow road. She hurried on, heading for the gates. Another gunshot rang out and she flinched, instinctively hunching up to make herself small in case the bullet was coming her way.

  She was about to move when a man landed in front of her, close enough that she stumbled backwards and fell, jolting her coccyx. He glanced at her with red eyes and then ran off. A vampire? Where had he come from?

  Amber looked up the three-storey height of the building and wished she hadn’t.

  Kearn was falling out of the sky.

  She screwed her eyes shut, not wanting to see him die. A warm breeze washed over her and then silence. She had expected more of a commotion when someone hit a pavement from a great height.

  “I told you to stay in the car.” Kearn’s sharp voice cut the silence and she cracked an eye open. He stood over her, not a scuff on him, looking as though he had just walked along the street to see her rather than dropped from the heavens. She glanced up at the top of the building and then back at him. It wasn’t possible for someone to fall like that and survive without a scratch.

  The vampire had done it.

  So had Kearn.

  His green eyes narrowed, darker than usual.

  Amber opened her mouth to explain but fell silent when he extended his right hand to her. It was glowing blue, the marks on it shining so brightly they were dazzling. Just what was it? Just what was he?

  Her hand shook as she slipped it into his. His fingers closed over hers, the glow lighting her skin and washing all colour away, and he pulled her up off the ground. He didn’t release her hand. He led her back to the car at a brisk pace and opened the passenger side door.

  “Get back in the car,” he said and she didn’t hesitate or protest.

  He slammed the door and ran off.

  Amber breathed hard and tried to shake the image of him falling from the sky and his arm from her mind. How could he do that? Was he like the vampire? She kicked off her shoes, locked all the doors, and huddled up on the seat, afraid of Kearn coming back.

  She lost track of time as she stared at the road in front of her, trying to make sense of everything and wondering why she was suddenly frightened. Kearn had never said t
hat he was human but he hadn’t mentioned that he was anything like the vampires he hunted either. Who was she to think that made him bad? She shared a gene with vampires, making her like them too. Perhaps he had found a way to use the power in that gene as the vampires did. Perhaps he was a vampire. Why did it frighten her if he was? He was still trying to protect her.

  But he was keeping things from her.

  And she didn’t like it.

  Her eyes widened when he stepped into the path of the headlights. They threw his shadow out long behind him. He holstered his gun under his left arm and walked towards the car, all glowering darkness that reminded her of the vampire who was after her. Was Kearn one too? She wanted to ask him but was too afraid of the answer.

  His eyes bore into hers and she couldn’t look away. She stared straight into them, still trying to decipher what he was hiding behind their impenetrable emerald shield.

  He stopped at the driver’s side door and tried to open it. Twice. Amber dropped her gaze when he bent over and looked at her through the window.

  “I am sorry if I was rude. I only wish to keep you safe,” he said, as though he honestly thought his somewhat arrogant attitude had forced her to lock him out of the car. She made herself look at him. There was no darkness in his eyes now, only a touch of confusion that was real. He smiled and she expected to see fangs but only saw normal teeth. “Apology accepted?”

  What if she let him in and he tried to drink her blood, just as the other man had? She reasoned that he was helping her, and he did genuinely want to keep her safe, even if it was only so he could use her as bait to lure out the vampire. If he was like the vampire and wanted to kill her for her blood, he probably would have done so back at his apartment.

  And she was safer with him than by herself.

  A sense of calm flowed through her as she stared into his eyes, chasing back the darkness and the fear. Even if he was a vampire, he was her only protection against the man. She needed him. She couldn’t fight the man herself.

  She unlocked the doors and Kearn opened it, slid into the seat and stared at her.

  “Did you find anything?” Her voice was a tight squeak and he frowned. “You seemed quite intent on chasing that man.”

  Intent enough to jump off the roof of a building and survive unharmed.

  “Vampire,” Kearn said and started the car. “And no, there was nothing in the building besides some bloodstains on the floors. Whatever they were doing there, they have moved location now that I know about it. I only managed to catch that one vampire.”

  “What happened?”

  Kearn didn’t say anything. He pulled the white Audi R8 out into the road and drove to the junction at the end of it.

  He stopped the car at the line and his grip on the black steering wheel tightened.

  “The next time I tell you to remain in the car, do just that. Unless you want to get yourself killed.” The hard edge was back in his voice and she saw a flicker of how he had looked in the street.

  His arm had been glowing. Human arms couldn’t do that sort of thing. Could a vampire’s?

  “What will you do now? Was this your only lead?” she said rather than asking him whether he too had fangs and hungered for blood. She stared at his eyes, wondering if they might turn red, and then told herself to stop overanalysing things. He had bandaged her cut hand without so much as a hint of wanting her blood and the vampire Kearn had been chasing had red eyes and the other had fangs. Kearn had neither of those things.

  “No,” Kearn said and she almost jumped. Her eyes darted away from his face when he looked at her. The dashboard of an Audi was very interesting. She stared at it, frowning at times, doing her best to look fascinated by it and not him. “There is a club where we might get some answers.”

  “A club?” She looked down at her neat black trouser suit. “I’m not exactly dressed for that sort of place.”

  “I will handle that.”

  Amber’s eyes drifted back to him when the car pulled away, accelerating along the wide tree-lined shopping street.

  She couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to Kearn than met the eye, that he hid the real him behind a mask to keep the world at a distance. Why? The bright streetlights flashed on his face.

  If he was a vampire, would he hurt her like the other one wanted to?

  Or was there such a thing as a good vampire?

  CHAPTER 4

  Kearn led the way up through his apartment building. With all of the stores closed until morning, he would have to wait to visit the club and see if he could attract attention with Amber and her blood. He had hoped to end this tonight and take her home, ridding himself of both the temptation she presented and his unending mission to capture the man, but fate had never been kind to him. For now, he would battle his lingering hunger for her and bide his time. Tomorrow, he would buy her some clothes to wear to the club, and together they would hunt down the vampire. He didn’t have much experience of dressing women, but was sure someone at the shops would be happy to assist him, especially since money wasn’t a factor.

  Humans and vampires were very similar in that respect. Money could buy you anything and the more you had, the more people were willing the crawl on their bellies for you.

  Amber’s fatigue flowed through the connection between their blood. It wasn’t the only feeling that he could sense in her. Her emotions were steadily turning towards fear again. Perhaps it was a good thing that they had been unable to go to the club tonight. She needed to rest. All he had done since meeting her was push her into doing things his way. The man he sought would be cautious tonight. Going to the club wouldn’t have produced any results. Tomorrow was a different matter. The vampire would want to find her. He would come out hunting and Kearn would be waiting for him.

  There was another reason for him to take things more slowly. Pushing her now, when she was tired and afraid, would only lead to him losing her. She had locked him out of the car tonight and she hadn’t done it out of fear of the vampire. She had feared him. He needed her to remain with him. His instincts whispered that he could force her to stay, at least until her blood was completely absorbed into his. No. No good would come of it. His mission was to protect humans, not prey on them. Not anymore. If it came down to it, he would confess that her suspicions were correct.

  He was a vampire.

  “So did they hurt when you had them done?”

  He stopped just short of the black door to his apartment and turned to face her.

  She looked nervous. Her heart was racing, sending her blood to the surface. It filled the white hallway with the sweet enticing scent and caused his fangs to itch. Her blood had tasted so delicious. His stomach ached, hunger to taste her again causing it to cramp, and he struggled to hold his fangs at bay. It was just the remnants of her blood affecting him still. The effects were already wearing off. He just needed to hold it together for a few more hours and then he would be free of the haze induced by her blood and she wouldn’t be such a temptation. His gaze slid to her neck and his throat burned. He closed his eyes when the hallway brightened, signalling a change in his irises, and clamped his teeth together. It was just her blood in him. It would pass. He told himself it repeatedly but it didn’t ease the tight ache in his gut. He wanted her blood, and it went deeper than a craving for another high.

  “Kearn?” she whispered and he drew a long, steadying breath, and then opened his eyes. The hallway was dim again. He looked up at her.

  Her gaze fell to his hand.

  His did too.

  He raised his right hand and her eyes followed it, fixed intently on the silver marks that covered it to his fingertips.

  She seemed fascinated by them. He had caught her looking at him countless times since meeting her, and several of those she had been staring at his arm, her gaze tracing the marks that flowed over it from his shoulder to his hand. He was surprised that she hadn’t asked him about it before now. Twice she had seen it activated. Now she was asking him w
hether the marks had hurt, as though they were just a tattoo, rather than asking what they did and what he was.

  Didn’t she want to know?

  Or was she trying to pretend that she hadn’t noticed, and that he was only human?

  Perhaps she wasn’t as strong as he had thought and was having trouble believing everything and taking it all in after all. Kearn reminded himself that she was human. This was probably some strange dream or nightmare to her. There had been moments when her blood had conveyed that she trusted him, and wanted to remain with him. Was her denial of the truth standing before her all because she wanted to continue to trust that he would save her? If he told her that he was a vampire, would she want to leave? Would she fear him then and see him as she saw the man—a beast and a monster?

  Part of him didn’t want her to feel that way towards him.

  He would never harm her.

  He only wanted to protect her.

  He opened the door to his apartment while considering what to say about his arm and whether to tell her about himself. It wasn’t a good idea. The moment the door swung open, he drew his gun and aimed it at the person standing in the middle of his home.

  His brother raised his hands in an act of surrender and smiled.

  “What are you doing here, Kyran?” Kearn holstered his gun and walked into the apartment. Only one of the lights in the kitchen was on, leaving the rest of the large room in near-darkness.

  Amber followed him. When she stepped out from behind him, Kyran’s dark blue eyes were on her.

  “He cried like a baby when they put those marks on him.” Kyran smiled broadly, his gaze assessing Amber.

  “I did not.” Kearn closed the door. It was unusual for Kyran to drop by unannounced to his apartment. His brother knew how much he hated it.

  “It isn’t like you to bring a girl home, Kearn.” Kyran’s blue eyes remained locked on Amber and he inhaled deeply.

  His gaze slid to Kearn. The look in his eyes and the connection they shared through a familial bond asked a question. Was she Source Blood? Kearn refused to answer. His brother didn’t need to know and wouldn’t be able to tell from Amber’s scent alone.