Bonded by Blood

by Laurie London

  Figured he’d come out of his funk to torment her. “Me? Tap out? The only way you could do that is if I let you. You okay, love?”

  “So you admit it. There is a guy.” He ignored her question. That was okay. He didn’t want to talk about it. At least she’d addressed it with him and he knew she cared.

  “Who said anything about a guy? Maybe I’ve come to like my bread buttered on the other side, eh?” Lily said.

  He picked at the white tape around his wrists and hands and said nothing more. After punching a few buttons on the control panel, she began running at her normal pace.

  “How’s Zoe?” he asked. No matter what was going on, he always had a soft spot in his heart for her daughter.

  “Great. She loved the latest Hello Kitty stuff you got her. Carried around that little purse all week. Today when I called to give her a long-distance good-morning kiss, Mother said she’s been sleeping with it, too.”

  That got a smile. Finally. She hit the stop button on the treadmill and walked over to the bench. “Feel like talking?” His shoulders relaxed a notch, but he shook his head. “You don’t have to tell me what caused you to come back. To be separated from her must be difficult. But if there’s something else…”

  For several moments, he sat with the towel over his head before he cleared his throat. “It’s the weirdest thing, Lil. I…a…discovered I’m able to vapor.”

  Holy hell. “No way. You mean like our ancestors were supposedly able to do?”

  “Yes. That’s it exactly. When Mackenzie was threatened by the remaining Darkblood, I vapored into the car through the crack in the window to get her to safety. I suppose I could’ve fought the bastard like I did with his partner, but I was overcome by the desire to get her away from him. My solid form just sort of disintegrated and flowed into where I wanted to be. I wasn’t consciously aware of it until I was sitting in the driver’s seat.”

  “My God, Dom. How can that even be possible?”

  “I have absolutely no idea. But I have a feeling it’s because of the way Mackenzie’s blood reacts with mine. She’s the source of my power.”

  The double doors to the gym burst open and Jackson strode in, cell phone glued to his face. Dom stood from the bench, his eyes flat and dull.

  “Not a word, Lil.” He turned and headed toward the locker room. She’d never seen him like this. He was a friggin’ mess. But could you blame him?

  “Hey, did you hear what we found out about the guy you stiffed last night?” she called after him. “I sent you a text, but maybe you didn’t get it.”

  Dom stopped, but didn’t turn around.

  “We tracked his buddies to a shithole of a house on the Eastside. I thought it was all McMansions over there in software land, but this guy lived in a pigsty. It’s a wonder the neighbors didn’t call the cops because of the stench. I nearly lost my midnight snack when I smelled it. Jackson said you’d want to take care of the dude yourself, but I didn’t want to risk losing him—” well, that and she wasn’t sure what his San Diego plans were “—so I wasted the ass hole.” She climbed back on the treadmill. “We searched the place, not expecting to turn up much, but we came up with some stuff that was off the hook.”

  Jackson snapped the phone shut as Dom finally turned. “You got that right.” He pulled out a triangular sandwich half from somewhere. Wearing a black Extreme Couture ball cap, a ripped gym T-shirt, and a pair of black sweatpants rolled down at the waist, he adjusted his crotch and sauntered over. Streaks of pale gold and light brown highlights mingled with his natural brown hair, which curled onto his shoulders. For a gym rat, he sure spent a lot of time on his hair. When he turned, a flash of color on his arm caught her attention.

  “Nice ink.”

  Jackson’s muscular biceps were the size of a human male’s quads and one sported a colorful new snake design that began on his forearm, wrapped around the inside of his elbow and ended with the head strategically placed on the largest part of his guns. Hell, he was looking pretty fine. Too bad he had the attention span of a gnat when it came to anything that didn’t involve sex. She loved the guy like a brother—well, not really. Maybe more like a friend with occasional benefits when neither of them had regular hook-ups.

  “You like it?” Jackson said.

  “Flex those bad boys on over here.”

  He made a show of it, grabbing his wrist and tucking his arm in tight like a bodybuilder. The snake’s head appeared to strike as he pumped his muscle, but the stupid sandwich in his other hand sort of detracted from the picture.

  “Nice, Jacks. Verra nice.”

  “Thanks. You’re looking good, too.” He raked his eyes over her body and she noticed his gaze resting for a moment longer on her ass. She sucked in her stomach a little farther and knew she looked pretty damn good in these boy shorts.

  “Hey, Dom, how’s it going, man?”

  Dom raised a hand but didn’t look up. “Thanks for last night.”

  “With that chick’s bike? No problem.” Jackson patted his chest as if he had pockets there, then his hips. “I’ve got her keys somewhere.”

  Lily cleared her throat, pretending to be offended that Dom hadn’t thanked her, as well.

  “You, too, Lil. Had me confused with all that talk about BJs…and stuff.” He took the keys from Jackson and gave them a long look.

  “BJs? What did I miss?” Jackson stuffed the sandwich into his mouth in one bite.

  “That’s the problem, Jacks. Not a damn thing.” She lengthened her stride slightly as she got into sync. Man, she wished someone would turn that music down, but Dom was understandably operating on a hair trigger this morning and she didn’t feel like pushing it. What was it about men and 80s music these past couple decades? She just didn’t get the allure.

  “You know I’m always game.” Jackson flashed her a smile that would give an orthodontist a hard-on, then he turned back to Dom. “Hey, I thought you’d be in San Diego by now.”

  When Dom didn’t answer, Lily wanted to speak up quietly, but the music was so damn loud she practically had to yell. “He was heading to the airport when he got word Mackenzie was in trouble.”

  “Bummer, dude. How’s Miss Hello Kitty doing anyway?” Jackson turned sideways to admire himself in the full-length gym mirrors and took hold of his crotch as if checking out the profile of his package. He didn’t see Dom’s narrowed eyes or slightly flared nostrils, and certainly not his balled fists. “Got her holed up and satisfied? I figured you’d be gone another couple nights with the likes of her, since you missed your flight. Why aren’t you with her? What’s up with that?” Jackson’s hand lingered on his junk a moment too long.

  Lily gave Jackson a throat-choking sign, but he didn’t look over. This wasn’t going to be pretty if he kept flapping his gums.

  “Not as daring in the sack as she is on that bike, huh?”

  Oh, hell. Jackson could be so stupid sometimes.

  Before Lily could step in to prevent what she knew was coming, Dom had Jackson flat on the ground, standing over him with a foot on his neck. “You better shut that goddamn hole in your head.”

  Jackson choked, gripped Dom’s shoe and tried to pry it off his throat. “Jesus, Dom.”

  Lily slowed the treadmill to a jog as Dom’s face twisted with fury. Usually, he didn’t give a rat’s ass about anything, just did his job like a robot—a friggin’ intense robot—biding his time until he could transfer out of here. But now that his long-awaited transfer had finally gone through, he didn’t seem eager to leave. How interesting.

  “If you say another disrespectful word about her or if I even sense you’re thinking of her in a way that’s a fraction less than honorable, I’ll have you regretting you were born male. You got it?”

  Jackson gave him the thumbs-up sign and Dom stepped away. Coughing, Jackson rolled onto his hands and knees, hanging his head between his shoulder blades for a moment before he pushed himself up, the snake bulging on his biceps. “Sorry, man. I forgot how sensitive y
ou are about her. I was just messin’ with you.” He repositioned the cocky tilt of his hat and rubbed his throat.

  Lily slowed the treadmill to a walk. “Jacks, those loose lips are gonna cost you one of these days. That, and your dick.”

  “Yeah, thanks. It is lethal.”

  Lily patted her hips, her midsection and her arms, as if looking for something. Then, with her mouth ajar, she gave him a look of mock surprise. “Wow, that’s strange. I’m still alive.”

  He flipped her a one-fingered salute as he stumbled to the watercooler.

  “Lil, you said something was off the hook at that Darkblood den. What’d you find?” Dom asked.

  She punched the up arrow and broke into a run again. “Jackson, you tell him. I’m in the zone here.”

  Jackson filled a pointed paper cup from the water dispenser jug and walked it over to Lily. Yeah, he wasn’t as self-absorbed as he appeared. Pouring one for himself, he cleared his throat.

  “Well, the place was a pit, a regular science experiment on every hard surface, so we didn’t expect to find much. Figured they were a couple of routine ferals and not part of the organized Alliance. We found some crazy shit in the basement though. Curdled my blood, and that’s hard to do.” Jackson rubbed his neck again.

  “Crazy? As in how?” Dom asked.

  “Torture and experiment crap. Chains, surgical instruments, leather straps, a couple of metal gurneys, needles, IV bags. Really creepy shit.”

  “Yeah, real creepy,” Lily said. “Like horror movie creepy. We located their hard drive and Cordell is hacking into it right now. But I’ve got a bad feeling about this. If fuck-ups like those two guys have an operation like that, what the hell is going on? They couldn’t have their—”

  “You’re sure it’s Alliance?” Dom paced back and forth next to the boxing ring.

  “It was too ritualistic down there for the likes of those two.” God, that music. Like a hangnail on a fresh manicure. She simply couldn’t stand it any longer and turned to Jackson. “Can you turn that crap off, or at least down? It’s giving me a flipping aneurism.” She slowed the treadmill once more as Jackson twisted the volume knob and the sound of a screeching guitar died into background noise. Much better. She could think again. “As I was saying, everything was too neat and tidy. Things were arranged neatly on a pegboard and labeled, like a retired engineer’s workbench, if that retired engineer planned on doing medical experiments and torture in his basement. It was as if the whole place was set up according to some master plan. We even found a couple of planograms.”

  Dom kept pacing but scrunched up his forehead.

  “You know, retail stores have POGs from their home office telling them how to display all their shit. Put this here, hang this over there, so that every store is set up the same way. There’s no way the losers who lived upstairs could have organized that basement without any outside help. And that kind of organization screams long-term, not just ‘hey, in case we run into a sweetblood or two.’ You know what I mean?”

  Dom stopped and his eyes met Lily’s as the realization of their findings evidently sunk in. Experiments conducted on sweetbloods. Here. In Seattle. “Was it just the two of them living there?” His voice, though quiet, seethed with rage. She could almost smell it in the air.

  “Yeah, just two bedrooms with blackened windows and a coffin in each.” After glancing at the treadmill panel, Lily stepped off and snatched a clean towel from the stack near the watercooler. She guessed 2K was better than no K.

  “I even peeked inside. They’ve got goddamn dirt lining the bottoms. That is just so wrong.” Jackson stuffed another sandwich half into his mouth. His jaw popped as he struggled to chew the large mouthful, which would’ve taken her six or seven bites to get through. At least. The guy burned food like a coal furnace.

  “Cordell. Where is he?” Dom strode across the mats and kicked the doors open.

  “Computer lab,” Lily said, trotting after him.

  “Wait up, guys. I’m coming with,” Jackson said, his voice muffled through the bread.

  MACKENZIE PACED AROUND the living room a few times before she found the nerve to call Martin. Stuck somewhere in the San Juan Islands—she wasn’t sure which one—she didn’t think she’d be back in time to teach her class tonight. She never backed away from her commitments and didn’t feel comfortable putting her class in the hands of one of his grad students. But she saw no other option at this point since she was stranded so far away from home. Thank God she’d emailed Steve her latest photos yesterday and didn’t expect to be sent out anywhere for a location shoot for the next few days.

  “The islands, huh? Staying in a romantic bed and breakfast with him?” Martin asked.

  “Him who?”

  “Hello? Don’t play dumb with me. I know I didn’t fail at my little matchmaking attempt the other day, regardless of what you say. Having a nice time with Dom?”

  “He’s actually not here. He was, but not now.” She wanted to add that she didn’t know if he was coming back and that she had to figure out how to get home, but she didn’t.

  “Honey, what happened? Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” She tried to give her voice a casual lilt. “He had to leave suddenly. I just wasn’t sure I’d make it home in time to teach my class tonight.”

  “Don’t pull that nonsense on me, babe. I can tell you’re upset. What’s wrong? What happened?” Martin asked.

  “Nothing happened. I’m fine.”

  “Well, you don’t sound fine. How are you getting home? Do you need a pick-up? I’ve got a full class load today but I can come later on tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. I must’ve been all wrong about him, Kenz. I’m sorry. I pegged him as a good guy. What did he do? He didn’t hurt you, did he?” Martin’s concern was touching.

  “God, no. He’s a wonderful man.” As tears formed on the backs of her eyes, she took a deep breath and hoped her voice sounded strong. “An emergency came up that he hadn’t expected and he had to leave. I’m sure I’ll be hearing from him soon, but I just wanted to make sure my bases were covered for tonight. No big deal. Really.”

  Why did she feel she had to gloss over the ugly details? Of course she couldn’t tell him the whole truth about Dom, but she didn’t feel compelled to tell him that Dom had abandoned her, either. What did it matter if Martin knew she was stranded with no means to get home? Why did she care if Martin detested Dom or not?

  “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely. He’ll be back soon, I’m sure.” She forced herself to sound chipper as she changed the subject. Divert and distract. “Oh, you should see it here, Martin. It’s gorgeous. I can’t wait to head out to the beach. I just wish I’d thought to bring along my sketch pad.”

  “I can’t wait to see your pictures.”

  She didn’t tell him she didn’t have her camera, either.

  “Listen,” he continued. “I’m glad you called. Have you talked to Mary yet?”

  “The department secretary? No. Why?”

  “It’s probably not anything to get worked up about, but two odd fellows came to the university the other evening asking about you. They were quite the duo, both tall and skinny, and shabbily dressed.”

  The room started to spin and she willed herself to breathe.

  “Mary called me wanting to know if she should give out your contact information. Evidently they inquired about a Mackenzie Shaw, not Foster-Shaw, so she wasn’t sure if it was you or not. I told her not to tell them anything, so they insisted on speaking to me.”

  She felt as if she’d been punched in the stomach with a baseball bat. The attack on her had been premeditated. She hadn’t just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Those monsters had sought her out. She grabbed the edge of the counter for support.

  The day her father hadn’t come home, had this happened to him? Her mother had prepared his after-work snack like she always did. Sliced dill pickles and black olives on the same yellow plate with a chip on the edge. It
sat untouched on the coffee table for three days. The police officer who came to talk to her mother ate all the dried out, three-day-old olives. She had laughed about it later to her mother and couldn’t figure out why her mother cried. What was so sad about eating old olives? she remembered thinking. Funny what a kid remembers.

  Did two Darkbloods follow her father around all those years ago? Had they waited for the right opportunity to attack him? Had her father been as terrified as she had been? And how about Stacy? Had her cousin known what was happening to her?

  She didn’t trust the ligaments in her legs to support her weight any longer, so she sank to the kitchen floor.

  “Do you know what they wanted?” she managed to ask.

  “Just that they needed to speak to you about some matter from long ago. You’re not in the witness protection program, are you?” He laughed.

  She forced herself to join in, but didn’t trust herself to speak. If only he knew what was really going on.

  “I don’t know if they’ll come around again—they didn’t leave any contact information—but I thought I’d give you the heads-up.”

  She fought to keep her voice from cracking, but her hands shook violently and the phone almost fell from her grasp. “Thanks for looking out for me, Martin. I wonder who they are.” She had a glimpse of Dom raising a stake above his head and pounding it into that guy in the dark warehouse parking lot. “Must be someone else they’re looking for, but thanks for letting me know.”

  AS HE WALKED down the labyrinthlike hallway toward the computer lab with Lily and Jackson, Dom felt as if someone had reached into his chest with a knife and sliced his heart in half. Mackenzie! Something was wrong.

  “Go,” he told the others. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

  He fumbled with the cell phone and dialed her number. Two rings, then her voice. For real. He leaned a shoulder unevenly against the wall.

  “Mackenzie, are you okay?”

  She didn’t answer him right away, but he could hear her breathing. “Yes.” Her voice was thin, barely audible.

  Dios mio.