Blood Captive: A Paranormal Vampire Romance (Vampire Huntress Chronicles Book 2)

by Jessica Wayne

  I glare at her.

  “Can you suck it out and just not ingest it?” Jane asks.

  “You can try,” Bronywyn offers. “But it’s—”

  “It’ll take too much time,” I finish, “spitting it out. It’ll go faster if I just drink it.”

  “Exactly. She doesn’t have too much longer, Elijah, so if you’re going to do it, now’s the time.” She turns and leaves the room. Tarnley offers me a slight nod before leaving the room on Bronywyn’s heels.

  “Can you do it?” Jane asks me as she reaches down and takes Rainey’s limp hand into her own.

  “If it will save her—”

  “Are you going to be able to stop yourself?”

  I barely managed when she asked me to drink from her before. It was nearly impossible to pull myself away, but I did.

  And I’m going to have to figure out how to stop now. “I’ll manage.”

  “I’m not leaving.” After setting down Rainey’s hand, she turns on her heel and takes a seat in the chair right beside the door.

  “If I don’t stop—”

  “I’ll kill you,” she says. “Even if it means using magic and putting a massive bullseye on my back to do so.”

  Swallowing hard, I turn back to Rainey and move toward her—pained step after pained step. When I make it to her side, I reach forward and brush the hair from the side of her throat. The artery in her neck is going to be the fastest, so I lean down.

  “You won’t die,” I whisper before biting down.

  Her blood fills my mouth—coppery tang tinged with the bitter toxin flowing freely through her veins. It burns going down, making my insides feel as though they’re on fire. The inferno spreads through my body with each drink, and I grip the sides of the bed, burying my fingers in the padding of the mattress.

  My knees give out, and I stumble. The poison is potent, my body convulsing with each pull at Rainey’s vein.

  “Elijah!” Someone yells my name, so I release Rainey and fall back into the tray of tools. Metal clatters to the floor, and I struggle to breathe, the explosion in my body spreading through every single organ, every nerve ending.

  I’m angry.

  Enraged that someone would do this to her.

  And I’m pretty damn sure that fury is the only thing keeping my body going right now.

  “Get him up,” Bronywyn orders.

  Tarnley blurs through the room toward me, lifting me from the ground as though I weigh nothing more than a small child and setting me in a chair.

  My stomach revolts, churning and burning as it works to expel its contents. “I’m going to be—”

  “Here.” Tarnley shoves a trash can under my face, and I cling to it as Rainey’s blood comes right back up. Sweat beads my skin, and tender fingers grasp my hair, holding it out of my face like I’m some drunk human.

  “Thanks,” I mutter to Jane as Bronywyn holds a blood bag in front of my face.

  “Drink it,” she orders. I don’t argue. My body needs the blood to heal, we may be pretty damn resistant, but the way I feel right now? I’m closer to death than I’ve ever felt. I can barely taste the copper on my tongue, but I force it down anyway.

  I’m already starting to feel better by the time I squeeze the last drop from the bag.

  “She should pull through.” Bronywyn turns toward me, and I look around Jane to Rainey. Her color is even more pale, but a blood bag hangs from the ceiling, the crimson liquid traveling through a clear tube and into Rainey.

  “I didn’t take too much?”

  “No. And you stopped pretty easily.”

  Cringing at the memory of the flavor, I shake my head. “It was not a difficult thing to do. She didn’t taste—” I glance at Jane, who seems completely unbothered by the fact that I’m describing how her best friend tasted. “The toxin was apparent in her blood.”

  “I’m surprised we didn’t smell it,” Tarnley offers, and I nod.

  “Same.”

  “I’m not. It was made to be undetected.”

  “Then how did you know?”

  She glares at me like it’s something I should have already known. “Magic.”

  “I need to go,” Jane says. “Rainey can’t know I was here.” Her gaze travels around the room.

  I nod, and soon after, both Tarnley and Bronywyn do the same.

  “I’ll walk you out,” Bronywyn offers, crossing the room and linking her arm with Jane’s.

  “Elijah?”

  I glance over at Jane.

  “What did it feel like? The toxin.”

  Turning my attention back to Rainey, I’m grateful to see she’s already getting some of her color back. “Like I want to find who sent that human to her and listen to them scream as I rip them limb from limb.”

  22

  Rainey

  Rain hammers the wooden roof of the cabin I find myself hiding out in. Me, a powerful witch, squirreling myself away like some kind of powerless human.

  It would be laughable if it weren’t my current reality.

  I used to reside in luxury, the wealthiest woman alive, and now I’ve been reduced to a secluded cabin in the center of Ireland’s deep forests. The comparison to my first life is disgusting. Never again will I be weak like her.

  The fire blazes within the hearth, casting a soft glow on the room as it fills it with warmth. After drinking the rest of my tea, I set the cup on the wooden countertop and cross the room to a table boasting my leather-bound spellbook.

  As of yet, I’ve found nothing to help me with the problem I’m currently facing.

  Yet another problem caused by a man I allowed into my bed. He seduced me as I thought I was seducing him, worming his way into my life and learning my secrets.

  My weaknesses.

  He discovered them all. And now, just like every man I’ve allowed into my home, he betrayed me.

  “We will find a way out of this,” Zeira—my only ally in this mess—promises from the corner of the room.

  Thunder booms outside, and I jump, pressing a hand to my chest.

  I’m pathetic. Jumping at the sounds of a storm.

  I used to revel in the rain—in the chaos. And because that bastard got his hands on the one thing that can end me—permanently—I clench my hands into fists at my sides.

  “Do you believe he will find us here?” I ask Zeira.

  She shakes her head. “No, I don’t believe he will find us at all.”

  I turn back toward the fire and lose my conscious thought for a moment as I stare into the flames. So much work, so much planning, and he got to the box first. A way to contain my power, making it impossible for the spell work to be woven into place.

  All the souls I collected, trapped forever along with mine.

  Sealed away in a box to be buried within the earth.

  I do not fear pain, for I have lived through the worst of it.

  I do not fear death, for I have suffered it time and again each time my heart was broken.

  But I do fear the void.

  My body burns.

  Muscles aching, I attempt to open my eyes but am assaulted by a bright light that’s nearly as scalding as the fire that enveloped me in my dream. Fuck, was I hit by a massive truck, which then had the courtesy to back over me and try to finish the job?

  “Here,” a familiar deep voice wraps around me, and a moment later, the assault is over as the lights dim overhead.

  “Elijah?” I choke out, my throat so damned dry it might as well be sandpaper. “Where am I?”

  I sit up, muscles screaming as I do. The room is sparse, the only furniture the bed I’m lying on. Beside me, a machine beeps along with the rhythm of my heart. A long tube filled with clear liquid runs into my arm, and the white gown I’m wearing is definitely not something I had on before I got here. “Are we in the hospital? What the hell hap—” I don’t even finish the sentence before the memories rush back.

  Walking into the gym.

  A woman with a gun.

  Blinding
pain.

  Three more gunshots.

  Elijah carrying me.

  He stands beside me, pale skin, blue eyes packed with emotion. His clothes are clean, not covered in my blood as I remembered them being. He’s exhausted. I can see it plain as day on his face, and what’s more is that I can feel the fear, the guilt weighing him down. Is that because of the bond Paloma told me about? How did I not notice it before?

  “We’re in a clinic,” Elijah answers as he hands me a bottle of water. Cracking the lid, I drink deeply, letting the cool liquid soothe my parched throat. “For supernaturals,” he adds.

  “Why did we have to come here?”

  “You were dying.” The last word is strained as if even mentioning that word in reference to me is painful. “The bullets were laced with a neurotoxin that tainted your blood and blocked your body’s ability to heal.”

  “She was human,” I tell him as the woman’s enraged face comes into view.

  “Yes. Tarnley’s team scrubbed the place so no one will know.”

  “How did they get the toxin out?”

  “Your mate here sucked it out of you,” a woman says as she breezes into the room. She’s beautiful—ethereal almost—and very powerful. Magic radiates off her in waves as she crosses the space to me.

  “You drank it?” I ask Elijah.

  “It came back out.”

  “How did you—” I trail off. I know what the bloodlust does to him, the way he reacts to the scent. To manage that—he must have suffered greatly.

  “I stopped him before he killed you,” the witch interjects as she comes to stand beside me.

  “Who are you?”

  “Bronywyn. Elijah and I used to be…close,” she adds with a sinister smile aimed at him.

  The way she looks at him has me tightening my hands into fists to keep myself from strangling her. The heat in her gaze—the way she looks him up and down.

  “Relax, Hunter. I’m not trying to take your mate.”

  Elijah stiffens, but I don’t react. After all, Paloma already dropped that particular knowledge bomb on me.

  “How long have I been here?”

  “A few hours.” She grabs the edges of the tape attaching the IV to my arm and rips. It stings, and I glare up at her. “Relax, you’ll heal.” Her words are sweet but laced with venom. She doesn’t like me, and I have to admit—the feeling is quite mutual.

  “Thank you for saving me,” I reply out of obligation after she pulls the catheter out of my arm.

  “I didn’t do it for either of you. As I told your mate here, I owed Tarnley.”

  Tired of feeling vulnerable, I swing my legs over the edge of the bed and stand. My muscles ache, but other than feeling like I had a hard workout, I’m pretty damn sturdy.

  The door opens again, and Tarnley breezes in, a wide smile on his face. “Glad you survived.” He holds out a red package that has my mouth watering. “I hear they’re your favorite.”

  “You are amazing.” I accept the Skittles and tear the bag open. Then, with absolutely zero class, I tip the bag up and fill my mouth.

  To my pleasure, Bronywyn looks horrified. “I’ll get you some clothes,” she says and disappears.

  “These taste so much better after I nearly die.”

  Elijah growls, obviously not appreciating my joke.

  “Your building has been taken care of,” Tarnley says.

  “She was human,” I repeat. “I couldn’t sense her at all until she’d already fired on me.”

  “Why were you there?” Elijah asks. “Did anyone know where you were going?”

  I bite down on my bottom lip. Confessing to someone who saved my life that I was freaked the hell out about a mating ritual I don’t recall seems like a pathetic excuse. Especially in front of his friend.

  “I’ll see if Bronywyn needs any help.” Tarnley disappears, and I turn to Elijah.

  “First of all. What the hell is it with your exes popping up every-fucking-where? Are there any others I should know about before they make an appearance in our lives?”

  He sighs and shakes his head. “Bronywyn was someone I passed my time with after Aoife was killed. There are no others.”

  “Okay, good.” I take another few Skittles and pop them into my mouth. “Now, as far as why I was at my sister’s gym. I needed time to process the shit day I had.”

  “Shit day? What happened?”

  “I went to see Aoife because Ramirez and I ended up with a crime scene where four witches were killed.”

  “More?” Elijah’s cheeks redden. “Why didn’t you call me?”

  I shake my head. “You do not get to judge me for not telling you something right away.”

  He stiffens. “What does that mean?”

  “Paloma told me that you mated to me. Care to explain that?”

  “Which is why you were not surprised when Bronywyn said as much.”

  “Yes.”

  “And you ran from me.” He’s hurt, and that alone makes me feel like garbage. If I’d just gone back to the house, if I’d just confronted him, then none of this would have happened.

  “I didn’t understand what it meant. You never told me.”

  “You said you cared for me.”

  “I do. But Paloma made it sound like you’ll die without me. And that’s pressure, Elijah, especially when who knows how many creatures—and now humans—are trying to kill me.”

  He cups my cheeks and stares into my eyes. “Whether we’re mated or not, you are my reason, my purpose. I would die for you. Hell, I’d live for you.”

  His words fill my heart with more warmth than I was prepared for, soothing the cracks left behind by nearly a lifetime of grief.

  A vampire who’s wanted to die for centuries and would give it all up for me? If that’s not mating ceremony worthy, then what the hell is? “When did it happen?”

  “Back in Salem. Before Doloris attacked.”

  “Is leatsa me.” It doesn’t sound nearly as potent as when he said it, and I’m pretty sure I murder the pronunciation, but I can feel the meaning behind the words even as they leave my lips. “I knew that sounded a hell of a lot more meaningful than a thank you.”

  Elijah smiles. “It means you are mine. When I tasted your blood, it sealed the promise. That as long as you live, you are mine.”

  “So we’re mated?”

  “I am bonded to you, but you are not bonded to me unless the ceremony is completed on your side.”

  “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”

  “Honestly.” He sighs. “I didn’t want you to feel obligated.”

  “But you basically chained yourself to me. What if it hadn’t worked out?”

  Elijah shrugs. “It would have killed me. But I still would have fulfilled my end of the pledge and kept you safe.”

  I bite down on the inside of my cheek, wishing I had just gone to him in the first place. I never should have gone to that gym. It was stupid.

  A foolish calculation that could have gotten me killed.

  Fuck, it nearly did. “You should have told me. I deserved to know.”

  “I apologize.”

  “No more secrets, Elijah.”

  A muscle clenches in his jaw and he nods. “I remember our agreement.”

  Sighing, I step toward him and wrap both arms around his waist. I lean against his hard chest, inhaling his scent. I thought I was going to die.

  And despite all my earlier inclinations to be done living, I really wanted to survive. Because of him. “I guess it’s a damned good thing I felt the same then.”

  He chuckles. “I’d agree.”

  “As far as the no secrets, I think you should know what I talked with Aoife about, but I’m not telling you here.”

  The door opens, and Bronywyn stalks in, alone, a stack of clothes in her arms. She tosses them on the bed then turns to us. “Get dressed, and get out of my clinic. Last thing I need is for someone to catch a whiff of hunter.” Then, without another word, she turns and leaves the ro
om.

  “She’s delightful,” I reply dryly as I pull away from him and start dressing.

  “It’s my fault. We didn’t end on the best of terms. She didn’t used to be so—”

  “Hospitable?” I ask sweetly as I tug on a pair of jeans that are a size too small.

  I bet the bitch did it on purpose.

  Elijah runs a hand over the back of his neck. “Exactly.”

  23

  Rainey

  Other than a slight ache in my back, I feel completely normal as I step into Jane’s café early this morning. Elijah took what I told him quite well, though he wanted to drive to Aoife’s and rip her a new one for trying to keep it from him in the first place.

  As I figured, though, he has zero intention of steering clear of anything despite the risk. It’s his choice to make, but when the time comes, I will do everything in my power to shield him from it just as he would do for me.

  And speaking of Aoife, I haven’t heard a damn thing from her. I even drove by the B&B this morning, and it’s empty, the glamour gone now that she is no longer holding it in place. I know she said it would take time—but the not knowing is driving me insane. It’s as if I’m missing a very important piece of a puzzle, the piece that will make the other pieces make sense.

  Patience, I remind myself as I allow my thoughts to drift back to an evening spent beside the vampire I’ve come to care for more than I ever thought possible. Of a night spent in blissful ignorance as we pretended the world outside didn’t exist.

  Neither of us was overly thrilled with me leaving bed this morning, but it was necessary. I smile at the memory of him. Of his fingertips trailing over my skin, pushing away the rest of the nightmares I’ve been suffering from.

  Jane glances up at me as I step inside, offering a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes.

  “How’s it going?” I ask her, taking a seat at the end of the counter.

  “Not bad. You?” She sets a mug in front of me and fills it with steaming liquid.

  “Had a great morning,” I say with a smile.