“I don’t know,” I told him. “But you’re okay now. We both are.”
“Looks like Scotland,” he grunted, still staring out into the darkness.
I followed his eyes, and realized the sky really was lightening. I could see a wash of fields over a hilly, wild-looking landscape dotted by large rocks. My eyes kept returning to the helicopter, though. I could see Black through the glass.
“Scotland?” I said, not tearing my eyes off Black.
“Yeah.”
“You’ve been to Scotland before?” I said.
He let out a gasping, pained kind of laugh, shaking his head. “No. I watch a shit-ton of documentaries.” He lowered his arm and grimaced, once more clutching his side. “Damn. Feel like I got run over by a pissed-off bull.”
“You’ll be okay,” I said, watching Black walk towards us with long strides.
“Will I?” he grunted. When I glanced over, he gave me a strange sort of smile. “Ma’am... fucking vampires were eating me. I feel like I drank three bottles of whisky without any of the fun. I’m in Scotland. My body’s busted up. How the hell you figure I’ll be okay?”
I sighed, blowing my hair out of my face.
“I don’t know,” I said, truthfully.
But I wasn’t really paying attention to him now.
Black was walking towards me, with that inhumanly graceful, feline gait of his. He walked straight from the helicopter to the mansion’s entrance, then straight up to me, taking the stone steps two at a time.
He didn’t look at the castle, or the man slumped in the corner behind me, or the rising sun, or the grassy fields and mountains outside the castle door. He didn’t look away from my face as he walked right up to me. His arms wrapped around me as soon as he was close enough.
For a long few minutes, he held me tightly against his chest.
So much heat flooded into me, I felt it down to my feet.
Not just heat... love. The feeling grew stronger, the longer we stood there. It felt so raw, so completely real and unguarded, my throat closed, the longer he held me, until I could barely breathe. I opened back to him, clinging to his arms and waist.
It felt like we stood that way for a long time.
Then the man with the dirty blond hair cleared his throat.
Both of us turned our heads.
“Well now, brother...” the man said, smiling when Black jumped, looking at him for the first time, his eyes widening. “...Fancy seeing you here.”
Black blinked, staring without letting go of me. “Cowboy?”
“In the flesh.”
I stared at the man, too, realizing only then that I’d never asked him his name. “Huh. You’re Cowboy?”
“Ayuh.”
I looked up at Black, who was staring at the other man, speechless, his gold eyes holding an open incredulity that verged on wonder. Then, slowly, that incredulity faded.
He laughed. After that laugh, I watched as the first real smile I’d seen on him in weeks grew on his face. Then he looked at me.
“All right,” he said.
His voice sounded decisive, his military voice. I heard the thread of anger there still, but he no longer felt sad, like he had for so many days now.
The difference made me clutch at him all over again.
He kissed me on the mouth, then smiled wider.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” he said, winking at me, even as he spoke to both of us. “I know it’s pretty up here and all, but vacation’s over.”
I quirked an eyebrow at him. “Vacation, eh? Speak for yourself.”
“I was.” He kissed me again, harder that time, winking at Cowboy when he raised his head. “You coming? We’ve got a shit-ton of vampires to kill.”
“I’m in, brother,” Cowboy said, still breathing hard where he held his side.
Looking up at Black’s face, I couldn’t help smiling back.
Even so, remembering Lila and Brick, the look on the vampire’s face as he stormed out of that underground room, something in my smile faltered.
* * *
Want to read more by this author?
While you’re waiting for the next Quentin Black book, check out her paranormal mystery romance novel set in communist Russia, featuring an angel who falls to Earth while chasing a demon, and the KGB agent who tries to help him:
SHADOW WINGS
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QUENTIN BLACK MYSTERY is a dark, gritty paranormal mystery series with science fiction elements, starring brilliant and mysterious Quentin Black, along with his partner, forensic psychologist Miram Fox. For fans of Sherlock Holmes and paranormal mysteries with romantic elements, the series spans continents and dimensions as Black solves crimes, takes on other races and tries to keep his and Miri’s true identities secret to keep them both alive.
THE ALLIE’S WAR SERIES is a good vs. evil tale of psychic warfare set in a gritty, apocalyptic version of Earth, involving a young woman grappling with her role in bringing about the end of one world and the start of a new one. Allie Taylor and her partner, Dehgoies Revik, fight terrifying enemies and one another in a passionate story spanning centuries, filled with unpredictable twists, turns and betrayals as they navigate a world filled with secrets and hidden enemies.
THE GATE SHIFTER SERIES is an unusual science fiction series, centering on shifters from another world altogether, called morph. Earth humans remained blissfully ignorant of the existence of alternate dimensions until Nihkil Jamri tries to save private detective, Dakota Reyes, while he is surveying Earth.
THE ALIEN APOCALYPSE SERIES is a dystopian new adult series about tough girl, Jet Tetsuo, who grew up on Earth following an alien invasion. Forced into living among her conquerors, she has to navigate a treacherous world full of enemies who pose as friends, even as she becomes their most famous fighter in the Rings, a modern day version of the coliseum.
Read More from JC Andrijeski
http://jcandrijeski.com
“Seeking Truth in Made-Up Worlds”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JC Andrijeski is a USA Today bestselling author who writes paranormal mystery, along with apocalyptic and cyberpunk-y science fiction, often with a metaphysical bent.
Current works include the Quentin Black Mystery series, a paranormal mystery featuring psychic detective Quentin Black and his partner in crime, forensic psychologist Miri Fox. Other works include the gritty, epic, psychic warfare series, Allie’s War, and a dystopian series about a colonized Earth called Alien Apocalypse. Her Gate Shifter series is about a shape-shifting alien and a tough-girl PI.
JC has a background in journalism, history and politics, travels extensively and has lived abroad in Europe, Australia and Asia, and from coast to coast in the continental United States. She currently lives and writes full time in Bangkok, Thailand.
To learn more about me and my writing, please visit jcandrijeski.com.
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BLACK BLOOD
A Quentin Black Story
Copyright © 2017 by JC Andrijeski
Cover Art & Design by J.M. Rising Horse Creations
2016
Published by White Sun Press
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced
into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Table of Contents
SYNOPSIS
ONE: Trauma
TWO: I’ll Replace It
THREE: Chocolate
FOUR: Girl on a Plane
FIVE: Do What You Have to Do
SIX: The Freudian Cave
SEVEN: The Doctor Is In
EIGHT: Love is the Hardest Truth
NINE: Highland Dawn
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CREDITS
Black Blood: A Quentin Black Mystery Story: Quentin Black Mystery #5.5 Page 7
